Index to weather maps

Hangola August 10-12, 2000

A little late, but no-one else has posted. Got there around 2:30 to find Bob Gillisie had preceded me by about 20 minutes. Soon doug had arrived, and by the time we were just about set up, Kinsley rides in. Puffing in around 5 mph. Decide to run a vehicle down. Ride down joking that Steve's gonna take off without us, and come up to find he had just disappeared 30 seconds previous. The wuffos claimed he basically walked up and ran it off with barely a pause in between. Yep, if we had any doubts, that was him.

Bob trained up a wire crew, and after a manful fight sunk out. Doug launched, and seemed to be barely maintaining. I went down and started putting on equipment, and by the time I was up on launch couldn't see Doug, so assumed he had sunk out like the rest. Eddie Miller arrived just before I launched. Managed to fight myself about the launch in puffy thermals, but lost it and landed. Was surprised to find no doug, and on inquiry they pointed up in the air. He landed about 10 minutes later with the flight of the day up to 1500 feet before the bottom dropped out. Nice little 20 minute window, and he zeroed in on it.

Spent about 45 minutes afterwards with Bob as Emma Jane traced details of the early pilot history of the rock. Apparrently the first generation of pilots would sit around rolling doobies on her dining room table. A different age. She credits the pilot population with pulling her out of her 3 year depression after her son's death. Most of us are completely oblivious to this history. Next time I'll bring a tape recorder, 'cause this stuff is too precious to let go.

There was quite a crew up on Friday, but since I missed most of it, I'll let someone else report.

-BrianVH.

Short Version:
Friday:
Bruce does 10 count em 10 flights before lunch doing sliders on the wet grass.
Dullahan, 20 some minutes, weak link break low, then 45 minutes 4,000'
Me 26 minutes, then 49 minutes 3,280' 0-200fpm lift, mostly very light though.

Saturday:
Ric sled, 1 mile xc, retrieve duty. Much thanks.
Rich Green drilled in sink then 8 miles xc ? 2 A -10 Thunderbolts for company, 3,300'.
Me 18 miles N of field to Federalsburg, 3,129', 3 A 10's directly under me in formation but 1,000' below me, 780fpm max lift, 20 second averager, most though 0-200 sometimes 400fpm.

-----
Long Version:

Friday:
Bruce does 10 count em 10 flights before lunch doing sliders on the wet grass.
Cooks dinner ala Barbara!
A passing cell drenches Greensboro and takes some of the life out of the day but John Dullahan and I launch around 4 and find some 0 then get drilled (blue hole), back on the cart dropped N of the field at the tail of a huge street so ominous further on that I don't dare venture. Oddly though the lift was not very strong. Seeing deep sink and wispys well below me a mile ahead I get to base at 3,100' and bail SE, pretty sure I would have gotten rained on had I gone E the whole 0-90 quadrant was shaded with towering cu's. They looked beautiful in profile but it was pretty murky underneath.

John had a weak link break but got up NW of the Airport a couple miles upwind, doing better than me, I went to join him just as he came to join me, oops, I went back to my little thermal and got to 3,280' agl John was at 4,000' and in over achieving black cloud SE of me but I found the lift light 0-200 ( the best I got) and tried to stay in what little sunshine was left, cruised in 0 sink along the hwy back into Ridgely and then made the dash past shaded ground to sun N of the airport, but alas nothing doing no energy left in the day but worth it and a lesson in working the light stuff. 49 minutes, John landing shortly after me.

We both have flawless approaches and ever so lightly (honest) let our nose cones brush earth in the light winds, always room to improve.

-----

Saturday:
Downtown Hickman with Ric cruising for ... well actually we were trying to find the whereabouts of a stolen helmet but we couldn't top Sea and Sunny's Mexican adventure even though we met up with a quite colorful cast of characters.

Stiff N wind say 10-15 steady, Ric had suggested in the truck how about some scud running? I was skeptical but some parts of the sky looked like it might work, others looked evil. Ric was off the cart went SSE towards Easton taking the tail of a cloud street with him, then surprise, he just showed up, I guess not having the area work and so squeaked back to the field.

Ric went again found lift but went for more and could not quit get to the next cloud this time SE of the field landing about 1 mile away. The S street having died caught Rich Green on his first try.

I took off as it was reforming, getting to 2800'N of the field in 100-200fpm lift, this was base so as Rich launched I found my cloud vaporizing and decided to go not worrying about retrieve.
It wasn't liberating per se as I was too busy trying to succeed.
Mapped the clouds and WNW side seemed to work best, sunny upwind just like the textbooks said.

