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Hangola March 18 - 22, 2004

Flight Reports

Howling, turbulent winds and low lift made for a tough day. There are more rigids than softies here, but even the ridgids had a hard time, with mostly extendos or sleds but a few people got flights in the range of half hour or so. One especially brave soul on a Predator went for it, Dan Morris, and ended up just short of Wallaby but took out his keel on landing.

I towed twice for my share of Bronco riding, still trying to get used to my new gear. I think I've got a long way to go before I feel as intuitive on the Talon like I did on Icaro gliders.

My observed conditions for the day matched up very closely with the Blipmap RUC forcasts, though the ETA stuff was more optimistic and less accurate. More experimentation needed.

-m

The day's forecast looked a little better--with winds turning to the SSE and thermals forecasted to go 4-5 K. I get ready early and am on the cart by 12:30, even though everyone else is still standing around watching. I get fired up cause clouds are starting to pop up and Ron Gleason--rigid pilot extraordinaire--is walking around talking about the wonderful haze domes. I get a rowdy tow upwind and flail about trying to work the bubbly, discontinous thermals, it seems I only manage to get half a turn in lift and the rest in sink. But I can tell that powerful cores are out there. Drifting back to the field low I find another one low but downwind and I immediately have to decide to give up on the field to drift with it--in other words go it alone. Topping out at 4200 I lose it and go on glide along 33. I get very low and manage one more climbout before drilling in short of 91 into a field, appropriately enough, filled with horse and cow s%^t. Of course, I have the pleasure of watching gliders go by overhead an hour or so later.

Meanwhile, Davis, Ron and Jamie (who came up a little short) do a 47 mile triangle on their rigids, while Jerry Uchytil does a nice out and return. This involved headwind legs and they reported climbing out to 6200.

I'm clueless--though I'm not going to travel alone anymore.

-m

I've studied my positive thinking books and tapes all week (that winning attitude!!). And, I have absorbed SO much from them. First, I have to say I am SO grateful to have experienced SUCH an educational flight today, where I had EXCEPTIONAL opportunities to ponder the pilots at 4700 over (!!!) while I struggled for 26 minutes, plastered against the ridge, unable to find a vulture fart to boost me more than 600 over launch. So grateful for so many opportunities to learn, instead of a experiencing a flight that just left me feeling like the Sky Goddess that I am, that is only waiting to burst out of my humble shell!

In fact, the way I finished my flight was the biggest gift of all. The cow shit smeared into my harness and mushed into my parachute only left me with a huge determination to land perfectly on all of my future flights. Thank goodness for a bit of adversity, otherwise I would never be so thrilled with the stellar, amazing flights that I usually produce. Yours in happiness,

Lauren Tjaden

Flew Zagi. Launched Heavy-K. Air seemed nice. Saw Emma and chatted for awhile. She is doing well.

'Spark

Hey Lauren. I was at 4700 over today but I have also been there done that re cow shit at Woodstock-- more times than you have I assure you. But you are gaining.

Another nice hot day but once again blue and lower top-o-lift than yesterday. I've toned down my ambitions from mega-xc's to just learning how to get a handle on my new glider and harness.

My first tow was a quick downhill sled through sink, and my second attempt was pretty interesting. Bo towed me north (winds were NE today) and just after clearing the field and flying over the orange grove we flew smack-dab head-on into a boomer. Tug went up, and I rocketed up and sideways, and while I thought about fighting it out to get back in line, I decided what the heck, if its that strong I might as well release. First time I've pinned off really low and climbed out--the thermal turned out to be good through 4200. Spent the next hour and a half working the thermals and practicing glides in "mini-triangles"--didn't feel up to leaving the field today.

-m

ok. I quit. No more xc for a long while. I owe too many people rides. Especially Joe Schad. St. Schad. I didn't really mean to go anywhere this time but I got to base at 4700 over and I couldn't stand it. Even so, I started to go back out front but Adam said whatthe$^&* youdoin? and suggested we go someplace. So i said after you. But he went into plummet mode so I didn't follow him. Not following somebody who plummets is called negative pimping. Instead I headed for some clouds near Hogback Mtn and actually managed to get back up to 4k over. It was very cool to soar Hogback. Haven't done that in years. Crossed the drive but found squat on the other side. Landed a few miles east of Washington, VA.

I made a last minute trip to Quest. Got here about 1 pm and noticed something weird: 20 gliders on the ground and nary a pilot to be found getting ready. ?? I parked and looked around, eventually found out about the presidential TRF. Oh.

Got setup and then decided not to fly based on how the landings were looking. Not that ugly per se just more effort than I felt up to based on the amount of flying I've done lately. Still it was 80 and sunny so not flying was just fine by me. To top it off the great folks here went and picked up ribs for dinner!

