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Hangola February 29-March 4, 2000

Just got back from a nice week long flying vacation in Florida. I was there with some Manquin regulars -- Tex, Terry, Doug Perkins, Jim Kingsley and Roland. Jim and Roland had to leave early; Jim because his mom was ill and Roland because he has a job or something equally depressing.

We camped at Wallaby which wasn't bad although the first few nights it got pretty cold. It dipped below freezing one night (there was ice all over my windshield in the morning) and my sleeping bag wasn't equal to the task. I ended up getting up and putting on pants, sweatshirt, snowmobile suit, balaclava, 4 pairs of socks and climbing back in the bag. Ahh warm. But then I realize I gotta pee. Damn! Yet another of the myriad disadvantages of being an old geezer. The next night I started out fully attired for the cold but it never dropped below about 50 and I had to get up and take everything off.

The days were pleasant but with fairly strong east to northeast winds initially . It made for some interesting launches. Terry locked out over the trees and released at the same instant the tug cut him loose. Bye Bye tow rope. I ended up in a similar situation with a wing way up, realized it was hopeless and hit the release.

Tex, Terry, Doug and I all had some really fun XCs although none of us managed any monster miles. Cloudbases were in the 4500 to 5500 range. Tex took a NE day and ran about 30 miles. I took a NE day and ran about 10 - 12. I wasn't really so much trying to go XC as just trying to stay up. I spent 45 minutes scudding along between 500 and 2000 ft listening to the rest of the crew complain about whiteouts. Never did get up. Doug had a 20 + mile ride on an ENE day. He was following me but since I ended up on the ground after 17 or so miles and he still had 3k he decided that maybe his faith was misplaced.

I finally got my turn on an ESE day. Bad direction for Wallaby. It takes you right into the swamp. I have been in this situation before and kept trying to cut more north but wasn't very successful. Ended up flying crosswind and often even with a headwind component for nearly two hours in the best part of the day trying to get around it. Plus it required a lot of high speed flying which exhausted me. Finally made it around and over farmland but I was too pooped to continue much further. 30 miles or so. Bo from Quest made it over 100 the same day. But there is no swamp in the way from Quest with that direction. Not that I coulda made 100 miles but I sure as hell coulda made at least 40. Oh well.

We headed up to Quest for the last day before heading back. It was a nice light ESE day. Doug and Terry started turning immediately off tow and headed off downwind. I tried twice, releasing in 500 down both times and gave up. Tex schmoozed with Dave Glover while I packed up and listened to Terry and Doug discuss their progress. At one point I heard Terry say that he was going to head out into the middle of a blue hole. Didn't hear anything from him after that and figured he was down. But he wasn't. He was just out of radio batteries. They both made it about 30 miles. Terry's retrieve was a bit of a horror show. He ended up only about 5 miles from Doug but somehow the message got lost. And because his radio was dead things were not looking hopeful for Terry. Our distress was termpered only by the fact that we had the keys to his truck. Tex saved the day.

It was a good time. Flying and otherwise. Did you know that Doug and Tex can do the complete dialogue for every Foghorn Leghorn cartoon ever made??. Think about it.

Great Fun Today!!!!!

Greg De Wolf, Terry, Steve K., Doug and Christy, John (who had been skunked twice this week), Mark C and myself all got hours plus and thousands of feet.

We showed up at noon in the LZ with Catabatic conditions blowing the fishsock the wrong way. We wondered if we should chase the wind to HR. The idea of Wind Chasing was quickly put in its' place. We decided to go on up and hope something developed.

There was very little action in the slot. Mike Balk called in around 1pm and I recommended HR to him. A lot of wide comments went around concerning the anticipated joy of the first lucky person to launch. Some how no-one was caught scurrying to their glider.

But the air was cool and the sun was strong and a little after 2pm it started to turn on. Greg tip toed off of launch and was 800 over in choppy stuff in short order. Within a half of an hour so were all of the rest of us.

