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Hangola April 9-14, 2001

With the warm temp. I decided to head to ridgely today the skies were clear leaving but ran into heavy for and down pours on the way down but it was to be partly cloudy and rain later so I kept going it cleared up and when I got there Fred was the only other pilot other than sunny and Chad and Fred left so we hung out checked the forecast dismal very stable. Then Paul? showed up and John hope showed up so we headed out to fly John and Paul both had sleds but reported bump below 2000 feet very smooth above 2k I took my first tow to 2.5k and had a smooth ride to 1400 ft then hit some lift and was climbing as my harness suddenly felt loose at the chest I looked and my parachute container Velcro came undone on the right ride but the pins were in place so while circling in lift with one hand I tried to close the Velcro while sitting up to no avail time to land sit up and spiral down in sink. Paul took another tow and reported bumps but was only able to get an extend sled. I fixed the Velcro and took another tow Released at 2200 ft due to near lockout and in lift took it to 3300 ft. and headed up wind to the end of the run way and got another thermal at 2000 took that to 3300 and bailed due to having to be at dinner in Pa. at 7:00. Ground temp.82 deg.Temp. at 3300 75 deg. strongest lift was 800 fpm not bad for such a stable day.

Craig

A decent day at the Pulpit today. Arrived at 10A+ to north cross conditions. Decided to give it a go around 11:30A after witnessing a strong cycle blow straight up the ramp. Found a thermal in the valley and tried to center it, but only gained about 300' over launch. Found zilch after that. Out over the landing field gained a few hundred but lost the lift. Landed shortly thereafter. Back at launch Doug Rogers led the charge into the air around 12:30P+. Set up and took off again around 2P. Doug and the group following him (Tom McGowan, Marc Fink, and a few others), I believe, all went over the back. I was sharing the air with Chevalier, Matthew, and Ed. A flush cycle ensued, and we were all relatively low. Then it turned on again, and Mike and Matthew skyed out and went over the back. I finally found some lift and gained to 2.1K over, and decided to head over the back. Being stupid and not noticing the drift of the thermal that got me to 2.1K over was drifting along Rt. 30, I flew due east and found nothing but sink. Shortly thereafter I found myself landing near Lemar Road a measly 4.5 miles from launch. My driver was there shortly thereafter as well, ribbing me about my unchallenging retrieve. Hope the rest of the OTB'ers had better results.

Bacil

Think I was about the last one off. Great time for me. First official hang III flight. First Pulpit flight. Thought when I took off it was going to be an extended sled. Steve k and Brain launched before me and were hanging out but above. I got up immediately and saw Steve coming up also. Got to 5900 MSL and went over the back and landed by Lemasters on 416. Don't know how far that is but not far. Like to thank Karen and the others for staying to help me launch. Really enjoyed the day and am still surprised how nice the Eagle flies.

At one time I counted 24 gliders set up and I think most of them got off.

Doug H wrote:
Think I was about the last one off.....

Nope, Karen was the last one off. She and Steve Padgett both lauched after 5:00. Steve got about 20 minutees and Karen got 1:10, having the sky to herself most of that time. Steve got off in a light cycle. But it was blowing 20+ when we launched Karen.

I landed a couple of miles past St. Thomas for 12.3 miles. Terry Spencer joined me minutes later. The air seemed like a glider magnet. Mike C. landed at St. Thomas for about 10 miles. Bruce Engen landed just up the road at 11.8 miles and Ed landed just North of St. Thomas at 11.3 miles.

We saw Joe cruise over us after we broke down and he made it 3 miles further, which he keeps reminding me. But at least I didn't set the farmer's field on fire.

Other flights I know of-- Steve K. 22.5 miles. Gardinator and Doug Rogers - 23 miles. Pete Schuman-- 22 miles. Marc-- 16+ miles. Cavanaugh-- 6 miles. Tom made it to somewhere near Chambersbug.

Matthew (Happy Easter, of Karen and Matthew)

A small group of pilots made it to Hyner on Saturday....only to find the wind coming from the North...and blue sky. We waited around and by 1PM, it started to blow straight in at 10MPH, still blue sky but clouds forming west and heading for launch. We quickly set-up. Bob Beck was first off and he went straight up. I was next and did the same. Karen launched next and also was getting high. We flew around for a couple of hours, getting up to 700'/min up and smooth. Later, a big cloud formed over the lz. Bob and Karen reported cloud suck and both managed to find sink holes and get down to about 2-3k where they were away from the cloud. Joe, Jessie and Will (plus another pilot who I didn't know) were not able to get off launch during this because the wind was coming out of the canyon and blowing strong. Eventually, we all were flushed when cloud cover was almost 100%. Will Pereze was able to launch later and had a nice soaring flight, reaching about 1.2k. The other pilots elected to break down on top.