The wireless net connection is great, btw. I'm in my tent down by the lake as I type this. :)

The forecast for tomorrow is looking good. Later! Chris

Nice to see Chris pull up this morning. A friend from Maine, Bob Chapman, pulls up later at night, too. As Chris mentions, it was a ripping day with pretty strong winds and turbulence to about 300 ft, but this smoothed out nicely once the tow got above that, (and after the area was safely declared a no-Bush zone around 2:00).

The day had become pretty tough--light thermals, tons of sink, and a wicked drift that threatened to wisk you away from the field pretty quickly. Even the fast boys on the stiffies had problems, Davis drilled in at a mile out and Ron Gleason came back and landed--though maybe he thought it just wasn't worth it given the conditions. Kurt Warren, a world-class flexie, wisely decides to go with the flow and quickly disappears after working an apparently good one. I sure never found it.

Winds were forecasted to be ESE at 17 knots, but they turned out to be more NE and stronger gusts. My first tow left me off over the lakes to the NE, and I dropped from the sky like an anvil and nearly beat the tug back down to the ground. Not much fun, so I decide to watch how things develop as a rigid and speedo (Litespeed) go in front of me. They don't seem to do much better than zero-sinking. I do notice, tho, that a small cu line has formed up just south of the field, and decide to gamble on up-wind side thermals but a drift that would almost immediately take me out of range of the field.

Heaven smiles down on me and for once I actually make the right decision as I find a nice one which eventually takes me to 4800 and I quickly leave the field behind. The bad news is that the drift is taking me towards Lakeland/Tampa controlled airspace, and soon I come up on a big swamp--life is definitely not good in the direction the drift is taking me. Its getting late and the lift seems to be petering (or I simply can't find it), and I decide to cut north towards 50 but this means leaving the lift line and crossing a blue street--never a good idea. Sure enough I gradually lose it all, even though I eventually reach a lone cloud but i guess it was in its dying stage. I hit the deck in one of the worst washing machines I've ever landed in, and although I had a good flare and no pound-in, the winds are gusty from all directions and I can't turn the glider to face any apparent prevailing wind. Very wierd.

A hard-fought 15.1 miles, at least I'm going a little further each day. The gang in the clubhouse says Kurt went in at 13 miles--but he may have been on his way back from an out and return. I dunno. The forecast for Sunday is again a tough one--low lift and WNW winds, a drift towards Orlando controlled airspace. Good practice nonetheless. It may not be a comp, but by coming to a place like Quest or Wallaby you will still be in the company of world-class pilots who you can learn alot from, even in less than ideal conditions.

-m

Based on the KellerCast(tm) I was on a cart and launching around 12:30. Winds were light and more W than NW. I knew I had launched at the right time when I started kept watching the tug shoot up and I had to push out to keep up. I probably could have gotten off right into thermals around 4 times, but I just started towing off the shoulders so I hung on to ~2200'. I got off in a thermal and just kept going up. It was early and ToL was about 4k'. The skies were still blue and I was the only person in the air. Lift was light ~200fpm. Mostly I was just topped out about half a mile east of the field and going back up wind to catch the next thermal.

After about 45 minutes I noticed the winds were picking up a bit and the thermals got real tiny and bullet like. I couldn't stay in them so I landed just as the line of about 10 other gliders was forming. I landed and watched the sled runs commence. Even the rigids were taking 2-3 tows to be able to get up. However by 2 - 2:30 the winds had picked up to a solid 8-10 with gusts of 20-25.

It never did OD though and a couple people had long flights. One guy made it upwind from Wallaby to land at quest. From what I saw ToL did rise to 5-6k'. (Most of the people who had long flights were comp pilots/sky gods and not mere mortals such as myself.)

From talking with other people who took their sleds the thermals were very small bullets. More 'whoa' than 'whee'. The winds are pretty strong again today so I'm planning on packing up and getting an early start for home. Later!

Chris

Tim Eggars and I trekked out to Daniels early Sat. to help a little with clearing brush and to also scope out the place. Neither of us has ever been up there. We both had to get back to Frbg. by 2pm so didn't bother to take the plumbing.

<snip>

After driving around for 30-45 minutes, we happened across a PG bloke(Tom) at the LZ and gave him and his wife a ride up to launch in trade for showing us where it was. Actually, part of the problem was the navigator (me) who was reading the directions to the driver (Tim) glossed over one or two possibly important steps.

We did eventually reach the launch just in time to see the first PG attempt to launch just so he could show us first-hand why the surrounding sapplings needed to be removed. Wish I had gotten a video of that one. ;o) His next attempt was actually successful.

Tim and helped a little while but knew that we couldn't stay long but just before we left, a second PG launched. Both pilots noted a little higher winds than what they normally fly. All 6-7 guys we saw out there were PGers except for one HG that arrived as we were leaving. Don't know if he eventually flew or not.

The clearing that all they guys did gives a VERY WIDE area for both PG and HG. We both had fun except for the fact that Tim aggravated his already-sore shoulder in the process of clearing brush.

