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Hangola May 29-June 4, 2000

Friday May 26. Arrived at Hyner launch around 12:00 pm. Winds were out of the NW 10 to 15! Left my glider at launch and headed for the l/z to find someone to fly with. Shawn, Bob, Tom and John Hope were playing golf in the landing field. I told them the conditions at launch looked good, so we all headed up. By the time we got back up to launch the winds picked up to 25, and they stayed that way untill around 7:00pm. T.R. Tom, Daryl, and myself took to the air for some evening magic. Daryl topped out the highest for about 700' over, and the rest of us were about 300' to 500'. I went for the northern spine where the road to launch winds around and got drilled. As I sped back towards launch I could tell I was going to have to put a wing tip in the trees to climb back up, so I decided to land and go order dinner instead. The rest of the pack flew till dusk. Friday night was beautiful, a gazillion stars were out and the beer was cold! Saturday started with grey overcast, but to everyone's surprise during the late afternoon the skies parted and gave way to blue with scattered clouds. There were numerous sled rides and a few tandems (Bill) I think Tom had the longest flight of the day, but I don't believe he got much above launch. Monday some pilots flocked to Bill's Hill in Breezewood Pa. Some soared and some sledded. Just a reminder to everyone. This is the time of year when high grass dominates many L/Z's. Be careful on finale not to misjudge. It only takes a few strands of grass to grab the base tube and nose you in Hard! This happened to an unfortunate pilot at Bill's on monday. He sustained injuries that had to be treated. This was a very very experienced X/C pilot, so beware it can happen to anyone of us.

Wednesday May 31. Randy, Shawn, Clint and myself headed to 501 for evening magic. We waited untill 7:15pm but the winds never picked up enough. We all sledded to the campground. I hiked back up the mountain to retrieve my car and what do you think I heard as I crested the peak of the ridge? Yup! you guessed it a nice steady 10 to 15 straight into the mountain! I must learn to be more patient at this site, this is atleast the second time I have launched too early and see it turn on half an hour later.

Hoping for some better weather this weekend!
Doug.

Just got back from a week in Las Vegas and northern Arizona. Worked a couple of days and played a couple of days. I will skip all of the boring work stuff and get right to the flying; Hooked up with a couple pilots in the Vegas area by the unusual names of Steve Smith and Jason Smith (Not related). The mercury was cooking in Vegas at 108 degrees and we were looking for much cooler temps. to fly, so the tres amigos (aka. the Smith brothers) headed to Flagstaff, Az. to "the craters" (Miriam and Sheba). We arrived at 4:00 PM to find the wind blowing SW at 10 to 15 which is perfect flying for Sheba, the smaller of the two extinct volcanos. Sheba's height is 1,200' and Miriam is 1,600'. Both sites are clear of "glider bait" otherwise known as trees, which was a bonus for this east coaster. But life is full of tradeoffs wherein the entire slope of both volcanos and LZ are covered in "# 40 grit knee sandpaper" otherwise known as volcanic pumice. I immediately changed from my shorts into heavy jeans after an inspection of the LZ. I was flying a Vision - Eclipse 19, on loan from Steve who btw runs a great HG operation in Vegas. http://www.virtualhosts.net/skysail/main.htm. He is set up to do boat towing on lake Mead and also does stationary and payout winch towing on a couple of dry lake beds in the Vegas area. He is also arranging a trip to Baja for the third week of Jan. 2001. which I hope to attend. Anyone interested?

My flight from Sheba crater was nothing to write home about. I had a good launch and landing but the "cream in the middle of the Oreo" (aka air time) didn't last long; five min. max. I was flying fast because the Eclipse was a new glider to me and I didn't now squat about the site. Everyone else soared for 1/2 hr. or more until the waning light from a beautiful sunset guided everyone down to earth. We spent an eve. in "Flag" as the locals know it, in an attempt to wash down all of the volcanic ash we breathed in that afternoon with suds and other brown liquid in shot glasses (aka. slippery nipples- yum-yum). In fact I think I personally washed down about a weeks worth of ash on one bar stool before we moved to the next one. We camped that night in the pines at "the flyers camp" and had no trouble sleeping, sans tent, just sleeping bag and stars-billions and billions of them. Makes one feel like a spec in the Cosmos.

My head hurt the next morning from all of the "volcanic ash washing" so it might have been a good thing that the wind was blasting and only one pilot flew on day two. Spent the day hang-waiting for something lighter but the freight train blew through all day. Headed back to Vegas for a late arrival but early by Vegas standards.

Gary

..snip..

fyi: woodstock stank yesterday. It was soarable when I first got there with a nice breeze out of the nnw and birds cruising. but it got lighter and lighter and easter and easter. There was enough thermal activity to make it launchable every now and then but that was about it. found something in the bowl for awhile but lost it. Terry, Bob Radcliffe and a paraglider guy (Graham?).

..snip..
The Hagerstown pilots (and me) were off in cumberland doing the work party. Gave me a chance to look over some beautiful sites I've never seen before. Flew from high point. Most people had extendos, with Homer pulling in the flight of the day at 15 minutes.

BrianVH.

