Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2002

Index to weather maps

Hangola April 23 - 30, 2002

Flight Reports

Took off from work today to go flying at Woodstock. Couldn't take the 3rd crappy weekend forecast in a row. Arrived a little after 11A. Overdeveloped sky over Woodstock and the valley to the SW. To the NE blue skies and many clouds. Steve Padgett arrived just before I did, and said it was blowing straight in. Set up at launch to light conditions in the slot and the sound of thermals migrating through the trees. Paul and Lauren Tjaden show after 12 noon. They and Steve assist my launch around 12:20P. Turned right and found a nice thermal over the west bowl of Cox Ridge. Gained 2K' in that thermal but bailed fearing cloudsuck in the OD above me. Spent the next hour between 500' to 1K' above. The sky opened up a patch right in front of launch, and it got downright turbulent down low. Tried to warn launch of the increased turbulence. Paul Tjaden took off shortly after my warning. I watched him scratch his way up from below launch to above the ridge. I found a thermal over at Cox Ridge again and was climbing out when I saw Paul beaming out behind me and towards launch. He went up so fast, and it looked as if he didn't even turn any. I went over to get some of that stuff, and I found myself going upstairs like a bat too. Got to 2K' over again and bailed, since the blue patch above had closed off. Did some speed runs in sink to the NE to get down and land. LZ a little turbulent on landing. In the air now were Steve Padgett and Carlos Weill. Cragin stopped by on his way to the top to give me a body ride. Back at launch found John Middleton ready to launch, Kelvin Pierce set up, and Ralph Sickenger setting up. Went down to the LZ, where Chris McKee had just completed his first mountain flight. Congratulations Chris! Found Terry Spencer, the Grand Master of Woodstock, in the LZ. Extendo in cross conditions. There is a god :-). John had an extendo too. Picked up the glider and headed home. Kelvin was soaring, and the sky began to open up. Heard on the radio Cragin at 3K' over. Sounds like it got better. Take it away Cragin.

Bacil

Forgot Mike Balk. He was playing hooky today as well.

"Once you have reached the top of the mountain, you have only begun to climb..." At the age of 21,my mother gave me a card with those words after I free climbed Mount Crested Butte and scared the crap outta my whole family. Now I'm 35 and I just sent the pictures Ralph took and I'm sure that I've scared the crap out of her again, but those words have taken on a completely new meaning. Unfortunately for yesterday, I reached the top of the mountain and then was met with lots of sink. NO CLIMBING ALLOWED! I knew my anticipation would be much more nerve wracking then the actual flight. My usual 15 minute glider assembly took 40 minutes because I had to mentally keep rechecking everything to make sure I wasn't forgetting something since my adrenalin was in overdrive. Conditions weren't the calmest, and Paul and Bacil kept radioing in about turbulence and how rowdy the LZ was. John M gave me the choice of launching or waiting until it calmed down. After discussion with John, I felt comfortable with the conditions versus my skills. I felt that I've been bumped pretty good at the training hill and that at Woodstock I would have altitude to play with after all. Kicking the brain a few times and convincing myself that it was "GO" time, I strapped into my glider and readied myself at launch. John, Kelvin, Lauren and Terry wired me off (thanks) and once I got stabilized, I felt as calm as I had all day. When everything felt right, I yelled CLEAR before my brain could talk me out of it and ran like my life depended on it..which it did (Thanks Joe!) I made a couple of passes, but was never able to get consistent lift to get above launch. Getting low, John told me to head out to the LZ. Going into my mental checklist for the DBF approach that I had briefed before flight, I suddenly realized that I was having a hard time turning to the right to head to the zone. Getting over the treeline, I realized that the wind had switched 90 degrees so I made a modified carrier break, spun a 270 and landed into the wind next to the windsock. I tried to keep my speed up, but as I went for the flare, I made it about 75% before I settled onto my wheels. A picture perfect landing in a Cessna 172, a bit dirtier for a Pulse, but still I avoided the dreaded Cow Patty Conspiracy. Terra Firma felt good but I was disappointed that my flight was so short compared with the ego boosting flight of Paul T. Sitting in the LZ listening on the radio to Paul complain about hypothermia from his two hour flight was painful until John and Terry (both launched after my landing) also sledded not finding lift. The Sky Gods spit out two far more qualified pilots than I, so I didn't feel as bad. Misery loves company...especially in the LZ. Of course, the pilots who launched about 30 minutes later were consistently reaching cloudbase so now I am more inspired to get up there with them! The best thing about my flight was seeing Ralph's pictures this morning. I was so focused on flying the aircraft that I don't think I even bothered to look out and enjoy the scenery. My body was on autopilot from the moment I went airborne until I landed on Terra Firma. I know it happened, but damn if I can remember much of the details. Thanks for everyone who came out to join me, give me mental support, advice and congratulations. I really enjoy the people I have come to know and love in the CHGPA and I look forward to much longer flights with all of you. Except for Paul, of course, he got enough flight time yesterday!!! Congrats anyway Paul (thru clenched envious teeth!) Now my true education begins and I look forward to all of the help, advice and instruction from all of the pilots who have gone before me. Thanks to everyone, especially John Middleton, who without him, I wouldn't have gotten this far! Thanks again John. I have enjoyed every moment of my training ... well except for that damn tree and that damn cow pie. But aside from that I've really enjoyed the whole experience and I truly look forward to the future!

