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Hangola May 26, 2000

Arrived at Woodstock at about 6:30 yesterday after hiking Old Rag for an article I'm doing for the Wash Times. Karen launched at 7:00 (my glider is still at Ridgely) and except for being buzzed by a small plane just after she launched, she had the whole ridge to herself for over an hour-- getting 1000 over. Talked to Greg DeWolf on the trip to the LZ-- he and Terry and another pilot had each flown for about 2 hours getting 2000 over and it had been easy soaring all day there.

Matthew (driving in the rain to Ridgely to get my glider, of Karen and Matthew)

I just returned from a memorable (and 1st) trip to North Mountain, where we squeezed in some last-minute good flying before the bad weather arrived.

Friday evening was great. Almost everyone (including me!) was able to make the journey from N Mtn. to the Seneca Rocks vistors center.

Bouyant/smooth air and 700' to 1000' over made the upwind hop to the Seneca Rocks possible for most. Once I made the jaunt (and relaxed my clenched jaw), I found that the Rocks and adjacent ridge were still working, allowing me to extend my flight for another 15 minutes before my ritual whack in the tall grass below.

Others who flew included JR, Christy, Mike C, John Mc, Mark & Sheila, 'Stretch', Larry B, and Will.

We enjoyed pot luck dinner, campfire stories and music afterwards in the campground. The rain began on Saturday morning as we were packing up the tents.

'Spark

Quite a crowd for a Friday afternoon, but of course it's frequently the best day of a three day weekend! There may have been others there that I didn't know about but here's who I saw: Doug W, Brian H, John Middleton, Tom McG, Dave P, Kelvin, Steve K, Marlin S, Marvin P, Craig Williamson, Mark C, Eddie, Brian VH.

I arrived around 2pm (I slept in til 10am -- it was glorious! Btw, thanks to those who left posts about where people were going. I slept through phone call time.) In the air were Doug, Brian H, John, and Tom and Dave on their new Litespeeds. All were soaring, but some were getting low and eventually sunk out. After that, everyone flew as long as they wanted, including Kelvin and Steve. As far as I know, top altitudes for the day were around 2500' over. I got to 2K, but spent most of the time between 700-1200'. I was in the air from 3-4:30 -- it was surprisingly punchy at times, and was surprisingly active as I was landing. The last of the bunch launched between 6 and 6:30 into completely soarable air. Marlin "I'd like to start flying more" Savell may end up with the longest flight, still being in the air when I left at 6:30. Also enjoying late day flights were Craig W, Mark C, Eddie, and Brian VH. A very nice day.

Judy

Well, I thought that Judy's post would cover the day, but it does require amplification.

Judy reported 14 pilots flying. Actually, there were 15. I guess she forgot me because we rode to the top together after flying and the two of us wired off the last three pilots, Mark Cavanaugh, Eddie MIller, and Brian Vant-Hull. We were also honored to have Marnie in attendance with John M. Marnie helped with car shuttles early, and then crewed at the keel on several launches.

My own flight was fun, with most of it around 1100 over launch, but a couple of forays to 1800 and 2100 over. The day was very flyable, but with funny lift areas not always easy to circle in. There was a lot of luck in being at the right place and right time on the ridge. In fact, at one point heavy dude me on the Pulse was looking down on all of the new advanced gliders by at least 500 feet. Top of the Stack! Dave Proctor claimed I could not possibly have seen them, since they are all topless. They had hit a sink period back at the towers just as I had found a nice working thermal at the edge of the ridge. My best altitude was out in front at the tracks. and I think Tom McG's may have been way out front also.

I also want to tell about Mike and Ginger. As we were launching Mark and Eddie just after 6, a fresh couple in tux and blue satin prom dress arrived. Catoctin High prom was Friday night, and they were picnicing at the Rock for their dinner. They watched the launches, and then while Brian V-H was assembling his Falcon, we used their camera to get some picturesque shots of them at the side of the rock, with the valley in the background. Mike then took Ginger's pic with Brian on launch in the background. They were both nice kids and seemed to enjoy having the glider pilots and flying as part of their special evening.

Finally, I am sorry to say that the graffiti on the Rock is as bad as ever, and sadly the vandals have recognized our contribution to local society: at the very edge, 10 inch high black letters declare, "HANG GLIDERS RULE THE SKY." Oh, well. At least this one publicity item was NOT created by Matthew (I Write For Cash) of Karen & Matthew.

Good flying to all! Hope we all get out next weekend!

