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Hangola May 12 – 13, 2001

Got to WS at 3:30, with the front finally showing signs of truly moving through. Winds cycled up for a couple hours (20, 20+) but the direction was great. Terry Spencer was off first, around 6:20 or so, I followed about 10 minutes later, landing a bit before sunset. 1.5 hours, 1500' over launch.

Terry and Bruce E. did better, somewhere in the 2300' over arena. Strong conditions, lots of sink and lots of lift, nobody went anywhere.... Things mellowed a bit a half hour before sunset, allowing for some strafing of the observation tower :-) Found myself over a bald eagle and turned to give chase, damn those things are fast, gotta get me a topless! ;-)

Also flying were Dan T and Craig S. Gardinator stopped by and helped wire us off, thanks Mark!

Up for more flying tomorrow, maybe Cumberland, maybe the Pulpit...

--mark c.

Woodstock Weekend

Saturday, May 12
Marc said to bring binoculars to watch the clouds blowing over. We didn't need them - the clouds flew by all afternoon in plain view. The cold front took a lot longer to pass than we had expected. However, it was flyable in the post frontal sky.

Dan Tomlinson and I arrived at launch about 1:00, with Terry Spencer close behind. We found a young P-2 spreading his bagwing on launch, insisting that the winds were good and he could fly. He had two friends along, but no other pilot. He did not seem to understand either my or Terry's explanation that the winds were cross from the SW, and the slot was giving a false direction. He was also oblivious to the impending winds as the approaching cold front got closer. As he got harnessed up and near ready to launch, the winds ramped up to a rough and gusty 20+. That finally convinced him to pack up and not try to fly. We also had an extended discussion with him that the Observer requirement means every time he flies there, not just the first few times.

For the rest of the afternoon we left our gliders bagged on the ground and watched the winds roar and the sky darken. Finally the backside of the front seemed to go overhead about 5:30. Other pilots arriving over the afternoon were Mark Cavanaugh, Kevin Jones, Bruce Engen, Mark Gardner and Steve Padgett. Most of us started setting up about 5:00 p.m. while the Gardinator and Steve P. remained cautious and in the bag. Winds stayed strong and cross, but looked launchable after 6:00. Starting about 6:20 five of us launched in rapid succession: Terry, Mark C, myself, Bruce Engen, and Dan T. Mark G stayed behind with the two Falcon pilots to help them off.

I launched into immediate lift right in front and over the south finger. I was quickly at 1,100 over launch, and drifting back. The air was very rowdy, and I was not comfortable letting myself get over ridge top in the Pulse. All four other gliders in the sky were UltraSports and a Fusion. They were getting a bit higher over and just behind the ridge. I sped back out front on the finger, dropping to 600' over. Flying to the north finger I lost another 500', reaching it at 100' over. I worked the punchy, rowdy lift on that finger back up to 900' over. Having gotten almost to the ridge top I dove back out front, finding myself at 100' over again. Once more I worked back up to 800' over. Throughout, the lift was rowdy and punchy. Trying to circle in lift was not effective; we all had to work slowly forward in lift, turn back to the ridge with some loss, and then work another net gain on flying back out away again. Mark Gardner asked for a Falcon launch vote. All of us with radios voted to keep them on the ground, so Kevin reluctantly broke down and Steve carried his bagged glider back down to the car. Mark G also decided to forego flying for the day.

I headed out over the LZ from 100' over, and gained another 500' again over the field, still fighting the bumps and dips. I have to admit that at one point in that rough sky I realized that if I were to dwell on the conditions I could get myself pretty scared. Instead, I just concentrated on flying and felt pretty good about how I was working the sky. Finally I landed with 48 minutes, finishing with a very satisfying clean no-step flare. Others reached higher in the sky, and times from 50 to 90 minutes. Bruce Engen took the sky hog of the day, reaching 2400' over launch, a new personal best. Dan T landed in a field to the north, while the rest of us all used the main LZ. Special thanks to Mark G. for being support pilot of the day.

Sunday, May 13
Back to Woodstock for a second try, in much better weather. Early forecast was 10-15 NW but we saw more of a N, as last minute forecasts had changed to predict. The sky was so clear, we could see both separate ridges to the west, and a nice scattering of cumulus clouds broke the blue.

