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Hangola March 22 - 24, 2003

Flight Reports

Hey,

My first message to the list server. Here at Quest with Christy. I got in three tows and am still in one piece. Rumor has it that I could, with luck make my hang 2 in time for the Wallaby Demo Days. Bo my instructor complimented Chad and Sonny on their work getting me to this point. Have to go now or I'll have to strangle Christy who is helping me type this.

Rich

That liar!!! He was typing and I merely asked if he wanted to dictate to me. I got in my first two flights (on Rich's Falcon) since November. Good landings, but then it's hard to screw up landings on a Falcon.

Christy

Fortunately I left for Lizville before Clint's false and bogus report concerning the road to the top was posted or I would have stayed home and missed a really good day. The road was just fine with a few small patches of shallow slush here and there. Four wheel drive was never engaged and I never spun a wheel. When I got to launch there were already a group of RC sailplane guys there, in two wheel drive vans and cars. Interestingly I met Clint coming down the mountain at 1205. Soooooo, it appears that Clint's 10:39 AM road report was posted BEFORE he actually checked. Go figure. There were only 6 pilots flying. Launches commenced about 1345 into STFI@15/18. The flying ended about 1700 conditions ranged from frustrating little ankle biter thermals to wide spread lift to cloud base to 1500 above magic type air to this is getting kind of strong. Gains to 4100' (5600 MSL) times to two hours plus. Good air, good buddies, good food, good time. Amen..........Bob.

Hank, Bruce and me. Winds 90* cross, sometimes over-the-back. I got off for an extendo, the other guys struck out. Hank never even set his glider up.

Terry

Arrived 10:30A. Clouds poppin' in the Hagerstown Valley, and cloud streets to the west. Set up and waited. Dan Tomlinson showed around 12 noon. John Dullahan and driver Rich Donahue showed. Joe Brauch showed. Decided to give it a go around 1 PM. No ridge lift, only light bumps around, despite a nice sky downwind. Got about 10 minutes before succumbing to gravity. Never got more than 50' over. Around 2P John Dullahan showed us it was soarable and got up easily, followed by Dan, Joe, and Carlos Weill. John got 2.5K over and went OTB, landing around 12 miles away west of the town of Turkeyfoot, PA. Dan, Joe, and Carlos had exciting descents to the main LZ, after conditions picked up dramatically in the air and at launch. It picked up at launch to 20 to 25 MPH on the ramp. Chris McKee showed up to help launch John, Dan, Carlos, and Joe. Holly showed up and checked out the Pulpit.

Bacil

Batman;

you may have missed the post that the kite festival had moved away from the monument to the mall. People were flying kites over by the monument anyway. The glider started being set up around 8:30 at the latest. Sorry we missed you.

Cragin and I were there the whole day. Cavanaugh, Howard, Gene, Chris Snow, John Middleton, John Codd, Ralph, Maria and Janet were there for significant portions of the day. The crowd was a little thinner than usual, but the people who came by on average seemed significantly more serious about trying it. Higher percentage of interested females as well. Maybe those who resist the urge to watch shock and awe on TV are more likely to get involved?

Brian Vant-Hull

Before the first thing:

If you were looking for gliders down by the Washington Monument like last year, you were in major error. The festival had moved to the Mall, between 4th and 7th... that is right out the front door of the Air Space Museum.

My distinctive white van with glider on top was parked at the real site at 7:30 am. Brian V-H arrived a few minutes after 8:00 and we set up my glider in plain view 50 feet from the vendor building, right along the the gravel path.

Other volunteers included Howard Wagner, Gene Towns, John Codd, Janet Gregor, Ralph Sickinger, Mark Cavanaugh, and John Middleton. We were set up and greeting folks from 8;30 to 4:30. Full day, but light crowd.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and helped splain our fun sport.

cragin

Ridgely was good. It was better early when there were cumis everywhere and the whole world was going up. Then the cumis disappeared and it was a lot tougher but still ok if your launch timing was good. Joe G was launch timing poster guy. He kept launching just as everything was crapping out. It was uncanny. He still got a reasonable amount of airtime by dint of working really hard and throwing money at a tow plane. I flew Adam's Talon 140 early when there were cumis and had a great time. That is a very very nice glider. Turns on command. Flares. Imagine that. Actually flares. Haven't done one of those since the Clinton Administration. Base was only 3400 but there was lift everywhere.. Mike Chevalier, Scott and Aiysha. Tit one. Some folks that I am sure I should know by now but don't. . Sorry. Sure was nice to see everybody again. Enjoyable day.