Batman

Christopher McKee

Photos are up at http://photos.sickinger.net

Thanks to Karma (of Hank and Karma) for continuing to take pictures after I decided to go flying.

R2

Great Pictures Ralph!

The pilot listed as Adam was in fact me.

Adam launched much later, and when I left at 6:45, he was at 7100 MSL, above the clouds, in wave, and was having trouble penetrating into the valley. He thought he might have to land over the back. But as I was driving away, I heard him report that he was finally back out front. Since sunset at 7100MSL is much later than at 1100, I hope he landed early enough to see!

Kelvin, Ralph, Cragin and I were ready to take our sled rides, but by the time we had finished setting up, the wind had gotten a little stronger. The sun had come out. And the thermals were crankin! 400 up on the 30 second averager. 700 down a minute or two later! Wasn't sure about the day when I started setting up, but sure enjoyed it!

-Mike Balk

The late afternoon launch sequence was Kelvin, Ralph, me, and Mike Balk. I crewed for the first two, then waited as Mike made a parking lot run before getting into the sky myself at 4:30. My launch had some excitement, getting kicked from the left as I exited the slot. A firm correction, and I was in front in the bumpy lift.

I saw Ralph out over the valley, way high in his Falcon. Even though it was fully overcast, the thermals were working and rowdy. I followed him up, quickly reaching 2k over launch. There was a lot of lift, but not simple and easy to find or stay in. Ralph and I compared position as we looked for the working lift, and both of us estimated being within 500 to 600 below cloudbase at around 3k over. Kelvin had moved behind the ridge and farther south, and wwas much higher under a taller base.

Two H2s were on launch hoping for an evening glass off so they could launch. Chris McKee was set up for a second flight, and Hank Hankst (?), a Manquin student, was hoping Terry could observe his first mountain flight. As blue sky started breaking through, it only got rowdier, not smoother. Mike and I both radioed down to keep the 2s on launch. I learned later that Hank had hooked in and stood on the slope for about 30 minutes, finally agreeing he did not want to be in that air. He had to leave early, because he works nights up in Strassburg.

After about an hour I was getting chilled. Heading out over the Fishburn house, I pulled in, doing about 30-33 IAS, and was still going up. I was not trapped up there, but did have to work a bit to find the sink. Mike reported similar strong lift closer to the ridge. I made a very fast approach, nailing a clean no-step on the slope. I had seen a lot of messy landings earlier, so was very happy wiht these results. Final stats 2950 over launch, 70 minutes.

I offered to go back up and throw Chris off, snice John had to leave for a groundschool that night. However, about 6:15 Chris decided it was not going to calm down enough in the time he had left, so he broke down and drove Mike's truck downfrom the top.

With the four of us on the ground, and Hank having headed to work, Terry and Adam launched. Terry was back in the LZ when I returned with my van from the top. Adam, however was a speck in clear blue sky, reporting 7200 msl. DANG!

Cragin

Seven of us went to WS today. The sunshine was brillant and the thermals were crankin' through. Offering themselves as sacrifices, four of us threw themselves from the mountain and into the 45-80degree cross winds to receive sledrides, to no avail. It was then that a hang2 folded in his wings and the Gods were appeased. Rich and I soared in the thermal/glassy air.

