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Hangola June 30-July 2, 2000

I had a great time at HR today. Others there included Janet, Sheila, Judy, Steve P., Carlos, Ed Reno, Eddie Miller, Bob G, and Kurt K.

I assisted others in launching and waited for the first wave to return to the top, launched at 5 and landed after 2:18 with 2200 over. I had fun flying out in the Valley without much alt. loss. The first hour was spent low; at 6:30 or so, the magic kicked in and many people got high.

Pizza at Rocky's afterward.

Heading for Hyner early tommorrow a.m.

'Sparky

p.s. P A V I L I O N !

Well, snuck into the UCSD (right across from Torrey Pines) computer room under threat of expulsion ;-) to let you guys know about flying at Torrey Pines on Saturday.

I didn't fly (busted ankle), but Marc tried out his paraglider. It is some awesome scenery. Launch is a big grassy field on top of a cliff overlooking the beach (about 400 feet, gotta check the altimeter later today). Most ppl topland, too. And there is mucho activity. I saw O N E hang glider going down the "ridge" and 10 or 15 paragliders in the air at once most of the time.

You hear whistles all day. Rules of the site require pilots to blow a whistle, when taking off and when entering the landing window and at all turnpoints in their approach.

Marc after checking out everything, pulled out his paraglider, paid his $5 and took off. He had a good time, boating around in the reliable lift for just short of an hour. He had fun, but decided it was no good for serious flying. Maybe he'll change his mind. Everybody was just hanging out over a stretch of "ridge" about half a mile long. (i think i'm being generous with that estimate)

I'm a bit bummed out about not being able to learn to paraglide, but there's so much to see and do here I'll be happy. And the weather is AWESOME! nice and warm, no humidity and at night it cools off. incredible. i like.

wish you all were here!
-- ellis (with major sunburn)

If anyone hears me mutter the words "I'm going to Hyner", just shoot me. The weather and scenery was beautiful and the people were fun (as usual) but the flying SUCKED (as usual).

I love you Ridgely, I am sorry I strayed, I'll see you tomorrow.

SV

Got a call from Sheila on Friday asking me if I could go to High Rock. I told her I was going to High Point - no need for wire crew and I just love that site. My sister was coming with me so we'd have a driver (to bring the vehicle down, not for retrieval - she's not so good with maps).

Met JR and Mark G in the LZ at 2 and were on top by 2:45. It was light with some nice thermal cycles coming in when I got on launch around 3:15. Shoulda waited a little longer. Took a cycle (end of it), got up over the ridge, but then left launch where most of the lift was and ended up on the ground shortly after. No ridge lift.

Bagged it and raced back up in my truck. JR and Mark in the meantime had launched and were getting high. Great timing - met my sister in JR's truck at the gate at the beginning of the 4WD part of the road to launch. Left JR's truck in a nearby field (to make it easier for his truck retrieval later) and continued up in my truck.

Set up fast and was off by 5 pm. (For the record: My sister described my launch later. "You walked your glider to launch, stood there and mumbled, 'This is what I should have waited for on the first flight', yelled 'clear' and ran off." She didn't even have time to take a picture.}

Fun air with some big thermals. Got 450 on the 30 second averager around 5:45 pm. 3300K over the point and still could have gone higher. JR and Mark had been on the ground for a while so I decided to land so I'd get home at a decent hour. 1 hour 20 minutes.

Christy

Steve Vogel wrote:

If anyone hears me mutter the words "I'm going to Hyner", just shoot me. The weather and scenery was beautiful and the people were fun (as usual) but the flying SUCKED (as usual).

I love you Ridgely, I am sorry I strayed, I'll see you tomorrow.

SV

Yep, you missed it. Saturday: Light NNW, soaring for almost everybody to 4K+ . Fred P. gets 38 miles. Steve Turner landed at the elementary school on river rd. for about 5 miles. I just hung around this time.

Sunday, you REALLY missed it. Light SW. Fred beats us again, getting to 6800 and landing at Odessa for 35 miles. I got to 6K and landed at Smyrna airport for 27.7 miles. The local pilots were thrilled to have me and offered a ride back but the glider was to long to fit in a plane. Most were not aware that hang gliding had advanced so far and were suprised when I told them of getting to 6K. They also seemed impressed by our knowledge of airspace restrictions and that I had skirted Dover, good PR. We had to get real high before reaching Dover and go cross wind to avoid Dover AFB and not get stopped by the water. Rich Green landed his Falcon in Felton, which is more on an easterly track. Joe G. went about 7?.