It was working at Ridgely saturday. We didn't get the altitude gains that were had in the mountains, but we did fly all day. 3,110 ft. and 45minutes were the best I heard a club member getting. Christian.

Jim and I flew the new Aeros Discus demo. What a solid glider. Anyone looking for a high performance, relatively light (65 lbs.) king posted glider has got to check this one out. Club members present: Jim R., Pat F., Ayisha M., Scott H., Christian and me. A fantastic sunset and pizza and beer capped off an almost perfect day. Almost perfect because I overshot my last landing, but I did NOT land in the pond.

Cheers

The pulpit was more than a handful yesterday after the winds strengthened. It's scheduled to be a little stronger today. If the winds aloft are also stronger I'd pass. Do any of you weather gurus have a take on winds aloft, and an opinion on woodstock today?

dan t

The air may have been a bit better at Lizville, John, but it sounds like you had the better apres fly scene. We broke down in a cold, windy, overcast that even Karen G's airtime smile couldn't warm up....Bob.

Last night on the NWS radio they were forecasting overcast and NW 10-15 at 6 PM on the local channels. Seeing what that brought yesterday I opted to head home and hope for Woodstock.

Paul, your turning into a towhead....we will have to reevaluate your mountain launch skills if you don't burn a few days hangwaiting :)

Anyway, Pulpit yesterday. Got 1:23 same as my last flight at woodstock,thats weird. You all heard the crew. Took off a little after Dan. Winds picked up a bit to 10-15 on ramp. Popped the nose a bit as it yanked me up,glad those harness straps were tight. Went right up a couple a hundred. Heard Dan and John talking about the smooth H2 conditions as I got rolled and dumped a few times while they were 2000 and 2500 over. Some nice thermals that were now drifting over the back so fast that if you did not wrap up the down wind turn fast you could easily end up way behind the ridge. Big venturi down low. 700 over and behind the ridge took me a little down and back before adding the VG and speed to creep back out infront. Sooooo I stayed in front of 16 by launch(that is close to the secondary) and creeped up to 1300 over. It got smoother above 900 but still above 30 even out front. Finally headed out to land. Back to the ridge and down then out to the LZ and only lost 100 after passing through 3 thermals. Rocking in the LZ!!! Coming down was not too bad. Decided to set up to the north side (right hand approach) and bleed off altitude mountain side of the field. Came in parallel to the "runway" but in the middle of the field. Was fast but still getting rolled 45 degress untill I got below 50 feet where it smooth out a little. At 10 feet up started to bleed a little speed and got dumped. Got the flare in but no feet. One point landing. Everyting at once. Nothing busted. That is spring flying for you!

joe(guess I should of gotten motel and stayed up there)

Thanks for the acknowledgement John but there is no doubt who got the best air at Ridgely yesterday. Yahoo Jim was there early (like I should have been) and got over an hour and made it to cloud base (4000 I think). Jim... you da man.. Scott also had a better gain than I did. My flights were extremely rewarding. On my first flight I got down to 1100 feet and got back up in a veeeery slow thermal to 3000 then slammed in sink (I hit 1200 down at one point). My second flight was preordained to be a sled. An absolutely smooth tow then at 900 feet I got another weak thermal and held on for 25 minutes or so until I had drifted too far from the airport.

Great day...

Lots of people showed up and everyone soared. Holly got her first mountain flight and Karma got her first soaring flight. After a less than perfect launch, I managed 1:55, getting to 300 below launch twice before fighting my way back up above the ridge. Ridge lift was spotty and thermals were small so it took some work, but perseverence paid off for some really good flight time. Matt & Karen, Cragin, Joe B, Mark C and I all had dinner in Mercersberg after the flying. All of us had a bonding around the table praying with all our might that Paul & Lauren had sled rides due to their reluctance to come join their friends in the mountains. With all their time in Florida, it seems they've become 100% tow heads. Which brings up the question...Does H3 mean much if all you do is tow? This and many more questions will be answered in the next episode of ... SOAP.