Cragin S

WARNING - Extremely long post!

What an awesome weekend for the WV Fly-In! Okay, so the whole thing was over by Friday night (at least as far as flying goes) but I had enough fun to last a lot longer.

Quite a few folks were able to make it on time to fly Friday - Mark and I arrived around 3:00 and met up with Will Jenkins and his wife and adorable son down below and met J.R., Christy, Homer, Mike Chevalier, Larry Ball (and his non-flying nephew Cody), Allan Sparks, Stretch and probably a couple others I didn't remember, on launch.

We walked the primary at North Mountain and the hay was chest high - not a lot of fun to look forward to. I had decided to bring both my Pulse and UltraSport to the fly-in. Since I only had one high flight on the US I decided to fly the Pulse since I was already nervous about landing in the North Mtn. Primary.

It had been blowing like stink all day from what we heard but as we started setting up everyone was getting in line and launching as it had calmed down to a reasonable launch velocity (10-15 or so). Since we had just gotten there the last three to launch were Mark, Homer and myself. They were quite the gentlemen and insisted I have the full wire crew. I assumed that Cody and possibly Will's wife could help launch whoever the last person was (also JR was in the primary after getting flushed so they could call him if they needed him). Larry's nephew Cody was absolutely awesome about helping us launch. Once I was in the air after an uneventful launch I cruised around the ridge and gained about 400 - 500'. I was watching to see whoever was going to launch next and trying to get up. In the meantime Larry had already made Seneca Rocks and Christy, Mike, Stretch and Will and Sparky were already down the ridge thermalling at various points. I guess since Mark wasn't set up yet Homer launched, worked his way up and headed down the ridge. He told me via radio that it was looking consistent if I wanted to think about heading down the ridge. He marked a thermal for me and I decided to follow him, waved at a family hiking along the ridge and didn't have a problem with altitude (maintained 300-800 over) until I hit a spot right before the last big rock cliff-face. I was going down pretty fast and continued to survey my bail-out options with a lot more urgency (Homer later told me that he was also surveying my landing options). Squeaked it over to the cliff-face and managed to work my way back up to 700' over (whew!!) By this time it was Homer, Sparky and me on the ridge and everyone else had made Seneca Rocks.

During this time I had (fortunately) forgotten that Homer was on a Fusion (I know, I know, topless - duh!), was wishing that I was on my UltraSport-with-a-string and looking at Sparky's glider. I couldn't tell what kind of glider it was but it didn't appear to have a string so I felt comforted. (He later told me that he figured if a Pulse could make it . . . ) Homer found out that some of the other folks left the ridge to cross the valley between 300 below launch and 700 over. He had 700 over and headed across. He seemed to be maintaining so I followed shortly there-after. He didn't lose much but Sparky and I both ended up losing about 900'. Again, I was checking out bail-out options the whole way out (and thinking about the story I heard about Christy having to land in a bail-out) but made it to the south of the rocks with no problem. YEAH!!! My second time flying North and first time to the rocks and on a Pulse!! Piece of cake for others but I didn't consider it a cake-walk. Yes the grin is still on my face :-)

Chest high grass in the Visitors Center LZ was a real bummer but I flared high and was fine after I got my head unpinned from underneath the side flying wires (I hate when that happens!) Shortly after I landed Mark announced that he had self-launched as conditions has gotten really light. 15 minutes later he too was down at the Rocks - I guess the valley had gone magic. Awesome day!!

That night we decided to have the potluck since it looked like rain the rest of the day. Enjoyed an extremely enjoyable evening around the campfire with J.R., Mark and Sparky on the guitars and Will on a banjolina (or something like that, it's a little banjo). Fred Carter ended up showing up later on in the evening but it was incident-free other than Homer putting the moves on him :-)

Saturday we went out to breakfast then Christy, Mike, Mark and I headed to Ben & L.E.'s for a few hours for the party/get-together. Back home and hoping/praying that it might be possible to get another flight in this weekend (okay, not likely).

Sheila

At Ridgely Friday it was breezy but there was some lift if one could stay with it.
Notable was:
High gain 4,500' +/- Fred Permenter
Low save 400' Fred Permenter enroute to 21 miles +/-.
Dale Robinson had a good landing 10-11 miles out and Ric Niehaus went 50 miles +/- landing at Massey Landing/Rehobeth Beach for new site record.
Congrats to all.
Others flew later but wind did not abate till late.

RS

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This page last updated May 30, 2000