Pulpit 6/24 - 6/25

[XCanytime]

The weekend forecast for the Pulpit is looking pretty good. One day should work out, if not both. Looking forward to getting some airtime with WNW winds blowing into the mountain. Bacil

[krryerson]

Interested.
Knut

[bowen.tim]

I communicated with Bacil yesterday about the primary LZ. He asked Rich Bloomfield to check the primary and the grass areas are still 3-4 foot high and the corn is 18" high. You may have to consider an alternative LZ. Keep in mind, the secondary LZ was reported as a no-go due to crops. It is to be used only as an emergency.

[XCanytime]

Looks great on both days, but strong. Better direction Saturday, negligible difference in velocity. All you have to do is get there early both days. When I say early I mean EARLY . Should be ready to fly by 10A+. I want to fly Saturday, cuz it looks great for an XC to the north and exploring going OTB up by Cowans Gap Lake and beyond to either Shippensburg Airport or Chambersburg Airport (and beyond). Who's up for Saturday? Bacil

[wmelo]

I am interested in Sunday@ Pulpit & inclined to go to WS Saturday depending on weather forecasting tonight

[XCanytime]

On the other hand, a nice evening flight at the Pulpit tomorrow is in the cards. Looks great 6P+, and with sunset around 8:36P there is plenty of time for airtime. Instead of chasing the dragon in the AM, who's interested in a nice sweet PM flight at the Pulpit tomorrow? And Sunday looks like the same deal, but an early flight is possible since the rampup is not until midday. Bacil

[Dunegoon]

Saturday PM flight sounds like a plan.

CF

[silverwings]

[krryerson]

Will for sure be going to Pulpit tomorrow, Sunday morning.
Anybody else planning going?
Hope it worked out at WS today and Pulpit this evening, and looking forward reading some flight reports.
Knut

[XCanytime]

Arrived around 3:15P to cumie filled skies and docile conditions on launch. Set up and waited for Charley to arrive. He got to launch around 4:15P. I promptly launched from the pad into moderate conditions. Did not want to risk launching from the ramp with only one pilot as wire crew. The trees below the pad are very tall and I did not have lots of clearance. This fall we should have a work party to cut the trees down below the pad. Got up immediately and climbed to 1K' over launch out in front in disorganized lift. Noticed a distinct drift in the lift from the SW. Lotsa clouds around, but didn't find a good elevator until I ventured out over 7th Street over the JLG factory and found a smoothie that got me to 4500' MSL, drifting NE towards the St. Thomas VOR. It quit and I considered OTB but downwind did not look great. I decided to cut the flight short (tomorrow looks great at the Pulpit!) so I glided to a nice landing on the golf course driving range. Charley retrieved me, and back at launch after 7P you could detect the drier air was moving in. The sky however had lotsa vertical buildup in many spots north and south of launch. Looking forward to flying tomorrow with Knut, Charley, and whomever else shows up. Bacil

[Lucky_Chevy]

I'm in for tomorrow at the Pulpit.

Dan

[krryerson]

Eta 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Knut

[krryerson]

If interested and for safety.
airtribune.com/7093
Knut

[Dave Proctor]

Nice Job Knut. Painful to make it across the Michaux...only to be greeted with sink.

DaveP

[krryerson]

Thanks for watching.
Retrive just came.
Knut

[krryerson]

Bacil flew to Chambersburg airport and Dan flew XC too.
Sunset at 8:45. p.m.
Mark G. And Charley going to fly now. More to come later.
Knut

[XCanytime]

Got to launch at 11:15A to find Knut there, great skies upwind, and docile conditions on launch. Knut and I set up in anticipation of going XC. Dan L. showed up next and set up. Charley Fager and Mark Gardner both arrived around 1:20P. I launched from the newer ramp around 1:30P in moderate conditions and got up easily. I headed north and found similar conditions to yesterday; lift drifting from the SW. Knut launched and headed south. He climbed out to cloudbase (7200' MSL) quickly and headed OTB, while I struggled to get above 3500' MSL. Dan L. launched and headed south and climbed out too, not quite to CB, but enough to go OTB. I had concentrated my efforts up north cuz the clouds looked good at times but it was frustrating to bob up and down between 2800' and 3500' MSL for an hour. So after Knut and Dan went OTB I headed south and found some lift but it was very turbulent and drifting north back to where I had been. I finally found some consistent lift out in front of launch and locked in FINALLY, climbing to 4400' MSL and drifting over the St. Thomas VOR. At this point the Ascent vario's battery went dead, robbing me of my altitude readout. All I had was a Casio watch altimeter as a backup that samples every 5 minutes. Not very useful. So I just used my senses and eyes to eyeball Kittatinny and Broad Mountain Peaks in the distance and used them to gauge whether I was in lift. This worked and I found lift as a large cloud above me was spreading downwind. I drifted lazily under this large gray cloud, getting to 7K' MSL, all the way to the western outskirts of Chambersburg, spying the Chambersburg Airport to the NE easily within gliding distance. I decided to land at the airport for an easy retrieve so Mark and Charley could get evening flights in. I radioed Charley my plans and he and Mark embarked on the retrieve of Dan L. first, who landed between LeMasters and Upton. It was gusting up to 25 MPH from the WSW at the airport as I descended to a good landing by the windsock near the end of Runway 24. It was very difficult to carry the glider over to the hangar for wind shadow. Over there a Mennonite family from Shippensburg showed up and I entertained them, some skydiver dudes, and bicyclists from Chambersburg. The retrieve gang stopped by, but I vectored them to go pick up Knut, who killed it with an awesome XC flight to McKnightstown, PA. Crossing the Michaux State Forest is a big deal, and Knut just came up 7 miles north of his declared goal, the sailplane port at Fairfield PA, MASA. What an awesome XC! The chase crew got him and me and we went back up to launch, where it was blowing like stink at 5:30P! Charley elected not to fly. Mark ended up taking off from the newer ramp around 6:30P after it had died down a little, and had a nice soaring flight, going OTB to land at Mountain View Elementary School. I was driving home as he landed and I was able to witness his nice landing in the big field SE of the school. Bacil

