Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2001

Index to weather maps

Hangola March 17-18, 2001

Greg Dewolf and I meet at Woodstock today and found it to be soarable. Conditions at launch were "tame" and blowing straight in. Winds in general were between 45 and 85 degrees cross. Ridge rotor surfing was necessary to get up. Thermals were to be found further out in the valley. They ranged from pleasant to downright rowdy! Gusts cycled through twice in which I experienced very high winds. Landing conditions were better than average.

1hr.50min. 5150msl.

Terry

A good day at Woodstock today. Arrived at 10A to find Ed Reno settin' up. Light conditions on launch. That Woodstock Gradient Effect again. Set up, and conditions started to pick up some, but still relatively benign. Terry Spencer and Lyman Hart arrive, as does John Dullahan, who's returning to flying following a 6 month absence. Launch just after 11A in light air. Get up to 2200' over just to the right of launch, grabbing a nice thermal triggering off of the NE face of Cox Ridge. Decide to head north. Slow going due to the north cross aloft. Get up to the reservoir and run into very rowdy air 500' over the ridge. Fly up to near the north point, but the crappy air convinces me to turn around. Thermal a little here and there as I head SW. See Ed heading north on the deck below. Get another nice thermal at Cox Ridge again and gain back to 2K' over. Decide to fly WSW and try out dribbling down the valley away from the ridge; don't want to be on the deck in a north cross SW of launch. Dribble along, not finding much, and spot the Karmy private airstrip and decide to put down there. It has a nice big windsock, and the runway seems oriented 2/20. Come in across the runway to gusty air on the deck. Didn't have to flare much at all. Had some difficulty carrying the glider across the field to a shadowed area behind some bushes to break it down. Very gusty and switchy on the ground. Mr. Karmy came out later and chatted with me. I gave him the standard "I hope it's OK I landed on your property. I just ran out of air" routine. He said that we hang glider pilots have landing privileges at his airstrip. I thanked him for his hospitality. 12.45 miles

Bacil

I just flew from Strasburg to Edith's Gap and boy are my arms tired (yuck yuck). In fact today was easily the most "athletic" flight that I have ever had.

It might have been easier to just run along the ridge top flapping my arms.

Landing was at the K&K airport for 12.9 miles, 2 1/2 hrs and 2500 over at the north point.

A lot of others were there but I'll let things catch up on their own.

Ed

Decided my task for the day was to avoid landing in the main LZ. Took one from right in front of launch to 4200 over and drifted. Down to 1600 over in the valley but found something and got back up to 3k. Bobbled along between 2 and 3k all the way to Stoney Man on the drive. Highest I could get there with an acceptable angle to an LZ was 3k over which surprised me. I want 4 and drifting or climbing to cross the drive. Too bad I had Old Rag downwind. That would have been nice. Landed (horror show but undoubtedly better than Fishburns). Mike B landed couple three miles away.

Arrived at launch at 1:00. Bacil had already completed his flight and Ed landed while we were setting up. How do these guys get up so early on a Sunday???

Lots of freight trains rolling through with the streamers blowing 90 degrees cross as we set up. But there was the occasional lull. A nice long lull came through and John Dullihan launched. Terry and Lyman followed. As more and longer lulls occurred, Marvin, Tom, Steve, Mike Balk and I all suited up. Marvin, who likes strong winds, launched and reported that he was having no fun at all and that the air was very rowdy.

Hearing this and the freight trains returning, Tom backed off of launch. But another nice lull came through and Greg DeWolf commented that it didn't look too rowdy based on the way folks were flying. So I hopped into the soup. I immediately was hit with the cross once I left the slot. And it was just plain nasty to 1500 over. I didn't have to really work the lift to get up-- just hang on for dear life.

Once at 2K over, I started heading to the North. Made it almost to the reservoir before hitting big sink and turned tail at 1000 over. A couple of gliders flew by way below me and continued North. I don't have the cajones to struggle low in rowdy air. One pilot, I think it was Mike Balk, was right on the deck and had to got out to the valley to work back up. My butt cheeks would have been clenching fast if I had been in that situation. But he got back up.

I tried 3 times to make it to Strasburg, but each time hit what seemed like unending sink and turned around just South of the reservoir. On one sink cycle, I was parked above the ridge, full VG on, from 2500 over to 800 over before I started creeping forward again.

I knew the LZ was going to be nasty and figured that I'd just hang on till the end of the day. Terry landed in the primary and we think he may have taken out some aluminum. Lyman had a good landing in the primary. Greg DeWolf commented over the radio that conditions looked pretty smooth based on Lyman's approach. But then Lyman got on the radio and yelled "NO, DON'T LAND HERE! I WENT NEGATIVE THREE TIMES COMING IN!!!". I should have paid more attention to the fact that Greg never took his glider off the truck :)

So I'm out in front back in the nastiness at about 800 over and thinking about what to do. Marvin lands in the bridge field. And then Mike C. radios that he's landed at a big field over the back and says it's a great place to land. It took a while to figure out the location of the field. But I eventually see it-- though I'm too low to reach. I finally find a big thermal that takes me to 3500 over and drift with it over the back. And it's absolutely great back there. I leave the thermal because it's drifting South. But there were nice thermals and large areas of zero sink everywhere back there. And the view is spectacular. But Sheila and Karen are on the way to pick us up. So I spiral down and land with Mike. The field is about 3 miles behind launch, just to the North. There's a large square pond next to it on the South side and a clump of trees in the center of the pond. About 15 minutes later, Tom comes into join us. I ended up wit 1:45 and 3500 over.

John D. landed down by the gap. Steve and Mike Balk landed over the back near Luray. Gardinator launched about an hour before sunset and reported 'okay' conditions. So BVH launched and played park the Falcon. They both landed in the primary just before sunset and reported decent landing conditions at the time.

Karen, Lewis Truitt, Kevin Jones, Kevin Madden and Dan decided not to fly, as did Greg.

Matthew (off to Taos, of Karen and Matthew)

Well it stayed 'athletic' as Ed mentioned, pretty much all day. It took me a while to get 800' over, then I went north. About 4 miles north, I got hammered, and when 250' over, I turned around. 4 - 9 mph heading north, about 40 mph heading south. I was still losing altitude at the same rate, but only lost 100 feet in 3 miles! Finally got back to comfortable altitude (500 -600 over) and headed south. I was looking for someplace to land other than the main LZ. It didn't look pretty there.

I was headed to the huge field close to the ridge just south of the chicken coops, and it looked like I would be landing there sooner than I intended, when I caught a thermal, and had an elevation gain of about 4500 feet! Topped out about 5,000 feet over launch, drifting SSE. Steve K had already informed me that he was over Luray, so with the altitude I had, I thought "Why not!" I continued drifting over Fort Valley, and across the back ridge. Just about the time that I would have to decide whether to go over Luray or around, I lost the thermal, so I went around. Landed next to Route 211, uphill, straight into the wind. I needn't not have worried about going to far into the field! I elevatored down, and had a soft two step landing with no flare.

Next time when you are wondering what to wear before flying, not only ask yourself what you will need at elevation, but also ask what you will need for standing outside in the wind for two hours after sunset! Brrrrrrrr! Thanks much to Tracy and Tom for picking me up!

1:40, +5,000', 16 miles.

-Mike Balk

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated March 19, 2001