Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2003

Index to weather maps

Hangola April 12-16, 2003

Flight Reports

Arrived 9A with driver in tow. Hank Hengst hanging out in the parking lot. Very light conditions. By the time I was set up (around 9:45A), it was easily soarable. Took off and hung around launch for a while waiting for Hank to launch. He joined me in a jaunt up to Signal Knob. Made the Knob, turned around, and headed back to launch. Spring air bumpiness up and back. Crossed launch, told my driver to head between Woodstock and Edinburg. Made it down to Waonaze Peak. Turned around, and met a stiff north cross headwind out of the blue. Not fun for a few minutes. Luckily I had some altitude above the ridgeline, and the ridgeline gets lower back towards launch. Headed that way, and got some added clearance above the ridgeline. Now a stiff NW wind at altitude. Decided I had had enough fun in the 2 hour flight, and put down in a huge field that I landed in back in May 2002. Landowner watch me land from his back porch. He noticed I got a little muddy when I landed. I told him it wasn't the preferred type of landing. Big thanks to Doug Wakefield, who was in the air at this time, for being an airborne repeater, allowing me to communicate my location to my driver. Had a nice casual mile walk out Lakeview Drive to Rt. 11. Beautiful day. 12 miles.

Bacil

Too cross, too strong, but we were too horney so we flew anyway. Actually the air was better than I expected. Doug, Shawn, Lenko, Karen/Joe, and myself were the chosen few. All good launches and landings with Lenko providing mild amusement in the field because he had a hard time getting down. Times to about 2.5 hours, gains to about 3600' (5100') MSL.......Bob.

Arrived at 2pm and apparently missed Paul and Lauren. It was crankin' out of the NW at about 20. My students were impressed with the site but kinda knew the day was screwed by the gusts that were pounding into the hill. Two students bailed within an hour. Christine hung out for the duration though...although it never let up.

I flew the new Eagle 180 and got above the crest with each fligh. The air was choppy and full of lift and sink. Probably the hairest conditions I've ever flown there. On one flight, I almost pulled a 360 above the hill, but chickened out due to the ratty conditions and new glider situation, and bailed at about 200 degrees. I should have continued around but...didn't. Oh well....

The new Eagle handled my lard-ass really well, and I felt comfortable with it immediately. It had been about a year since I've flown one. Nice wings....

Thanks to Eddie and friends for the wire assists off the top. NOTE: even with all the rain, Smithsburg was A-ok. No mud at all. Figure on about 2-3 more weeks worth of flying out there. Maybe. God I love that site! Beautiful day overall; sunshine, warm. Aahhh, spring has sprung...finally. But then again, this is Maryland. We could have a blizzard on Tuesday. LOL.

Rich Hays ( off to the ocean condo for a couple of days )

I soared Woodstock yesterday. I climbed far above the ridge. Its spine meandered beneath me like the backbone of a giant lizard, and the lift pulled me higher and higher. I had to follow the river out to the valley and spiral tightly to lose altitude. It should have been a banner day, but all I could think about was Chad.

The first time we met he took me on a tandem. I didn't want to learn to steer the glider, I just wanted an expensive amusement park ride. I don't know that Chad liked me very well, but he was patient and explained anyhow. Midflight, he asked me if I liked roller coasters. A second later, we screamed sideways in a wingover. I hollered "F_____ me!" enthusiastically and then he started to think I was maybe not so bad.

Paul and I were hooked on hang gliding, past our gullets. Paul learned to fly quickly, but it would have been more natural for me to walk on my hands. Chad endured the frustrating task of teaching me, but eventually he got it done. The night he soloed me, he faked at least seven weak link breaks on our last tandems together. He took it as his personal responsibility that I would be prepared - over prepared - for anything that might happen to me in the air. Oh, he was fun, he was so much damn fun, but he was kind, too. He was never a sappy, sentimental type, but he cared about me and his other students and friends. When I squashed the Target that Sunny and Chad lent me into a crumpled coat hanger, they didn't even charge me to fix her. They just dragged the Target off the runway and got me fixed up in my new Eagle, so I could fly while the evening air was smooth.

