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Hangola July 14-15, 2001

It was a bust at the Pulpit today. Eagerly anticipating great XC conditions at the Pulpit, I arrived around 10A to join Mark Cavanaugh who had camped overnight there. John Muldoon, Cragin Shelton, Dave Proctor, Bruce Engen, Ed Reno, and Joe and Janet Gregor all arrived in short order. I decided to give it a go at around 12:30P with great-looking clouds in the sky and a north cross on the ramps with occasional straight-in cycles. Waited for a straight-in light cycle and launched. Once airborne, it was quickly evident that it was WAY north cross above the ridge. Also, very ratty air from the rolling rotor on the ridge due to the north cross. Plus, the lift was so narrow that circling was fruitless; the lift was like a runway in the sky and you had to feel around for the "centerline" of the runway and just fly forward. Gained a few hundred while Dave was on the ramp. Found some lift to circle in, and, although it was light, got to 1K' over and thought that this was my ticket OTB. I lost the lift and found myself plummeting back down to ridge level. By this time Mark had launched and he, Dave, and I trolled the ridge at low altitudes. Stepped into a pothole and got below the ridge down by Rt. 16, so I headed out to land in the main LZ. Dave landed shortly after I did; Mark eventually landed too. We talked about how crappy the conditions were, and how all the recording stations on the NOAA weather radio were registering W and NW winds, and the McConnellsburg valley was north cross. Go figure. Must be that valley flow. We all fought the good fight, but the rest of the crowd bailed to High Rock, which definitely had better conditions.

Bacil

No one at Woodstock yesterday except Claude and I when we arrived at 1130--quite surprised considering the beautiful cummies and the 5-15 mph wind. By 1410 when Claude flawlessly launched his "new to him" Xtralite, still no one had arrived except a Russian paraglider pilot asking about site protocol--I need info to send him. Just before launching myself, Bob Radcliff showed up, and John Smith materialized later--I'll let them tell their stories.

Claude got 4400 over launch, my best was 4000 and I spent most of the 2:20 in the air out in the valley between Rt 11 and 81. I did chase a paraglider to the N point and then raced back to land in a quite lz. Two other panty types showed up and gave me a ride to my truck, and then flew for hours in the late day wonders.

Beautiful day, great temps, good times...it's been a wonderful spring and summer so far. Heading to Manquin today.

Greg DeWolf

Awesome flight Jim and Ken,

Don't be modest and forget to mention that you both got new personal distance records and spanked Fred, Rae, Ric and several others. I hope this means we'll be seeing more of you both on the Delmarva.

Ric

Arrived about 2pm, via the LZ where I carpooled with Rich Donahue.

Brian Hardwick was in the air already and at cloudbase.

Ed Reno called on the radio from the Pulpit, asking about conditions. He reported a North cross and rowdy air there. After we spoke, he and others decided to bail for High Rock.

I launched at 4pm and flew for 1:45, with a maximum gain for 2900 over. Conditions were excellent. My best gain was encountered with Ed Reno and Bob G nearby - we all cored the same thermal in close proximity. Shortly after, we were joined by the rest of the recent arrivals, and the sky filled with gliders. I was able to maintain altitude past the railroad tracks and catch fresh thermals to over 4500msl.

All in all, it seemed like a great day for all present, except one pilot (don't know his name) who overshot the approach to the LZ and took out a LE in the trees at the far end of the field. Fortunately, he wasn't injured.

Others there (who I remember) were:

Bob Gillisse
Jurgen, from Germany, flying Bob's sport (1st time at HR)
Carlos Weill
Steve Kinsley
Brian and Shelly Hardwick - Brian flew earlier and went to cloudbase several times
Mark Cavenaugh
Ed Reno
Bruce Engen
Jose Thellache
Steve Krichton
Steve Padgett
Susan and Kelvin Pierce, both flew
Joe and Janet Gregor (Joe flew)
Curtis Kemerer
Lewis Truitt
Joe Brauch
Cragin Shelton

Friday - four truck tows. One, 15 minute soaring flight to 4.2K' following weak link break/release @ 500'. Qbase @ 6.5K' in streets. Ave LR: 100-200 '/" Max LR: 300-400 '/"

Saturday - two soaring flights of 50 and 55 minutes launching from truck. Max gain 5K'. Qbase @ 6.5K' in streets. Ave LR: 200 '/" Max LR: 400-500 '/"

Sunday - one 170 min soaring flight launching from truck. Max gain 7K'. Qbase @ 7K' in streets. T @ Qbase: 47&#deg;F. Ave LR: 350- 500 '/" Max LR: 800-1000 '/"

Fun meter pegged.