It was your early spring rowdy broken up bullets. But then occasionally somethin big would kick off and we'd all go booming up to 3000+ over. Sometimes staight up. Most of us experienced 800+ fpm. It was so ideal that I was able to employ my special Falcon Anti-Penitration Technology and still get out as far as the bridge and work a thermal back to 2000 over launch. I actually got to turn in a thermal more than twice before I had to bail and slide back out front. SO THIS IS WHAT HANG GLIDING IS ALL ABOUT!!!! I NEVER KNEW!!! HEY MAN! THIS IS FUN!!!!

Ed

A forecast of NW 5-10 drew pilots from four states to the pulpit. WInds were a bit more north than the forecast led us to believe. However, unlike the previous Saturday skunk fest at Fisher Road, this time the sky was flyable.

In the early afternoon the winds were light, so light that the dozen gliders already assembled by 1:00 pm stayed put as pilots watched the sky and visitated under the bright sun. Eventually Bacil Dickert assumed his time-honored role as first launch/early launch at the Pulpit, and was rewarded with a straight shot sled to the secondary. We all admire his tenacity. By a bit after two the winds were picking up, although with a fair cross, and pilots got interested in flying. Sac pilot Doug Rogers led off this group, and showed that it took a lot of work to get more than 500 over launch. However, once there, he found a strong thermal, boomed up, and headed over the back. The lines formed, and a steady stream of gliders made their way to both ramps. Conditions in the set up area were warm and shirtsleeve. Crewing on the ramp demanded a good jacket and gloves. All of the early launchers were the top flight XC crowd. Many of them made their way over the back, but no notably long distance flights resulted.

I won't attempt to give details on every flight, but the catalog of pilots is long. Pitt crowd included Larry Huffman, Pat Brooks, Jim Meadows, Luke Thompson and Pete Lehmann. Pete took Tweety to about 1500' over and dove over the back for about 7 miles.

From the Sac we had Doug Rogers, Tom Gartland, and Sean (?). This was first Pulpit day for them, and all said they will return to such a great site.

Capital & Maryland pilots, in addition to Bacil, included Dave Proctor, Pete Schumann (first day back flying after leg surgery), Tom McGowan, Mike Chevalier, Dan Tomlinson, Carlos Weill, Steve Padgett, Joe Branch, and me. If I missed anyone, I apologize; this is all from memory.

Dan, Steve, Tom and I shared the ridge for a while after 3. Tom eventually worked the ratty air to get up and go over the back. Steve, Dan and I worked the messy thermals and landed in the primary. I was up 55 minutes, reaching a max altitude of 600' over, and that was in a boomer I caught in the valley on the way to the LZ. Best I made while on the ridge was 500' over. Dan saw me, ran to the same trigger, and got to 1500' over, staying in the air a little over 90 minutes.

Last launches of the day were H2's Carlos and Joe, who were off shortly after 5 in what appeared to be magic air. They were both still airborne when Dan and I drove off.

Cragin

Conditions: L/V when we arrived at launch around 12:30. Started coming in lightly around 2:30. Blue skies with some cirrus, but not enough to do damage.

Jim launched first around 3 pm and was a sacrifice to the wind gods. He sledded. The rest of us got up for varying lengths of time. I got to 6.2K msl and was over the back even with the airport at the time, with Larry Ball just above me. I was hoping Larry would head downwind so I could follow, but he didn't. Doug got over 2 hours. I got 1.5 and landed because my shoulders were tired from 2 fun days of flying.

I really enjoyed the flight at Woodstock on Friday. The batteries in my gloves ran out of juice after 1.5 hours in the air, and the fingers were getting cold. So I headed out to Rt 11, only losing about 2-300 feet on the way, and landed right behind the County government building (across the road to launch from the almost defunct shopping center) and hitched back up top for the car.

Christy

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This page last updated March 6, 2000