Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2004

Index to weather maps

Hangola January 1 - 9, 2004

Flight Reports

High Rock worked yesterday. I arrived at 10:30 and while both streamers were blowing in at 10ish, the site was deserted. Bob Buchanon showed up at ~11:30 and we began to set up. Wuffos began streaming in. A couple of light periods ensued where the streamers went limp. Christy and Rich showed up at about noon and we threw Rich off for the first HR launch for 2004. He had a great launch, climbed above launch for a bit, lost it, and then headed out to land. I launched at ~1:00 but it wasn't as pretty as Rich's. Up I went in the light ridge lift and worked bits of bubbles to about 300 over. Bob launched and also climbed. Most of my flight was in the 200 to 600 over range. Got as low as launch level and maxed at 800 over. Similar action for Bob although he was a bit lower as he was getting his jollies by diving launch and zipping along the ridge pretending to be a fighter pilot doing strafing runs. (I think I could see the big grin on his face.) Christy launched but was having suspension problems cutting her flight short (about 15 minutes.) Lift band was widespread and solid. Very little drift in the thermals. Air was very pleasant. I needed to get back to town for a family thing so after about an hour, I zipped out to the LZ for a good landing (tough to have a bad landing in the U2.) Bob followed shortly after. Back on launch, it was still blowing in and I suspect still soarable. Home by 5.

Danny Brotto

Pulpit was working good yesterday too. Hugh, Matt/Karen, Ellis/Gary S BVH, Bacil "the Luddite," the TJs, Ellis, Alex, Spark, Ellis and perhaps one or two others in attendance.

Conditions were light to moderate Westerly with "surprise-in-the-middle" thermals abundant--meaning very weak around the core--but surprisingly juicy-strong in the center. Got my vario to scream to 1700 above several times.

Almost everyone got to soar to their heart's content, though a mid-day flush nailed many pilots. I'll let them report on their flights. But it was still easily flyable well after that, as Matt and Spark proved with nice soaring flights on their paragliders. Ellis had some harness problems and conservatively chose to land.

I AGAIN dropped the nose on landing, bringing my whack total for this trip near to my previous combined total for the whole time I've owned the glider!

Marc

The reason the turnout was low at HR was that twelve of us were at The Pulpit having a great day. When Lauren and I arrived around 11:00, Bacil and Gary S. were already set up and Spark (with a guy named Alex from Utah) was returning from the LZ having already taken an early ride on his Falcon. Seemed to be blowing in around 10 so we started setting up. Hugh, Matthew, Karen, Marc, Ellis, and eventually Brian would round out the group. Launching started in earnest around 12:00 with everyone soaring in light Ridge lift with nice thermal activity getting us higher. I was trying Kevin Carter's Viper harness and was enjoying it a lot working lift with Mark around Launch but when a couple of sink cycles put me low, I decided to join everyone else closer to the LZ. I was concerned about the landing characteristics of the new harness and wanted to get to the LZ with plenty of altitude to set up an organized approach should I get flushed. Well, that was my big mistake cause about 10 minutes later all of us on the South ridge did get flushed leaving Mark to thumb his nose at us from 1,700 over for an hour and a half or so. BTW, the Viper landed just fine. I didn't find it to be a problem at all. I am, however, going to pass on Kevin's and order a new one. It was just too tight of a fit for me to be comfortable. If anyone is interested in one of these, Kevin's is like new and cheap! But I digress.

On top of all the great hang gliding, Matthew led the PGers into the sky with a great 1:40 flight to 1,900(?) over. Sparky and Ellis also joined the small and elite crowd who have launched funeral shrouds from The Pulpit. (They should really put some sticks in those things.)

Lots of fun in wonderful smooth air. Ya should have been there.

Paul

After flying, several of us met in Hagerstown for dinner to end a great day.

Well, we have two more members in the Pulpit Paragliding Club. The two folks responsible for developing and clearing the launch, Spark and Ellis, each flew today: Sparky twice and Ellis (oops I forgot to check the buckle on my chest strap) Kim flew once.

