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Hangola February 28 - March 4, 2004

Flight Reports

Great to see so many faces on launch, too bad the weather was wimpy. 100 ft over was an accomplishment today. 1/2 the crew scratched around at 50-100 over for a while, but it was work. West cross and light, not much thermic activity.

Bob, Doug, Jessy, TR, Shawn, Joe and Karen, Ken Sutch, Craig Williamson. Even a bunch of wuffos.

Yup, Ken Sutch returns. Did a nice sledder... solid launch and landing.

All the melting snow/ice made for quite the scene with the cars. We had to push a bunch to unstick them throughout the day. 4x4 was the way to go. I feel lost without my tirechains (sold my car, now driving my 2wd truck).

Nice stinking day to be outside. Glad to spend it with such nice people. Thinkin bout Lizzy tomorrow.

Jim

Daniel B had his first Pulpit flight today. Congrats! Dan took some of the photos of Dave Tymms and I flying PG today. Carlos took a few also.

Sorry we didn't get photos of all the other folks having fun.

http://community.webshots.com/album/121804068uWJqwx

'Spark

Spark or anyone

Can you tell Dave that he left his jacket in the car. He can tell me off-the server how he wants it back.

(It was good after 4:20 for those who could)

Carlos

It was nice to be in the air again, and it was a pleasant day to be outside for sure. Not much to fly in. Might have stayed up a bit longer if I turned a little tighter into a rather narrow lift band. But I was happy to shake the cobwebs off. I'ts been a while. Looked at my logbook tonight and it's been almost 18 months. I would not have guessed it to be that long. Where does the time go? Doug, thank you for your help and counsel. Jim already gave the list of attendees and it was nice to see them. Hope to see you all much more this season.

Ken

With every forecast and forecaster predicting NW 5-10 Saturday; it turned out to be anything but that. Upon arrival there was already a small crowd there. Joe Brach had his Ultra Sport set up and Marvin Presley was there with his two Falcons ( one metal and dacron, the other feathers ). John Middleton also arrived and immediately went out on the hill to check conditions. Oddly, there was every wind direction occuring BUT NW. Most everybody decided to leave, but I figured it was worth waiting it out, so me and my 3 students did the usual "hang-wait" stuff. Shawn Ray showed up later, and got several flights in, as did Joe, but....conditions never did materialize and after doing some groundhandling...we packed it in, mud and all.

What a disappointing day. What the hell happened? And....it was good at the Pulpit???

Rich Hays

Momma RTown was quite niggardly with her favors yesterday, but it was a great social day. Today, however, is another day. I'm pinning my hopes on a benevolent Lizville. I've got that ole "great day" feeling.....Bob.

Holly and I drove to Manquin (Blue Sky) for a relaxing "dust off the winter cobwebs" Saturday. I started with scooter towing---had many good flights in slightly rowdy air, finally feel like I'm getting on top of it---landed on my feet every time.

Several pilots showed up later, including Rance Rupp, Tim Eggers, Greg DeWolf, Claude, Billy Vaughan, Mike Wimmer, Chris Cioffi, and others. Around 1pm everyone (except me of course) started setting up for truck towing for the remainder of the day. Not much lift was found; Claude had the flight of the day, staying aloft for 20-30 minutes and getting up to 2,500 (or more?). Rance had a close look at a bald eagle cruising overhead.

So no epic flights, but beautiful weather, and good fun hanging out shooting the breeze with Steve, Tex, and all the other pilots. Looks like there will be plenty of folks there tomorrow as well.

Scott

Scott, It was good to see you progressing nicely. I think you don't realize how close you could be to truck towing if you keep up your pace of progression. And no mud, to boot. :o) Keep up the good work Scott. No, the lift wasn't too abundant but a good time was had. Flying that close to an Eagle made the day for me. I didn't get quite as close a look as Gene did a few months ago but it makes me realize how much more God knows about aerodynamics than us groundbound mortals, wanting to just stay up. How in the world could a feather be so efficient? It was an interesting experience too seeing the PPG take off and buzz around. With the addition of PG training there now, I will be curious as to how many HGers will go bi-wingal. I still stick to my decision to stay with the plumbing. Although I might enjoy kiting around a little on the ground or taking a scooter run with one. Hope folks have have good flights there Sunday. I'm seriously considering MFP again Monday if the winds die down just a smidgen. Waiting and watching. Rance

Well at least I had a good day.
After 2 hours of hangwaiting it came in straight enough for 2 flights. Not too much of a mudburg for me. Air seemed bouyant once away from the hill. Ready for the Mnts again. Started over to the Pulpit at 3:30. Decided that too much hangwaiting and not enough motivation left my brain mush. Did anyone at the Pulpit hear me on the radio?

joe(its warm again!)
next weekend????