Ric got on the radio graciously offering to drive and wisely counseling patience, as Rich excitedly was joined by 2 A10's, seems the word has spread and they like to come visit. (Sunny and Chad/tandem were buzzed by an A10 just off the edge of the runway, 100' is awful close).

Rich tried a SE route as clouds looked plentiful, I was hoping to make that jump later but never could. Part of the days lesson was not only drift but sun angle when planning to intercept the clouds at the best part. I had a few hard lessons coming.

200fpm over Ridgely 3,000' then off over the school by the river dribbled directly over downtown Denton not really finding anything out flew the lift now at 1,100' and not thinking landing on a factory roof would be a great testimony I found time to send up a short but I thought sufficiently desperate prayer.

Concentrated fully and almost let the bar go to make sure I had a light touch.
I had a few bail out lz's I could reach but I was switching to ground sources and found some helpful birds treetop low but got into some 0 over them, hung on and drifted.

Over 404 now still not gaining and thinking I might inspire a kid looking out of the car window in the shore bound traffic jam, cruising just W of a field (read postage stamp) that Fred had landed his XC in last year, hoping the river bow would be a trigger, I finally hit the big sink then turbulence I was after indicating a thermal somewhere close.

I hit a boomer. 1/2 a turn and saw a black vulture confirming that yeah it was lift. Honest 780fpm on the 20 second averager, definitely a wake up call (on a tip to stay in it, yeah Larry I cranked it on this one, did I say I really like my Xtralite?) and went to 3,129' before I had to bailout not wanting to IFR, got moderate suck pulled the vg tight and scooted to the next cloud. 3 A 10's directly below in formation would have run me over a few minutes earlier.

I had remembered Pete Lehmann's 200' rule (don't burn more altitude looking, leave) and it really helped also I changed direction quite a few times as I searched and it seemed to work. Especially when low though it was hard to leave when I thought I might be onto something.

Call it part leap of faith and part learned experience the one nice thing about not having very high cb meant at least on this day lift was not too far apart.
Lest this sound too hard I was following an honest street also with low base and instability, (late day t boomers), the birds were abundant (I only saw them S of the river), mostly helpful in confirming what I found. I especially appreciated Ric's timely encouragement on the radio though he was following after picking up Rich and couldn't visually critique.

I dolphin flew through a few thermals in O-50fpm with vg tight but at trim but making good time. Looking back after a few minutes surprised to see Denton recede in the distance and the twin square brick ag towers of Bridgeville in the distance SE. The street to the E was better I actually backed up one cloud to try and get close enough to go but I thought it too far. Possibly too timid a decision I'll never know but 1,000fpm down crossing a street would have decked me pretty quickly from my usual top of 2800' - 2,900'.

Eventually found myself at a decision point in the flight and I may have decided wrong, NE of Federalsburg is the Idylwild WMA (trees gulp, as all the mountain pilots laugh, but enough sticks to make the crossing dicey), I was approaching it but getting lower as my cloud was starting to break up per the shadows, started to get a headache, dandy. I hydrated and did drink during flight so I can't explain it except for gritting my teeth. :)
I no longer had the luxury of patience or so I thought.

Not wanting to chance crossing the forest low without something solid, to get to the hoped for lift beyond the trees unfortunately, not the solid 1-200fpm down I was now getting I went for the closest cloud due SW.
If I felt better I might have made the tougher call and gone SE.

Possibly I could have gone NW again and hoped for a reforming cloud to drift with it, this in retrospect would have been the best move. Yet I was focused ahead not seeing the 4th dimension, as it were, backwards, as a means of gain, at that point a Motrin would have helped too.

The SW cloud (orphan, not really in line with the street) looked very good but I never found it working unless I went a good bit S over what looked like a few square miles of solid corn with no obvious lz. A better pilot might not have put himself on this track and planned better further out. At 900' I turned upwind out of the corn and got some more 0 then sink pretty well knew I was done.

A setup and classic pattern from 500' over a 300 x100 yard newly planted cucumber field, read dirt/sand, made a 2 stepper leaving the 1/2 inch plants alone. Farmer Bob stopped his tractor and helped me move to a lawn. Clear radio contact with Ric and Rich who greeted me in 10.

A very satisfying flight during which I learned a good bit, confirmed in my mind a few more things and I look forward to the next adventure, hopefully with others in the air.
One doesn't have to get really high to have a satisfying xc flight.
But may I have some more altitude please... so I can sight see more :)
As low as I was I saw nothing of note on the crops probably due to the high base wind, and my own obsession with going to the clouds.
At the last I think I may have missed a clue not reading the crops well, I got sucked into 4 vultures turning and then not turning below me, not helpful.