Big thanks for Sparky for helping me launch. It was a tad strong. So sparky acted as my anchor. When I inflated the glider I was lifted off my feet and it felt like the wing had surged overhead. But it was just that Sparky was holding on to me and flying me like a kite (I did the same thing to Karen last weekend at Smithsburg). Anyway, I'm this helpless kite being held down by Sparky. So he spins me around, pushes me away from launch and up I go. I got an hour and 20 minutes and 1300 over. The air was a bit rock and roll for a while and I got low a couple of times. But I made the low saves and it was fun, fun, fun spinning up in tight, punchy thermals and working on canopy control.

Happy New Year!!!

Matthew

Photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/108360134lzndAH

'Spark

Sparky, why didn't you call me at O'dark thirty. Well, I cleaned the house with the wife and she finally said "Leave!" go play. But it was late then. So I headed to MFP. I took 5 tows and was able to hang with a Bald Eagle for a few turns going up. Not a good soaring day but good practice hitting the Bullseye Steve has out in the field. Gene

Well, for the New Year I did the H2 thing, joining Danny, Bob, and Christy at The Rock. After rushing to set up and launching in a sweet cycle, I realized I'd never attached my vario to the glider. Rats! I got up a little to the left on the ridge, messed around for a bit and then passed back in front past launch loosing my few feet of gained altitude before turning back to the left. Christy thought I was getting a little low for making the LZ flying into the wind on the Falcon, so at her direction (See I do listen to her sometimes) I headed out, made a couple of 360's before coming in for a decent landing. Bob and Danny launched and soared on and on while I waited for a ride back up to help Christy launch. After seeing her off, I proceeded to deliver my highly acclaimed HG lecture to the numerous spectators on launch. Then, with only a woofo dog's warning bark, Bob buzzed us. It was great, with all of us ducking as he tore past. Then around 3:00 I drove back down to join everybody in the LZ. Thanks again to Danny and Bob and Christy for throwing me off.

Rich

The Pulpit was working nicely yesterday as everybody has reported. I am glad that everybody had nice flights. Mine was nice up for a whole hour until something happened that completely ruined the flight. I feel that I should comment on this so that others don't make the same mistake.

I had a close encounter with the trees at the top of the ridge near the Rt. 16 crossing. I was out in front of the ridge a good bit, and slightly below ridge level. I found some light lift, and decided to follow it back towards the mountain. I had been doing this very thing many times during the last hour, since the lift tended to be narrow and extended downwind. The lift stopped, and I found myself barely above the ridge (visual sighting) and flying perpendicular to the mountain. The visual sight shocked me, and I froze for a second. I had to turn the glider around, quickly, and also minimize altitude loss so that I had some distance between me and the treetops. I executed a flat turn to the right. I would estimate the treetops were less than 10' below me when I eased the glider around 180 degrees to point away from the mountain. After a challenging, enjoyable flight of an hour bobbing between below the ridge and 400' over, this one lapse in judgment ruined the whole flight. It rattled me good, and I landed immediately afterward.

How did I get myself into this predicament, where there was very little margin for error? I believe that following the narrow, extended lift downwind repeatedly and being successful in gaining a good bit of altitude each time (except once!) got me into a mindset of "automatically" doing the manuever when I hit lift out away from the mountain. However, each time (except for one!) I had done it, I had plenty of clearance altitude above the ridgetop when I turned back towards the mountain. This one time I forgot to check my altitude before committing to the downwind chase of the lift. It could have put me in the trees. Thank goodness conditions were light at the time, resulting in no trouble executing the flat turn to point away from the ridge and escaping the tree branches.

Bacil

Paul and I arrived about 11. The sunshine burned away the haze and warmed us in the set up area, which is sheltered, unlike the one at Woodstock (awesome flying, but the set up area has you frozen by the time you launch). I felt sick and tired after the New Years bash at Julia's and Mike's the night before. I didn't drink much, but we did stay up late. I always wake very early, no later than 6, so as a result had almost no sleep. Was definitely far from my best -- apologies to all. It has seemed a stressful week in many ways.

I set up anyhow (following Pete's advice from the XC clinic a year and some months ago) but never felt well. I helped launch most of the pilots, though they would have been fine without me, since Spark and Matthew stayed to help. I drove to the LZ after the flush cycle, and napped in the truck while everyone broke down.

Got back up top around 330. Matthew was still soaring in his funeral shroud. The sight of him dangling above the ridge was like waving a minnow in front of a hungry bass (me being the bass). It seemed such a waste to break Ginny down without at least flying her to the bottom of the hill, even if I felt dizzy and yucky.

