Pulpit 9/7-9/9, 9/11

[XCanytime]

Got off from work all week and the Pulpit is looking good Wednesday thru Friday and Sunday. Jon Brantley is joining me Wednesday and Thursday in his return to the mountains. Knut is looking at Sunday. Looks like a good week to have taken off from work . Bacil

[bowen.tim]

Wish I could be there. Will be in NJ for the next 2 weekends.

[Blaine]

I'm interested in Wednesday and Thursday.

[Dave Gills]

I'm in for at least 1 day

[rlweber]

Bacil, check out Woodstock today, 9/6. Planning an after work flight, eta 4:45. Excellent week for vacation.

Randy

[wmelo]

Interested for Thursday and/or Friday.

[Dave Gills]

Looking at Friday for the Pulpit

[Blaine]

Anyone going today?

[wmelo]

If the weather forecast improves, i.e., W/WNW, I would love to go tomorrow (Thursday): However, weather.com is not very exciting at this moment

I may also be able to make it Friday PM...It looks like that Friday will be a good day.

Weather also forecasts an interesting patter to this Sunday...let us keep the finger crossed.

[XCanytime]

The Pulpit is flyable in SW to NW winds, according to the site guide. The surface forecast is WSW tomorrow. Most likely at launch it will be due west, which is fine. Bacil

[Ward Odenwald]

Wish I could go. Direction and speed look very soarable. I believe that tomorrow is the better of the two days (Thur vs Fri). Sunday looks good too, but @ 72 plus hrs out - it's only a guess.

Ward

[Dave Gills]

What time tomorrow?
Not saying I can go for sure.
Maybe

[Blaine]

I think the plan is to launch by 11.

[XCanytime]

What an awesome day at the Pulpit! Got there at 10:15A finding Jon Brantley and Dave Gills already setting up. Conditions were looking good in the sky and on the launch pad. Set up the 2 spinner windsocks in their customary spots. Jon was first up to launch just before 12 noon. He had a good launch from the pad and got up easily. A large gray bottomed cloud beamed him up slowly to 1200' over. Unbeknownst to Dave and I, a C-17 Globemaster from the WV Air National Guard based at Martinsburg Airport flew across Tuscarora Mt. along the VR708 military training highway in the sky. According to Jon, he flew over the ridge just north of the Rt. 16 crossing, much lower than Jon, who was still at least 1K' over at the time. Then Dave and I noticed the same C-17 (he had looped around) heading for the radio towers at the Rt. 16 crossing WAY LOW. The hot dog pilot knife-edged that big ass cargo plane just north of the radio tower. Visually it looked to me like his right wingtip was barely above the trees! Unfortunately, Jon had lost altitude and was in the vicinity when luckily he spied the C-17 before he crossed the mountain the second time. Jon saw that he was barely above the plane and not on a collision course, but he still cranked a steep 360 to show he was there. The close proximity of the C-17 made Jon literally shit his pants and he quickly landed after the scary visual. The pilot orbited again for a 3rd pass and flew over the St. Thomas VOR and close to launch at around 1K' above the ridge, with a SW heading. Jon got lots of good pictures of the C-17 from the main LZ as it flew over him. Phew! I retrieved Jon and we were joined by Walt Melo just before 2P. Walt planned to launch by 6P since the hourly fcst had it backing down by then. Dave did not want to fly next, so I quickly set up and had a good launch from the pad in moderate conditions. Easily got up, and found some good lift that was drifting to the NE. I ended up drifting up against the SW face near the VOR. Dave launched at this time and sledded to the main LZ. The lift congealed and I climbed to 4500' MSL, alerting Jon on the radio that I might go OTB. Gaining up to 5K' MSL quickly, I let Jon know that I was going OTB, with the Chambersburg Airport as the goal. There was a nice cloud street that led towards Chambersburg, and I maintained between 5K' and base at 5700' MSL as I drifted over Kittatinny and Broad Mountains. Once in the flats I flew towards a nice looking cloud but found little to no lift under it. Lost to 2900' MSL and started looking around for the airport and the fields around. Found some light lift and clung to it. The next thing you know, I am climbing thru 4K' MSL and spy the airport just NE of my position, easily made. Jon was in St. Thomas and I let him know that I had the airport made and to meet me there. I keep climbing to 4700' MSL before I pull out and fly over the airport. There is lift everywhere and it took me over 20 minutes to lose down to pattern altitude. All the while I staged on the east side of the 6/24 runway and listened to the Unicom frequency on my radio in case anybody was inbound or outbound. Right hand pattern for active runway 24 determined the staging location. Easy approach and landing just upwind of the airport windsock in a grassy field. Carried over the runway and taxiway to behind a hangar for shade and wind shadow. Jon was there 15 minutes later. One lone employee of the Parachuting Center came over to chat; otherwise the airport activity was nil. We got back to launch just before 6P so we could help Walt launch off of the new ramp. He had a nice launch at 6:15P and soared for near 45 minutes, landing in the main around 7P. Dave cruised home; Jon and I drove down and dropped off Walt's car. Since it was close to 8P when Walt finished packing up we decided to call it a day and zip home. Bacil

[rlweber]

Thanks for the report. Looking forward to seeing the pics. I had an enjoyable evening pg flight at Bergton.
Randy

[wmelo]

Bacil provided an excellent summary: Good day at Pulpit!
I arrived by 2:00pm and met Jon B., Bacil, and Dave. It was a pleasure to see Jon again after many months. When I arrived he had already flew and had an interesting experience with a few flight jets 
We helped Bacil to take off. He quickly climbed and went to his XC challenge.
Jon and I helped Dave to take off. He had a short flight and landed safely in the main LZ. Like many of us, Dave must further practice his take off from Pulpit 
I rescued Dave and Jon rescued Bacil. When everybody was back, it was my turn to take off from the ramp with Dave, Bacil, and Jon assisting me in the wire (6:00pm). It was my 1st time to take from the Pulpit with my S2 155. It was challenge to control the glider on the ramp due to the large control frame (I am petit ). However, according to my observers I had a good take off.
The air was smooth, a few thermals here and there. Lift was good. I flew for 30-40 min and landed safe in the LZ before sunset.
I am looking forward to fly again with this great people!

[flymiller8]

Sunday afternoon may work for me.
Josh
H2
703-615-8359