Index to weather maps

Hangola August 4-6, 2000

The first week of our trip Greece we stayed at the Villa Angelina, located at the foot of Mt. Kitharon (Sp?), 1.5 hours NW of Athens. The Villa (named after the owners mother, Angelina) is a cluster of about 15 rooms of various sizes with Verandas facing every which way and sports a nice outdoor BBQ area and indoor dining room. Angelina fed us home-cooked Greek food every day. Stavros runs a HG and PG school using his Villa as a base of operations (he has an office in Athens, as well). The lower launch for the mountain is located about 1000 AGL, in clear view from the villa, and a ten minute drive from the LZ. The LZ is a big, huge, flat, clean wheat field directly adjacent to the Villa. You can buzz the place and wave hi to people while on final approach. The big ridge directly behind launch goes up to about 4000 AGL. Launch itself is a big, huge, clean slope. It just doesn't get much better than this.

We flew out sans gliders as Stavros said he would have some available to rent. I ended up with a really nice HP-AT 146. This glider, while a bit of a pain to set up, handles like a dream and lands even better; 5 landings, no wheels, one steppers all, and this is ME that we're talking about here. I can see why Tad holds on to his. If you ever decided you needed a spare glider, this would be a good pick. Janet did not fare so well on the HG front. The glider Stavros lined up for her was an old British model (Solar Wings?) with a monstrosly huge control frame and poor static balance (quite tail heavy). We could not be confident that she would be able to maintain proper AOA on launch, so she ended up flying a trainer for one been-there-done-that flight from the mountain. She did however, have a blast taking PG lessons our last day there.

Anyway, on the HG front, day one was spent overcoming jet-lag so when Satavros announced that conditions were not appropriate for flying that day, we didn't complain too loudly. Stavros lent us his jeep and pointed us toward a beach so our first day was spent swimming around in the Med and having lunch and Greek coffee at a couple of tavernas on the water at a little fishing village. Could have been worse.

Not interested in waiting until the next evening to fly, I convinced our cautious host that an early moring flight would be appropriate. Launched at 10:30 and found reasonably strong thermal activity already occuring. While the valley is mostly under crops via irrigation, the foothills are rocky with sparse desert-like vegetation and if there is any sun, they cook. Slowly sledded out anyway. While on final over the field, I hit a bump and decided to circle until it was time to straighten out and land. Landing came two hours later; A new personal record low save from 230 ft AGL. The thermals were small and very punchy at times. It was out-west kinda stuff. At least, I think it was what out-west kinda stuff was supposed to be like, cause I sure as heck didn't get anything like this on MY trip out-west, but anyway....Decided to land before mid-afternoon as Stavros had me a bit worried about what the LZ would be like during peak heating. It was a peice of cake. Too cross to launch again, we took Stavros mom to another beach that afternoon.

This was to be the pattern the three days I flew. Sink out, then low save to a soaring flight. I now have low saves from <250, 550, and 650 feet to my credit. Launch was always civilized. Winds varied slowly from puffing-in to 8 mph. The LZ was always civilized. If something was blowing thru when I came in on approach, I could just circle around in the resultant lift and hang out a few minutes until things calmed down, then resume my approach. You really could do a go-around in a HG out there. Consistenly. Amazing. I launched and landed at all phases of the day: morning, mid-day, and late-afternoon. Early the thermals were very punchy and tight. 45 degrees of bank was required most times, unless things fattened up later in the day or up higher. Took a boomer - 1000+ fpm, solid all the way around, lasting several minutes - and watched the big mountain decend before my very eyes as the valley, beach, and villages behind came into view. And this was at 11:00 AM! Yet launch and the LZ were always a piece-of-cake. Remarkable.

The site is also equipped with a very reliable thermal indicator. Some sort of local factory that burns stuff. All you had to do was follow the smoke. Worked every time.

As long as the sun was out, you could soar. Less luck chasing clouds. My only two extendos were the result of: 1) launching with the VG full on and not realizing it until landing (HP-AT specific problem), 2) Waiting until this really great cloud street formed up to launch. The former rendered the glider too unmaneuvrable to get into the bullets. The latter had me diving for little patches of sunlit earth for over half an hour until finally there were none within range, at which time I hit the deck and the sun came out again. Urgh! Launched again only to leave widespread lift and work to get down again soon thereafter so I could accompany Janet on her PG lesson.