MC

Karen and I ventured off deep into West (BY GOD) Virginia to take a couple of lessons with Dwayne McCourt. On the drive out along I-66 and all the way there it was perfect cloud street.

Winds were supposed to out of the South and SW all weekend. But it was basically L&V. Again, cloud street every which way on both Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure a lot of towheads got big miles at Ridgely and Manquin.

On Saturday, we did a few flights on flat ground and then moved up to the 100 foot hill for a couple of flights and then higher up to 130'. Landing a bag wing is easy. But launching is just as complicated, if not more, than a hang glider. With the winds switching around we changed locals to a 200' South facing hill. It was a completely flat area that you ran off, pulling the wind all the way up, before cresting the hill. So wind was needed to get the PG up. Everytime Karen got up to launch the wind completely died or switched to 90 degrees cross. She pulled the wing up a bunch of times but didn't get off the ground. I piled into the bushes on one launch attempt and rolled partway down the hill through sticker bushes on another when the winds switched partway through the run as I tried to manhandle the wing instead of just aborting the launch like Karen. But I managed to get in 5 flights between my crashes. Blowing a launch in a PG is also a much less violent affair.

On Sunday, we drove almost 3 hours to the Sinks of the Gandy to fly Farris Knob (800' south facing). Ben and LE and a few other WV pilots joined us there. But it was blowing out of the WNW? So we hiked up about a mile (1600' altitude gain) to the top of Fence Ridge. It's called Fence Ridge because of a fence at the back of the launch area that's known for eating gliders. (A guy named Micky tangled his PG in it while we were there and ripped a few holes in his wing.) The hike in was tough-- we thought PG packs were supposed to be light. With all the gear and water, we were weighted down with about 30-40 lbs. While others flew from the top (it was 800' from the top to the landing area, a few bagged brief soaring flights and extendos), Karen and I did some flights from halfway down. I did 4 and she did three. I forgot how brutal the training hill can be! I finally went up to the top and did one flight there to finish off the day. So I guess that counts as a high flight. Dwayne's a great instructor and a really great guy. He lent us an old wing and harness to play with till we go back again in August. Ben and LE also gave us lots of great pointers. If you want to go biwingwal, give Dwayne a shout. His web page is: www.flywv.com

Matthew (oh my old aching body, of Karen and Matthew)

Missed Saturday due to traffic induced stupidity. Vowed to go back Sunday.

After seeing the Dahli Lhama perform his morning prayers on the Smithsonian Mall Janet and I hopped in the car and headed for Ridgley. No significant traffic this time.

Set up. Decided to wind dummy (the crowd cheers as he carries his glider to the cart) and launched first. Executing the dummy portion with style and panache I leave an area of near zero sink to fly though 500 fpm down in search of a thermal I shoulda pinned-off into earlier in the tow. No thermal. Sled. Back in line for an hour+ wait watching cumies popping whilst applying severe self-admonishment (a delicate task best left to professionals). Janet decided she wanted to launch a little later so I traded spots with her to move up a big TWO places in the lineup (much to the apparent dismay of some who had just been cheering the wind dummy mere moments earlier). Ended up with a weak link break at 300 ft for my troubles (much to the apparent delight of ....you know who). Almost gave up right there to go earn retrieve points but everyone was apparently covered.

It's 4pm now. Launched (More grumbles about people holding on to the cart too long and not dragging a wing or catching a control frame on the ground or anything like a true pilot would). Got up to 2500 ft or so this time before being whacked so bad I pinned off not even trying to avoid the seemingly inevitable lockout. Cursing all the way down to 1600 ft where I finally found something that got me within striking distance of Rean, which got me up above release (but never above Rean, of course). Decided that there was no way I was gonna leave lift again and drifted slowly NE looking more for airtime than for distance.

Heard Mike Chevalier and Fred Permenter talking and still barely airborne in a universe far, far, away. Told Mike I was 6 mi NE of Ridgely at 3500 ft and began receiving detailed retrieve instructions which I couldn't relay. Anyway, they were going down fast and I figured I would be too after this area of lift gave up. Topped out at 4600-4800 MSL . Heading downwind through the 500 ftm sink reinforced my assessment but before dropping much below 3000 ft I hit another are of zero sink that, when searched carefully and diligently, turned up an honest to God thermal. It went on like that for longer than I would have believed. I'd quickly get swatted down to 2000 to 3000 and then get back up after mining another a zero sink area. The clouds, it turned out, signaled where there WAS lift. By the time a cloud had formed it was over. Any remaining lift would be in the blue nearby. Blue holes that I thought would be uncrossable yielded lift and after it was over I'd see the cloud that wasn't there when I started beginning to consolidate. You had to go for the haze domes, not the clouds.