Terry

Just FYI - Mark went 80 miles on Friday, 4/26 from Cumberland, MD (High Point) and landed somewhere around Frederick. 3 1/2 hours in the air. YEAH!! I'm hoping he'll write up a detailed report :-)

Interestingly enough, on his new used glider - formerly Mitch Shipley's Stealth 3. :-)

I'm not quite sure of everybody's details but Larry Ball went around 50 miles and landed in Martinsburg, someone landed in PawPaw (I wasn't there!) and Adam has a very interesting retrieve story from the Highway Dome field :-)

Sheila

p.s. it was Homer (John McAllister) that landed in PawPaw and Mark landed in Urbana - just south of Frederick.

Thanks to Sparky and Matthew acting as observers I was able to get a sled ride in at Jack's today. This ends a 21 year wait since I was last flying in the mountains. I'm not as entertaining as Lauren on my posts but suffice it to say that I am very happy to have done this and am looking forward to more flying with you all.

Regards,

Dave O

Large turnout at Jacks today. I got there around 11A with a driver in tow. Allen Sparks and Bob Gillesse visiting from Michigan were present. Over the next 3 hours pilots trickled in from every conceivable direction except the north. From the west (Daedalus): Pete Lehmann, Larry Huffman, Paul Donahue, Deb. From the SE (Windriders): Jesse Fulkersein, Joe and Karen Gorrie, Shawn MacDuff, Bob Beck. From the south (CHPGA, MHGA) Matthew Graham and Karen Carra, Chris McKee, Dave O'Brien, Bunkhouse Bob, Paul and Lauren Tjaden, Carlos Weill. From the SW (Mountaineers) Larry Ball, Mark Gardner. Yesterday 3 confirmed awesome XCs were logged. Pete Lehmann 140 miles from Templeton to Harrisburg!!! Mark Gardner 80 miles from Cumberland to south of Frederick, MD!! Larry Ball 44 miles from Cumberland to Martinsburg, WV! Crap, I wish yesterday's weather fell on today's date. Anyway, the 'Spark decided to lead off around 2PM with a launch. Conditions were light with a high cirrus layer moving in. Ole' 'Spark got up to the right of launch, and struggled out front. I moved to launch and it died to nil. Saw 'Spark climbing in a thermal out front. Went for it and he pulled the ladder up. Landed shortly thereafter. Spark joined me in the LZ after a 21 minute hop, 300'+ over. Bunkhouse Bob sledded to make it a threesome in the LZ. Saw Bob Gillesse take off and climb out to 3.3K over!! He even spanked a sailplane that was in the monster thermal with him. Larry Ball had an extendo and joined me in the LZ while I packed up. Bob G. came out and landed on purpose because he was tired after a half hour+ flight. Cruised home since my driver had to get back, and of course I look towards launch, and 3 gliders are soaring! Oh well, another day's useless energy spent.

Bacil

Very lite STFI. Thin ovcst by 1300. Large group of pilots. Launches commenced in earnest about 1500. About 50% got up. Exeedingly fine air. Lite smooth plentyful thermals to 3000' ( 5000" MSL ) till about 1700. The mountain then took a breather till 1800 when the magic kicked in under a thickening cloud deck. Don't know how long that lasted, we were out of there....Bob.

Weird day yesterday. Immediately upon arrival at Jack's I heard the awful news about Ed. It was just like getting kicked in the stomach by a horse. Obviously, this isn't the time to discuss this tragedy, but the glee I usually feel at the top of the mountain disappeared.

Learned a few lessons about hang gliding in my usual fashion -- the hard way. The conditions were marginal, at best. Not rowdy, like last time, just sucko. All day, mostly sleds. For a brief period, a few pilots with well developed thermaling skills scratched circles in the air.

A few cool things happened. I met the famous Pete L (who was really nice) and got to watch Dave O -- who was SO prepared and launched SO perfectly -- have his first mountain flight in a long time. Fun to get to share someone's happiness.

About five I gave up and decided to take my sled like a woman. Usually at Jack's, my vario starts screaming like a cat getting vacuumed, but the only thing it did on this flight was occasionally moan in pain. I once found a bubble the size of a hummingbird fart, but since I'm not Steve or Terry, I just sailed through it and started sinking again. At least my landing was good. It helped that the air was smooth as Teflon. Since I had loads of time to think I even managed to stay on my feet.

Breaking down my glider, I was happily thinking of how it might be worth it to clean the front of my harness if I was going to start landing like the real pilots. Then I noticed something terrible.

