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Hangola May 10-11, 2001

A very good day. Almost got to cloud base(8,200 according to Norm Price). Price, Green and a Maryland pilot went XC. I hope today works for those going down.

Enclosing a picture of Highlands new Combat Stealth. Chad did a number of beautiful loops on it in the evening.

john

Flew Ridgely Thursday and Friday, both days turned out to be great if you were at the right place at the right time.

Thursday was a spectacular cloud street day, I had to bail at 7,100 due to extreme cold and being underdressed (stupid is as stupid does over and over again) but was not even close to cloudbase. Windrider Norm says he eventually got to it at 8,200. Norm got just past Salisbury for around 50, Rich Green had a fantastic flight getting 45. I managed to core a solid flight-ending sink street outside of Seaford to get about 28, Steve K got more or less the same but on a more easterly track. It was certainly a 100 mile day, I wonder what else may have happened in the region.

Meanwhile, Ric was returning from Belgium having piloted an inaugural route for his airline. He reported encountering significant turbulence, which had him cursing his misfortune to be missing out! I asked him if he had considered cutting his engines and cranking and banking the heavy just for the heck of it.

Ric was not to be denied!

Friday did not look nearly as good as Thursday, but most of the same pilots showed along with Ric. Cums started popping in the thick haze fairly early and Ric hooked up first, while I got in line right behind him figuring that I could probably go a long way if I could just stick with him. It took me at least ten minutes to get away from the airfield having nearly sunk out after release and taking a while to find a good one. Meanwhile, Ric was already long gone (has this guy ever considered taking up real comp flying?). As it turned out, conditions were deteriorating rapidly and lift was drying up--I don't think any other pilot managed to get out except Rich Green who basically went on glide for a few miles.

I tried in vain to take a northerly track but kept getting blown eastward by the increasingly strong westerly winds and thermal tracks. I eventually got pinned up against Dover limits and after watching A-10's and other mil aircraft coming in below I had no other option but to drill down and land for 20.2 miles.

Meanwhile, Ric was in constant contact with Karen on the radio, the last transmission I heard before I landed was "Crossing river into New Jersey." After I got a very generous retrieve from Rich Green (thanks Rich!) and returned to Ridgely we heard that Ric had in fact landed in NJ south of Philly for an amazing 76 miles. This was a great flight not only because Ric managed to outrun the deteriorating conditions but he also must have done a masterful piece of navigation and course strategy to get there.

Marc

Windriders in attendance included Shawn Macduff, Doug Rogers, Bob Beck, Norm Price, Ric Niehaus and myself, although I might just as well not been there. If I missed someone just keep quite and maybe no one will remember you got skunked.

Thursday Norm got a little over 50 miles, I got 45, Steve Kinsley and Marc Fink from CHGA got high 20s, all with near or above 8000 ft gains, but the conditions on Friday prevented any real flying.

Bob and Doug each soared for an hour or so making the rest of us look bad. The best part of the day was that Chad DID NOT take a wuffo on a tandem to 7000 ft while everyone else kicked grass on the ground, as happened last week.

Marc Fink made it to Dover but nobody knows how.

PS. Ric Niehaus never posts about his off-days so I'll do it for him. Rick only got 70 something miles for another site record, crossing the Delaware Bay, and landing well up into New Jersey. Beter luck next time guy. Everyone I talked to (on the ground) agreed the weather was definitely against us yesterday. Best wishes to Karen and the newcomer-to-be in 11 days. I was thinking last night about all you have to look forward to and I envy you that firstborn experience.

A couple of us showed up at Ridgely and we were able to fly but it didn't turn out to be stellar for some of us. Ric launched and immediately left the field for a XC but I didn't hear how far he went. Rich Green also had a XC itch which he was able to scratch with ease. Doug, Bob, Norm, Bruce and myself had decent extendable doggers. When I was leaving the field, Dougie relaunched and looked like he was hanging out...how did u Doug?