Not a lot of flying time (6.5 hrs, 4500ft max gain), cause I was being a slug and the retrieve situation was too iffy to warrant going XC this time around, but I had a great deal of fun nevertheless. Buzzing the nearby village. Flying over the ruins of an ancient Agora nearby the villa. Peaking over the back of the big mountain. Bouncing off toward the next village over just for a change of pace. The valley is large. We should take a crew over next year, establish a CHGA/MHGA colony at the Villa (Janet and I were the only ones there the whole week!), and fly our butts off. With a crew there helping out to retreive each other, we could blanket much of central Greece with lost HG pilots.

Janet decided to take a PG lesson the last day just to get something out of the trip, as she really got hosed on the HG front. She was beating herself up afterwards for not doing taking lessons earlier. Thinking that there would be no way she would get to fly the mountains, she didn't see the point earlier. Well, way. She would have been flying mountains had she started a few days earlier. By the end of the first lesson she was launching from a 150 ft soarable hill! Remarkable. I'll let her personally relate the story concerning the difficult retraival from the designated "popacorns" LZ later.

-- Joe

I arrived about 4:30 to find Fink, Kinsley, Tom, and Dave Proctor sheltering in a van from the sprinkling sky. I believe they had all flown extendos earlier. Rick Holtz was still in the LZ breaking down from the flight of the day (15 minutes? half an hour?).

Rain disappeared, but we had a very light, very cross breeze. People began to trickle away. Both Tom and I were convinced it would eventually get better. It began to blow in at about 5 mph, 90 degrees. Then it died completely. Then I left.

I left Tom, a man a true faith, a solitary figure on the rock, sillouetted against an uncertain future. No doubt he has since soared. I await his final report.

-BrianVH.

Well, actually only Dave P, Rick Holtz and I flew. I went first and got a massive 96 over before sinking out. Rick got almost 200 over and maybe 20 minutes. Dave only got a few bumbs but pulled off an impressive downwind, downhill landing. Marc decided to bag it.

High Rock was good to me today. I arrived at about 1:30 and learned several had flown with sleds and extendos (one gain to 1000'). I launched at 3:20 into a 3mph puff (expecting a sled), turned left and noticed several vultures had left their roost and were headed towards the railroad tracks. I followed and began circling above the gaggle. After reversing directions twice, I found the core and took it to 3k over, bumping against P4. Very little drift. Flew up wind and caught another to 3500' over. Repeated and topped out at 3850' over. A sailplane came in below me and we circled together for a few minutes. Since I was a bit chilled and my daughter was (I thought) in the LZ, I decided to call it a day and spiraled down to land - 55 minutes.

Thanks to Bob G. for the ride back up and the cold beverages. Wish I could do that every day...

'Spark

So, Fred and Rae, how did you guys do in the tough conditions?

Several of us had nice soaring flyings but elected to stay around (read chicken out) the field.

Marc

MANQUIN, VA -- Afternoon rain showers and thunderstorms had plaqued the flight park just about everyday for over a week with an additional three to five inches falling the day before, as a weak cold front pressed slowly south toward North Carolina. Cold fronts below the Mason-Dixon line (below the NY/PA border, for that matter) in early August are about as rare as a January thermal...so chances are no one was complaining too much about having to bathe in the lower dew points imported from Canada. Of course, the problem with trying to soar over wet ground is that much of the Sun/s energy goes toward evaporation, which is a cooling process not especially conducive to strong thermal production. The recent heavy rainfall had also left the truck tow path a bit soggy at the south end of the field.

A weak area of HIGH pressure was forecast to drift slowly southeast from OH and provide a gentle northerly flow, both surface and aloft. The forecast soaring indices suggested that Manquin pilots could expect 370'/" lift rates and reach 3800' with convective cloudbases about a thousand feet higher once the 78°F trigger temperature was reached between 1 and 2 PM.