Huge wall of towering cu's stretching N and going SE would later dump a bit of rain in a few hours even though we were on the W edge of it, when it finally let loose the wind switched from feeding it to outflow and it blew out over us, a different perspective, maybe a good thing I did not go very far this day.

Poetically this was the same mileage as my ill fated but fun xc last October towards Dover. Thanks again to Ric for driving, Rich for being out there flying, both giving encouragement and the gang at Highland Aerosports. Sunny and Chad playing storm spotters with in a Piper SuperCruiser classic fabric plane.

Oh the double rainbow was a nice touch Big Guy.

Nice to be back, truly back.

Robert

The Rock Saturday. It was crossing from the North pretty much all day. The flight of the day goes to Marc with his miraculous scratching and saving below launch until the thermals actually developed. He got about 90 minutes and fairly stinkin' high. Kelvin and Susan each had extendos. I had about a 20 minute flight and 700' over on flight one, as did Mark C. I took a flight later on Sheila's glider after Gardenator landed after only 15 minutes saying that it was ratty and rotor city and Sheila probably wouldn't like it. I squeaked out ten minutes on Sheila's glider before succumbing to sink and giving her glider a proper breaking-in by taking out the first downtube on her new machine. Didn't hit too hard, but I was hammered with a cross wind while trying to run out the landing and ground looped about 100 degrees. The tube just bent like a soft noodle. Mike C. launched next having a very fast sled to the LZ. Carlos got into the air just as it began to turn on which put him briefly above launch before sinking out.

It turned on about 15 minutes later and Mark. C got 90 minutes, as did Ellis. Brian Hardwick, BVH (who sledded earlier) and Juan Sonen all enjoyed (if you can call it that) the punchy rotor and thermals. Karen didn't enjoy the roller coaster ride and was happy with a ten minute flight. Dave P. had a couple of extendos. Marvin arrived just in time for it to shut down-- putting him on the ground at a supersonic speed shattering Mike's earlier record setting speed to the LZ. Dan T. showed up late in the day with his new Ultrasport but had to back off launch since it was 90 degrees cross by then. Kurtis Kemerer also arrived late but didn't even bother setting up.

Big THANKS to Joe Brauch who stuck around all day wire crewing, even though he didn't get to fly.

Matthew (going llama trekking and paragliding next weekend, of Karen and Matthew)

Way to go Robert! Sounds like a good weekend was had by all! I wasn't even thinking about flying this weekend untill Bacil called me saturday morning and said, "you should be at the sac!" So that's what I did. I got there early and took 3 sledders with Tom McGowan. It turned out to be a really nice day with lots of blue sky and cummies, but we just could not get to them. We stopped down at Joe and Karen's for a vegee feast afterwards. I sure was nice to see Jeff Beyerle back out on the hill. Thanks Jeff for all your help!!

Doug.

We got to the Rock fairly early. First wave mostly sunk out, except for Marc who scratched and fought and provided excellent spectator fodder for the rest of us. We oh-ed and ack-ed when he sunk and ooh-ed and ah-ed when he fought his way back up to launch. We shouted and yelled instructions. Nobody used a radio though, which was probably a good thing as Marc's decisions were usually better than the instructions we had shouted ("turn right you idiot, RIGHT!"). A couple of times we thought he was on his way to land when next thing we knew he was back at launch level. Heart stopping excitement. And that new Laminar of his just zooms across the sky. Wow. Finally he scratched and fought his way back up - i think he finally got to 1500 or so over. I launched and scratched and fought, never got over launch and just managed to eek out an extendo. Packed up and went back for a second try.

Back up top, I was in line for the third wave of pilots. The second wave having sledded out. We had some reports of gnarly conditions and sort of hung around. Matthew took Sheila's glider for a ride and it looked pretty smooth. Carlos took off and stayed up nicely. I think next was Brian VH and then Mark C. I followed Mark C. It was a little cross and a little gusty, but not all that strong. Launch was nice. I turned right and got up a little. Lots of light lift and light sink. Tried to fly efficiently, including tucking in elbows and streamlining through sink. The little bowl to right of launch worked a little.(50fpm?)

Later on the air got a little more textured. At one point, going down the ridge it felt like riding at 60mph over a severely potholed street. ba bump ba bump ba bump. I have a blister on my thumb from holding onto the basetube (do i need to file an incident report for that?). Mark C. later said he saw 800fpm up for those little bumps. They were too small for even him to turn in. There were some nice fat big thermals going up at about 400fpm and tracking nice and straight. Unfortunately they went straight for the towers or the reservoir and while I knew it would not be a good idea to go towards the towers, I was toying with the idea of going with the thermal heading for the reservoir. But better safe than getting shot down (don't know where exactly restricted airspace starts).