So yes, some flew but prob. not the best of conditions.

Rance

Me and Lenko arrived at the glorious Quest airstrip early today. 70 something degrees and sunny. Things looked a bit on the strong side early with 5 gusting to 15 on the ground. Bo towed up and reported back that the winds aloft were only around 15mph @ 2k so I jumped on the bull and took my rodeo ride up. Lift was broken and ratty low, but still workable. Caught a freight train up to 3k and went searching. At 3k things were mellower and more congealed. 600fpm cores to 4k for a couple hours. As long as you didn't go below 2k, things were easy.

Some Maryland pilots are here too. Hoping to run into the rest of the crew in the coming days.

Ah, life is gooooood :)
Jim

The Cast: Kelvin, Kevin, Hank, Steve, Joe, Paul, Lauren, and Adam.

Conditions: Initially a bit strong. We postponed first launch until 1:30 so Kevin could be the wind dummy. He Beamed right up, almost vertically. But he seemed to be doing ok so others followed after another 45minutes or so. First Hank, then Adam then me. Kelvin and Steve launched a while later. Although reports were that it was a little rough low but ok high the air seemed a bit rough to me. Lift was abundant, pegging some varios. I did not enjoy my flight a whole lot. Had trouble getting out of strong lift and rough air.

Paul and Adam were last heard way south on the ridge. I landed about a mile and an half west of the LZ to avoid the rough air around the LZ. Hank, Steve and Kevin landed along the moose road, the dirt part, about half a mile from the LZ. I am not sure where Kelvin went.

It was very cold. Never saw the temp get above 25 degrees at launch.

Kelvin and I landed in the LZ. Paul and Adam made Hburg

It was 16 degrees at 6k msl. I thought it was all very enjoyable (except for the landing approach which was ratty as hell).

Bruce Engen came by to help us launch and offer us retrieves if we wanted to go someplace. Thank you. Another 3 mos.until he can fly

Kevin's girlfriend Rita loyally froze her butt off.

Lauren didn't fly because of the approach horror stories clogging the freq.

Did anyone lose a telescoping 2m radio attenna at Woodstock launch? I found one in the set-up area. It looked like it had been there awhile. If you think it may be yours send me a message (off list) and describe. Conditions were pretty big yesterday. I waited until about 3:20 to launch because of frequent freight trains rolling though launch. Finally decided to give it a go. By far the strongest lift I have ever encountered. I have never seen my vario peg at well over 1000fpm sustained during several 360's. I gained over 2000' in just three 360's. At about 4600' over I had to run out from under a cloud because the lift was getting too strong for my comfort and then had to fly out over rt. 11 just to lose enough altitude to stop from shivering. The approach into the LZ was rough but didn't seem too bad because my new U2 handles so well I never felt out of control. I would certainly recommend a U2 to anyone who wants a great handling all around fun to fly glider. Congrats to Paul and Adam on making Harrisonburg!

Kelvin

Yesterday, I got to check off one more item from my "things to do before I die" list. Conditions at launch were strong but doable. I launched after Kevin and Hank into a rowdy sky. Wasn't really that rough but the thermals were strong with rough edges. Haven't had time to down load my flight log yet but the vario sometimes quit beeping and howled steadily instead.

Since it was cold, I didn't try to get high, just headed down the ridge. Went north towards Strausburg first with the idea of marking a waypoint and flying the entire ridge if possible. But, about three miles short, I got worried about how late it was getting so I marked a point and turned back south. I was able to cruise at 20 - 25 mph ground speed and maintain altitudes of 3500 to 4500 msl without stopping to climb. I'd boat along, losing a bit of altitude and then fly through a screamer and get back up again without even turning.

When I jumped over to Short Mountain, I got very low because I was reluctant to trust the ridge lift. It had been boiler plate but with the sea of trees far in front of the ridge, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make a landable field if it didn't work. I finally found a thermal and got high, then eased my way back to the top of the ridge. Plenty of lift there. I caught up with Adam A. at the South end of Short Mountain. He worked until he got the altitude to jump back to the main ridge and we headed towards New Market together. I managed to find a little better line, hit New Market gap with abundant altitude and continued south without pause. However, Adam got low and had to wait for a good thermal so I got ahead by quite a bit.

The rest was uneventful. Floated on down the ridge past the ski resort and flew several miles out into the valley, after finding lift off the end of the ridge. Might have been able to work it further but I was freezing and in dire need of a tree or bush to hide behind. Landed smoothly in a huge field a few miles south of Rt. 33 for a total of 45+ miles from the waypoint I had marked north of launch. Adam came in about twenty minutes later but wasn't quite so lucky over the valley and landed a couple miles closer to the ridge. He also had a nice smooth approach and landing. Guess we left the nasty air back at WS.

Lauren picked us up shortly and we celebrated with Margaritas at a Mexican restaurant before heading home

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This page last updated March 23, 2004