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Index to weather maps

Hangola December 27-31, 2001

Lenko and I arrived to find Bill Umstattd with a student (Nathan) taking his 3rd high flight. He did a good job, and stayed up for an hour - in a knee-hanger and thin pants! Now *there's* a polar bear. Then he went back up and did it again (except for the hour bit). All this on a Comet 1 (complete with antique license plates) (just kidding) (about the license plates - it really was a Comet 1).

Lenko flew and conservatively bailed for the LZ rather quickly, fearing the pull of those aggressive Elizabethville trees. I launched at 3:30 into 10-13 mph air, and found steady ridge lift and the odd thermal or two, recording bursts of up to 540 fpm. It was bloody cold - occasional checks of my flight toy's thermometer read 23, 19, and finally 17. All this time I was steadily gaining altitude without really trying.

After a half hour or so, with the sun sinking low, I was cold enough to call it a day, so I headed slowly off into the valley - and found nothing but evening-magic lift. At 17 degrees. Go figure. You can clearly see it on the barograph (http://www.buffam.com/barographRecent.jpg ). I left the ridge at my peak altitude (670' over) and didn't find any non-magic air until I was well past the landing field.

Contrary to the forecast, the sky was only partly cloudy, with the sun making quite a number of welcome appearances. I didn't pay as much attention to the clouds as I should have, but they looked like alto-cumulus.

Bill all-weather-pilot Buffam

It was blown out for bag-wings at Smithsburg two days ago by the time Karen and I arrived. Ellis had one pg flight and Marc had two early in the morning before the winds kicked in. Eddie was there soaring the hill in his old Vision. Danny Brotto and George Tutor we're taking in some high wind hg flights, as was Ellis. Richard had a bunch of students. But it was too strong for them. And Sparky gave us a vintage glider show by flying his Seagull and Mosquito. (Sparky-- more details please.)

So Karen and I are trying again tomorrow (New Year's Day) with the paragliders at Smithsburg. The winds are predicted to be at WNW 10-15. Hope the forecast is right this time.

Matthew (HAPPY NEW YEAR, of Karen and Matthew)

Yep, the gradient kicked in. Enough to launch Paul on his second mountain flight (he got an hour and almost 1K over and was on cloud 9 after he landed) and enough for me to fly my paraglider-- 800 over and 45 minutes. It was stil a touch rowdy for the bag-wing. No penetration problems. But I had a 20 percent collapse that lasted a half a second. Pete Shuman and Tom were in the air when we arrived at 1:30. Each flew 3 hours and reported a strong South cross and heavy turbulence earlier in the day. Joe Schad also flew early but landed due to frozen fingers after 15 minutes. Joe also wins the saint award for coming back up to help out at launch and then running Brian and Tom back up to fetch their cars later. Gary Smith and Brian VH also enjoyed the end of the day air. Karen decided it was too cold too fly.

Matthew (maybe do it again tomorrow if I can hitch a ride with Marc and Ellis, of Karen and Matthew)

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to reiterate what a spectacular time I had at Woodstock today and to say shame on all you fair weather flyers. You should have been there, it was great!!

I also wanted to publicly thank Matthew for all his help as my "Observer" and for having faith in me in allowing me to challenge myself at these two wonderful sites. Thanks also to Karen and Brian VH for their help and support. See you next time.

Paul Tjaden

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This page last updated January 1, 2001