Gliders were staying up. The mountain had turned magic, only 15 minutes after I landed. Lift everywhere, and perfect, smooth air. I've never really been in that position before, sitting on the ground, thinking about how stupid I was. I radioed to Paul to come pick me up quick but the #$^^&!!! was up in the air again! I considered leaving him to hitchhike home. I couldn't believe how pissed I felt. I know I sound spoiled but the wild elation I usually feel after flying was missing. On well, at least I could sleep last night. (BTW, The lesson seems to be, if you only are going to get a sled anyhow, wait until the last minute. Lots oftime conditions change.)

Next time. Next time I'll be smarter.

Lauren Tjaden

Well, no, now that you have some more experience, the lesson is that if it's marginal and you have all day to fly, take your sled and get in another launch, approach and landing (Hell, you may even get up!) and then come back up and fly again. I had to twist Paul's arm to get him to do this. I strongly advise all of the 2s (and those about to be 3s) to coordinate their efforts on getting to sites early and dropping off lots of cars in the LZs now that the days are longer. This will make it easier to get back up to launch. Depending on your expererience level, you may be able to get in 2, 3 or more flights in a day-- sleds, extendos and, yes, even soaring flights. I had plenty of days of doing 3 flights at Jack's or Bill's or High Rock during daylight savings time. Even if you don't soar, you'll be getting lots of experience. The great Chuck Pyle once did 9 flights in a day at Hyner!!! Again, this also depends on the experience level of the 2. Your observer or instructor might want you to wait till later in the day to fly if the air is very turbulent. But if your observer is willing to throw you off and there's still over 4 hours left in the day, then by all means fly so that you can do multiple flights. Launches and landings and especially approach patterns are the aspects of flght that need the most practice.

As for me, through the efforts of Michal and John M. and I, we finally figured out how to launch a PG at Jack's. Michal had a sled and then a flight of almost 2 hours. I flew my bag for 45 minutes. I got a thousand over and went out to land because I noticed the fog thickening to the North and South and didn't want to be trapped in the fog trying to land and I had no clue how long it would take to get to the LZ. It took almost 20 minutes. Karen landed after a half hour flight because she was worried about being stuck in the air when the rain came. Well, she was right but off by about an hour and a half. It started to rain in the LZ at 8:00 and poured all the way home. Cavanaugh, Spoons and John M. (in his Talon, not his bag) also enjoyed the late day ridge lift that I had predicted all day (why doesn't anyone ever believe me???) Of the mid-day flights, I was most impressed by Karen Gorrie. I thought she was toast at least a half a dozen times only to see her up above launch again. Spoons was quite astounded to see so many women pilots (two Karens, Lauren, Ellis and Debbie-- but where were Christy and Sheila???).

And David O. with his wacky reverse grapevine grip had the best launch of the day.

Matthew (soggy gliders in the basement, of Karen and Matthew)

Ooops. Forgot to mention late arrival Brian VH who also soared at the end of the day and kept trying to hit me with his kingpost.

Matthew (anyone fly Ridgely, of Karen and Matthew)

Matthew came up to me afterwards claiming I wasn't looking out for him. On the contrary, I replied, I had my eye on him the whole time (perhaps aiming?). Hell, he'd been out to try jousting not too long ago. I'll tie a pillow to the kingpost next time to keep matthew happy.

-Brian.

Looked kinda stable with a steady cross wind. The winds straightened out and allowed very good Truck Tow conditions. A bunch of people showed up and most everybody soared.

Billy flew the Superfloater. Getting high and logging some good time, he was all smiles in the landing zone. I got the rare privilege of inspecting Jim Keller's upper surface. For an extra bonus, I got to watch JK stomp on his shadow after a premature reunion with the planet! It's usually the other way around. Jim did spank me though, getting 1000ft higher.. topping out at over 6000ft. agl.

All soaring was under high level scuzz. A real pleasant surprise.

Terry

Manquin _was_ marvelous yesterday. Under the veil of a thin cirrus overcast, crisply topped and hard, flat-bottomed Q popped all over the eastern sky shortly before noon. HIGH pressure centered to the NW had produced a light NE flow over the field throughout much of the morning, but with time, the wind slowly veered into the E indicating the HIGH had moved to a position N of the field. By 1 PM, the HIGH had reached the nearshore waters of the Middle Atlantic, evidenced by a wind shift into the SSE. All the while the wind was clocking through the cardinal compass points, the cirrus shield in advance of LOW pressure winding its way toward the Great Lake was lowering and thickening.