The wind, which was SW at 8 down around 2000 ft was only about 1-2 mph at 4000-5000; and this was consistent throughout the flight. Found myself drifting directly toward Dover AFB and was committed to a southerly deviation by lift and landable fields. Nearing the shore of the Delaware Bay the winds aloft shifted to due South and picked up to 8 mph at altitude. Worked lesser sink while following a road that lead straight out the beach thinking, wouldn't it be cool......and was delivered the gift of a decent thermal a mere 3-4 miles from shore that took me up to 4800 MSL. Pull string, get pointy. I arrived with nearly 2-3k MSL as the sink monster was now gone and boated out over the water a little ways, back to shore, up and down a private and nearly deserted beach with flags blowing straight along the beachfront and perpendicular to the water. Did I mention that it was low tide as well? Fate, plain and simple.

Finally got down and did one of those ever-so-satisfying beach landings directly in front of a family get-together and, after giving tours of the glider to the kids, received pizza and beer on the beachfront while waiting for my ride.

Man, I gotta do this more often. (26.1 miles, 2+02, 5000 MSL)

-- Joe

I enjoyed the flying and people at Hyner. The high point was a cloud dive on Sunday morning using a borrowed Falcon (thanks Steve P.) I really enjoyed seeing the glider shadow encircled in a rainbow against the cloud tops and the experience of spiralling through a hole in the clouds and occasionally dipping into the mist with a wingtip.

Although I didn't 'sky out' or fly XC, it was a welcome change from the local status quo. Floating the river was also a nice alternative to the typical hang-waiting scenario. Hyner is a great mountain site and a unique experience that I'll continue to sample annually.

'Sparky

Manquin, VA -- Saturday was another fine day of thermal soaring over central Virginia that was marked by 5500' cloudbases, light winds, chilly 50 degree temperature aloft, and 400 '/" climb rates. A cold front had cleared the flying area Thursday night, leaving a fresh cell of HIGH pressure with dew points in the middle 50s centered over West Virginia.

Aerotowers had the soaring advantage b/c the light winds aloft (less than 5 kts) prevented those towing behind the truck from reaching maximum payout altitude. Above ~2K', the lift was organized into streets which made for easy upwind flying. Average climb rates were 200'/", with occasional 400'/" cores in the layer between 4K' and 5K'.

Saturday/s forecast soaring indices suggested a '-3 TI Height' of 7.4K' while the temperature/dew point spread (T-Td) indicated cloudbase @ 6.5K'. When the '-3 TI Height' is greater than the 'T-Td,' this implies sufficient lift not only to reach cloudbase, but to venture beyond cloudbase. On several occasions during my 90 minute flight, I was able to climb into the vaults created by convective updrafts until the ground disappeared behind a milky condensation haze at 5700'.

Pilots du jour: Aero Joe, Roland, Terry, Tex, Ray, Billy, two new scooter/tandem tow students.

Submitted by Jim Keller

Manquin, VA -- Sunday turned out to be more of the same, only the cloud streets were drifting 180 degrees opposite from Saturday/s drift. Cloudbase was 200' higher and the lift rates were 100 '/" stronger.

Once the 77 degree trigger temperature was reached, the cumulus popped between 10 and 11, which was more than enough encouragement to entice several pilots to launch earlier that usual. Aviation continued for a couple hours before everyone got flushed. Round Two started about 2 p.m. as the sky quickly filled with flex wings. Roland did a great job of getting pilots aloft and into the lift, then beating a hasty retreat to the LZ to repeat the launch cycle.

Once again, the 5700' cloudbase was easily attainable and the vaults were open for business if you wanted to climb into their bowels. My flight topped out @ 5900' before the ground disappeared behind a moist veil of white condensate. Average lift rates were 250'/", with some rowdy cores offering up 500 '/".

Doug Perkins and Terry headed out an XC toward the NE. As I prepared to leave the field @ 4 p.m., Doug had just phoned in to say he made the 25 miles to Tappahannock.

Aviators: Aero Joe, Roland, Terry, Doug Perkins, Billy, two other guys named Jim, John, Steve, and a few others.

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This page last updated July 3, 2000