Aviation commenced about noon-thirty with Jim Kingsley leading the charge from the south end of the field. Roland dropped him off beneath some sexy looking cumulus where he managed to locate some very weak lift for a while, but was reunited with the LZ within ~30 minutes. Terry Spencer was next in the queue and had similar, albeit quicker, results. From the ground, it was becoming apparent that the lift was not happening where the script said it was supposed to be.

At 2 PM, Runway 20 became active. Billy and Aero Joe towed up and managed to maintain flight for a spell, but suffered the same fate as those that went before and were promptly sucked back to earth.

Undeterred by current events, I obediently slipped my weak link on to the tow line and headed off into the hazy, blue yonder. Roland kindly dropped me off upwind of the LZ beneath a real tart of a cumulus, but alas and alack, all I could find on the upwind, sunlit side of the cloud was zero sink to an occasional burble of lift @ 100'/" with sink @ 3-500'/" being much more common. It appeared that I was doomed to suffer the same fate as those who went before and I too, would be promptly sucked back to earth, but my luck was about to change.

From my vantage point of ~2500' AGL, I spied a vigorous cyclonic swirl about a quarter mile downwind that was propagating to the SE across a field of grass. With nothing but blue sky above, I vectored my flight path for a direct intercept and was handsomely rewarded with lift @ 200'/" when I arrived. The wind aloft was less than five miles per hour, so tracking the thermal/s drift proved to be no problem at all as I climbed to 3400' AGL before it petered out to little more than fragmented zero sink with acumulus on top.

Flying out from under the cloud, I returned my attention toward the ground where I spied another vigorous swirl-in-the-grass coming at me from a distance of a quarter mile upwind, which once it arrived, gave me an easy ride in lift @ 200'/" to 3800' AGL before it dissipated in like fashion. Can/t say I was sorry to see this one expire b/c it apparently sprung from the loins of a manure slurry pit, which literally brought tears to my eyes. What some people won/t do to stay aloft!

The swirls keep coming and I kept circling in them. The best one in the series took me briefly to 4K' with lift @ 400'/" where the low 60s air temperature was refreshingly cool. Inattention to changing conditions (probably still somewhat intoxicated from the deleterious fx of huffing bovine methane) left me in the center of a broad, sprawling shadow cast by the cumulus above. I had to bully my way through a mile of sink @ 3-500'/" to reach the sunlit fields to the east of the LZ where another swirl-in-the-grass was teasing me to come hither. With only 1K' of altitude remaining on my fun meter, this one was a little too far away to ensure a safe landing back at the ranch, so I let it pass and set up my landing approach. After an hour in the air, I returned to the LZ with a three step landing.

Air Corps: Jim Kingsley, Terry Spencer, Billy, Aero Joe, Steve Valdez, Ray, scooter-tow (3) and tandem (2) students.

Jim Keller
Petersburg, VA

Friday Fred and Rae and Bruce got some cloud dives. Fred commenting that they were really different from what you might think of at Hyner. Fully developed clouds but low base so he was released above the clouds then was flying in cloud canyons and said it was spectacular.

SATURDAY:

XC

Rich Green 9, Jim Carroll 12, Dale Robinson?, Rae 25, Fred 28.3, Ric 28.7 Interesting thing was the relatively late start of the day. Ric and Fred were within site of one another at one point but landed 15 miles apart just a few minutes apart around 4:30. though Ric left somewhat later. Might have been Jim's first xc from Ridgely. Westerly wind got pilots close to the water in an hour and a half but conditions were light WNW. Truck full o smiles courtesy of Karen Niehaus. Did not get much of the story some left lower Jim (< 3,000') but Rae was at 3,800' when departing. Cloud base got higher as usual.

This all started when Steve Kinsley was flying Fred's Topless and the tandem ship were soaring in the same thermal. I blinked and was 24 in line or some such.

Dennis Monteiro got 4,700' around mid afternoon and was up for almost an hour but got shut down with some larger clouds shading the ground. It seemed the best the day had to offer, but I've been high late with Doug Rogers before so there was still hope.

Conditions cycled around though and worked when John Middleton was test flying a WW US 166. He seems to make conditions work.

A good crowd and my lazy self so my first tow taking off at just before 5pm behind TugBabe Windsor, right behind John who was ENE of the airport.