JK
PTB, VA

The plan was to arrive early at Ridgely and be one of the first gliders in the air since the early birds always seem to get the big XC miles. We did make it there early and were almost done setting up as other pilots arrived. But it was honking and no one was in a hurry to launch. So we pulled out the bag wings and kited them around for a while. It was still fairly strong on the ground but we managed to get in some pretty good kiting. C came over and we offered to let him play around with Karen's paraglider. Still, no one had crossed the taxiway to get in line. But as we uncoverd C from underneath Karen's glider after one of his attempts at pulling it up, I looked back and all of a sudden a line had formed and gliders were launching.

By the time we got Karen's glider put away, Fred, Rea, Rich Green, Ric and a couple of others had taken off and were on the way to the beach. I once again missed the boat. By the time I got on the cart and launched, everyone was gone. I broke a wink lead at 1600 agl but then found a weak thermal at 800 feet that took me back up to 1300'. I decided to stay with it and drifted away from the airport in mostly zero sink till it dissapated at 1600. Heading downwind, I found nothing but massive sink and landed 5 miles away. The owner of the field was nice enough to give me (and my glider) a ride back to the field. She was not surprised that I sunk out ther even though she didn't know Ridgely towed hang gliders. "The buzzards don't even bother to circle over this field," she commented.

On my second flight, I was flying all over the place and staying up in weak thermals-- topping out at 4200. I decided to commit to going XC when I couldn't see the airport anymore. It was an easy choice. I had been flying around with someone in a glider with an orange undersurface. He kept tracking back upwind and crosswind occasionally. Since he was above me most of the time, I decided to follow him. But at one point, he headed back and I couldn't catch what he was in. So I went downwind across the river and found another thermal that brought me back across the river. The drift had somehow changed. I lost that one and found another, which sent me due South despite the NW winds that we had had all day. I was totally confused. I had flown for over an hour before I finally lost it and picked a big field North of Denton. The wind direction as indicated from the trees was all over the place. So I just kept flying along the tree line and didn't commit to a direction for final till the last second. As I came into land, I was secreaming along the ground and cursing myself for getting caught with a downwind landing. I tried the running before you flare technique and mangaged a half a dozen steps before pushing out, belly flopping on my wheels and rolling about 8 feet. LOVE THOSE WHEELS!!! As I unclipped from the glider, the wind was blowing in my face. But two seconds later, it was once again blowing on my back.

With all of the flying and multiple thermals, I thought I'd gone at least ten miles. But alas, I only flew 3.7 miles-- less than on my one thermal earlier flight. Pretty pathetic. But at least I didn't have a temper tantrum like some other pilot and throw my helmet on the ground after sledding out.

Karen, Brian, Eric, Geoff (and some other non-mountain pilots) also flew. Thanks to Brian for retrieving me after the second flight.

Matthew (get there early and LAUNCH early next time, of Karen and Matthew)

Just a quick personal note: couldn't commit to XC or not an Saturday, finally made a half assed decision in half assed lift and ended up with a decision between walking 3 miles or turning back and walking 1 mile. decided to make it easy, landed in almost the next field over from the airport, and immediately got picked up by a passing local. gotta love this place.

On sunday made basically the same half assed decision as before, ended up a bout 1.5 miles from the airport. Saw some houses surrounded by crops; one had a nice flag wind indicator, the other had what I judged was a very nicely sized front lawn. Man but my perspective is screwed up. I was judging size mainly by the size of the house versus lawn and trees; looked like a big house and a big field.

