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Index to weather maps

Hangola May 15 – 20, 2001

Great job Mark!

Had a nice evening flight at the Rock last night with Pete Schuman and Curt. Flew from 5:30 till 7:00 in pretty nice air up to 1600' over.

Kelvin

Good day at Ringtown. The on again off again fcst had me verhuddled till about 1330 when Doug called. We decided RTown offered the best call but we were doubtful. But RTown came through, STFI @ 15-18. Choppy ridge lift and tight thermals first 30/40 minutes then nice thermals. About 2 hours, 5600' (7300 MSL) to cloud base. Bob Beck, Doug Rogers, on gliders, Jerry D. & Wolfgang S. on parapanties.

Good time by all..........Bob.

Pilots showing up: Buffam, Kovach, a pair of Harpers, a pair of Gorries, and Bruce Engen (sp?) from Leesburg, VA.

Short version of my day: I had a real nice 2 hours, bagging 14.7 XC miles from Route 125 to Pillow gap. Long version is here. Barograph is at http://www.bigfoot.com/~buffam/barograph.jpg

Cheers,
Bill short-message-specialist Buffam

P.S. I tried out my new Arai VX-pro motocross helmet, and was very happy with it. At 3lbs it's a lot heavier than the Uvex, but the weight really wasn't a problem (even after 2 hours), and the difference in protection is significant. Thanks to John Wiseman for wising me up (heh heh) on helmets.

E-ville turned out to be a great day... but not for me. I arrived late just when several pilots were flushed from cloudbase. Many more were able to stay up all day. At launch, it was about 5-10 and crossed from the North. I launched later when it straightened out but was only able to scratch for bout 20min. Rich Green was the only other rep from our area.

Shawn

Nice to hear there were pilots spread out up and down the east coast yesterday. I was going to go to Ellenville with Shawn but had work to do around the new house in the morning. I decided to head to the Sac around 1:00pm and hope some pilots would be there. On the way there it was appeared to be clearer to the north towards Ringtown and even better looking towards Jonestown! I called Bob and left a message on his machine to call me on delano if he is interested on flying Ringtown. He got back to me before I got on I-81 so I just stayed on I-81 and got off at Frackville rt61 which is just about the same as the Sac from my house. When I got to launch it was stellar looking, I couldn't believe that just 1 hour to the south it was overcast and jizzy like a mid summer HHH day. Cycles were blowing in 10 to 18 with big puffy cumies. I was ready to launch around 3:30, conditions then were alot less sun but still nice cycles that to me seemed border line soarable. Like Bill B. I don't like to dally too long on launch but ended up waiting a good .5hour and for what I don't know? My launch was good (according to the ever patient Cookie) but the cycle I picked wasn't and I swooped out more than desired. Like Bob said the first .5hr was work just staying between 300' and 1000' but we were both in the air and having fun chasing the sunny areas and working lift. Then the sun got hidden by layers of jizz and some streets of cumies and I thought this will probably flush us, but then the conditions improved. Instead of getting flushed we were climbing out to the chillier altitudes, I couldn't believe it but the clouds actually started working and the same thermal area went on for what seemed like .5hr. I climbed out to 4000' and headed out in the valley prospecting for more lift under a long line of clouds but was only able to find some little bubbles so I came back to the ridge and flew with the Paragliders for awhile. Bob stuck with the lift and made it to Cloudbase 5600' and followed out in the valley as well only to find some 0 sink and nice bouyant maintainable air. I landed for about 2hrs and 4000'over, Cookie told me she heard T. R. on the radio at Jonestown, I think he was 3200' over at the time of the transmission! That spreads us out from the Sac, to Ringtown, Jonestown, Ellenville, and probably Little Gap.

I talked to Danny in the L/Z later and he was very excited about his flights on his millenium and is looking foward to flying with everyone down at Ridgely soon!

Doug.

Looking at the forecast every 15 minutes all morning I was happy to hear that Gerry D. was ready to go to Ringtown.

We arrived at 4:30 at launch and I was in the air at 4:45 after looking at Bob and Doug for a while, but then a friendly turkey-vulture gave me the thumbs up to give it a try.

Yes it was quite a workout for about 30 min between 200over and 50 under ridgelevel, choppy and breezy, but then I hit a good one that took me up at up to 1800f/m to about 15 or 1800 over launch ( my altimeter gave me some trouble, first it's an antique, second it's in meters per second.).