We went West, tried vg full off for a change, which served to remind me why I tow the Xtralite with 1/3 -1/2 on to dampen roll and lighten up the bar pressure. At 2,000 we hit something that got me into oscillations enough that I had to punch off before locking out, then I found 0 - 50 fpm for 5 minutes, finally found something solid light though it was, 100-200'pm. Kind of embarrassing getting whacked by 50'pm air. Marc Fink still getting wired into his new MR2000 Laminar joined and we worked this patiently drifting over the field and getting cold in a long sleeve thermal shirt and shorts @ 4,500'.

Marc turned on the afterburners and went exploring, I went East a bit and John and I hooked up for a good long time over and past the Choptank river. I got kinda stuck at 4,686' but wanted to get better than the forecast -3 (4,700' +/-) so threw the bar out and while grinning got another slight bump eventually this went to 5,154' beneficiary of still rising cb, highest of the day. Got a little hazy when I watched what I think was a GlassAir buzz John as he headed N.

There was a slab of a cloud street (like the one Tom and Doug went on from the SAC the day Tom flew home, boo wah) heading ESE about 2 miles away, some parts definitely building, but I had earlier put my radio and XC bag in the car, ya just never know, oh well....

I flew towards the town of Ridgely and then saw Steve Kinsley just a mile or so away from the airport SE. Soon John was back, with other gliders, at least 3-4 in the distance, someone over the junkyard others working the field N of the airstrip. The three of us worked separate parts of the feed, far enough apart that I wasn't sure who to go to but found lift between them and joined up eventually taking it to the river 3+ miles from the edge of the airport.

The thermal was snaky and all of a sudden John was 50' above me, I was turning tight and using the vg like one would trim a sailboat, it helped some but we pretty much topped out at the river and went back towards the field, spreading out to look for lift.

The air was really buoyant if one could get up to it, we had split working different bubbles, eventually found ourselves back over with Mike Chevalier in even lighter lift. Saw a few black vultures (white tips on the wings) and an Osprey which gave some clues but they were far below. Found that I was recentering better but still often underestimating the drift, a common mistake.

West of the airport it was drying up but there were a few wispys S of Ridgely but just out of reach unfortunately. Boated over the field in 0 and then did some wangs in site of the tandem glider, landing just after John who got about 2 hours. 1:49 of too much fun!

With an earlier start it would have been a good out and return day which Dennis showed by hopping a few streets up wind.

Ayisha had a few good flights and nailed her last landing in from to the crowd. you go girl! Scott doing his share of wangs, hearing him laugh from 2,000'. They even brought grillables and beer, thanks guys. Nice fire going watching the stars at night with good company.

Ellis back on her Pink flying machine! Brian VH, Wayne Boulden, Craig W., Juan, Bruce and Barb, Jim Gatewood, and I'm sure others missed I did not have the pleasure to fly with but all in all a great day, the first in weeks it seems.

Sunday the front came back as a warm front and though a few flew early Scott, Jim G., and some tandems had a cloud dive, conditions did not improve. Bill Buffam was up when it started raining but came safely to earth.

Robert

Saturday, August 5, 2000
High Point, MD

Mark and I headed to High Point on Saturday and met up with Doug, JR, Homer, Christy, Will, and Marvin. The 'cast was for NW 5-10 - we should have known better. Wind directions were basically l&v with some stronger cycles coming in even from the South and East along with N, NE, etc. Ugh! Marvin then Mark launched in the best cycle of the day and both sledded. Will launched next to the same fate then myself. Unfortunately I wasn't so fortunate as to sled. I had a rock'n'roll ride down to a downwind landing in the dog pit - yes, again. :-( In retrospect I think what happened was a combination of rotor and flying too fast which causes my glider to oscillate. It was blowing in about 3 mph when I launched, reports from the LZ (after I launched) were that it was blowing South 6-10 mph. Whacked hard, bruised ego, head, knee and arm, no bent aluminum. Many thanks to JR and Homer for risking the wrath of the dogpit landowner and picking me up. Headed back up to launch where Christy flew and JR and Doug waited for anything decent to launch into. JR decided to break down and never flew his new Falcon and Doug decided to do the same after it blew over the back the duration of his waiting to launch.

Here's looking forward to hopefully a good flying weekend!

Sheila

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated August 10, 2000