Bob had the highest gain......6.1k over launch.
Karen hit about 3.5k and I was able to reach 4.7k.

It was great to be back at Hyner...looking forward to Memorial Day weekend....hope to see everyone there.

Shawn
PS Great call Jim....right on the money!

Bill Buffam, Lenko and I represented the WRHGC at Ellenville on Saturday. Norm Price was a no-show, but thankfully he had called Tony the day before and vouched for me (Tony has gotten a lot stricter with H2's I hear...) so he let Bill be my observer. There were probably 20 HG pilots there, and several disappointed PG pilots as the winds were too strong and gusty, even at 5:00 when I left.

Lenko launched first, then I followed and Bill waited until he like what he saw. Lenko did great, went right up, looked like about 1000 over launch and he had by far his longest soaring flight. I did my usual scratching for about 15 minutes, finally finding consistent lift and eventually getting up to 2800 feet. And yes, Jeff, I did see the lake! Skies were crystal clear and the view was beautiful, but the air was pretty rough. I didn't dare take my hands off the bar to zip up until I got to 1000 over, and Bill said the same thing later after we landed. On my way up I flew at the same altitude as Lenko for a few minutes and it was fun, that big red and white glider looking pretty smooth. I landed a no-stepper after the better part of an hour, with Bill landing last.

The long winter is now officially over...

john

Friday: Sparky and I headed out to Woodstock a little late and it would have been fine if we'd been even later. We got to launch around 3:30 and saw Marvin, JR, Homer and Adam set up and waiting for the wind to die down. We set up and finally around 5:30 or so Marvin launched. It was still a little strong and 'textured' but not too bad. The rest of us lemmings jumped off as well. I got 3.1K over and a little over an hour. JR won the spot landing.

Saturday: I should have stayed home since the cold I was trying to ward off wasn't happy with me, but I didn't. It was hard not to go since I'd left the glider on the truck. Anyway, it was back to High Point with a lighter forecast. Mitch Shipley joined us this time with plans to fly his brand new Aeros Target. The rest of the crowd included Larry Ball, JR, Marvin, Doug, Homer, Adam, and me. I was feeling worse and worse as the day wore on. Spent most of the time helping the others launch and lying in the back of Homer's truck listening to their exploits on the radio. (BTW, it would be nice if the 144.95 frequency were only used at the Cumberland sites. It made it a little difficult at times to get retrieval messages back.) The XC exploits included JR at the chicken ranch (8.4?), Homer somewhere between the Highway Dome field and PawPaw (15?), and Mitch on the single surface Target around Downing WV which is southeast of Williamsport MD (55). I ended up bagging my glider on top, driving Homer's truck to LZ, and finding my starter motor acting up again. The usual bang with the mallet didn't unstick it so I made an attempt to change it right there (I'd bought a new starter motor a couple of weeks ago when I started having problems and was carrying it around as 'insurance'), but couldn't get that damn top bolt off. All the jerking around did the trick, though, and it worked afterall so I didn't need the tow-to-start Larry had offered. (I put the new starter on at home today.)

Christy

JR sends some corrections to my post. I'm home sick today - the mind isn't functioning all the well it appears....

Not that it matters, but I read your Hangola description of the weekend's activities. First, we were at High Point, not Woodstock on Friday. Secondly, Marvin didn't fly at all on Friday. He packed up and left an hour or more before we flew. Thirdly, Mitch landed in MD, not in WV. He was a little west of Williamsport.

Good report, John. Just want to add that Wind Rider Pete Vranesich was also flying Ellenville on Saturday. Pete moved down from New England, and is a student of Paul Voight/Scott Jewel.

Bill

Two minor corrections: Marvin left a little around 5pm. I launched first just before 6pm.

The air was a bit too 'textured' for my tastes, so I landed after 45 minutes. Others reported smoother conditions higher. The air over the LZ was downright rowdy when I approached and my landing was marginal, but without damage.