Shawn

Thanks for your kind words Marc,
I truly was sorry to miss Thursday but I feel a little better now. I was very happy to have Karen driving for me Friday.....there is something comforting about knowing she's in chase. Anyhow we made a plan to reward any Delaware River crossings with a ferry ride, a nice dinner, and a night at the shore. This being our motivation, not to mention it being a regionals day, we set out on our mission. The crosswind leg to Smyrna, DE was relatively challenging, finding no consistency in the lift though it was plentiful. I would go from 350 up under one cloud to zero sinking under the next. Upon reaching Smyrna, I started flying more downwind and began to close on the river. Karen stopped for a stretch and her first of several visits to the facilities as she is due in only 10 days with our first child. When she returned to the radio I was happy to report good altitude (4,800') and a semi cloud street as I was about to "coast out" for the crossing to New Jersey. I was directly across from the cooling towers and would guess that the river is about 4 miles across at that point. Thanks to a reminder from Karen I took some photos at mid river that should be really nice. Anyhow, I continued along the cloudline which significantly increased my time over water but also made the crossing a non event as there was lift of some sort the whole way. After safely crossing, I changed my course significantly in order to avoid Philly airspace. I took up about a 100 degree heading across a large swampy area in an even larger blue hole. My destination being an anemic looking puff of a cloud approximately 6 miles away. With toes pointed I set out for what I was sure would be my final glide. Thankfully I found a few bumps that turned into zero sink which eventually put me back in the game. Being relatively low (<2,500') I went with the drift and any lift I could work eventually finding myself pushing up against the class B airspace again. The end of this miserable waffling around came with an 800' save directly over the Woodstown VOR. I have flown over this departure fix leaving Philly many times and found it quite humorous to be having such an up close and personal encounter with it. This thermal was strong, disorganized, and downright scary at times but I hung in there thanks to the moral support from several local raptors. This took me high enough to once again work south easterly and away from PHL. Several encounters with transport aircraft made this portion of the flight quite interesting. My neck hurts today from being on a rapid swivel for the last hour of the flight. Finally making it to the eastern limits of the class B with generous altitude(5,000'), I turned northbound with thoughts of Redwing in mind. Unfortunately, this was not to be though I got within 20 miles of it. It turns out, my luck with finding the lift under big clouds ran out. The whole day I was surprised at how difficult it was to find the core of the thermal that was producing the clouds though up to this point I had always stumbled across it. There seemed to be little consistency in the position of the cores. So after 3:25 of pure fun and excitement I landed near West Berlin, NJ in a very large sand pit.......my last "ditch" effort at finding a trigger (76.3 miles). This was my first flight with my GPS mounted on my control frame and I found it to be extremely helpful especially in rural New Jersey. I would just look at it, tell Karen what town I was near and she would head in that direction. She has developed a mastery for this type of navigating with little help from the air. The difference now is that my workload of searching my map, which I flew off of anyway , is decreased. I saved the track log if anyone would like to see it someday. So anyway, Karen picked me up with cool malt beverages fresh off the shelf and we proceeded to Cape May. Unfortunately the 8:00 PM ferry didn't leave until 8:40 so the sunset cruise didn't work out as I had imagined. We did however find reasonalble accommodations in Lewes and a delicious dinner in Rehobeth. I have been blessed with some really enjoyable flights in the last few weeks which I think has helped me mentally adjust for the big day just around the corner and the subsequent major changes in my focus. I'm not saying you won't ever see me again but probably not nearly as much for a while. Yesterday was to me one of those experiences that makes me realize that we are blessed with a sport that is unlike any other. It has challenge, joy, fascination, mental and physical challenge, risk, euphoria, concentration, stimulation, intoxication, and lots of satisfaction. These of course are shared with several negative experiences but they all pale and slip from our memories when we find ourselves where few people will ever be.........cloudbase!

Best Air,
Ric

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This page last updated May 13, 2001