Came swooping down, and my trees turned into shrubs, my mansion turned into a shack, and my field turned into a 40 yard patch of clear grass. Managed to pull it off, only clipping a small branch off a baby pine tree no taller than myself.

Clearly, I have much to learn.

brianVH.

ps. neglected to express my thanks to Janet Gregor for picking my up after my sunday flight. She drove up, saw my glider still largely set up, scanned a full 360 degrees, and gave me a perplexed look.
"Where did you land?" She asked.

Thanks Janet.

Brian.

I started out a lazy Sunday by just hanging out around the house. By the time I finally got motivated to do something, it was 2-ish, and I had a choice of heading to Ridgely for evening air, or mowing the lawn and doing housework. Hmmm... let me think about this...

So, packed up and headed out, I got to Ridgely and had my glider set up by about 4:30. I got in line, and was thinking "there's nothing but blue sky above, but someone else is flying before me, and maybe those clouds will get here by the time the tug returns for me". No sooner does the other guy take off than he breaks his weak link and sets right back down on the runway. <sigh> So *I* got towed up into clear blue sky! I managed to find a small bubble of lift at 750', but I could get any sustained climb out of it, and all I did was delay my landing by a couple of minutes. Once I lost the lift I decided I'd better get myself back to the field so I didn't have to land in somebody's front lawn. (I've heard of people doing that, and clipping pine trees in the process - I want to be a _good_ pilot and not do that!)

As soon as I landed I headed straight back to the carts to try again. I took off for my second flight at 5:15; I got bumped up pretty hard while on tow, so I looked down to see where I was and made a mental note of the location. After I pinned off, I found the spot again, and sure enough there was a thermal there! I was down to about 1200 by the time I found it, and managed to work it up to about 2300 before I lost it. I returned to my original spot to try and find it again, and managed to avoid sinking for a while, but couldn't really get anything sustainable, and finally ended up landing, with a 30-minute flight under my belt.

I've been meaning to replace the flying wires on my Falcon for a few months now, and after flying today, I had plenty of daylight left, and the winds were calm, so it was easy to do it while the glider was still set up. About the time I finished (now going on 7:00), I saw somebody float in on the evening breeze, and it looked so nice I decided to set the glider back up again (I only had to put the battens back in and setup the harness) and go up one more time for what I knew would be an evening sled. As it turned out, it was a sled, but Oh! what a flight! The sun was going down and reflecting off the Chesapeake Bay in the distance, and the air had smoothed out to where it was perfectly still! The wasn't a single bit of turbulence or movement in the air to affect my glider, so I was able to do slow, lazy turns without any effort at all. After working the glider through bumps and turbulence earlier in the day, this kind of easy floating was just sublime! I finished it off with an easy [no-wind] 3-step landing. It was the perfect way to end a beautiful weekend!

Total air time for 3 flights: 0:57 (0:14, 0:30, 0:13)

R2

High Point on Saturday. John McAllister, Adam Arkfeld, Dan Tomlinson, Doug Wakefield, Marvin Presley, Jim Rowan, Larry Ball, me. (Think I got all the names.) The first few off had a little struggling to do since the wind was crossed from the north, but they managed to stay up. JR was the only real xc flight, getting to Augusta for a little under 30 miles. Adam and Tom landed at the Zirk's LZ and the rest of us at Rt. 220 next to Barton's (about a half mile in front of and to the south of the Zirk's launch which is 4 miles down the ridge from High Point). None of us wanted to try landing in the Fairgrounds LZ, given the notorious switchy winds. (My driver was waiting there and he said it was a steady wind out of the north the whole time. It was likely nasty mixing bowl 50 feet over, though.)

JR was in shock when I called that morning to say I had a driver. It was a first. Of course, my radio push-to-talk decided to not work so I couldn't even take advantage of the driver. The only time I got high enough to go was the last big thermal I was in around 6 pm, and I bailed from it at around 3200 over (since it was drifting back too far). The air was a little rowdy, esp on the Fairgrounds part of the ridge. Not too bad and I lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. (Doing the 30 dips every day has been paying off.)