Had a decent launch (in brain dead conditions). Found the lightest of ridge lift, just enough to scoot me towards the main LZ, though I eyed the secondary as I sank below the mountain.

Karen is so sweet. I heard her yell to Matthew on the radio to get off the ridge and get outtta my way; he had flown long enough and it was my turn to stay up (the band was extremely narrow). I was destined to sled anyhow but it was nice to hear her stick up for me.

Had an OK landing, technically good, but I ran a few steps, as I ended up landing downhill. The LZ is huge but it's hard to figure if the terrain will be up or down where you land. I thought I worked it out OK, landed cross wind, well really, no wind, but Paul was upset I ended up parallel to the road instead of facing down the hill. Wasn't very "on" but thought I made OK choices. Was pleased to have not spent the entire day without getting into the air, no matter what the excuse.

Dined with lots of our friends at Fridays. Marc's dinner was cursed as usual, and he suffered without food for a while after we all chowed on ours. Got home at 800. I was asleep by 815. Actually snoozed til 630. Happy New Years!

Lauren Tjaden

Shawn, Dave and myself met John Wiseman at Ellenville around noon New Years Day. Conditions were primo STFI 10 to15, blue skies, cloud streets, tolerable temps and sober pilots. Flights of 2+ hours with gains to cloudbase (3500' above launch) were had by many. A few of us chased a cloudstreet and made it across the valley out front and hung out in some nice thermals over the forest. The L/Z was generous with our group as was launch leaving the four of us with great big smiles. Got to fly with Bill Waters from the wghgc, he's flying a beautiful new lightspeed. JJ who is a local, on an ATOS. Fuzzy, who is another local and flies a Sensor. The usual cast of locals were out in full color with my guess of around 20+ pilots making good use of mother natures abundant thermal activity throughout the day. A New York state trooper even joined us at launch as his curiosity got the best of him as he was passing by. He seemed quite impressed. Actually enjoyed the drive to and from as I had great company and lotsa laughs. Even finished the night with a soak in Shawns hot tub. Could this be the beginning of a stellar year for flying, lets hope so.

Doug.

I arrived at Quest on Thurs night for a week of warm weather flying.

Yesterday was good with cloudbase making it to 4,900 by 2:00. Flights of 1-2hrs. Temps in the mid to upper 70's. Ron Gleason flew to Wallaby but landed 5 miles short on his way back in his Atos-C. About 15 pilots flying from Florida,Utah,Pa.(me),Calif.Ill.,and Germany.

John H.

Gary and I arrived at launch about 11:45. Got set up and waited for the sun. It was overcast over the mountain with a patch of blue to the southwest. About 1 pm the sun started to break thru so we decided to launch. Winds were 7 - 12 and mostly straight in. I launched first and Gary followed shortly thereafter. Conditions were a little choppy with a moderately strong wind above 600 over. I never got more than a thousand over. We spend about an hour and a half going between the two lookouts providing entertainment for the crowd of folks enjoying the warm day on Skyline Drive. I expected the LZ to be rough but it turned out to be reasonably smooth for the approach. The sky clouded up around three the wind seemed to die down. All in all it was a great day. The cairn is intact and Terry's stone is still in place.

Joe

What a gorgeous day for January! A number of people at the hill: John with Wesley and Ken, Cragin, Dan and Chris. Karen, Ellis and Marc flew paragliders. My first flight kicked my ass. It was kinda strong and turbulent. I had an ok launch, but almost immediately shot up and left. Jumped on it, cleared the tree and got it straight and level. About 10 ft off the ground my right wing went way up and I came down before I managed to get it level. Minus one downtube. Karen and John helped me carry the glider up the hill. Thanks!

Should have done a few things differently. Especially after over a month without a flight. Should have done a few runs at the bottom of the hill. Then, probably should have started my first flights lower on the hill. Should have waited for milder conditions. Lesson learned... hopefully.

Conditions steadily improved as the day went on. All had good flights. I had two more flights in John's Falcons. These went much better.

Pictures of the day are at http://nostepper.com/modules/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album14

Alek

For those interested in my trip to australia, I appologize for being to disconnected from the internet. My access has sucked for weeks now.

