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Hangola July 8-11, 2000

I got to Manquin about 10:45, having just dodged the total closure of I-95 south at Ocquoquan due to a bus/semi-truck/ multi-car BAD accident. I-95 is a miserable drive. (see below for more on this)

Four tows, releasing at 750, 850, 920, and about 900-1000 (vario was acting up). I was able to work a small thermal over the middle of the runway on two of the flights, to extend them out to 8-10 minutes. Winds were very variable, just as forecast, so we often towed through switchy head/tailwinds.

Dave Proctor flew several times, enough to get his truck-tow launch signoff.

Doug (?) flew a couple of times, but pranged a downtube on his 2d landing. He is fine.

Bill from NC was aerotowing in his Falcon, doing quite well, while his wife stayed in the shade with their 4 month old baby. John Claytor from Richmond is just getting started on his truck towing (7 launches before today) so he took several flights on hie Sport (Geoff Mumford's old one) very late in the afternoon with wife Patricia and younguns Grace and Jack playing in the set up area.

Mario, a recent transplant from San Diego to Henrico was working on towing with his Litespeed. He is primarily a mountain pilot, and has flown Woodstock a couple of times. He tried it out on both aerotow and truck tow.

Early in the afternoon, Steve Wendt test flew his new WW Eagle behind the aero tug. He had previously truck towed it. After some adjustments, Ray Mitchell flew the Eagle twice. On his second flight he took it to 4,000'! I think Ray may be considering finally replacing his Gemini.

Dave and I had discussed how terrible I-95 is to drive, and he said he was considering going home by way of 301. I am not sure he did so, but I did, and was elated. It only adds 10 miles to my trip, 20 to 30 minutes, and a MUCH more relaxing drive home.

Cragin

Back from San Diego.

Torrey was alot of fun, if somewhat repetitous. You could extend the ridge runs, actually cliff runs, maybe a mile in either direction north and south.
The mountains to the east in So. Cal. are absolutely magnificent!

Managed about 15 hours bag time in a week of flying, more than I get in a whole year around here. Torrey is the place to go if you want day-after-day of perfect flying weather. You can log 6 hours a day of soaring here if you are up for it.

Witnessed a few accidents including a blown Millenium launch.

Now that I'm back I can't wait to get some HG airtime on my sexy new MR2000 which finally arrived hours before leaving for the west.

Marc

I've made it back from my trip to Sandia. (John McAllister and Dave Proctor came back last week and Steve Kinsley is still making his way back).

The trip was a great success. I'll let the others speak for themselves, but I had my four longest flights, 22 hours airtime, max altitudes of well over 17k, and 425 XC miles while flying 12 out of 15 days.

I'll save the flying stories for the meeting (and hopefully an article for Skyline). However, flying Sandia was a great experience not mention fun on some days! The local pilots also made a big effort to help us get some airtime and XC miles.

Now if we can just have a couple more of those cool summer days that I missed.

Tom

Manquin, VA - Tweren/t that many pilots on hand Sunday, but that didn/t stop those of us who were there from soaring the friendly, uncluttered* skies over the east-central portion of the Ol' Dominion.

During the previous overnight period, the surface HIGH had shuffled quietly offshore, as evidenced by a backing of the wind from the W into the SSW. Along with the wind shift came a noticeable increase in the humidity with sultry, tropical-like dew points oozing into the lower 70s. In spite of the oppressive conditions in the LZ, the afternoon temperature aloft was still chilly enough to produce steep lapse rates and clumpy cumuli, as the surface temperature tickled 90 degrees during peak heating.

After launching from Runway 20 around 2:30 p.m., Roland waved me off upwind of the field beneath a nearly mature cumulus where I quickly located a broad area of 200 '/" along the upwind face of the cloud. The lift eventually became fragmented and unusable @ 3800' agl, which was ~500' below cloudbase. The 20 mph W wind aloft was stronger than it had been in some time, which meant I had to be more conscientious about keeping a jaundiced eye on my relative position to the 'drifting' LZ.

Unlike the premium cumuli from the weekend before, Sunday/s clouds had a short life span, which necessitated frequent cloudhopping to maintain soaring flight. Also unlike the premium cumuli from the weekend before, these clouds suddenly and completely disappeared from the sky in a matter of 15 minutes. This rapid change in the conditions forced the NC pilot and me to the ground is short order after a measly 45 minute flight, however it was still a far cry better than being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

I suspect the cumuli/s hasty disappearance from the sky resulted b/c 1) the surface pressure fell very quickly in about an hour/s time, and 2) the west wind descending over the mountains brought drier air into the area . Falling surface pressure implies large scale upward vertical motion, which in the general case, is not conducive to thermal formation. My altimeter having been zeroed prior to takeoff, read ~200' lower upon landing. This altimeter change converts to a pressure change of about four millibars or 0.12 inches of Hg.

Suspects: Aero Joe, Bruce, Jay (walking wounded), and an NC pilot who/s name escapes me.

*For the most part uncluttered, if you ignore the commercial passenger jet that passed about three miles to the west of the field @ 3K' and the helicopter that also skirted the field, albeit much closer, to the west, as well.

Submitted by Jim Keller

Ended nine months of down time and, as best as I can figure, got on the Highland top eight list Saturday.

Cart rolled at 13:53, sky clear over most of the peninsula but lapse rate must've been pretty good based on inadequacy of long sleeved T and gloves upon topping out at around 5K. Passed over adult eagle a bit downwind - SE - from the airport. Would run to about 2K to cover ground and warm up before reclimbing.

Incredible visibility - Bay, Ocean, Cape May, Ocean City. Flew near building fire east of what was probably Greenwood, Cessna pilot Greg reported sighting from BWI.

Maxed at 5700'. Last major glide was to Georgetown. Lotsa promising concrete and asphalt all over the place and widespread lift but it didn't seem to really focus anywhere. Bobbled around in 200 fpm, gaining and losing, sank to 1400', got optimistic at 2700' but threw in the towel and hit a soybean field south of town at 15:29 with plenty of high sun left and dreams of taking a few passes of the hotels before parking on the beach at Ocean City unfulfilled.

Logging it at 37.5 miles under CHGA distance rules. Mike Chevalier had been running retrieval all afternoon, added me to the list, then continued to pick up Steve Turner at the Eagle Creek Hudson private airstrip west of Lewes. Steve had landed at about 17:30, I believe, after the more easterly track of a nearly identical distance.

Christy, Joe and Janet, Geoff, Matthew, Robert Sweeney amongst those seen and heard that day.

Many thanks to those for vultures for bailing me out one time, Mike for the wheels, and the Highland crew for being there another season.

Tad

Saturday at Ridgley, not the best for me in terms of the flight, I got drilled at 10.3 miles. I landed in a big field and a local woman, Lisa Wroten came over to say hello and said that hang gliding was just the coolest sport. Turns out she had done a tandem flight with Bill Bennett 10 years ago somewhere in WVA. She was unaware of our activities at Ridgley. She let me leave the glider in her yard and drove me all the way back to the airport since she had to go to Greensboro anyway.

Since I got back early I offered to do retrievals and encouraged pilots to go for it. Picked up Christy, Jeff Harper, Joe Gregor and Matthew within 10 miles and took them back. Then hit the road again picking up Tad east of Georgetown and Steve Turner west of Lewis, both had got around 37 miles but Steve was farther north. Stopped for dinner at an Italian place in Greenwood, got home at midnight.

MC

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This page last updated July 11, 2000