Christy

Saturday was blown out for PG but Doug Rogers flew the site for the first time. Sunday was light West cross and not good for ridge lift but it was fine for a nice sled ride over the Lehigh River. Gerry Donohoe also flew the site for the first time.

I think Little Gap is a wonderful place to fly and I am surprised to see very few Wind Riders when I go there. We have a wonderful resource available to us and her name is Linda from the Country Gap Inn at the base of the mountain. She has offered rides for those who want to park at her tavern, or who land in her back yard. She also serves a great Sunday Country Breakfast starting at 8:30am for about 5 bucks. Next week I am going to try to place a large windsock on a tall dead tree at launch so Linda can see it from the LZ. That should help her give a good real time report of what's going on at the top before driving a long way to get there. If anyone wants more info on Little Gap, feel free to give me a call. I plan to fly there next weekend if the forecast looks good.

Jeff Shriner

Flew High Rock Thursday, Friday and Saturday for three nice soaring flights. Thursday was a late evening after work flight. Steve K. launched just as I arrived approx. 5:30 and was still in the air when I was next to launch at 6:25. Danny B. and Eddie M. were the only other pilots there. Danny graciously offered to help me get into the air even though he was there and set up before me. Thanks Danny. Had a nice flight for 1.25 hours up to 1400' over. Danny did get into the air around 8:00 for some glass off time. Eddie ended up breaking down on launch due to lack of wire crew.

Friday was another evening after work flight. This time Susan came along and got her flirst flight from the Rock since last year. Also there was Dave P., Dave Green, Bruce E., Brian Hardwick, Mark C, Bob G., Jose and Sparky. Sorry if I missed anyone. Brian had the flight of the day (early flight) for 4600 over. I launched at 6:15 and flew in OK but somewhat difficult air for 1.25 hours up to 800' over. Susan launched about 8:15 and flew for 35 minutes. Her launch was real scarey with her left wing tip coming pretty close to the left pylon.

Saturday went to the Pulpit but decided to try the Rock instead because of the North cross. Arrived at the Rock about 4:00 to a cast of thousands (too many to list). Again Brian H. had the flight of the day for three times at cloud base for 4100' over. I launched at 5:30 and flew in spring like air for 1 hour 20 min. Spent most of flight at between 800-2000' over but did get one very strong thermal up to 2700' over. It was pretty crowded air at times but everyone seemed to do a great job of clearing turns, etc. Susan had another 8:00 flight and had a perfect launch this time and flew for about 20-25 minutes.

A short xc-hop can be better than no hop at all.

I got off tow at Ridgely at 1:10 Friday, left the field at 1400 drifted low in scratch mode for an hour never getting above 2000 - learned patience, then around 2:15 it turned on, got to cloudbase at 5600, was drifting toward Dover, (thought I was a lot closer than I was - gps batteries died) saw a C-5 disappear below the horizon as it made a u-turn for its northbound final into Dover. While I knew it wasn't coming directly at me, I'd been watching it for several minutes, and seeing it completely disappear gave me the willies - it vanished while slightly banked showing me everything. Decided to call it a day, landed in Felton. Hitched back.

Sunday, got off tow at 12:25, went right to 3700, and stayed with it - only to Denton, hitched back.

John Muldoon ---

I lost count of the pilots who were there and so won't go into it too much. I guess about 20 -30 flew over the course of the day. Jim Messina flew in from the tow farm. That 16 miles may have been the long flight of the day. I got 12.7 miles in 1 hr 24 minutes. The first cloud was great. I enjoyed thermalling with four of the better pilots in the area including Raean. There was plenty of room really, but four other gliders is still a lot for me to watch out for, so I stayed a little nervous. After leaving it was a scratch-fest in survival mode all the way.

