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Hangola January 8 - 14, 2003

Flight Reports

It was really cold at and really strong when I arrived at about 11:00. Richard Hays was there with some students but the gliders were still on his truck. Bryan had two flights before I got there and Sparky took one on his Falcon that I did get to see. The air had more texture than I was comfortable with and I was freezing so I started thinking about going home.

Sparky and company started flying combat Zagi so I hung out and watched that for a while then Eddie Miller showed up. He set up, launched and made about 500 passes in air that looked a lot smoother than it did an hour earlier. So I set up.

Long story short, as the day went on it smoothed out a lot and became really fun. Eddie had something like 13 flights, Sparky had a bunch on the Falcon and a few on the paraglider. Danny showed up and took a few flights on Sparky's wing. Matthew and Karen came later and each flew; Karen on her glider and Matthew on my glider and his paraglider. In the end I had 7 flights and convinced myself that I still remember how to launch and land.

I'm glad I stayed. It was cold but the air was good. Even if it did freeze my face so much I sounded like Buckwheat when I spoke. Remember, "Beach, Beach out and dutch, dumbodies an, bake dis merl a beta pace, ib du tan!"

Dave Rice

Showed up to W@15-25 gusting to 35.
Waited around... still honkin.
Waited some more... honkin some more.
Watered some plants... blowin 20-25 now, still gusting like a mo-fo Watched the BIG fluffy clouds drift on by. Wondered if they looked slow or if they were just too high to tell that they were wizzing by.
Still blowing 20+G30's
Flew zagis (well, Lloyd flew his, mine was in the car) Put on flying goggles cuz our faces were getting damn cold. Still blowing 20....
Waited
Waited
Waited some more.
Still honkin.
Supposed to back off a bit later on... hrm. Still honkin.
Waited .... you get the idea.
"Screw it, I'm cold, it ain't gonna back down." Bagged it.
Went home.
(FU JD!.. just kiddin, can't wait till ya get back brotha)

Jim

Well, if Woodstock Sunday is like it was today, it should be pretty good. Had the mountain to myself - with Tracy to drive. Too cross at 1:00 so we hiked for a bit and checked it at 3:30. To my suprise it was straight in. Slightly less than 1 hour with 1200 over. Nice light winds (5 mph on launch) and soft thermals. I have other plans for Sunday, but good luck to you.

Tom

The weekend was great at Smithsburg, in spite of the EVIL cold.

I'll add a few extra details yesterday's report by Dave Rice. On Saturday, I bagged 5.5 flights in the PG. 1.5of them were in the stronger stuff ;-) Eight flights in the Falcon, managed a few soaring passes. Arrived at 9am and left at 5:30. Was kinda stiff and sore this morning.

Went back today at 3:30pm. 'Twas NW at 15-20 (Eddie was soaring again). By the time I got up top it began to back down. I cranked out 11 flights by sunset. There were many others who enjoyed the favorable conditions, but I won't enumerate.

Ironically, I've been drenched in sweat while at Smithsburg - not cold at all.

I suspect High Rock would've been nice this evening. Yesterday, Danny reported favorable conditions (11mph) at HR in the late afternoon.

'Spark

Another good day at Smithsburg today. Richard had a flock of students. Danny Brotto and Richard and Eddie soared the hill briefly: A beautiful sight! Winds abated later in the afternoon and everyone flew. I had five flights, this time wearing my pod harness. It was a lot of fun. Just like Sparky, I wasn't cold, mostly just drenched in sweat by the end of the day.

Mike Buckley

Sorry you couldn't make it John, you missed a lovely day in the sky! Thermal lift was abundant, and strong enough to provide for some fun. I got to 2200ft. over, which was the best I could do. Suprisingly, there was quite a turnout with a dozen or so. Terry

I thought it was going to be to light so I went to T Row, I got a little over an hour and got to 3500 msl. John

The statistics are as meaningless as the promises a teen makes to never drink. 985 over launch, 1 hour 15 duration, 800 feet per minute for both sink and lift. Big deal. But as someone once said, God is in the details. Paul fetched my vario 'I forgot it at the truck' because he wanted me to have a chance to soar while conditions looked good. He didn't mind if he had to miss a flight, as long as I managed one. He likes to fly a lot, so this was a better way of demonstrating his love than giving me a diamond bracelet. My good friend Matthew threw me off into a steady six mile an hour breeze. Ginny instantly smelled the thermals and the sun on her back and got excited. She wanted to buck towards the trees and ignore me, just as opinionated and wrong as the horses I ride every day. But she climbed the whole time that we wrestled. The sky was so blue my eyes hurt and they watered from the cold, even behind my glasses. Soon, the spine of the ridge curved under me and the river was a mirror. Gliders decorated the sky everywhere, green and red and orange. Terry and Ellis and Karen and so many of the people I care about flew with me. They gestured to say hello and I howled and shouted when Ginny grabbed a thermal. My eyes started watering more then, because a lot of times life doesn't exactly work out like you planned but sometimes the gifts you are given are almost too great to fathom. But eventually my stomach started complaining that it hadn't been fed and my mouth shriveled from lack of moisture. My shoulders hurt and my lips were two frozen pieces of liver. So I landed. Good approach, no-step landing. A miracle! Karen said I was a Hang Two-point-nine. Oh, Paul got 1 hour 20 and higher than me (1500 over), and had a perfect landing. Terry was the stud of the day with some outrageous figure like 2200 over. Hank, Brian, Kelvin, Kevin, Gary, Howard, and Carlos all had good flights. Forgive me if I forgot anyone.