After waiting around for most of the day watching really good pilots either sled or fight for extendos, I finally launched alittle before 5:00 for a really fun over an hour flight. There were 8 of us who got to enjoy the later conditions - me, Matthew, Mark Cavanaugh, 3 Pittsburgh pilots, and Sparky & David Tymms on paragliders. Joe Brauch - you should have come!

I wanted to thank Daniel Broxterman and David Tymms for running numerous shuttles picking up pilots from 3 different LZ's. Also thanks to whoever brought our car to the LZ (rumor is it was Joe Schad). And thanks to either Steve K or Joe Gregor for carrying my glider up to launch. They both volunteered but I can't remember who actually did it.

Karen

It was L&V early without much thermal activity. But that didn't stop David Timms from having a flight of around 45 minutes in his PG while the HGs (Joe Schad, Cavanaugh, Joe Gregor, Steve K., Carlos, Pete Lehmann, Larry Huffman and a couple of other Pgh. boys) were sledding or having extendos . I flew my bag twice. Forgot to turn vario on for first flight but still eeked out 13 minutes. Got 7 minutes on second flight. Sparky had a pg sled first time and got above launch for a little while on the second attempt. Ellis also squeaked out an extendo in her bag. Kelvin and Gary Smith broke down despite my assurances that it would go magic. And it sure did. Winds picked up at the end of the day and I switched over to the HG. Got 1:20 and 600 over.

David and Sparky flew bags again and got an hour plus.

Karen, Mark Cavanaugh and three of the Pittsburgh dudes also flew HGs for hour plus flights.

Matthew

Wouldn't ya know it... everywhere I drove today, blowing stinkin W@15. I felt like I couldn't do anything right. I almost turned around and went to Lizzy. I really wanted to pick up my Discus though. The Sting is fine, but you can't loop it and it's just been too damn long. Got lost trying to get to John's to pick up my Discus. Got lost trying to get out of PA. Spent 5 hours being lost today! Mind you, this is with a GPS to guide me (I'm hopeless). Ahhhh, but all that went away. It was ratty and sinky at Redwing, but the people were there and freindly and the weather was warm. I hadn't wasted the whole day driving, so I was able to tow (2nd to last of the day) and Bill dropped me off upwind and high... my favorite place to be :)

Loop-de-loop-de-loo.
Ahhhhh, life is good again.

PS,
This is in no way a comment on Saturday. Saturday was a good day and I had a blast hanging out with everyone. Sunday started off great with the company of Joe and Karen, two of the nicest people on the plannet. I think I pissed Miss Lizzy off though and she let me know it.

Jim

photos

Photo by Joe Schad. I was actually several thousand over-- telephoto lens. Joe specked out at Dickey Ridge today. 3k over with some sailplanes.

After telling Tom McGowan I would go to the Pulpit, I called Steve Kinsley and he talked me into trying Dickey.s. It turned out to be the right choice. Twas warm and winds were good with a north cross, but occasional good launch cycles. Steve launched first and scratched to get several hundred over. He managed to scratch and keep aloft for about forty minutes, spending maybe fifteen minutes five hundred over the LZ.

I had to wait quite a while to launch as the winds tended to get light or cross. I took my Falcon today to ease the hike in. Got off well and scratched for a while before finding the thermal of the day south of launch over the south overlook. Topped out 2786 over mixing it up with two aggressive sail planes.

Lots of people on skyline drive. I think one guy used a whole roll of film taking pictures of Steve launching and circling in front of launch.

Life is good over sixty.

Joe

I had 3 choices for my day off this week (which by necessity was Sunday). I could compete in a horse show, go fly with my neighbor John in his ultralight, or drive to Manquin to truck tow. I had decided on the horse show earlier in the week. First, Manquin is almost 3 hours away, second, lots of folks would be towing so I'd probably have to wait to get in the air, and lastly I am not good at getting up from the 750 feet or so I managed last time. And I just wasn't as thrilled about flying the plane, though it would be cool to fly over the mountain ridges and try to find new launches... OK, maybe next time.

However, Paul has been gone all week, and all those long days I slaved in the barn, while my muscles ached from the hours of riding left me with little enthusiasm for a competition, even with my fabulous horse. And I needed to see some people. So it was Manquin.

Yeeoww! Escape from the farm. Simple pleasures. Blasted the CD player on the way to Blue Sky, listened to music Lisa burned for me in Florida. Like listening to memories. Finally arrived after one wrong turn.

Watched Greg DeWolf kick everyone's ass in the air -- everyone else sledded while he snagged almost an hour, what a creep -- while I rushed to set up. Only so early you can get up in the morning, though. The wind crossed a bit, OK, well, 90 degrees for a while, but it wasn't strong. Not dangerous, it just was going to be difficult to milk much altitude from the tow.