Christopher McKee

First, let me congratulate Holly and Karma for their respective first mountain (Holly) and first soaring (Karma) flights. Way to go girls!!! Sounds like everyone had a great time with lots of airtime to go around for everyone. Of course, we all know that a well trained monkey could stay up in boilerplate ridge lift :) so Lauren and I chose to test our skills in the flatlands of the Eastern Shore. (Actually we were concerned that winds might be too light at the Pulpit but don't tell anyone.)

It was definitely a marginal day but I was lucky enough to get in two decent flights. Launching just before 1:00, I managed to hook something at 1,500 and get back to 2,600 before it played out. Found another and got to 3,000 while drifting quickly downwind. Steve K. had found the same thermal at a lower altitude and was circling below me and I was thinking we could continue XC together but when he broke ranks and headed back to the field I decided to go with him. (I later learned that he had forgotten his cell phone and didn't want to be stranded.) Steve came up a little short and landed out but I managed to just squeak onto the east end of the runway. It looked like a high stratus layer moving in from the west might shut down the lift so I headed back up after a short rest. Adam came through for me and dropped me in a dandy. Went right on up to 4,200 and headed east. Didn't last too long cause that stratus stuff kinda caught up with me but got just under 15 miles and had lots of fun. God I love this sport!!!

Lauren had a couple of sleds (as did many others) but persistence paid off and she got a nice 30 minute flight on her third attempt, but more important, Sunny complimented her on a landing!!! Steve decided to leave his in the bag after his first flight. John Chambers had a short soaring flight and I'm not certain how Joe G. and Kelvin P. did.

BTW, I want to thank all of our "good friends" for the warm wishes regarding our flights today. Of course, we spent the day wishing nothing but the best for all of you.

See everyone at the meeting on Wed.

Paul

Tom McGowan has modestly declined to post the fact that he got over 20 miles from the Pulpit yesterday. I also logged an OTB for about 5 miles. The conditions were definitely conducive to long XCs.

It was a fun day for all and much more pleasant than Saturday. Bacil's weather prognosis was right on target as usual.

See ya'll next week!

dan t

Oh Mikey Likes It :) Mikey likes it a lot! I wasn't sure what to expect stepping into a higher performance glider. I had to try it out though. Chad was sure I had the skills to handle it and gave me all kinds of advice on what to expect and how it would handle. But you never know till you go.

Well kids... I nearly fell asleep on tow. No bar preassure & straight as an arrow. I was laughing all the way up... it was just too easy. Off tow was even better. The damn thing's a sports car. I could go zooming all over the place and it just wouldn't go down. There's a lot more momentum to it, and it carries through in turns and dives. It carves up the sky turning and when it comes out of a dive it climbs right back up. OH YEAH BAYBE! In a word, it was SA-WEET.

It's a lot more glider than I'm used to flying and it's going to take a while before I fly it anywhere but Ridgely, but man I was in LOVE. John Hope took the last demo of the day in it... he seemed similarly pleased. Sunday came and I took it up in slightly roudier air. I was awake on tow this time, got kicked around a bit, but it seemed to put up with my dumb ass and settled right back down. I was a happy camper. Got of tow and soared all over the place. The big kicker was being able to zoom out of the sink and into the next thermal. Getting back to the field with the vg on was a non-issue. I particularly like the "auto-thermal" button... what will they think of next? ;)

Anyway, I've babbled on long enough.
Well John, if ya wana take an other demo you'll have to fly the yellow one, cuz I bought the nice red & blue one :)

Jim

Yeah, what they said.
3,700 one day 4k the next... Cloud base all over the place. Had to fight to break past 2500 a few times, but it seemed to work out. Kept hanging on to what was working till a bigger one came along. Saw Scott scooting around up there a lot too. He was still there after I landed. Once you were up (on saturday), it was easy to stay there, but there was a lot of drift. Sunday was trashier, but still a lot of soaring going on... you had to really look out for the sink-monster that day. Don't let Christian fool ya... everyone else was sinking out while he was drifting along in the thermal. He only got slamed with sink when he came back to the field (he got slamed hard though).

Both days had similar weather... mixed bag. Windy early on. Settled down to flyable & straight down the runway mid day. Plenty of thermals. Late day Saturday was mellow and bouyant, Sunday was stronger longer but the wind eventually gave up right before sunset.

