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Hangola March 25 & 26, 2000

Hi Everyone. Just a note to let everyone know how Sat went. I didn't think to post it until we got a call from Matthew. Anyway, We had a group of 20 from York College scheduled for Saturday. At 7 am I went up in the tug to check conditions. At 1000 AGL, with an airspeed of about 30, I was going backwards near 5 mph. I thought Bummer, too windy. I called the group at 8 to cancel and was greeted by an answering machine. I left a message saying not to come out. Sunny tried again around 9. Same thing. Around noon, a van pulled up full of gung-ho college students. Apparently they had been out drinking kind of late and slept through our messages. I explained the conditions to them and they decided to hang around for a while and see if there were any improvements. At 1 pm the wind began to back off. We were able to fly after all. We flew everyone who showed (about 14 students). We finished up the day by saying goodbye to a happy group of new potential pilots, followed up by running to secure equipment as a gust front and thunderstorm rolled in. Talk about luck. We hope everyone had a good day of flying. See everyone soon I hope.

Chad & Sunny

Well, Sunday was the first epic Woodstock day in a LONG while!

Setup space was at a premium, and after the first 15 - 20 gliders, everyone had to wait. Those people near the slot were lucky and didn't have to wait in the long lines to launch. I was one of the first to launch (1:30), so I will let others tell of the trials and tribulations there.

Once off, it seemed fairly easy to get up to +1500. Boating down to Strasburg was fairly easy, but I did notice that people on their way back were much lower and crabbed at a much higher angle. Hmmm. It took about 20 minutes to go the 10 miles north, and then I found why the higher crab angle and the lower elevation of the other pilots!

After sinking to +700, and worried about a venturi too close to the end, I turned around and noticed as expected, that my forward speed had decreased to about 8 mph. I gradually climbed on the way back south, but there were a couple of gusts where I had the bar stuffed and was still backing up!

Back closer to launch, I thought I might of encountered a small piece of localized wave! Getting to +4400 was relatively easy, and the drift wasn't bad, but a couple of times I fell out, and it was difficult to get back to the ridge even though I was only half-way between the two ridges (Ellis will have to comment about that as well). In fact, when I left the lift, I lost 2000 feet in two minutes (-957 on my 30 second averager!) The only time I've experienced sustained sink like that is with wave!

Down by the Edinburgh gap, I noticed someone low and struggling on the other side, so I wasn't too excited about crossing. But I got high, and decided to feel it out. As I was angling across, I kept going up! So why not! The sink didn't happen until the house half way up the ridge, but I made it above ridge level and gradually increased altitude to the end of Short Mountain. Got high there, and went straight south instead of jumping back - I wasn't sure that the ridge lift could be counted on. Landed in a nice big field in New Market. 25.0 miles, 2:20. Max lift: +725, max sink: -957.

-Mike Balk

Strong day but nice. Tom, Homer and John Dullahan made it to Harrisonburg. Hope they will post . I didn't get off the mtn until late in the day. It was quite nice by then. Not very strong but still plenty of lift. Matthew said he would follow me south if I led so I got serious about trying to go south. Boated across the gap gaining the whole way and hung around waiting for Matthew. He apparently made it across but we couldn't find each other so he went back. Amazing! We had to have been in the same quarter square mile of airspace. Decided to keep going anyway. Jumped back from Short without losing much. But then it just started dying. Best I could do at New Market was 1500 over which isn't that high. Thought I could probably make it but it was marginal so landed next to 211. Plus Mike Balk was on the radio announcing that he had landed near New Market and had gotten a ride back and was coming back to get his glider. Incentive. Terry Spencer and Mike C were on Short at the same time, declined to make the jump back and landed at Mt Jackson.

Heard on the radio that Steve P landed at Strausburg for his first XC. Yeah!

Unfortunately, there were a couple of incidents. Ellis got blown over the back but landed safely (bet that was an exciting ride!) . John Muldoon tried unsuccessfully to jump the gap and crash landed in a backyard breaking some ribs and earning him a trip to the hospital.