Just arrived in Hay yesterday. For some reason it isn't very hot today. On the way down the shippers fractured the crossbar on my glider. A local Aeros dealer had epoxy and carbon fiber cloth....can you say "Kevin, you are a lucky bastard!" Bo and I took turns on his glider off Mt Buffalo shortly after driving from Sydney (my glider was still busted). The weather was awesome, warm, and clear. Lift was strong but rather sporty to say the least. I admit, I got my ass kicked.

We traveled to Taggerty to visit Tim my savior with carbon fiber and flew there for a few days waiting for Oleg to arrive. Another rough air flight had me wondering if I had forgotten how to fly stronger mountain air. We picked Oleg up early saturday from Melbourne and stopped for a quick lunch before heading out for more tuning flights. Oleg must have brought some magic from the Ukraine because that day is when I finally remembered how to fly again. Man o man. Getting rabid climb rates out of tight thermals! Its amazing how slow you can go in lift but still get a killer glide at speed. Bo got bitch slapped by a wedge tailed eagle midway through his flight. Tim took a couple of short flights to tinker with his harness. (the hill was toplandable).

The first meet starts in a couple of days. Wish me luck

Kev C

I took advantage of the balmy and breezy SW conditions yesterday by flying off Taylor's a few times. Let me add my voice to the chorus: THE WEATHER THIS WEEKEND WAS INCREDIBLE! I'm so glad I have hang gliding to heighten my enjoyment of the outdoor world. Gary Campbell (?) from Charlottesville was also there getting the hang of foot launching his new Eagle. My flights were all fine except for one in which I got airborne too quickly in a stronger cycle...no adverse consequences (kept wings level) other than the scolding I gave myself.

I also enjoyed a nice dinner after at Merriman's (?) in downtown Fredericksburg on the recommendation of the friendly folks at the town visitor's center. Sorry I couldn't make the Taylor's party on Saturday.

Happy New Year's Everyone!
Daniel

With the exception of Spark and Greg DeWolf you guys prolly don't know Elsinore. It is a culture unto itself. Not sure I think all that much of it but it is indeed unique. Flew there today with a very nice para guy who is some aerobatics guru visiting from Northern CA. Enaul (?)Conner. Something like that. Anyway, it wasn't soarable but we had two enjoyable extendo flights in 75 degree air. There were some locals there but they declined to fly because it wasn't good. they opted to hang around the LZ and drink beer instead. While I am sure you all know that I have nothing against drinking beer, these guys trashed the place. Their own LZ! . They left a total mess and made no attempt to clean up. In fairness, and to put the trashing in context, I should also mention that the snorians use the area as a dump and you are likely to be dodging washing macines sofas and TVs on final. Still. While we were surveying the scene, someone drove up in a battered pick up. Looked like he had been in a fight. Enual asked if he was a pilot. &Nah. I just come here to smoke crack. Used to do a lot of methamphetamine but I almost died once. So I just do crack.& So that is 'snore. But the sky is blue and it is 75 degrees.

I'm sorry all, my behaviour in the Tow Paddock was an embarassment to all who have ever flown with me :(. All in good fun though. I learned alot of lessons. Lets see, set up early, don't release early, don't try to scratch out over the car towers, make double sure the top of your zipper is done up right, don't nose down ground handling into the wind, use extreme caution when flying over freshly started field fires, actually drink from your camel back, if your zipper blows out at the start of the flight then don't just let it go and "take it like a man",...the list goes on an on! But that's why we compete. To learn tons.

I flew almost entirely alone, blue day, effective lift to 5.5k. The course was J shaped and 160k long. I flew 5 hours and made it just short of the last turnpoint for 110k or so. Bo came in 3rd on the day. Hopefully today will go a bit smoother.

Kev C

Too conservative to be very fast but....no major fuckups to keep me from goal today!!! Maybe top 25 but that is just a guess. At goal today a dusty hit that flew a glider away like a frisbee. It was in the air for over a minute! Unfortunately a fancy new grey topped Moyes got broke pretty bad (thinner mylar, shorter life span). It was a pretty glider :( Note to self: Turn GPS interface BACK to NMEA or else it takes a dumb pilot the whole flight to figure out why the Final Glide computer isn't working. Arrived over goal at 4k! haha young grasshoppa.

Kev C

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated January 9, 2004