Yum yum, gimme some.
Jim

Glad to hear everyone got air time at Highland. I got my first airtow at Redwing Sunday. Two tows in the late afternoon light air. It was a blast !! Hope my air time will go up now that I can fly 20 min from home . Thanks to Jim for a couple of great tows. And thanks to Bill U for makin it happen for me. Ken S was also on hand & had a good flight.

Gary (life is good) Cargen

Yes, twas a fine day at the Pulpit. We got there later than we had hoped to after spending too much time at Smithsburg. So my plan to fly early, go over the back, return and then observe Holly, Hugh and Chris fell by he wayside. Holly did a great job on her first mountain launch! Chris... hrrrrmmmpph!!! He flew fine, however, and did a good job of avoiding traffic. Howard and Gene also had good launches under the observing eye of Sparky.

Big thanks to Tom for volunteering to observe Hugh and Karma and let me get into the sky at abot 4:45. I got maybe 800 over and 90 minutes and was the last pilot up. Had the sky to myself for about 15 minutes... ahhh!! That was SWEET! Big thanks also to Mark Cavanuagh for sticking around and helping out with launches even though he couldn't fly. Thanks too to Dan and Sparky and Rich Bloomfield for launch assitance. Karen got 1:20 and spent most of that time on top of the stack. And for the record and not mentioned in previous posts, Hank, Danny B. and Carlos also had great flights.

Matthew (scrubbing a boat again next Saturday, of Karen and Matthew)

I'd just like to point out that "hrrrrmmmpph!!!" translated means...After that crap-ass launch..how did you still fly longer than me! 1 hour 55 minutes....SSSSSUUUUU----WEEEETTTTTTT

Christopher McKee

Flew for 1:10 (plus some before and after I turned on the clock but, the after does not count because I told Chris I was heading out to land and just had to take another one back to above the ridge) A little less than Chris's 3:23 oh no! That was the date ;)

Good launch into 15, got right up. Hooked one to 2950 over and did NOT go over the back because I wanted to hang out in boiler plate lift and get some airtime. Made the sink alarm go hoarse. Back up from 1500 to 2200 then a weary sink alarm sounded all the way to the deck at 600. Pretty much boated around in some stuff while staying out of traffic. Headed out then up then back out again.
Stuck the landing. Good food and towhead bashing for all :) (We missed you towies)

joe(get your prez pardons now I only have 2 days left in office)

Actually Cragin observed me this time. Cragin also took all of the H-2s new to the Pulpit down to both LZs and walked us through the different approaches. Thanks Cragin! Allen observed Gene and helped me at launch. Congrats to Holly on her first mountain flight! She did a great job. Gene and I both had good flights and enjoyed our first Pulpit experience.

Howard

A fun day flying and teaching at Smithsburg on Sunday. Students Alek, Daniel, and Eric had lots of flights and I even did 7 or 8. Alan Hobner with encouragement from Eddie did about 8 flights in an old Seahawk. He was grinning ear to ear at the end of day. When I arrived a number of paragliders and a couple of gliders were flying but conditions started get stronger early afternoon. So the PG's all packed up and left. Conditions started to mellow out a bit around 3:00 - 3:30. We packed up around 5:00 because everyone had had their fill of flights even though conditions were really nice. Site may be open for another couple of weeks. Yes you can have fun flying at a training hill!

- john middleton

Thanks Allen!!!! I can't thank you enough for observing me. Also, Cragin for walking the LZ's and wire crew with Matthew.

Gene

I can't thank everyone enough for yesterday's experience. So many people so eager for me to experience my first mountain flight. So many people so willing to share some words of wisdom with me prior to my first mountain flight. So many willing to give up some of their own flying time to make sure I was armed with the information I'd need to make a safe launch, good approach, and safe landing.

Allen Sparks - Thank you for spending the day with me out at Smithsburg on Saturday. Sunday's flight would have never happened without the extra foot launch practice I got in with you. Watching you and the crew fly "combat zagis" was a definate treat too:-)

Cragin - Thank you for walking the LZ's with me, Gene, and Howard. Without your willingness delay your own flight, we would not have been prepared to fly yesterday afternoon.