In retrospect, I don't think H2s should have been flying in that air. They should have waited until much later. Most of them did wait. To me, it looked doable as long as they stayed well in front of the ridge and didn't try anything weird but ....

ps. HOW TO CROSS THE GAP 101. I have done this as much or more than anybody so for you folks who are relatively inexperienced but still insist on trying this: . Fly down there. Go to the part of the ridge that curves around to the west and faces in the same direction as Short. You should go up. If you don't go up, go home. Get high. 1400 over minimum. Fly out toward the two fields by the road. Pay close attention to what is happening. You should pretty much be able to maintain. Always leave yourself the option of going back. Always have the two fields within range. If all goes well, you should end up almost over the two fields, at least even with the top of Short and within a quick X wind glide. And you should still have the altitude to get back .

Don't go first. Have a radio and listen to it. Don't try it with a Falcon.

ps. HOW TO STAY IN FRONT OF THE RIDGE 101. Stay way out there. I mean waaaay out there. You do not need to get close to the mtn if it is blowing.

Be Forewarned-- this is a long and not the happiest of posts.

Karen and I arrived at Woodstock at about 12:30 to a big crowd and strong conditions at launch just starting to back off. Sometime after 1:00, Marc played wind dummy. We waited for a conditions report but all we got was garbled transmissions and "strong thermal cores". That gave pause to some of us and got others excited. I was doing the observer do for three hang 2s-- two of them rather eager to go. Marvin and Tom then launched and I told one of the twos to wait until we got a condition report from Tom (the other was running a shuttle). So while waiting to hear from Tom, I took a hike to be a bear in the woods. After my refreshing hike, I stopped at my car to have some Gatorade and watched Dan fly by being tossed around like a rag doll. Well, there was my conditions report. When I returned to launch I found one of the twos had short circuited me and launched via another Observer and a lesser airtime H2 was in line to launch. I said "Nope, you don't want to be out in that crap." So he moved his glider to the side and I decided to launch so that I could come back up later in the day to help off the twos when things mellowed out.

I launched at 2:00 and the air was much, much worse than I expected it to be-- screaming thermals, screaming sink and lots of wind. It was the roughest air I had ever flown in! I circled up in one thermal to 4300 over which put me almost back to the second ridge and then lost nearly all of it working my way back out front. I cleared the main ridge by only 400-500 feet. I spent most of the rest of the time parking in thermals with full VG on-- the first time I was ever able to do that! It was definitely not a day where you wanted to be behind the ridge (perhaps there will be another post on this subject?). Occasionally there would be short spells of nice air but then it would just go right to HELL! I considered landing but I knew that landing conditions would be ten times worse. Mike Chevalier landed at the bridge field when his harness zipper blew out and he confirmed my suspicions with a general radio transmission of "you don't want to land".

But after 3:30 the winds backed off and the penetration problems abated. Mike C. made his way back to launch and observed the remaining twos-- Carlos, Steve Padgett and Bruce Engen. All had long soaring flights. But Steve Padgett disappeared from the radar screen (more later).

The air still had plenty of texture in it even then and I was able to climb back up to 4300 over; but this time I was able to make it out into the valley only losing 300'. So I cruised South not losing anything and thinking that I was in wave. But as I reached the sea of trees before the gap, I started sinking and arrived at the gap with 3000 over. At Steve Kinsley's urging I continued across and arrived at Short Mountain at 2200 over. Steve had said there was plenty of lift on Short Mt., but all I encountered was sink. So at 1500 over, I turned tail and aimed at the big fields along the road in the gap. To my surprise, I hit another nice thermal and climbed back up to 2K over. I turned around again and started down Short Mt. to again only find sink. At 1300 over, I gave up for the second time and zoomed back to the gap LZs and started my approach. But luck smiled on me at 900 agl where I found a big thermal that took me back across the gap to the main ridge and 2K over. From there I limped back to launch losing most of my altitude. But I played around in some thermals for another ten minutes so I could get 3 hours. (My longest flight-- I'm no Ellis or Mike Buckley) Back at launch I heard Terry Spencer on the radio having jumped the gap and encountering the same sink problems I had on Short Mt.. But he must have found the mysterious lift Steve had talked about because Terry was able to make it down Short and landed out at Mt. Jackson.