The pilot list was a lot longer on Sunday: Dave Proctor, Mark Cavanaugh, Ed Reno, Terry Spencer, Tom McGowan, Mike Chevalier, John Dullahan, John Middleton, Andy, Fred, Lyman Hart, Christy Huddle, and Joe Schad. Long time pilot Ron Tincum even brought his wife and mom up to see launch when their Mother's Day lunch reservation got overwhelmed by the crowd in Woodstock.

Terry Spencer demonstrated valiant wind dummy technique about 2:15 with a good try and extended sled. We waited a bit to begin the full onslaught into the sky. Mark Cavanaugh started the real run into the sky about 3:00, with a steady stream following him. In short order Mark was reporting 4,000' over at the North Point and loving life. Performance was good for a batch of pilots. Mark C and Tom landed about 10 miles over the back, near Edith's Gap. Terry launched a second time late in the day and also reached Edith's Gap. John Dullahan headed to the south about 11 miles down Route 11. Dave Proctor landed out also, and Lyman Hart reported landing "in front of a swamp, near a high school." Mike Chevalier ran a multi-point retrieve and got John and Dave, then pinned Lyman down with questions like "north of Woodstock or south?" and "toward the ridge from 11 or away?" Somehow they connected.

Christy launched Joe Schad late in the day, and Joe was very happy to get 2000' over and 51 minutes. Christy was still in the sky when I left for home at 6:45.

For my own flight, I launched at 4:50 into smooth lift. Working to the right, the lift was smooth, clean, and near brainless. I reached a new personal high of 4,600' over launch, putting me more than a mile above the LZ. COOL! Adam and I were sharing that part of the ridge, mostly at 3,500-4,000 over. However, a sink cycle hit and neither of us could find any lift for ten minutes, forcing us both to land. The LZ was rowdy and cross all the way down, and we both got popped a bit, but landed safely. I logged a nice 50 minutes on that one, and Adam about 45.

Kharmic Reflection Report!
While Adam and I were packing up, we heard a call on the radio from Mark Gardner. I knew he had headed to High Point for the day, so assumed we were getting a really good high altitude line of sight call. Nope, Mark was on final in the valley, in view of Woodstock launch, and was calling for a retrieve! I'll let the Gardinator fill in the details, but short version: 50.5 miles from High Point to Maurertown, less than 3 miles from the Woodstock main LZ. That is pretty fine payback for being the sacrificial non-flying good-guy on Saturday. Way to go, Gardinator!

Cragin Shelton

Steve Crichton and I tore up the sky here later in the day when it finally mellowed out. A little bad news though concerning "Greg The Greek", who had a great flight, and, while on final, and low through the gap, got popped "big-time" and parachuted the last 20 ft. His left wingtip took the full force of the impact snapping it in two, and he came down hard, but on his feet. It was just a freak accident that the downtube somehow smacked him in the face and cut his forehead when his glasses broke, and possibly broke his nose,(swelling was evident but no indication of being out of alignment). This happened very quickly and it seemed he did not have time to move his hands back to the basetube for better pitch authority. He was not wearing a full face helmet. Two points to ponder here. The grass is getting long in the LZ and the farmer is taking his time deciding when to mow, so review your appropriate landing techniques when flying here.

Other flights this day included Chris Dombrowski, Bob Buchanan, Rob Millman.

OK, I can't stand it. Even though I was overshadowed by Mark Gardner's epic flight almost to Woodstock on Sunday, I had a pretty good one of my own. I had an 18.4 miler from Cumberland to just south of Romney, WV. The first 40 minutes or so were spent playing tag along the ridge with up to three sailplanes.) Boy was I glad to get higher than those guys.) After nearly sinking out, I caught a nice long thermal that dribbled down and behind the ridge well past Zirks. This one took me to approximately 6000 msl. I thought I was finally catching up with Mark, only to hear him say he had just gotten to 8k. The next one took me to almost 8k at about the time he was reporting heading toward the Woodstock Valley. One more took me from Ft Ashby to Romney. I bled off 2000 feet to land in a big field with an airstrip and a windsock, rather than extend the additional three miles or so that I could have gotten down that valley. Clunked it on the wheels after flying through rough air virtually all the way to the ground.