Matthew Graham - Thank you so much for observing me. Though I was a bit intense leading up to those first few steps down the platform, everything just felt good. "Felt" being the operative word. I can still hear you asking, "How does it feel?" with reference to my wings and if they felt balanced. Things felt so balance, that I wondered how much you and the rest of the wire crew were doing for me:-)

Dan Tomlinson and Mark Cavanaugh - Thank you for the post flight launch critiques. They prompted me to do more of a self-analysis than I likely otherwise would have done which will certainly help to me do better in the future. And that's what each flight is all about right? Learning so that successive flights will be even better than those that came before.

Steve Wendt - Thank you for all the instruction you've provided, both formal and informal, over the past year and a half. I owe you so much. Perhaps we'll be able to fly together in the mountains sometime soon.

It was truly a wonderful experience.
Soaring the ridge with so many other pilots.
Spending time with everyone both before and after launch.
Being able to now put faces with the names I've seen on the listserv for over a year.
Getting a taste of what flying in the mountains is about.
Having plenty of opportunity to exercise the right of way rules that had previously only been book knowledge
Spooking a hawk (he was flying back towards me and the ridge but was looking back at the valley. When he decided turn and watch where he was flying, he realized how close he was to me and did a wing over, tucked his wings and dove below me... I couldn't help but giggle)

I can't wait to do it all again.

Thank you all!

Holly

Howard,

Sorry I missed talking to you - after wiring Carlos off, Karma and I headed down to walk the LZs and set up a shuttle. Did you fly your new Eagle? Reviews? You stampeded me into ordering one also...

Matthew talked me into going to Smithburg first (I'll have to go again with the new glider anyway). Took three flights with OK launches and landings. Ground handling still sucks. I lost control of the kite on the ground and bent two battens. (Straightened one and had a replacement for the washout tube.)

Launch at the Pulpit in slightly stronger conditions was uneventful. (Thanks to my very experienced wirecrew and observer Sparky, Dan, and Mark.) 1:05, 350 over. I really like the integrated helmet/headset and push-to-talk on the control bar that Ralph rigged for me. Thanks, Ralph! (See his forthcoming article in the newsletter on how to do it.) Should be pretty easy to transfer the rig to the Eagle... Tom McG's old harness is doing the job for me, too. It's nice when you get all the systems set-up right...

Arrived over the LZ with 1000 feet and still bellied the landing - guess I used up all my good landings at Smithsburg.

Now to figure out this thermal stuff - I've already got a cutout from the sectional chart loaded in a control bar mounting pouch for when I get all THOSE pieces in place!

Hugh (if the monkeys keep pounding away on the typewriters long enough, one of them eventually writes "Hamlet")

Went to Ridgely yesterday for only the second time ever. Chad and Sonny signed off my H1 when they were back at KHK. Sometime I'll get back and hang around though the weekend.

The only other pilots were Bruce, Steve, PK, and Chad soared with us on a Lightspeed.

We all got an 1 1/2hr or so. PK was the only XCer going 12mi. and hitchhiking back.

Cumies were abundant, but climbrates were pathetic below 3,000ft. Above that it was sweet.

I ended up 3 or 4 miles upwind at 7-800ft trying to pulloff a save and failed. Instead, I made like a buzzard and groveled my way back to the field. Thought that I would be forced to make a low right hand approach just short, but gotta pop and was able to eek in over the treeline, over the runway, and turn East and land with a slight tailing push. Steve, who was on the ground, asked me if I saw the plane that broke off his approach.......huh.. nope!

Terry

I appear to have lost my radio. Unlike others who leave it at an LZ or in somebody else's truck, mine is in my house. I know it is -- somewhere. I guess I am going to have to buy another one. Very embarrasing.

Switchy day at Ridgely yesterday. So Terry is on the cart ready to go on 30 but it is blowing tail 10mph. So we wait for it switch back. Power pilot taxis by and sees all the streamers sticking out the wrong direction and radios Chad. Chad says it is favoring 12. Silence. "Is there something I don't know about gliders?"

BTW, Embreeville was nice though technical and thermical, with good gusts and wind direction shifts, very good for training reflexes and skills. It calmed down in the afternoon around 4, with a steady 3-5 knots SW, but by that time I had to head home and could not enjoy it for 1 flight only.

Antoine.

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This page last updated May 25, 2003