The thermal actually allowed for some 360s, about a dozen, but I got quite a bit blown back behind the ridge, so I left it to find that I was hardly penetrating at all, I thought. I made it to launch at 700 over and watched Gerry for a while. I hit one other nice thermal and did a couple of 360s, but then got the feeling that the wind was picking up, so I decided to try landing at Danny's. .......Not!!.... I had a smooth landing right next to Gerry's car, on the field next to the street, half of which got plowed yesterday. Gerry had a spot landing as well and we celebrated our flights with chocolate sundays and fries at the freeze-thing on the way to pick up my car at launch.

Thank you Gerry, thank you-all for making PA such a nice place to fly. After leaving Europe I thought I wouldn't get much flying done here, but yesterday's flight will rank in my top 5 flights of all times.

Wolfgang

P.S. Don't be surprised when you find out that your keys don't work at the lock to launch anymore, it got changed.

Based on initial sunday morning reports of Easterly winds, headed directly to Bill's from my House sitting gig at Christie's. Overcast, but looked on the verge of ridge soarable, so set up. Marc appeared via Fisher's, said no one was there, but it was blowing in perfectly at around 10 to 15. Came to Bill's in search of wire crew. I began breaking down, and he left.

Then Joe Brauch and Cragin showed up, and said they had met Marc and in a quick consultation decided to head for Jack's. Matt and Karen were on the way, but couldn't be raised by phone. (Thanks you two for taking the extra time to swing by!).

Started heading down the gravel road and met a slew of Pittsburgh pilots heading the other way (towards Bills). Could not be persuaded to bail to Jack's, and were followed closely by Marc who had decided to reverse course (AGAIN) back to Fisher's. Got Matt on the phone and informed him of our decision.

Continued at a break-neck pace down the gravel road, Cragin in the lead, followed by me, and Joe trying hard to keep up the rear. Cragin veered down an early side road, and I followed figuring he knew a shorter way (didn't, was just confused). Lost Joe in the process, who needed us to follow to Jack's. After Cragin and I regrouped were unsure whether Joe would have stopped at the stone house or headed on to the turnpike, so finally burned rubber to catch him at the turnpike, sweeping up Matt and Karen on the way who did a quick U turn in the main drag of Breezewood in order to follow.

Waited a minute or two at the tollbooth to see if Joe would show, then decided to go on. It was already sprinkling by this time, true to Cragin's predictions. We hauled mass on towards jack's, loosing matthew in the point as he sped ahead and me in the rear as I got gas.

In the area of Jack's it was socked in. Cragin met Claire coming down from launch with a negative report, which turned hime around to meet me, which turned me around to head home in a nice little domino effect.

You guys at home missed nothing. I'm guessing the Fisher Road crew got rained on.

Brian.

I left Pittsburgh at 11:15, intending to go to either Jacks, Fisher or Bills, the decision to be made at the 22/220 intersection near Altoona. Thickening, lowering clouds and increasing strong wind led to a decision to cut my losses and turn back at Rt. 22 on Chestnut Ridge, about 40 mi. out of town. I'm glad I made the right decision.

I _didn't_ make the right decision yesterday, going to Templeton based on late AM N-NW wind reports, only to find it was l&v or blowing down. Oh well; I trimmed some branches away from the top wind streamer.

386 miles, wet glider bag from at least three rain sessions on the highway, a nice tour of central PA, and no flying. First, Marc Fink, Brian Vant-Hull, Joe Branch and I didn't fly Bill's. Bill's was very cross from the south. Then I convinced Brian and Joe to head to Jack's since farther north might be drier. Marc stayed behind to accompany 4 cars worth of Pitt Pilots heading up the ridge road past Bill's en route to Fisher, where they would join up with Allen Sparks and Doug Henderson. Allen was expecting Terry Spencer, too, but I don't know if he showed. Allen reported Fisher Road as straight in at 15. However, the forecast partly sunny was totally overcast, misting and rain in-bound.

Brian and I lost Joe somehow on 915 heading back to Breezewood. Never did recover him. We met Matthew and Karen at the Turnpike entrance, so three cars headed east to 522 and north to Jack's. I think Matthew & Karen got way in front, and may have driven on to launch. I found Claire Pagen turning from Jack's Road toward the LZ in a caravan of three cars. She said Mitch Shipley was in the air, reporting misting and conditions deteriorating. They were dropping Mitch's car at the LZ and then heading home to State College. I could see that the ceiling was at or below launch, so no point in finishing the drive to the top. I conferred with Brian along 522, and we both headed home.

I hope someone from the Fisher Road contingent reports on whether they flew.