Everyone baby-sat me and helped me hook my new tow stuff to my harness and glider. Had to laugh. I always hook my harness to my glider before I climb into it, but that isn't how you truck tow. My first tow, I asked Steve if I should lay down now. He whispered that I should hook in first, if I didn't want to be embarrassed. Yeeesh. Gene overheard and started cackling.

Truck towing isn't stressful, but that doesn't mean I'm good at it. Didn't get high my first tow. However, my second, I struggled to 950 feet (I followed Steve's advice to fly slower the first half of the tow). I hit a thermal a bit before I released so it was easy to locate again. I actually gained a 100 feet or so. Am so pathetically air horny I was whooping like a Deadhead on mushrooms. I would say the thermal spat me out, but it was too weak for that. I simply drifted out of the thermal and lost it, but was thrilled about my 14 minutes. Last tow the lift had all vanished, so I stalled Ginny and turned her hard, tried to have fun with her (I gotta learn to do more stuff, I am a joke, wow, I throw the bar out.)

Nothing special, but when I called Paul on the way home he said he knew I had been flying, because I sounded happy instead of beat up. Now we need a good party, and a really good flying day first. Damn, I'm ready for spring.

Lauren Tjaden

While you guys were socializing on top of a slag-heap in Ringtown, I was the lone WRHGC rep up at Ellenville. And after reading through the various tales of woe from this weekend, I'm almost embarrassed to report that I eeked out a flight of 1 hr. 45 mins. and 4100 MSL.

My daughter Sarah and I got there around 1:00 to see a guy barely survive his approach to the LZ, his wingtips were flailing all over the place. I talked to him after buying my sticker and he said the turbulence was "nasty". It looked it. The LZ was covered in 4-5 inches of snow, and on a warming day, it looked like things could get wet.

We drove to the top, and the snow was pretty deep. Several cars were parked at the gate, as only a 4x4 would get you up. My Escape did great. Got to the top to see the flagpole being blown so hard I thought it was going to snap off. Somebody measured the gusts at 30+. Sarah and I kicked snow for awhile, then went back to the car to warm up. She got out her math book and we did a quick lesson on changing from base 10 to arbitrary bases. Gotta say that was a first for me while waiting for a launch window.

About 7-8 gliders were set up, but most of these were broken down during the next couple of hours. I decided that since we had driven for 2.5 hours that we would make a decision at 4:00. That decision was actually made 15 mins earlier when it started cycling around 15mph. The issue now was not velocity, but direction - it was going north cross for half the cycles.

Me setting up caused quite a stir, as none of the locals wanted to be the first to launch. I did a hang check and launched at 4:15 to thunderous applause (literally - I could hear it as I left the mountain!). Sarah said it wasn't so much my stellar form, but the fact that somebody had launched at all. As I passed over launch I could see the crowd running back for their gliders. I worked the ridge for 10 mins. before finding a good late-day thermal where I gained about 2000 feet. I was surprised by two things - first the decent gain so late in the day from a thermal, and second, the serious drift I had done toward the back of the mountain! I left the thermal so I could backtrack toward the ridge, as I estimated the drift to be about 25-30 mph.

With some amount of work, I got back and hit another thermal. Same thing. After working my butt off to get back, I decided I wouldn't do that again. But then, the wonder winds were kicking in and lift was EVERYWHERE. I was going up 400 fpm without trying, getting up around 4K MSL, when I again noticed the serious drift. Only at this altitude the drift was SERIOUS. After stuffing the bar literally to my knees, I found the winds to be roughly 40mph - not good for the mightly Eagle 145 without a VG. If it wasn't for wind drift, I probably could have gone up to 5K or so. Amazing late-day conditions!

At one time I counted 8 gliders in the air. But only the guy who launched right after me and I had gotten really high. It was that late thermal cycle that got us up there, and the late arrivals had to be content with lower ridge passes. But then again, they didn't have the much higher upper-level wind speeds that we had hit.

It then became a game of literally trying to keep from getting launched into the stratosphere. Normally that is the idea, but in this case, it meant going on an extended XC run over the back during the evening hours - not advisable. To make a long story short, I stuffed the bar for the good part of an hour, until I finally struggled out over the valley where I found air I could actually descend down in.

But air like that is VERY turbulent! Like the first guy I had seen, it was my turn to descend into the spin cycle from hell. Just when I thought I had it down pat, I turned onto my final and the vario started screaming! I was going up again! By now my arms were aching, my fingers were asleep AND frozen, and I grabbed the downtubes with one final burst of energy to keep from taking off at 30 feet of altitude. But I was running out of LZ. Luckily I was landing diagonally and I used the whole field. Sometimes the phrase "lift everywhere" gets tiresome, believe it or not...