Mike C. also made it to Mt. Jackson on his second flight. Steve K and Mike (the Incredible) Balk made it to New Market. And Tom, Homer and John Dullahan all skimmed their way to Harrisonburg. Unfortunately, John Muldoon wasn't so successful on his gap crossing attempt and clipped a tree trying to make it to a field in the gap. He ended up with 3 or 4 broken ribs and no word on the damage to his glider. On a brighter side, John Middleton, Mark C. Karen, Adam, Sparky, Marlin, Marvin, Gary Campbell, Bob Radcliff, Lyman and a bunch of others all had fun safe flights. But Steve Padgett landed out near Strasburg when he found he couldn't make any headway coming back.

Speaking of which-- here are some gripes.

1.) You shouldn't be leaving glide range to the LZ unless you are prepared to land out. Just because you're high and in lift doesn't mean you'll be so in a few minutes time. There are plenty of sink holes out there (especially in the Spring). Lift sometimes just plain shuts down, the winds shift direction and there's always that pesky sunset problem. Plus, there's always the possibility of the unforeseen. Harness lines come loose-- batten strings break-- pilots who have never been motion sick find themselves becoming queasy. You must be prepared to land. And being prepared doesn't just mean thinking that you know how to pick out a good field. It means looking for good fields the entire flight and having the proper equipment so you can be retrieved-- a working radio or cell phone, cash, phone card, maybe a map, etc. No one wants to end their day worried about a missing pilot and spending all night trying to find them. If you leave the safety zone of the LZ, you're on your own and you have to be ready to face the consequences!

2.) If someone has agreed to Observe you, don't go shopping for other Observers and jumping off the mountain just because the original Observer is missing for a few minutes. If their glider is still there, the Observer is still there. Twice now an impatient H2 has short circuited their Observer and found someone else at Woodstock and in both cases the H2 has been blown over the back.

3.) Being lucky doesn't count. Just because you did something stupid and got away with it doesn't make you a good pilot. Realizing how lucky you were and understanding your mistakes makes you a good pilot.

4.) This is two weeks in a row that pilots have broken bones. It's booming Spring conditions and now is not the time to be taking chances.

5.) Don't be so damn eager to fly in rowdy conditions. It doesn't show a great deal of being conservative or having an appreciation of the power of the air. The only time I'm ever eager is when it looks like it's shutting down or on light days when I start to see some signs of thermals. I had fun on the second 90 minutes of my flight but I could have easily done without that first 90 minutes.

Matthew (sorry about all of the griping, of Karen and Matthew)

steve kinsley wrote:
"Heard on the radio that Steve P landed at Strausburg for his first XC. Yeah!"

Steve got to the north end and then found that he couldn't penetrate back at all in a Falcon so landed along rte. 55. We had a hard time finding his glider in the dark.

"Unfortunately, there were a couple of incidents."

On my first flight the zipper jammed and the velcro pulled out of the harness so I couldn't zip up. Not a comfortable situation to be in especially on a strong day. No way I could fix it in the air so I landed at the bridge field and Steve picked me up. Hope I didn't piss off the land owner.

MC

Matthew wrote:
> 5.) Don't be so damn eager to fly in rowdy conditions. It doesn't show a
> great deal of being conservative or having an appreciation of the power of
> the air.

We're probably kicking a dead horse at this point, but I gotta put in another $0.02.

When I heard gusts reported at 30+ by the NWS on Sunday morning, I just rolled over and grabbed a couple more hours of snooze-time. Had a nice leisurely breakfast, did some stuff around the house... didn't arrive at launch until 2:15. Set up. Waited about 40 minutes for the last of the freight trains to go through. Launched around 4:00, and flew until sunset.