'Spark (Wishin' I coulda flown on Saturday...)

Well, I did help put it out.

I got 16.1 miles (6400 MSL), landing just SE of Chambersburg, which is actually 3.8 miles further than you Matt. I must have reminded you inaccurately the first time.... ;)

I even had a perfect no-stepper. Percipitated no doubt by my strong desire to flare early and get the glider stopped so I could attend to business on the ground.

Nothing earth shattering, but certainly a nice way to break a 6 months HG hiatus.

I must thank Matthew for chanting "Pulpit, Pulpit, Pulpit" about 5000 times the night before and thus persuading me to going there rather than Ridgely on Saturday. I woulda missed a great day.

-- Joe Gregor

Two frustrated paragliders were the only ones to stand on the hill all afternoon waiting for the perfect westerly to calm down just a bit so that they could take advantage of the huge cycles coming through. (270 at 5-15). Of course, this was one of those moments when a hangie could have exemplified the positive aspects of HG over PG. Luckily, none of these types were there, so we will continue in PG naivety for a while longer.

Sigi and John

We had some nice PG flights on Saturday from the Brownsville field close to Reading. The following people were there: Bill Umstattd, Jeff Shriner and his wife, John Phillips, Gary Shoaff, Matthew Szczepanowski, myself, and a new pilot ground handling in which I forget his name. The winds were straight down the runway 10-15 MPH which made for good towing conditions. It never got too gusty. Jeff broke the field record for highest tow and longest flight. He towed up to 1200', maxed over 1500' but didn't stay with the thermal since we are only about 1 mile west of the Reading class "delta" airspace. Bill took his second PPG flight later in the evening.

Brian Stoltzfus

Somewhat disappointing Saturday on the Eastern Shore, at least relative to the light and variable part of the forecast they were talking about on TV the night before. Straight down the runway from the Bay end though and the cart retrievers got a big break.

Until late in the afternoon remained part of the crowd not rushing for a place in line. Resigned myself to an extended sled and rolled behind the new tug at 16:24.

Lift was everywhere but light - 200 fpm with an occasional 400 spike. Altimeter was on the fritz but confirmed 3K MSL with the GPS upon switching screens. Great visibility, hang gliders and sailplanes all over the sky turning in closely spaced bubbles. Drift wasn't bad and it was pretty easy to penetrate back from well downwind to a very comfortable distance upwind of the airport with very little loss.

I undoubtedly cheated myself out of some portion of the additional twenty minutes or so it took the last gliders to fall after I hit the deck as a result of penetrating way upwind and finding nothing. Probably got below a critical altitude and the rest of the flight was pretty much a very long downwind leg. Three minutes shy of an hour. Damn.

Anyway, I bet anyone who felt like leaving with the sun at that angle could have racked up some numbers comparable to what was then being accomplished at the Pulpit. (Mitch's score would have probably remained quite safe, however.)

TadErcksn

Nice day at the Pulpit saturday. After watching a sailplane thermal over launch around noon I figured it was time to give it a whirl. Conditions were perfect for launching, 10 to 15 straight in. After launching it took maybe 15 minutes to find a good thermal to get me off the ridge. I took it to 3400' over and almost kept going but decided to wait for some company. There was so much lift in that first good cycle that I never imagined I would make it back down to launch level if I left the thermal and went back out front. I did, and of course now there were atleast 6 other pilots scratching to get up too. I made a promise to myself the next good cycle and I'm outa here. Two other pilots and myself grabbed the next available ride and left around 2000' over. I struggled for the first couple miles, but finally caught a good one and got back up to 3600' over launch. Mark Gardner and I flew together briefly but then he went to the north of rt30 and I went to the south.

After that first good climb in the valley I slowed down and just drifted with what ever I could find. The climbs were nice maybe 200 to 400 fpm but I never got real high, (3600'over launch) it looked like a pretty good inversion. I made it to the other side of the valley and was around 2000'O/L. Keith landed not far away around Chambersburg for his first over the back, Way to go Keith! I watched Mark Gardner land in the last available field before the tree line and the hills began. I went maybe a mile into the unlandable territory hoping to find something to get me across to the other side but it wasn't there. Ended up landing in a nice field with Mark for 23miles and 2.5hrs. Our most awesome driver (George from Walnut Street) was there in minutes with Keith in tote. Thanks George!!

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This page last updated April 17, 2001