But the flying was only part of it. Paul and I often camped at Ridgely. Chad would wake us by buzzing our tents with the Dragonfly, a punishment for those who had overindulged by the bonfire the night before. We learned to play spoons - a juvenile game of electricity and nerve. Chad could take enough voltage to stop an elephant's heart, so I learned that I should drop out of the game early, because he was going to win anyhow. He always smelled like airplanes and motorcycles, and that became the smell of happiness to me, the smell of Ridgely. I would beg for rides on Chad's bike, shameless, and if he was in a good mood we would race around the taxiways after dark. I liked him so much I tried chewing his tobacco a few times, but I never got the hang of it. Paul and I had incredible fun. To say that the gifts Chad and Sunny and Adam gave us have changed every facet of our lives is no exaggeration. I don't know when I will be able to believe that Chad is gone. I can't imagine driving to Ridgely right now and not having him there. I don't even know when I'll be able to wear eye makeup again. I just cry it off as soon as it's on. I hate writing this. We have suffered a tremendous loss.

Lauren Tjaden

Very enjoyable day at Jonestown. The whole gang was there (T.R. & myself) and enjoyed thermals o'plenty. 4600' gains. T.R. had a super-duper low-save (just a couple 0' hunnert offa da deck). We're now two sore, old guys, but we're smilin'. CYAs at Hyner next weekend.

Flew the 'stick with Ellis on Saturday, still a little road-wired from my drive down from Maine the night before. Funky launch conditions and upon launching discovered my Laminar had acquired a left turn for the first time--maybe caught it from Brian's glider or something.

Nothing but ridge lift and boomer thermals everywhere--I don't recall ever hitting any bad sink during my flight. Flew north to the Strassburg tower and turned around it--very turbulent in the vacinity of the resevoir. Never had any problems maintaining altitude in ridge lift alone, and found the thermals were really mostly a nuisance to fly through while ridge-running. Hit a good one half way back to launch and decided to work it just for the heck of it and topped out around the top of the inversion at 6,700 msl. Never bothered working a thermal again for more than two or three turns after that.

All gap crossings were non-events and didn't require any thermalling. Caught up with Homey and Adam somewhere past New Market and we easily blazed the rest of the way off the south end at Harrisonburg, beautiful way to end a sometimes bouncy flight.

Despite the westerly winds along the ridge, I had learned my lesson from several previous ridge runs that ended with mighty pound-ins and sought out a field that would allow for multiple direction adjustment. Found one across 33 from the main South Peak lz and had a perfect no-stepper into a north wind. Very tiring but satisfying 46.5 miles (these days I'm lucky if I get a 10 minute sled). Special thanks to JR who landed back at the ranch and picked us up quickly.

Marc

I also hit amazing turbulence up by the reservoir. It hit me so hard that I swung into the right downtube and almost knocked my vario off. The vario spun completely around on the DT and turned itself off. After sinking like a rock, I then climbed all the way to the North Point and flew out over Strasburg still climbing-- to 3k over. But even in the lift, I was getting bounced around quite a bit. I thought it might have been wave out in front of the ridge. But when I turned to head South, I again encountered the giant sink monster by the reservoir, which scraped me down to only 500' over the ridge. Considering all of the sink and turbulence, I didn't even think of trying to run the ridge. Plus, I had Observer duty and I wanted to fly my bag as the winds backed off. So I landed after 2h 40m and had the joy of the winds switching almost 180 degrees on me while on final. I fell out of the sky from about 20' feet, quickly pulled in and then did one of those 'oh my god' flares as the ground came up, coming down on my wheels and knees. It was the most turbulent flight I ever had. But despite the areas of shear nastiness, the sky between the two fingers by launch and just North of launch was relatively smooth all day with lift going all the way out into the valley.

Winds never backed off enough to launch my bag, but we did get Dave, from San Diego, off for his first soaring flight.

Matthew (Spring is here, of Karen and Matthew)

OK, so did everyone else. But it was my first time. Back in San Diego I didn't get into high-altitude until mellow winter conditions came in. So I've had plenty of sled rides--try to work a barely noticeable thermal here and there--but little else. One plus: I got good at no-winders.

I was hooked in at launch and ready to pick it up and feel it when we heard the LZ wasn't appropriate for 2s. So I backed down off launch and did shuttle duty. Halfway down, I'd heard the LZ settled down, and frustration set in that I was in my car. Then I heard Brian on the radio say it was brain-dead soarable, and I really got antsy. Still, when I finally got back at launch, I wasn't sure I wouldn't chicken out and head straight for the LZ. But I made a right turn and started going up and up. A few minutes and a few passes later I was 4-500 feet above launch (my estimate without instruments) without any effort. It was getting late, so I headed upwind of the LZ. Took a long time to lose altitude. The LZ was a bit rocky (did I forget to come in hot?), but I landed solidly, and without hitting any livestock.

I want to thank everyone who helped me at the launch. You were a great, helpful crowd.

Dave

I got here on Friday night and the weather called for basically rain all week. Some big low is here from the Aleutian Islands or something.