No, I didn't go XC, but I did fly up to the north point and then down to the gap. Got 3000' over a couple times, and 3500' over briefly.

A really pleasant flight, still with lots of thermal fun and valley flying, simply by waiting until a little later in the day.

Ya don't *have* to jump off in the rowdiest stuff....

--mark c.

Ellis's little adventure

Since a number of ppl alluded to it... Here's my report:

Had a bunch of fun out front. Hit a lot of thermals. Have to learn to stay in them better. Was successful once and rode a bronco up to 3800 over. yee haaaa!!! my vario was pegged! :-)

unfortunately soon after, my vario was pegged the other way... went back down to 700 over, thinking i might have to head out to land soon, caught another one. managed to stay around 1000 to 2500 over after that. lots of heavy sink and lots of nice lift.

watched pilots going north to strasbourg and south trying to cross the gap. pretty instructive. didn't feel confident enough to follow and possibly have to land in an unfamiliar field. ha!

lots of gliders in the air. hope i didn't get into anybody's way. I think I might have once. Apologies to whoever that was. tried to be more careful after that and when someone came north on the ridge, tried to get out of the way by -DUH- going a little behind the ridge...

couldn't come out front again, despite stuffed bar. fortunately not much altitude loss. still about 1000-1500 over.
choices:
a) lose altitude and hope to penetrate lower down
b) let the bar out and go with the thermal i seemed to be in and try to work back front later again
c) just go for the BIG field behind the second ridge.

choice c) seemed to be the best choice, since it seemed a sure shot. was concerned about rotor, but more concerned about not making it out front and having to land in a bvh sized spot between the ridges. retrospect: should have combined b) and c)

so, turned around and went for the big field. there WAS rotor, but manageable (with lots of speed). actually had a no-step landing. dang and nobody there to witness that rare feat.

a big thanks to the folks who flew over the back to check out if i was okay!

and then - i had just wiggled out of my harness and was taking the nose cone off, thinking about my long hike back to launch - Karen and Bruce showed up to retrieve me!!!!! WOW. :-)

no broken limbs, downtubes or basetube, irate landowners or long hike back. phew. and a bunch of lessons learned. won't list them, since most of them have already been covered in other posts.

lucky flight.

Well, this is all very interesting. In Ellis' defense (and my own), she wasn't really shopping for another observer. She asked where Matthew was. People tried to find Matthew. I offered to observe her if we couldn't find Matthew. I meant that I would go thru all the observer stuff and get on the radio and make sure it was ok. Perhaps she thought that I was saying "ok you can launch", but I don't think so. Observers at least say something to you. But in any case, she demurred. She was waiting for Matthew. Matthew returned to the set up area. I told Ellis he was back and she picked up the glider. Perhaps she assumed that Matthew was right there with her not just in the set up area. I thought that everything had been discussed with and approved by Matthew and that his return solved a technical problem --observer present. However it worked out, I never thought I was observing Ellis off. I never talked to her about her flight at all. I thought I was a wireman.

Another point for future reference. A couple of times I saw her circling too far back. I thought we should call her on the radio and tell her to get out front. But she wasn't on the same freq as everybody else and nobody seemed to know what it was. Bruce Engen knew but I didn't know that until it was too late. Matthew saw her circling too far back when he was in the air but also couldn't talk to her. Observers and observed should be on the same freq.

Interestingly enough, Ellis seems to have enjoyed the whole flight. Even getting blown over the back.

Steve wrote:
"Matthew returned to the set up area. I told Ellis he was back and she picked up the glider. Perhaps she assumed that Matthew was right there with her not just in the set up area. I thought that everything had been discussed with and approved by Matthew and that his return solved a technical problem --observer present. However it worked out, I never thought I was observing Ellis off. I never talked to her about her flight at all. I thought I was a wireman. "

**************

I may have just been returning to the set-up area before Ellis launched. However, I didn't see her launch and didn't know she had moved to launch. My first clue that she had launched was when I asked, "where's Ellis?" And someone told me that she had just launched. I had thought I had been specific in saying that I wanted to get a condition report from Tom before she launched. I'm not trying to lay any blame here and as with most of these things there may have been some miscommunication. As to the radio thing, I thought that she wasn't going to be using her new radio since she wasn't a ham. All of her previous flights have been sans radio.