I didn't say anything at the time I returned to Ridgely but I'll own now that my landing was less than stellar. There was a single light wire running at an angle to the length of the field I picked and I missed it while scoping the field. Already on the downtubes but still maybe 20 - 30 ft up I saw it and realized I wouldn't make it under. I turned to the right and brought the glider back around to the left in a very low turn. I couldn't make another turn to get it back on line with the long axis of the field. I was already in ground effect as I flew under the wire, but was very hot and retaining energy. I was afraid to flair early in the now nearly 90-crossed wind so I let it run out and I crossed a road in ground effect. I hit the 8 ft high corn from the side. I let go of the tubes in time, and the corn absorbed the hit and spit me back out in an ignominius nose-down pile in the poison ivy along the side of the road. No damage to anything but ego.

Rick Nichols ( a local ) was repairing his tractor when he looked up and said something to the effect of " Ahh caan' bulee that! ". He observed the landing, all except the last part, drove 100 yds from his house and immediately offered me a ride back. Thanks Rick. I needed that.

Best Regards,
Richard Green

Manquin Saturday and Sunday:
no aerotow, but plenty of truck towing. Steve Wendt was busy all morning Sat and Sun with students and scooter tow. Btw, if you're planning to go to Manquin to trucktow, you can sleep in a bit. Truck towing starts at noon. He's busy with students in the morning.

Cumies everywhere. Towing from the south end. Mostly straight in with a little west cross. Saturday crowd included: Jim Keller - who spanked all of us royally with a 45 minute work out, Terry Spencer, Steve Valdez(?), a Bill, another Jim, Tex, and I forgot the names of a bunch of other pilots. They'll just have to file an addendum. It was probably too windy for the thermals to hang together well. The upside of the windiness was, that I had my highest truck tow ever: 1550 feet.

Sunday more of the same, although more pilots managed to stay up for a bit, some for several hours. No XC was committed though. Those who staid up were Greg deWolf, Jim Keller, Jim Kingsley, Bill(?) and Terry Spencer. The rest of us sledded out.

Got to practise my landings, which is the primary reason I came out for. I also got to practise flying the Klassic, which was the secondary reason I came out for. Nice glider, that Klassic. Nice glide, even without VG. Flare window easier to recognize than I had expected (not that I took advantage of it. Good invention those hot wheels).

Had a weak link break as the glider (ww spectrum) popped off the truck. Found out that that's a non-event. You're already pulled in and headed into the wind, so you just suddenly find yourself on final. Big deal. Was good to experience that, not that I would want to repeat it.

-- ellis (who didn't mind sledding this time)

After bailing from the Pulpit to fly High Rock on Saturday, a bunch of us returned on Sat. night in the hopes that conditions would improve for Sunday: me, Ed, Steve Crichten, Steve's Hang-I friend Don, Lewis T, Craig. Plus Dan T, who arrived Sunday morning.

Though not as bad as the day before, conditions were still north-cross, and no-one was particularly psyched about the prospects of more rotor surfing. So pilots began dribbling away to High Rock around 11:30.

Dan T and I were the last on the ramp..... and things actually started to look much better! But with the prospect of wuffo-crews, we decided to bail as well. As Dan was pulling out, Steve, Don, and Lewis returned (they'd been checking conditions at a nearby training hill). So with potential wirecrew available, I went up to take one final look from the ramp.... and basically Steve and I talked each other into giving it a try :-)

By the time we were ready, conditions were north again. Figures! Steve went first, looked like he was toast, but found a thermal over the LZ to get him back over the ridge. Then I launched, and got to experience rotor-surfin' joy for a second day :-| . I worked a spine south of launch which allowed me to survive : above, below, above, below, above, below.... In the meantime, Steve was doing much better by catching thermals over Rt. 16 and tracking them back. By the time I was finally dialed-in enough to work the rowdy conditions, he'd hooked one and headed over the back.

I struggled to do the same for about 30 minutes, jealously listening to his vario every time he transmitted. Finally, on my fourth or fifth troll between launch and the LZ, I hooked a good one and beamed up! Got to within 500' of cloudbase OTB, drifting southeast at a good clip. For once, I had plenty of clouds to choose from after losing the first thermal... but _which_ cloud?