Awesome flying weekend! My parents were in town during the week and didn't leave until noon Saturday so we couldn't make the Cumberland work party. Decided to head to High Rock where I got in one dive to the lz and one buoyant sled. Great to get my second and third high flights in on my new glider and I'm feeling much better about landing it. Mark Gardner got about 1000' over and went 3 miles down the ridge - just to do something different. Other folks there were Joe and Janet - Janet was EXTREMELY excited to be back in the mountains and had two sleds, Karen and Matthew (three flights!), Mike Chevalier, Richard Hayes, Sparky and Marc Fink (I think he got 1 1/2 hours earlier?) Many thanks to Marc, Keith Ford and Bob Gillissie (sp?) for launching everyone. Awesome day! Most of the contingent headed to Casa Rico afterwards.

Today we were debating about going out because it looked very overcast in the morning, then got really sunny then overcast again by the time we headed out. Couldn't talk anyone into Jack's so we headed to Fisher where we met Mark Cavanaugh, John Middleton and his student, Jose. I maxed out at 1952' over (after a crappy launch (nose a little too high) and struggling to get up) and 2 hours 15 minutes - went and landed 'cuz I was SORE. I really had fun in the US working the thermals. Mark Gardner got 2000' over and 2 1/2 hours after an awesome low save at the beginning. Not sure of everyone's stats but just about everyone hit close to a couple thousand over and couple hours - great landings were had by all. Jose really did great - hard to believe it was only his second mountain flight. Can't believe what a great day it turned out to be :-)

Sheila

What a surprise today! Went to Ridgely expecting a sled ride. Met Fred and Raeann setting up and we talked about taking a couple tows. A few very small cumis were showing under about 50% high cover when they went off about 12:00 and 12:15. I lined up behind them at 12:30. NATURALLY they stayed up. Chad managed to drop me off in light lift where I was pleasantly surprised with a slow climb to 3800. Saw the Permenters here there and everywhere as they screamed around in those toplesses. I felt like I had the parking brake on the Falcon. When my cloud finally gave out I went about 2 miles looking at another tiny cloud shadow and was seriously surprised to find another ride, but I did. After that things took off. Great lift started showing up almost everywhere and everyone that took off soared high! At one point I was thermalling with Fred, Rae and Sonny, all of us within a few hundred feet of altitude. Must have been over a dozen gliders up at once but they were scattered around enough that it wasn't crowded. After a while Fred came in close behind me hollering and then did some tight spirals down to the LZ from about 3500. I kept flying and tryng to actually make cloudbase as the day continued to build more and more. I struggled between 4300 and 4600 for a good many minutes and finally hit some strong lift that promised to haul me up the last 100 ft or so. Problem is I looked around as I started up and all I could see was dark grey and solid looking. I remembered Fred and thought "Was he trying to warn me about something?" I immediately broke off and sucked the bar. After I lost a 1000 or so I knew it wasn't all that bad up there but I was cold and headed in anyway. Turns out Fred had bailed for the same reason. All he had on was tee shirt in his cocoon. Rae hung out for quite a while longer and then disappeared. She went downwind just before things shut down and got something like 20 miles almost as an afterthought. I felt bad for several latecomers. By 2:30 it was about over and by 3:00 it was completely overcast and dead air.

Not bad for a sledder.

Sheila said Jacks and I was pumped for a great SE day but then it didn't look all that good so Sheila and John Middleton and I (the Gardinator was still sleeping off his heady triumph at HR saturday) settled on Fisher Rd. I despaired at FDK. It was dead and completely overcast so I bailed and flew a sailplane. Got over an hour, believe it or not, working cumis that formed below the overcast. Maxed out at a nose bleeding 4000 msl (3700 agl) and actually pulled brakes a couple of times.

Went to Ridgely with Ellis so she could work on her hang 3 spots. She nailed them and is now petitioning for a hang 4 rating instead of a three since she came so close to the spot.

I rather half-heartedly set up since conditions looked pretty crappy and there wasn't much evidence of anything working. To top it off, being 90 degrees on the ground I wore just my t-shirt. BIG mistake!

In the meantime Fred and Rae got pulled and were managing to stay up. I went too, and after a little initial trouble finding a good one soon found myself in the misties near c'base. Fred and Rae were up there zipping to and fro on their Toplesses along with (?) on a Falcon and Sonny even joined in on a Pulse--I must say Fred and Rae both look good on their new toys.

I decided to have some fun doing triangles and into the wind mini-tasks, but after an hour and a half of flying around in cold air in a t-shirt I started to shiver pretty bad and had had enough. I joined a similarly chilled-to-the bone Fred back on the ground. I got to just a hair under 4,700, I think others were getting similar alts.

Rae, in the meantime, took a casual 20 mile cruise to just north of Soldersville (something like that). She also was airhogette for the day getting god knows three to four hour or something. Pretty much everyone soared, another amazing day at Ridgely.

Geoff, smart like a fox, decided to fly out in an airplane at the end of the day--Ellis and I got caught in a 25 mile traffic jam on the way home, taking about 3 1/2 hours to get home. Lots of hooten and hollerin' good ol boys waving rebel flags around in cars plastered with nascar stickers, near as could figure there must have been a big car race someplace. God bless America.

Marc

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Sheila failed to mention my low save from under 500' on my second flight. I was sweating bullets as I barely climbed in a light thermal as it drifted over the trees to the South and back towards the mountain. I took it to 750 over and again weenied on staying with it because I didn't want to land out in the land of the orchards. I found another couple of bubbles before giving up and ended up with 20 minutes.

Karen and I also hiked back up and actually found the trail this time. If it's not too hot, I highly recommend this. The mountain laurels are in bloom and they're everywhere.

Matthew (why is it only easy soaring at Ridgely when I'm not there, of Karen and Matthew)

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This page last updated June 5, 2000