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Hangola April 16, 2000

Had a nice day at the Pulpit. With a light NW forecast, that seemed the place to go, especially after I woke up in Front Royal to sunny skies.

Arrived at the Pulpit at noon to find light winds coming in but cums forming all around. By 1:30, some of the cums had significant vertical development, and the wind had increased to 10-15 pretty much straight in. Dave Proctor had a 15 minute flight but didn't stay up. I launched and caught a nice thermal immediately and started climbing out - only to find my harness zipper was no longer velcroed in. I also ended up landing 15 minutes.

At that time a nice cell moved through, but by the time I launched up again (4:00) it had cleared up and was coming in around 15 mph. Flew for about an hour but couldn't get very high - despite the nice cums. Went over the back with 1300' over and made it about 5 miles.

Tom

I called JR in the morning about going out to fly High Point (and pick up the K2 he and Greg Beyer had brought back from Wallaby for me). He said it was sunny and had been sunny all day Saturday - as in no rain at all! I figured that that was the place to be. Figured right. There was a lot of fog/high haze around Hagerstown on the way out, but over the hill into Cumberland it was gorgeous tall cumies with lots of clear blue inbetween.

There were 5 of us at High Point (in launch order): John McAllister, John Myers, JR, Marvin, me. John McA got up first at the gap and then over the north point (furthest pt from High Pt). I think John Myers didn't last too long, but I can't recall the landing order. It was a bit crossed from the north with really strong cycles at times. When I got on launch I waited until it calmed down a bit. As I was standing there it started getting really warm (no, not a hot flash) and I figured a Big thermal was in the making. I ran off and right into it, cored right up, passing JR and Marvin in the process. (Mike Barber said I'd do better in thermals if I high-sided so I high-sided.) There was too much drift so I had to bail from it before getting high enough to leave the ridge. At this time I saw John McA really high over the north pt and on the verge of heading over the back. I went on down to see how well I'd do there. (Mike Barber said if someone was doing much better than I was, go to their thermal.) In the meantime both Marvin and JR sunk out. I found a nasty one about 200 over the north point and worked like crazy to about 3300 over, drifting back too far to come forward again.

I was tracking a downwind course midway between Rt 51 and Rt 28. I don't know if the thermal ran out - it wasn't underneath a cloud - but Mike Barber said to boogie on when the lift got light, so I went on towards a cloud I'd been eyeing while thermaling (Barber advice).

Heading downwind between Rt 51 and 28, I worked what lines of lift (Barber advice) I could find, while heading for the biggest baddest cloud (there were some tall cumies out there). I made it pretty low to within the big bad cloud's influence and worked light stuff that eventuallly turned into 300 then 400 then 500 then 600 fpm. I turned downwind about 1K under the cloud (nervous - it was BIG) and rode in 2-300 for about a mile as I left the back side of the cloud. I could hear John telling the group back in the LZ that he was on a glide for Forks of Cacapon. (John's radio could only transmit.) I radioed back that I wish I knew where I was. Although I could see John from time to time, I was flying a track quite a bit south of him and not over any paved roads. (Turns out the guys back in Cumberland didn't hear either of us.) I kept on going across the no-man's land, edging over towards John's track when I could. I finally came upon a paved road with a center line and knew I was ok for retrieval. Then I saw an interchange that looked familiar. I'd arrived at Forks of Cacapon!! I looked around for John's glider and saw him at the exact same altitude about a quarter mile away setting up for a landing. I watched him land, wondering why he'd chosen a field away from the main road, but figuring I'd better land there too to make retrieval easier in the end. Plus he had a cell phone... I had a nice landing, right in front of a very surprised John. Turns out he didn't know I was anywhere in the vicinity. John's cell phone didn't work in the hole of Forks of Cacapon so he ended up calling from a house and leaving message on JR's cell phone (home phone wasn't working and cell phone not on). JR and Marvin eventually arrived in John's new truck. It was quick drive back with John driving. He knows these roads like nobody's business, or I should say, like his business. He said he knew exactly where he was while flying because of all the landscaping jobs he's done in the area (he's a landscape contractor). I gotta get that xc map made up. Hour 25 minutes in the air. 23.4 miles total.