Matthew (good idea though on synchronizing frequencies between observers and observies, of Karen and Matthew)

There was powerful air at Woodstock on Sunday and H2's or those with lower performing gliders should not have flown until late in the day. I commend Matthew's Gripes.

- john middleton

Seriously, Steve--your statement that she decided to go with you simply as a wireman I think misrepresents Ellis as having decided to blow off the whole observership process altogether. She tells me that you told her that you would observe her when she mentioned Matt was gone--this was also heard by others present at the time of Ellis' launch.

I think what is a issue here is what is actually meant by saying "I'll observe you." Not to single out anyone in particular--it appears that to some observing might mean "I'll be present at launch when you go." In my mind, the observer supplies the pilot with judgement training by going through an analysis of conditions to determine if the pilot is ready and competent enough to deal with the whole takeoff, flight and landing process for the conditions at the time of launch. Of course ultimately it is the pilot's responsibility to make the decision to go, but new pilots need all the help they can get--even if they appear to be very self-assured. Anyway, enough on this subject.

As for the question of the nature of conditions for the day, this is a tough question because the degree of danger is often directly related to the experience and judgement level of the pilot flying in the conditions.

The fact is, flying in the spring means flying in unstable conditions and associated turbulence. Flying in these conditions is inherently riskier than say, more stable winter conditions. Add in the pursuit of xc flights and the risk level goes up even more. And perhaps the onset of the regionals adds even further risk by motivating pilots to push harder than they normally would--I can tell you that I witnessed varying degrees of wackiness from my vantage point on the ground in Edinburg gap. I also had the distinctly unpleasant experience of witnessing a glider crash and, along with Marvin Presley and his wife (thanks guys)--sacrificed the rest of my flying day seeing to John and the gathering up of his glider. Thanks also to Marlin and Adam who delivered John's vehicle to the hospital.

This is the big time of flying around here--be honest with yourself about what you're getting yourself into (I'm reading this too!).

Marc

Since it was the first good Woodstock day for me in quite a while, I may as well chip in my two cents.

Had a nice flight from just north of the reservoir to Harrisonburg for 46.2 miles. Like Mike Balk, I noticed how difficult it was to head south, so it turned around just short of Signal Knob and then spent about an hour getting back to launch, stopping only once to ride a nice thermal to something like 4000' over (probably would have been a good day to go over the back).

After McAllister and Balk showed me the way, I crossed Edinburg Gap without too much trouble (starting crossing out front at about 2,000 over). Immediately got high again at the south end of Short Mountain (3,400 over) to jump back to the New Market ridge. A quick trip to the New Market Gap and again another good thermal (2,300 over). Then essentially, ran down the ridge finding very little lift and sinking slowly. Found some lift just when I needed it to 1,800 over near the last gap and was able to glide with a light tailwind to just south of Rt. 33, landing at 5:10 after 4 hours.

John McAllister landed just west of the end of Massanutten Mountain in Keezletown for approx 47.2 miles and John Dullahan made it to Rt. 33 (I believe) for 48 miles. They flew farther than me because they were brave enough to go all the way to Signal Knob before turning south.

At the risk of being preachy, repetitive and because I have now watched two gliders go into the trees after getting caught in the venturi in the Edinburgh Gap, I want to make a point that should be obvious: running a ridge can be much more difficult and stressful than going over the back. A gap (especially one as complex as Edinburg) can create a large venturi, LZs can be far out front, and wind conditions can change dramatically during a ridge run. I experienced a strong west cross by Woodstock, straight in on Short Mountain, a strong north cross after New Market, and little wind at all the last few miles.

Let's have fun but fly safe as the spring conditions are only getting started.