There was little time to waste. At some point, insolation would diminish enough that strong convection would cease. Forecasts from the numerical weather prediction models indicated that time would be shortly after 2 PM.

I launched from the truck a little after 1 PM. The experimental Truck Thermal Index was minus 10, which empirical evidence suggests is the minimum value for being able to soar from a truck launch (release altitude greater than or equal to 1000'). For good measure, I released just above 1400' AGL. Drifting slowly downwind to a position over the pond, I aligned my flight path to intercept any lift that might be coming from a known, reliable source - a small field off to the east of the runway/s southern terminus. At 1100' AGL, I began carving circles and drifting in the 2-300 '/" lift. Objects on the ground had become noticably smaller when I spied a TV a short distance off to the East, so I knew the thermal was at least that wide. On my way over to join the buzzard (well, to bump him out of the lift, if the truth be known), I blundered into smooth, 4-500 '/" lift around 3K' AGL. A few minutes later, I checked my altimeter and was genuinely surprised to see it approaching 6K' AGL! Qbase was ~1K higher, but I was unwilling to drift much further away from the field from my present position high atop the sleepy hamlet of Manquin. Reaching Qbase seemed possible, but I bailed out @ 6200' AGL.

By this time, many others had launched and most pilots were soaring, although only Terry was anywhere near my altitude. Most of my flight was spent at, or above 4K' AGL. At the beginning of the end, we flew together for a while in search mode off the Northwest end of the field, but I came up empty handed and was flushed after 1:10. Terry, with his superior L/D, was able to survive by flying over the upwind end of the field were he was again one with nature and getting smaller all the time. After he landed, Terry was happy _and more than just a little eager_ to report that my upper surface looks just fine. I thanked him, but also explained that its dangerous and somewhat foolhardy to fly above me and told himnot to ever do it again. He snorted and said he hoped to fly with me again real soon. Damn kids.

Pilots du Jour: Terry, Billy Vaughan, Greg DeWolf, Chris Cioffi, Doug Perkins, Jim Carrigan, Joe Schad, and Tim (scooter tow student who at one time owned and flew a Rogallo). Tex the Wuss was home recovering from knee surgery.

JK

KPTB

I just got back from vacationing in SanFrancisco, where I flew tandem from Mt.Tamalpias to Stintson beach. Bodhi, the instructor, runs a hang gliding school out there. Besides tandems, he often uses his "aqua-glider" for instruction in the SanFrancisco Bay.

The grass covered slopes give a surreal quality to the place. Launch is from a grassy slope at the top of the mountain. We worked light lift and stayed up for about 25 minutes. A smooth 20mph wind made for a no step landing onto soft sand at the beach.

The weather is highly unpredictable and the mountain often remains fogged in all day. Later flights with other students were sled rides as the lift was too broken and turbulent, but we all had a great time. Photos coming.

Steve Hengen

BTW: He's a proponent of the rear wires flaring technique. He says he's never broken a downtube, even in 17 years of flying.

===

Bodhi Dharma Kroll
San Francisco Hang Gliding Center
(510) 528-2300
www.sfhanggliding.com
sfhg@home.com

Nobody missed much at Daniel's today. although the weather was beautiful.. the conditions were cruddy.

Three of us were there hoping for the best. Got to the top and it was cross from the west with strong cycles. NOAA promised deminishing winds, so we hung out. Pat had to leave, so naturally, it started getting better. At 4:30, it was lightening up and coming straight in... I wasted no time.

Drifting back with the first thermal things seemed peachie. Climbing to about 1500ft. over, and through some turbulance, the direction of the drift switched outa the west! Not good at Daniel's. I figured that I had two options, I could go XC and get home in the middle of the night, or just mess around under 1500 over.

I chose to get back the area around launch and hang out low, expecting the winds to be SW again..... they weren't. I flew out towards the LZ at 1600ftagl and parked pointed into the West. I'm guessing it was 30mph. The lift was wide spread (kinda like ridge lift) real dumpy and turbulant up and downwind. I started to spook myself thinking about monsters and dragons coming out of the BlueRidgeRotor and turning my glider upside down. So I elevatored down from 1600ft. and landed in a rowdy field. It was only luck that spared me the price of a downtube!

I was unable to contact Bruce and he launched after me and found conditions a little better. I noticed that he was penetrating a little better although, it was still west. He too .. got lucky and was spared the price of a tube

Terry

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated May 12, 2002