So I went out Saturday anyway and met up with some of the old-timers I know out there. We waited until a squall went by and dumped some rain and then got out and flew for about an hour and a half until sunset. We could see big cumies around the Bay Area, but the flying site was clear and the air was so clean you could easily see the Farallon Islands.

The newly sprouting grass is brilliant green, the wildflowers are bright yellow. The flying was really smooth and beautiful.

The next day (Sunday), I came out again even though it was supposed to rain, and it was strong, but a bunch of us flew for about 45 minutes. No problem since you just launch and land from the same place. There's a parking lot a couple hundred feet from the first launch area.

This time I got up high, being careful about the gradient, which turned out to not even be a gradient, so I was able to take video of the whole Bay Area from about 400 ft. over the bluffs (about 1k ft over launch).

Today was supposed to be sunny, so I went out to the coast and it was too south and all overcast, so I'm back typing this now instead of flying. So much for weather forecasts.

Spectacular flying in my favorite spot. The scenery is mind blowing.

Jerry

It was great to read about all those stellar flights this weekend. I miss Woodstick. This week has me feeling really down, thinking hard about flying and where I want to go with it. What I needed most was a good soaring flight to get away and express myself with. The weather here was really bad for an unprecedented number of days in a row but finally broke today. Cloud base was the only thing standing in the way of some epic flying. Set up did not feel the same for me. I was more cautious. Took things slow, preflighted patiently. Part of me was aching to fly but another part of me was maybe scared. For some reason my vario didn't beep once in the setup area. Even as I stood on top of launch none of those eager sounds. I jumped right into a weak launch thermal and worked it as well as I could. The vario rewarded me with just a beep or two. Hmmm, that seems odd because I know I am climbing......a few minutes later the thing wouldn't shut up. It was pegging all over the place. I was flying mostly straight and level but it was screaming at me like I was riding a roller coaster. Something was definitely wrong so I just shut it off, praying that I could still squeeze out some good airtime. Without all that racket I just tuned into the other cues and suddenly flying went to a whole other level for me. I flew for four hours entirely by temperature, glider balance, and angles. My speeds to fly in sink probably weren't to accurate but no one out climbed me. I felt the spirit of Bacil with me. It felt great.

-Kev C

Here it is 8:30pm and I have to go for a very long run. Why you wonder? Because Kevin is a greedy bastard and couldn't restrain himself to just an hour's airtime today. Now the penance I pay is a run in the dark. How do you fly out of booming air? I just couldn't tear away. The vario was all charged and in full distraction mode. Young grasshopper is quickly learning why the pilots here use Robert's Varios. The lag on mine makes it old news when in challenging thermals. I didn't fly particularly big XC loops today, just lots of small ones. I had to urinate so badly at about 3 hours but couldn't bear to leave great conditions for that either. I struggled to make relieving myself possible but my gloved fingers were frustratingly useless. Finally one glove in the teeth, circling light lift with one arm wrapped on the base tube allowed me the freedom my urinary tract was crying for. I squeezed some more airtime out of my wasted shoulders and cracked 5 hours for the first time ever! Watch out Ellis.

Piece
-Kev C

I finally went XC!
Basic stats:

duration: 1:01
distance: 4.5 miles
landing: 1 stepper in a nice big field by a road

For my long winded drivel and a pretty picture of the flight check out:
http://stopthesanity.org/archives/000131.html

Chris

----------------

The vario is a Ball M19. The basic model. I'm looking at a FlyTec 4020, but not right away. I'm also thinking about just getting one of those mini varios that just gives sound and no read out. All the data I really need is in the GPS.

The GPS is a GarminGPSMAP 76S.

The software is SeeYou.
Oh yeah, after downloading the flight data into See you it did a whole bunch of flight statistics:

avg straight line glide: 15.1
avg straight line ground speed: 27mph
thermals:10 (4 going to the right, 4 going to the left, 2 mixed)
total altiude gain: 5827'

That's all with 3D gps data only. Remember, the GPS is 10% for knowing where I am and 90% toy factor. :)

Chris

------------------

Actually, it was 10 "thermals" in 2 miles. I was having trouble getting myself to actually _go_. Once I went I never found any more lift. :(

And, they way SeeYou determines when you switch thermals isn't 100% accurate. probably 4 of those "thermals" are 1 just a single thermal that I lost 3 times. On the bright side, I think I'll have an easier time when I reach the point of no return in the future. :)

Chris

-----------------

That's cool. 4.5 miles isn't exactly an earth shattering flight. For me the big thing was just leaving the park. (And landing in a bid safe field.)

Chris

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated April 30, 2003