I dove for a big one that was just SE of Mercersburg: flat, dark bottom, seemed like the best one available. Looked like the clouds were streeting up (at that time, at that location) almost due north/south, so I'd basically be trying to cross to another street. But gave it a try anyway.... sink, as expected, but not _really_ bad. Plenty of altitude when I got past Merc. But I couldn't find anything at all under the cloud.

So I started working little burbles, picking LZs, heading down Rt. 75 and then into the valley a bit. Radio'ed that I was prob. toast, and heard from Steve that he was in the same boat, farther south.

Finally got low enough that I had to land, and set up above a big clover or alfafa field. Level, huge, good landing.... About 1.50 hours, 6000' MSL, 11.0 miles . I heard something about "I-70" from Steve before I put it on the deck.

Lewis had decided not to fly, and Don had already agreed to chase Steve. But they very kindly tracked me down too, and then I helped to retrieve Steve since I had both PA and MD maps. Which we needed, because Steve flew west of Hagerstown, down toward the Potomac, and then cut across the valley, landing a little south of Boonsboro. Awesome flight! After finding nothing at Mercersburg, Steve cut back up/crosswind towards the mountains and found something to get him back up. Maybe he'll post a story about his flight.

We got back to The Pulpit at about 6:30, and found Deborah and Paul there. Paul had flown, but Deborah had not, so we hung around to help wire. The valley had lifted off: 5-7mph on the ramp, occasionally a bit cross, but more often straight in, smooth. Deborah had the ridge to herself, around 500' over, just boating around anywhere she wanted to.

I hung out until she landed, and then watched the sun go down for a while. If anything, conditions got even better; would have been perfect for H-IIs if any had been around.

Flew HR Friday evening (1:15, 1200' over), Pulpit on Sat (0:30, not pleasant) and HR on Sat (2:00, 3000' over), and then Pulpit on Sunday, for over five hours total airtime. My third "hatrick" in five weeks, this is turning out to be a good year!

--mark c.

Two days at High Rock

Along with many others, I started Bastille Day at the Pulpit launch, hoping for a big cummie cloud filled day with high soaring guaranteed. As Bacil Dickert already reported, it was not to be. I watched Bacil, Dave Proctor, and Mark Cavanaugh all struggle in gnarly cross-wind induced rotor winds. Bacil is to be congratulated on his 1000 foot altitude gain, Dave on pulling out of the scariest "successful" launch ever seen at the Pulpit, and Mark on hanging on to flight for all of 30 minutes under those conditions. They should each detail their own flights. With their flights as impetus, I joined the migration to High Rock.

It was worth the journey! With a late afternoon launch, I logged 2 hours and five minutes in the sky, max altitude of 2,050 feet over launch, and several very satisfying recoveries from about 200' over launch back up to 1,500 to 1,800 feet over. When I could not find lift on the ridge, I found it in the valley. When I lost lift in the valley, I found it on the ridge. Looking down on the tops of a dozen gliders at one time, I got to feeling a bit cocky, thinking, "Wow! I got top of the stack!" Then I saw Mark Cavanaugh out in the valley, at least 500 feet above me. Darn, that burst my bubble. But it did not detract from the fun. We had a large crowd of tourists on the Rock, and I spent my final ten minutes over the ridge buzzing launch from behind, waving at the kids (they waved back heartily) and diving at the front of launch, pulling away back into ridge lift. Kinda fun being a photo-op.

There were many notable flights at High Rock on Saturday, but one in particular I want to report. After letting Kelvin have his mid afternoon flight, Susan Pierce turned Kelvin into resident Dad, keeping custody of the girls as she launched shortly before 8:00. Susan had a beautiful launch into smooth evening air, and soared dreamily across the ridge. Marlin Savelle left the ridge shortly after Susan's launch, giving her the near sunset sky to herself. When Susan departed into the setting sun, the crowd on the Rock oohed and ahhed over the beauty of the scene. Mark Cavanaugh and I corrected their comments of, "Look at him now!" with a proud, "That's a her." Two women responded simply, "Cool!" Susan rode the currents out past the landing zone with plenty of altitude, and then worked back down to land from at least 1,200 feet over the field for a perfect day-ending flight of over half an hour.