I just love amateur weather prognostication. I was quite certain of my Jack's call for Sunday. I even posted my evidence and logic. Then I let Matthew convince me the chances of rain were 30%, not 50%, for Breezewood. Uh huh. OK. In the end, we were all wrong; there was no partly anything, with a solid overcast, and the 30% or 50% chance of rain became a 100% occurrence of rain. At least I was suckered with the best of them, since Pete L and crew were at Breezewood and the Pagens were at Jack's.

See you all somewhere next week! Two fly-ins! What are the odds of rain?

Cragin S
ps: Okay, so how come we get more reports from pilots on a day when we DON'T fly than when we do?? This is gonna make for a long Hangola page with lots of "Didn't Fly"'s

Arrived at Jacks at 10:20A to find Craig Williamson already set up. Conditions ranged from east cross to straight in at 10 to 15 MPH. Set up and launched with Craig and my driver Bob's assistance around 11:30A. Turned left, got up easily, gained a few hundred, and hollered at Bob over the radio to start chasin'. Sky conditions showed a few gray cumies heading my way below upper haze. Found plenty of lift on the way NE. Had at least a half dozen sailplanes pass over me heading SW. Made it up to the Rt. 322 gap, and hung out in hopes of gaining enough altitude to jump it. However, the cloudbase had lowered, and the sky looked a bit worse, looking like rain was imminent in the next half hour or so. Decided to deck it in a huge field at the base of Jack's just on the west side of Rt. 322. Had a nice landing among 3 inch corn rows. 10.8 miles XC.

Got out of the field without stepping on any corn and parked it as close to Rt. 322 as I could. First set of folks on 4 wheeler (father, 2 kids) were nice. My driver had some trouble finding me, but soon he did, and I felt a whole lot better. That feeling left quickly when the second 4 wheeler came visiting with the owner of the cornfield property riding atop it. I used the standard "I hope it's OK I landed on your property, I just ran out of air" sentence. It didn't work this time. He was not pleased with my intrusion on his property, and even threatened to call the cops to confiscate my equipment. I must have said "Yes Sir" about 30 times to every complaint he voiced, from it's MY PROBLEM that I ran out of air on his property, to how the younguns riding 4 wheelers on his property ruin his corn crop and are none the bit remorseful, etc. etc. etc. Luckily my driver was educated in the southern way too and sweet-talked the irate landowner as well. The guy settled down quickly due to our responses to his complaints. He even joked with us, saying he hoped we don't fly for TWA. This field is NOT THE PLACE TO LAND at the Rt. 322 gap.

Bacil

Spent about an hour and a half drinking Buds under Pete's glider which served well as a high performance umbrella. Driving rain and marginal ground reference (meaning had trouble seeing one's own feet in the clouds).

You missed a great time!

Marc

John Middleton reported taking students to Smithsburg on Saturday, May 19. Although the owner had not yet posted the seasonal CLOSED sign, crops in the bottom field were already knee-high and taller.

John decided the field is no longer safe for flying, and drove his crew to Luray, where they also were not able to fly, due to wind direction. Some days HG pilots just add miles to their cars.

Cragin S

Karen and I made it to Jack's to find the missing Joe Brauch had already been there for a while. Spoons and the other PA pilots departed and Joe brought out his parafoil kite. It went straight up and disappeared into the fog at about 100'. We haven't been to Jack's in over 2 years. We were please to find that someone has recently done an amazing job of clearing out the slot and also building up the dirt around the guardrail. You only have to step up less than knee high to get over the guardrail. This now makes the launch very doable for a paraglider. We hung around for about a half hour, and just as we were about to leave, Mitch showed back up at launch and then headed out to the LZ before disappearing again into the haze.

Matthew (skunked two weeks in a row, of Karen and Matthew)

In addition to the PG flights from Ringtown and little gap, I experienced a lot of lift at Kutztown. There was an Ultralight fly-in and John Phillips and I decided to fly our powered paragliders there. The wind light and very variable. I helped John take off about 2:30. He flew for a few minutes and landed to help me take off. I took off and after I got to about 500' I hooked up with a good one. I decided I would just stay on the throttle until my rate of climb got below 100 fpm. My rate of climb stayed between 500-800 fpm until I got to 5500'. I shut the engine off and without even trying to stay in the lift, it took me 40 minutes to coast back to the ground. After about 4:30, high cirrus cloud covered the sky and the thermals went away.

Brian Stoltzfus
Reading PA

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This page last updated May 22, 2001