Lesson learned by talking to Mark C. later on. I wouldn't have had to stick so close to the ridge. I could have tried hitting some thermals further out front. Kind of stupid not to do that, since I saw Mark working something. Was afraid I'd sink out. Gotta be a little less conservative.

Big lesson learned:
Went to the rockpile when there wasn't any lift anywhere and a big shadow started moving in. Very stupid, as all day the rockpile had a lot of sink around it. Every once in a while I'd get up around the rockpile, but in general the sink ate all the altitude i had gained there. And consequently that's where I finally sunk out. I should have waited out the sink cycle at the little bowl instead. No guarantee it would have worked, but chances were better there. Plus I would have been slightly more upwind from the LZ (it was crossing from the north), putting me in a better position to reach the LZ, if I sunk out there.

Another lesson learned:
On the way out to the LZ, I hit a little bump. A thermal was starting to come in, I think. I turned - left. bad bad bad. I should have turned right - upwind. If I didn't get any height at least it would not have left me downwind of the LZ. Extremely stupid.

Landing:
actually I had a good landing. It was pretty bumpy on my setup, so I came in really hot to cut through all that stuff. also had to set up at the beginning of the field, because some ppl had landed right ahead of me and were still carrying gliders out. On my round out just as I was about to flare, I got popped. Only popped about 3 or 4 feet. Held it, came down on feet. no-stepper. But my bad knee popped out. PAIN! Crumbled. Couldn't get up. Didn't even want to move my leg. Can't tell if i had my eyes open or not. Just saw black.

MUCHO thanks to Mark Cavanaugh, Dave Proctor and Marvin. They came running (after figuring out, that the landing must not have been as good as it looked, since the glider hadn't moved), helped me out of harness, carried my glider back. Marvin drove his truck over and got me a ride back to the break down area. (i think there was one other guy that helped - but I didn't recognize him - too much pain) Marvin also had some ice and advil, which helped a lot. THANKS GUYS!

of course also thanks to my honey who packed up my glider and made me feel comfy.

-- ellis (limping yet again, but with a big smile on her face)

Finally, after more than six weeks I had a chance to head out to the rock. I got there and Steve, Brian, and Terry were already in the air. Friday there were no consistent conditions mostly thermals. My last 3 flights before were sleds in thermal conditions. I wasn't very optimistic, but it was Friday and I wasn't working. Luckily Brian had his jog up-hill day and he was able to be the observer. I launched at about 3:00pm, I did find some lift and noticed a lot of crows flying all over, must've been feeding time. They were circling and going up, so I decided to follow them but as soon as I would get there they were off to another thermal and then I would start sinking. Steve G launched a little before I did, and in no time he was kissing clouds. I just kept after the birds. I gained no more than 300 over. When I was 100 under I decided to start heading for the LZ hoping to find something on the way, but other than small puffs nothing significant. Yup! I decided to go land, I felt pretty comfortable, I knew to expect buoyant conditions. So try to go fast. But then I did what has become my oldest bad habit in landing a too low after roll-off, I had a late flare, my hands were also too far down.

Saturday very similar conditions except the wind at launch was cross more to the north with some short interludes of light air. The Gardinator launched and as Sheila was ready to follow him, he proclaimed 'this is not fun, I am going to land'. That was a good indication to me that the best thing might be to break down. But then conditions seem to calm down, and also considering the observation of others, I decided if it got too wild I could just go and land. The ride was wilder than I had experienced but I did no feel threatened just had to work at it. A couple of times I experienced the un-commanded 90-degree turns but it didn't get any worse than that. For some reason I seem to find more lift right in front of launch, but had to get out of they way as 4-5 more gliders decided to launch. After a while I started to lose more altitude and as I was a 100 under head out to the LZ. And just like the last time did not find anything else. I started the approach and lost significant altitude. As soon as I started the final the same old bad habit rolled-off too low and when I thought it was flare time, I pushed more decidedly than the last time but zoomed-up and rather than holding it turned 30 degrees so I pulled so I whacked. This was my first down-tube in 3 years. But this only means I haven't been flying much.

The lesson learned. Milder LZ conditions are more forgiving, and there is more margin of error. When I get too low after roll-off the flare timing is obscured by the very fact that you are too low. The solution: practice, practice, practice. There is enough written on the subject by much more experienced instructors. For the newer pilots break those bad habits early. ARGH!

Carlos

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This page last updated August 15, 2000