But there was time to look around and enjoy things, as the views were spectacular. The setting sun over the snow-covered mountains was great. I saw a herd of deer on the mountain far below, as well as several folks riding horses on a trail. The lake on top of the mountain was frozen solid, as well as the golf course below. Quite impressive, as I don't really do all that much winter flying.

But not everyone was so "lucky". For some reason, a PG pilot decided that conditions had mellowed enough for him to fly. And this was after several less-experienced HG pilots were advised to pack their stuff back up on the car. I didn't see it, as I was too busy with my own problems, but Sarah saw the whole thing from the LZ. She said the guy was in the air only 5 mins or less when he had a total collapse. He managed to get his chute out right above the trees of the lower ridge where he then landed. She ended up baby sitting some kids as their parents joined the rescue crew.

I guess the guy was OK, but they had to cut him out of the trees as he was hanging from the top of one. Glider and chute were totalled of course, but it obviously could have been a lot worse.

Sometimes it is a very fine line between a great flight and near- disaster. Sarah and I celebrated being on the better side of the line with a great chicken cordon bleau and prime rib at Danny's before leaving town.

And if anybody ever tries to tell you that hang gliding is not physical, just have them talk to me. A day later, my arms and shoulders feel like I lifted weights for hours...

john wiseman

Sparky was kind enough to meet me at the Pulpit early Saturday morning, walk me through both l.z.'s and discuss what I could expect on my flight. This was my 5th mountain flight but I've only soared once, so I have limited air-time. Sparky was fun and thorough and I really appreciate his support! [Later I got to return the favor by pushing him off the ridge, literally, when he launched his bag. My enthusiasm got the best of me and I barely managed to stop my assist run in time to head off a boulder collision and certain Darwin award nomination.]

I was, as they say, the wind dummy for the day, first up. Wind was pretty much straight in and after a few moments getting balanced I cleared my crew and had a good, strong launch. I turned southward along the ridge and then, sigh, proceeded to sled directly to the primary LZ. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Got there with plenty of altitude, turned a big 360, then a dbf approach culminating in a no-stepper in a flat stretch. Definite improvement from my last High Rock flight in which I got to Emma Jane's field so low that my basetube brushed the brush in the gap! Funny, I got to Pulpit's stretttttttch-to-reach LZ frickin high and High Rock's, u-can-hit-it-with-a-rock-from-launch LZ low!

I've still only soared once and I'm starting to think that I'm made to sink! (You know, low body fat.) I flew though a few kisses of lift and apparently EVERYONE was yelling at me from launch "turn, turn, turn!" I didn't hear any of that, but I learned a few lessons anyway:

Lesson 1: I'm comfortable controlling my glider, I can fly closer to the ridge.** Lesson 2: Time to buy a radio! Lesson 3: Don't leave my vario at home!

My favorite part of the flight was skimming over untracked snow in the l.z....very cool.

I didn't see anyone launch after me, so I was getting ready to hitch or hike my way back to launch. Nice surprise, just as I was finishing de-rigging my glider, David Tymms showed up to shuttle me, and just me, back to launch. Thanks, David.

I missed the evening magic, but I'm still new enough to be happy for the people who stayed and enjoyed great flights.

Alek B. and I are heading to the Orlando flight parks, leaving Friday 3/19 and staying probably until Sunday 3/27. Is anyone else planning to be there during that week?

Daniel
**I wasn't flying conservatively intentionally, I just maintained a certain trajectory.

I'm in San Diego for work. Came out Saturday so I could try Crestline, the upper (5200 MSL/3500 above the LZ) launch at San Bernardino Sunday. I had flown the lower Marshall launch in October - shortly before the forest fire denuded the mountains so that they closed the dirt road to Marshall for fear of erosion/landslides. (On the drive up, I noticed hot-air balloons at Temecula so I chased one and chatted with the pilot and crew when it landed.) Rented a Falcon from Rob and Dianne Mackenzie ("High Adventure") - which also gets you shuttles to launch from Andy Jackson Air Park, an oasis of green grass in the charred moonscape of the San Bernardino mountains. Despite having lived here for a couple of years, I got snookered by the "sunny California" myth and had to borrow an extra jacket and heavier gloves for the chilly, cloudy conditions. Light wind straight in (as usual) but not much lift and a long glide across the canyon and over the west end of the front ridge to the LZ, which is out of sight from launch. Spectacular view. "Perfect" landings both times - had to - no wheels (Falcons are so great!). Friendly locals. Will visit Torrey Pines just to check it out - they claim it's a H4-only site. Harumph! - Hugh

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This page last updated March 6, 2004