Tom

On 66 it was blowing 20+ but at Woodstock winds had diminished enough to keep the pilots on the ground for another hour until they picked up again. Waited about two minutes at launch for a strong enough cycle before getting to 1,500 over, where I didn't work any more thermals and made good time to the reservoir.

Since I was at 1,800 over I decided to continue until I encountered major sink. It didn't happen, and although it was a little rowdy I made it beyond the point without losing much altitude. Coming back I played with various VG settings. Full on made the glider wander significantly in the rowdy air; about one third VG was an acceptable compromise.

John McCallister, who was behind, low, and further away from the ridge, was making better headway. I also moved out front and was able to pick up the pace.

Approaching the gap I heard Mark F. report that conditions on Short Mountain were ratty, and as a result he returned and landed in the field to the front of Edinburgh Gap. I also saw about four pilots at about 400 to 1,000 over around the gap, who appeared to make no progress as I slowly made my way SW. At about 1200 over launch and about a mile from the gap I headed for the large green field out front, intending to land there if there was no lift. With zero sink I pointed towards Short Mountain and arrived about 100 below the ridge. Immediately found close-in lift and proceeded down Short Mountain, slowly gaining altitude. Intended jumping off the end to land out front, but found a thermal to 1,000 over SM and jumped back to Kern's Mountain at a heading of 170 with little altitude loss.

After jumping New Market Gap with 1,000 over it was an uneventful but slow crab to Massanutten Peak. Worked ratty lift to 800 over before leaving at a heading of 160 to land near 33 and make retrieval easier for three hours and 48.5 miles.

John McCallister and Julie picked Tom McGowan and me up. After a welcome beer, courtesy of John, we drove to Woodstock Hospital to check on John Muldoon and switch gliders around. Marlin Savell generously drove Steve Kinsley and me to our cars at launch (where Tara was patiently waiting).

Some observations from running the ridge and jumping gaps at Woodstock:

On strong west cross days when crabbing southwest, I made better progress well in front off the ridge and with just enough altitude to survive short flush cycles. When flush cycles are fewer you can stay lower and avoid the higher winds aloft.

Working thermals which drifted well over the back was usually not worthwhile because too much altitude was lost trying to return to the front of the ridge (of course an exception is when jumping back from Short Mountain).

On west cross days there is often lift or zero sink north and out-front of Edinburgh Gap, probably helped by the low finger showing an altitude of 411 meters on the DeLORME map. By heading for it well before the gap (from the northeast) you avoid the venturi effect and glide towards the large green field out front. So if you sink out, my fate on more than a few occasions, you have a nice big field and an easy retrieve.

If I had my druthers I would take an over-the-back XC from the Pulpit or other more-hospitible site. It's nice to have the fan turn off when you point downwind and you don't have to worry about a flush cycle putting you in the trees!

Regards, John D.

First cross country
Woodstock Sun 26Mar00.
Steve Padgett.

Many things were happenning this very active day at Woodstock as one can see from all the hangola reports. It was very strong but Matthew, who's advice is always conservative, said from the air it was ok for a Falcon to fly but not to go over 1000' over launch (I knew that Ellis had been blown over the back). I walzed off launch with wings level and headed North intending to run the full length of the ridge, turn around and fly back. When I did turn around to come back there was no lift and the west cross was resisting my ground track. It did not look like I could make it to the next field south. So I hung around at the North point going up and down for a while trying to get high.

Then I decided to go around the north point and fly over the highway and land in an appropriate field when I got low. I only got about a mile and I was pretty low. I decided to make an pproach to a field (with no animals) on the downwind side of which was a pond; so I knew I would not be landing downhill.

I set up for final above the trees slightly downwind of the field: MISTAKE! I almost could not fly back 30 yards to the field proper. I landed 40 yards into a 250 yard field. The field did slope upward which made no difference.

Lesson: STAY INSIDE THE FIELD DURING YOUR LANDING APPROACH (whether you are doing figure 8 or aircraft approach).

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This page last updated April 2, 2000