A farmer in a tractor stops and helps me out. Two retired NASA guys show up to chat about flying and rogollo wings. One leaves and comes back later with a six pack. I can't remember the last time a bud tasted so good! Doug and JR come and pluck me out of there, then I go get Mark. Thanks to Doug and JR who sacrificed their own XC's to help get us home before next week.

7900 MSL 6000 over, 2:15, 18.4 GPS miles and miles of smiles, my highest, longest and longest duration flight ever.

Dan T.

PS, There are a lot of trees back there!

Mark actually did a write-up all on his own!! Sheila
p.s. the flight was 2 1/2 hours

Gardner's Mutha's day

Due to popular demand, I've been forced to get off my lazy butt and give a report on the longest x-c of my career.

Jim Rowan, Doug Wakefield, Dan Tomlinson and myself arrived at Cumberland Fairgrounds on Sunday May 13, to complain about how crappy the day was going to be. The forecast of NW 10-20 looked more like NNE-5-15 and the excitement level for the day's flying was subdued to say the least. We got up top @ 1:30 and decided we could at least launch and struggle upwind to the main LZ at Fairgrounds with a reasonable chance of success.

I was selected to launch first and was quite surprised at how smooth the conditions were in spite of the cross. Dan launched soon after me and we groveled @200-300 ft over for 30 minutes or so. There was a sailplane trainee on the ridge with us (fairly low on the ridge as well) so I decided to move over to the Northwest cliffs to avoid traffic. Strangely enough, the cliffs were working (unusual on a north day) and I climbed @ 1000ft and was feeling better about my situation.

Soon after, I pimped one off of Dan and slowly climbed to 7000 msl. The drift had taken me down to Zirks-just barely over the back side, and I faintly considered doing some kind of ridge run. I even considered going back to the High Point to see what everybody else was gonna do.

But fate stepped in and as I was flopping around I got a better bite of the same thermal and realized that at the higher altitude, the drift was actually more NW. I got to 7950msl and tried real hard to get the last 50', But lost a couple hundred farting around and finally decided to go downwind.

I arrived at Ft. Ashby still pretty high and was gifted with another one that took me to 8000 +. Milked that one for a while, and moved on toward Augusta / Short Mtn. (common name for a mtn around these parts).

I think I climbed again on my way toward Augusta/short mtn, but when I finally got to Short mtn, a cloud formed above me and I got to 9000+msl (200-500ft short of cloudbase). I was so bloody high that I could easily see into the Shenandoah Valley. My plan was to go toward Wardensville, get up or land, and at least make it to Woodstock.

The sink I encountered leaving Short mtn was minimal and I was still very high and North of Wardensville so I just continued on glide and could see that I would easily make it to the valley.

As I was gliding toward Little north mtn (the last mtn ridge before the Shanendoah Valley,) I watched as a cloud formed a couple of miles south of me on the ridge. As I glided into the blue hole of the valley I KNEW that I was making the wrong decision. I could have EASILY made it to that cloud and gotten stinkin' high again, but in the excitement I foolishly hoped I would get a bug fart in the valley and continue on.

Needless to say, there weren't no bug. I landed @ 3 miles short of Woodstock launch for 50.5 miles.

It's hard to bitch about a 50 miler, but because of that last OBVIOUS mistake, I boned myself out of another possible 20 miles ( ... it ... coulda ... happened...)

Well, we know what I did wrong, here's what I did right.

Two weeks previously I had taken the identical track but landed just south of Augusta, so I was really familiar with the area and knew exactly where I was. I had also uncharacteristically studied a map while waiting for the boys at Fairgrounds. Knowing where I was and where I was going made a HUGE difference.

-Gardner

Great report on the weekend's flying and attempts, Cragin. It was, indeed, very kewl to see y'all. For the sake of my continued co-ed social availability, however, I would like to identify Dale Hatzfeld as Not-My-Wife, but long-time friend and Hang 35mm of the highest order. (I really need to scan some of her recent (and historic) work to post somewhere for aesthetic and nostalgia's sakes...) I will see if I can get the digital shots I took that day on the website before this weekend is out. Thanks for letting me wuffo out up there and make the day even more memorable for my Mom.

Vacation next week from Hyner down to Nags Head over two weeks, so maybe I'll connect with some more of you'uns along the way.

Ron Tinkham

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This page last updated May 21, 2001