Paul and I scarfed nachos and burgers with Karen and Matthew later. Everything was so perfect I thought we'd probably die in a car wreck on the way home, but we made it. Woo hoo!

Swamp Bitch

Yep, a great day at the stocker. My fingers only lasted 47 minutes during my PG flight (1600 over). Went back up for a 20 minute sunset flight in my hang glider. Karen, Ellis (in her bag), Hank, Paul, Lauren, Kevin, Kelvin, Gary, Carlos, Brian, and Howard all flew in the sweet, soarable (but cold) air. Matthew (heading for the hot tub, of Karen and Matthew)

Yea, I was starting to sweat while working those bullets over the ridge! I was really pushing the envelope today....with the amount of air time I could squeeze out of my schedule. I got greedy for airtime but cut myself off at 2:15. As it was the ride back was swift. At 3:30 the air seemed to be really smoothing out. I did however notice some of the pilots seemed to be stuck in slow motion today--no wait--those were the paragliders. Ha Ha, just teasing.

Gary actually found the winglet he lost almost a year ago in the woods. I'll let him post that story because it is pretty dam funny.

Kevin C

Had another great time at Woodstock today also. My stats were almost exactly the same as Paul's. I did somehow though manage to miss my left downtube on final and ended up rolling in. I guess I waited a little to long to go upright. I usually don't swing up until the glide in ground effect but I think I will be moving that up to shortly after going on final. I also found a set of bunjee's at the upper parking area and a king post cover at launch. I found the owner of the kingpost cover. If the bunjee's are yours let me know and I'll get them back to you. Otherwise they will live in the car to be used as needed when flying.

Hank

P.S. When Gary (LUCKY MAN Smith) posts maybe he will also tell you about his gliders miracle ride back to the top on the outside edge of the blazer NOT even tied down!!!!

After 4 hours of skiing with friends at Liberty Saturday morning, I headed out for a hang gliding fix. It seemed a bit windy at the ski hill so I wasn't in a big hurry to get to High Rock. From the top of the ski hill, I could see a sailplane being set up at Fairfield. I stopped by the airport first to watch Val tow off into the lenticular filled sky. (Val managed to get to 9K MSL in the wave in that flight.)

On the drive to High Rock, it looked quite windy however at a deserted Rock, the wind was astoundingly mild! At 2:00pm, it was STFI and my fancy ASI showed a steady 6 to 8 with an occasional 11 mph max. I didn't believe it. I hung out surveying the conditions for 15 minutes thinking I happened upon a lull in the real action. The readings were unwavering, no howling in the trees, cu's wafting by slowly overhead - weird. Temps were 26 F in the set-up area.

Off to Smithburg and in the valley, it was cranking again - double weird.

The wave was clearly working as evidenced by the lennies (and Val getting to 9K.) Could the wave dynamic have placed HR in a dead-wind zone?

It was blowing 10 to 15 at Smithburg allowing for some nice soaring time. Eddie has that place so wired and he just whips that Mark 4 around like it's nobodies business. Spark loaned me his 190 Falcon while he played bag-man. Karen practiced her windy launches experimenting with the 'let it fly' technique. Had a hoot of a time at this magical little hill. Froze my a$% off but it didn't matter.

On Sunday, I stopped by HR at about 1:00 PM and found it again deserted. However today, IMHO it was blown out. Winds were measured 15 with sustained periods of 20. The cu overhead were whipping by and the trees were roaring. Temperature again was 26F.

I stopped by Mrs. Emma's and had a nice visit with Harry and Emma. Off to Smithburg again, this time armed with a cursory knowledge of Harry's shortcuts through the meandering country roads.

Had a ball flying Richard's new 140 Falcon 2 in the somewhat textured air. Thanks for letting me hog the little machine. (Actually it was too breezy to fly students until the end of the day.) Lots of activity at Smithburg today. Had another day of fun - god I love this sport!

While it seemed a bit breezy in places on the ride home, I suspect it way have calmed down at HR to allow aviation to be committed later in the day. Danny Brotto

Paragliding at WS:
it was pretty darn funny to be feeling like a pylon, with hang gliders wizzing by left and right. What was really funny was when I parked in the core of a thermal and had hang gliders fly circles around me. REALLY weird feeling. If I ever get comfie enough on the PG, I think it would be a great platform to take hang gliding pix from!

-- ellis

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This page last updated January 27, 2003