Total fun.

Christy

I kicked off my 2000 Flying Season in fine style by heading out to Ridgely twice in three days.

Despite the overcast skies on Friday, I decided to head out in the late afternoon; without sun, I figured the air would be smooth and easy for my first flights since November; the wind was stronger than expected (10-15 at 6pm), but very smooth, so not a problem. Did 3 declared patterns: the first one I did in the big field, allowing myself room in case I needed it, but then I set the next two down on the grass strip, both within 30 feet of the carts. Then I did one full tow, only to find that the winds aloft were even stronger. In the time that it took me to clean up my towing bridle after release, I had already drifted a few hundred yards downwind of the field, and discovered that at my normal flying speeds I wasn't making any headway back to the field; I pulled the bar in as far as I could, and slowly started to inch back towards the field. My poor little falcon was flapping 'is wings as hard as 'e could trying to fly upwind! I looked at the vario and saw my sink rate was roughly 600fpm! 2 and half minutes (and 1500 feet) later, I was back over the field, and ready to come down, having had enough excitement for the day.

Sunday afternoon, the sun came out, the wind died, and it got so nice and warm that I couldn't resist another trip back to Ridgely. This time I did two tows; couldn't find any lift, but the sink was pretty minimal, averaging only 200-250 fpm, but it was nice to fly in just a t-shirt and shorts again. :-)

R2

Arrived at the rock on sunday to find it dry and sunny, with wind blowing in at around 8 mph. Sparky and I maligned ourselves for not bringing tree cutting equipment. Marc Fink and Kelvin Pierce had both taken sleds. We set up to the sound of Tom McGowan's radio chatter about catching thermals at the Pulpit. By the time we were ready to go some storm cells were scattered over the valley, so even though launching conditions were optimal we decided to wait it out.

When the valley cleared I was the first to launch, with Ellis down below with a camera to take belly shots of people launching off the rock. Sledded out, followed by sparky, ellis, and Fink. H2 Bruce was there, but with a developing cross let sparky fly his pulse (Allen marked it down at the 34th brand of glider he's flown).

The first three of us chose to waste enough altitude hunting for thermals that we couldn't overfly the streamer on approach. I came in on a crosswind, but split the difference. Sparky landed with a tailwind but with the easy handling pulse only had to run a few steps. Ellis also had a tailwind, and burned up nearly all the field before landing with one of the fastest buzz-saw finals I've ever witnessed. Mark had plenty of altitude, but misread our ground signals and managed to stick his landing with a tailwind on a Fusion! (okay, his keel thumped).

Had dinner at the Sparks's, with one very precocious 5 year old, and a startlingly self-possessed 12 year old. Discussed at length with his wife (a teacher) how the whole-language approach and whole-sale calculator use had destroyed an entire generation of kids.

-Brian.

Mike C., Steve K, Joe G., and myself also went to Ridgely. Winds from the south, quite different from everywhere else. Mike C and I each eaked out about 20 minutes on our first flight in VERY light lift. It was wonderful to not have to break down between flights, and flying in a t-shirt sure is fun!

-Mike Balk

On Sunday winds were light at Woodstock. Ben flew his PG first launching with a couple of MPH wind for a sled landing on the mountain side of the river. LE was waiting for more wind and a shower came through. Another HG and a few other PG's also arrived. Mike Chittenden did a sled on his Falcon also launching with a few MPH wind. Jose Thellaeche did his first mountain flight with only a couple MPH wind at launch with his Falcon also getting a sled. Storms were starting in the distance with thunder & lightening so everyone was waiting. I picked up Mike & Jose and when we got up top it started to rain again. Once that passed through, the sun came out but the wind was blowing over the back. We waited for a while to see if it might switch but gave up around 5:00. Some of the PG's were still waiting when we left but other storms were off in the distance.

- john middleton

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This page last updated April 18, 2000