[krryerson]

Bacil summed it up great and a good day to be flying at Pulpit, despite marginal landing options in the main LZ.
Though, surprisingly many LZ options available during my flight and was never worry about not finding a good spot, if needed.
Goal was MASA and if interested you can see the flight link at http://doarama.com/view/1444035
Had plenty of feet and therefore could search a lot for the best lift.
But it was very cold. Even colder for Bacil that was just flying with a T-shirt and shorts.
Unfortunately, got too fare north of MASA and it is important to know that I selected this route/course, based on good looking cumulus clouds.
Trying to jump down to a new cloud street south, aiming at MASA, after crossing the Michaux… Yes, only to be greeted with sink. But, not a surprise after analyzing it later.
Special thanks to all the wire crew, Dan, Charley and Mark G. A very special thanks to Mark G. for the retrieve.
Knut

[Lucky_Chevy]

It was a great day to fly even if the conditions weren't perfect. I had a few firsts for the day; probably things that the regular mountain pilots take for granted. The wind was a fairly constant 15mph with higher gusts when I launched. It was the first launch that I have ever done where a wire crew was required and my first launch from the ramp at the Pulpit; my previous launches had been from the PG ramp but those trees are definitely growing so I followed Bacil's and Knut's example and used the wooden ramp. Charley, and Mark G. wired me off and sacrificed flying in the best part of the day.

I had always assumed more wind equals more lift when ridge soaring, especially with the wind roughly perpendicular to the ridge. The lift was strong at times but not guaranteed. At times I hit sink that was so severe that I was in danger of sinking out. I stayed fairly close to the primary LZ until I could get established in a good climb. I hadn My U2 was definitely going to struggle to make it to the LZ against the head wind if I dropped below ridge height.

When a boomer came through I rode it behind the ridge but bailed to keep within reach of the main LZ. The wind speed increased with elevation and the turbulence was beating me up. When the next boomer came through I went along for the ride and committed to going XC, my first XC from the Pulpit. It's the first time I've ever gone over the back of any ridge and I wasn't sure how far away from the mountain I needed to be to clear its rotor. I was relieved to see the school that Bacil told me was a good LZ.

After riding my first climb to over 6,000 ft I got drilled on my glide over the back and feared that my flight would be a short one. I caught a bit of broken lift over the school but it never gathered enough momentum to climb out on. After 20 minutes of drifting over the landscape at 2,000 ft over the lift gave up the ghost and I had a good landing in a field that had been recently been harvested. Charley and Mark rolled up just as I was pulling the cover on my wing and "forced me to drink a frosty beer" while we went to retrieve Bacil and Knut.

Bacil and Knut both had nice XC flights. It was nice meeting everyone. I can't wait to do it again.


Dan

[bowen.tim]

Going on Dan's comment, if a bunch of pilots expect to go XC, they should bring a driver with them so that other pilots don't have to sacrifice the "best" part of the day.

[krryerson]

It makes us XC pilots look very bad, the way this is written and there are much more to it... .
Personally, always very grateful for anybody picking us up, but NEVER miss out on a flight because of any XC pilots. Uber will work and did not expect anyone picking me up.
I wi'll add, more wire crew often needed on Pulpit, unless you get there early and get fellow pilots helping you.
In closing, was the first pilot arriving and last pilot leaving.
Knut

[XCanytime]

Here's the way the Pulpit works the majority of the time. I have been flying there since 1994 and very regularly yearround since 1995, so I know a little thing or two about how this site behaves and how to outsmart it. The early birds get the worm. It's that simple. The early birds get to the site early and get set up before the midday throttleup makes launch conditions out of hand for hours. The latecomers help the early birds launch before the midday throttleup sets in. By the time the latecomers are ready to launch (or not), the midday throttleup has set in and taken hold, blowing out the launch for hours. The latecomers sit around for hours, waiting for it to back down. The current state of affairs dictate that the early birds can land out in front at the golf course (driving range), or go OTB to land in fields (or at airports) much safer than the main LZ with its heavy restrictions. Even if there were boucoup pilots waiting around no one would be launching in conditions gusting up to 30 MPH. The forecast yesterday had it honking from 3P to 6P. I got there at 11:15A and was ready to go by 12:15P. Conditions were light to moderate. By the time I launched after 1P, conditions were still moderate. Just after Dan launched and climbed up and went OTB (2:15P?) I flew south from my position up north and conditions went thermonuclear on the ridge. The whole ridge was lit up between launch and Rt. 16, the trees were bucking back and forth, and I saw one of the windsocks spinning like mad on the pad. I bet conditions were not launchable from that point on until when Mark launched at 6:30P, and even then it was strong as hell.

I contacted multiple pilots about coming to the Pulpit, but many were not able to make it. So the roster of guaranteed attendees was very limited. The number really doesn't matter. What matters is the time that launch blows out, and who's ready to go before that time and who isn't. Dan's statement that the best part of the day was "sacrificed" by the remaining two pilots is not an accurate statement. They would not have been able to launch in conditions that went thermonuclear and probably remained that way for almost 4 hours.

So what are the remaining pilots going to do if they are not able to fly for 4 hours? Go on an XC retrieve adventure? Why not. Sounds like fun. Beats sitting around watching the wind blow like stink for hours. Bacil