We had so many folks at High Rock on Saturday, we should have fired up a grill and called it a fly-in. I'll try here for a roll call. I apologize for missing anyone.

Pilots who flew: Mark Cavanaugh, Ed Reno, Steve Padgett, Joe Gregor, Joe Brauch, Bruce Engen, Steve Kinsley, Kelvin Pierce, Susan Pierce, Bob Gillesse, Allen Sparks, Curtis Kemerer, Rich Donahue (2 hours without a vario), Dave Johnson, Marlin Savelle, Steve Crichton, Lewis Truitt, Jose Thelleache, Brian Hardwick, and Jurgen C. (German pilot sent by Exxon/Mobil to the Fairfax headquarters for a six week business trip last August; he is still there).

Family and Friends helping, crewing, driving and supporting (THANK YOU ALL!): Jeannie Gillesse, Janet Gregor, Karen Savelle, Natalie Kemerer, Shelley Hardwick and Laura Matchet.

Sunday, July 15.

Dan Tomlinson (drove over from Cumberland), Ed Reno, Mark Cavanaugh, and I started the day back at the Pulpit. Light winds and low crowd potential prompted Dan, Ed and me to return to High Rock. Mark held out at the Pulpit until Steve Crichton, Lewis Truitt and another friend arrived after a morning training hill stop up Route 522. Based on radio chatter later in the day, Mark and Steve both jumped over the back. They will have to report on distance, altitude, and duration. Not sure if Lewis got to fly.

Smaller crowd than the previous day at High Rock. Much lighter winds showed reduced soaring potential, also. Susan Pierce, with a late day appointment back home, was first to launch, and first to land, inaugurating the day with a sled shortly after 1:00. Hearty mountaineer that she is, Susan hiked back to the top. Carlos Weill and Steve Padgett launched into marginal soaring conditions mid afternoon, also logging successful sleds. Ed Reno had a relatively short flight on his Ultrasport, too. Danny Brotto launched about 3:00 and worked up to 1,000 over, but even as he did so, Bob Gillesse thought it looked like sled city and backed off of launch.

After a markedly hesitant long wait for some wind to use, Dan Tomlinson launched into the beginnings of evening lift. He worked little spots of lift, eventually reaching 3,400 feet over launch. Bob Gillesse left behind all excess weight, like radio and bag, expecting a sled. He joined Dan WAY up there for the longest and highest flight of the day. I launched quickly, followed by Jurgen C. I had to work a lot to stay in the 200 to 400 over band. Jurgen was below me for ten minutes, then found the right thermal and joined Dan and Bob WAY up high. I lost my lift and landed after 23 minutes, having maxxed at 400 over. Ed Reno launched late, in his Falcon this time, and discovered max sink everywhere he looked. Ed can describe his interesting landing.

Laura Matchet and George Tutor both showed up at launch to help with crewing and kibitzing. Really good to have them there. Jeannie Gillesse helped crew and drive, again, too. Thanks to all of them. Down in the LZ not only did Jeannie come to cheer us, but George Price also stopped by!

Super flying weekend at High Rock. Congrats to everyone!

Cragin S --

Saturday at Cumberland I apparently annoyed a raptor of some sort. I was thermaling low counter clockwise and met some kind of raptor showing me flaired wings coming in from the other direction. We did this little dance for at least three turns when I finally chickened out and left the area.

The bird had a sort of speckled underbody. The dark spots seemed more polygonal that round or oval. There was a good deal of light or white coloring, perhaps more than fifty percent. Curved beak, (light tip maybe) angry look, (I didn't know they could look angry but it did).

It wasn't a real large raptor, but wasn't a small one either. Any ideas on what it was anybody?

By the way Saturday, 2:15 only about 1700 over. Sunday 45 minutes and 3400 over at High Rock, great climb out in a rock pile thermal that was a cross between a burble and a bug fart. Sometimes good things come in small packages.

I have a nomination for restricted landing field of the year award, and no it's not me. The field was actually Emma Jane's, but the approach is what makes it qualify. I'll let him tell the story.

Dan T.

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This page last updated July 16, 2001