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Hangola February 18 - 23, 2005

Flight Reports

Well Friday was better. We waited until 4:30 to launch with a nice 10-12 straight in. I got 1300 over and found life way out in the valley. Just Sparky, Linda(who got off late for her first Woodstock flight) and another person with Adam.

Joe

Got there about 2:15 and met up with Spark in the LZ to walk the field while Joe S. considerately transferred the gear to the Sparkmobile. The LZ didn't seem too strong (as if they ever do) but the top was blowing at about 21, averaging 12, on Joe's meter, and it felt strong. We hightailed it to the Sparkmobile to stay warm for ½ hour while the pro's waited for the wind to die down a bit. By 3:30 we hauled the gear up and Joe and Spark set up. It was even stronger than it had been by a wee bit, topped at 22 and averaged 15, but the wind was cooperative and slowly died back to a reasonable level. Fellow pilots Adam and Hubble showed up. Hubble flies an Eagle, is a new H2 from Kitty Hawk (though he lives right by the Massanutten site) and had not yet flown a mountain.

Joe launched about 4:15 once the wind had backed down - he got off a nice clean launch of course. Then Spark launched well and they both disappeared into the stratosphere.

I madly began setting up in the hopes that the winds would taper off just a bit more before dark.

Hubble launched about 5:15, had a nice launch, then proceeded to soar like mad! (Gotta get me a higher performing glider so I can go off a little sooner and with better penetration capabilities!) Adam didn't fly (probably too dispirited having just returned from the pleasure and warmth of Costa Rican flying!)

The winds scaled back a bit more even than when Hubble had launched, so I crossed my fingers that Spark would land before dark so that I could launch, and HOORAY! Spark and Joe both landed after about an hour, raced back up to assist me, and I had the extreme pleasure of a good strong running launch off a new site! Whoowhoo! Launched in about 12-15 winds, nice and steady, fairly smooth once out of the slot. Only bounced around once when I was out over the LZ. Boated around for a couple minutes, well in front of the ridge, then headed for the LZ, did my DBF just inside the tree line, and had a perfect flare landing with only a 2-stepper (hey, gotta avoid the cow pies!). Broke down with the stars twinkling above me in a clear, deep blue sky. Does it get any better than this? We'll just overlook Linda's little boofoo about who was supposed to retrieve whom, when... and call it a good, good day!

Spark and Joe: Thank you both very very much for making it happen for me today! - Linda B.

Arrived 10:30A to light conditions on the ramps and cumies dotting the sky. Matthew and Karen, Mark C., Dave Bodner, Gary Smith, and Dave P show up. Give it a go around 11:30A, even though the conditions on the ramps (still light) tell me it is not soarable. What the heck, haven't flown in 7 weeks, good takeoff and conservative flight would do me good. Got the first half right, but not the second. Take off, turn left, dolphin fly throught some small bumps. Notice a distinct SW cross on the ridge. Get a nice pop and decide to chase it back towards the ramps. Not a good decision. Fall out and lose a good bit of altitude. Time to head out to the secondary LZ. To make a long story short I barely made it to the secondary, with the low altitude and the quartering headwind. There is a clear area that you could land on just uphill from the secondary. It is sloped (still part of the mountain). I was eyeballing it as the backup landing area in case I did not make the secondary. It is separated from the secondary by a few trees and a power line. Nice day for a hike since it was barely tickling 30 degrees, and I have never hiked Tuscarora Mt. As I was hiking up the clear cut where the high voltage lines run, the wind up the clear cut told me it was soarable at the top! Saw a glider on the ramp while I retrieved my glider from the secondary. The pilot backed off, and I headed to Smithsburg to find Eddie Miller already packed up after 7 flights, each one a soarable one, Shawn Ray packing up after a good number of flights, and Cragin Shelton packed up and ready to go to the Pulpit. I know that there was some good soaring to be had before sunset at the Pulpit.

Bacil

Blew like stink all day shortly after Bacil launched. I initially dragged out the PG to fly early; but by the time we launched Bacil and I got up to launch it was blowing 15 with gusts to 20. Backed off and set up the HG. Proctor was first in line for HGs at about 1:00. It was blowing 20-25 with gusts to 30+. He backed off. Kept blowing like stink till 5:15. Cavanaugh went first. Still 20+ on the ramp most of the time. But the huge gust factor pf 10-30+ had dissipated. He got off in a lull of about 18 and beamed right up.

I went next. Of course it started cranking again when I got up on the ramp. But I gut a lull of around 20 and had a good launch. Got 1100 over. Cavanaugh made 1300 over. Some smooth spots with the lift ban going out beyond route 16. But there were also major sink holes and the occasional gust that tried to swat me back into the mountain. Gary Smith launched about 10 minutes after me and we all landed just before sunset. I got about a 30+ minutes. We all encountered major sink going out to the LZ. I was in 1000 down and was worried about making the LZ even though I left the ridge at 500 over. Once I got to the LZ all the air was going up and I had to do diving spiral slipping turns to get down. Landing in the foot high corn stubble sucked. But we all made it down safely.

Everyone else packed up and then we had dinner at McKinstry's in Mercersburg.

Matthew

The tally of crazies at the Pulpit today included Matthew & Karen, Bacil, Dave P, Gary, Joe S, Linda, Brian VH, 'Spark, Marcell & Corinne (visiting PG pilots from Switzerland), Dave B, John Simon, Craig, et moi.

After Bacil's flight we figured waiting would be a good bet : for a bit more wind, and for the sun to get in front of the mtn. Leisurely ran a shuttle down to the LZ with Dave P. and Dave B. Headed back up, looked at conditions for a while, started seriously thinking about launching.

And then the winds started to build....

With a W10-15 'cast I was prepared for 20 or even 25; it's the Pulpit after all. But the damn gust factor : 10 ; 25 ; 15 ; 20 ; 10 ; 10 ; fooled ya 25 . Ha ha!

Darn fickle winds! Rolling Eyes

Dave P gave it a go at maybe 1:00-ish, but ended up backing off launch. Then the hang-waiting commenced. Does this story sound familiar yet?

It was blowing really good, pushing 30 from time to time. There was plenty of 15-20, but nothing I'd want to go off in because of the gusts. To make a very long day short, things started to mellow down about an hour before sunset, and I jumped off a bit later for a 40 minute flight, toppping out at 1300' over. Matthew and Gary joined me a bit later.

Lots-o-lift! Went cruising to the north for a bit, but no way to really go anywhere given the imminent sunset. Lots of sink too, and some cycles with major headwind : very much a VG-needed type of day.

Still, the flight definitely qualified as fun, with some thermalling well away from the ridge and a really beautiful sunset. Wish more pilots had been able to launch...

Six of us headed to McKinstry's in Mercersburg at the end of the day for drinks and dinner. Hmmm... that may have been the highlight of the day come to think of it. At least it was warm inside! Smile

--mark

Waiting, waiting, waiting til almost sunset, getting ready just in case the winds backed down to an H2 launch cycle, hooked in and hauled glider to the bottom of the steps, on my knees bowing to the wind gods and the observer god who was standing at the top of the ramp debating, debating; waited thru a short cycle of launchable wind speed when Karen wisely radioed to Matthew at 1000' over to inquire about penetrability...No go for a falcon! Unhooked and watched the airborne folks landings in the dusky dusk. A good training day in HG standards: wait, wait, and wait. Next time's the charm! Many thank you's to Brian VH who observed, walked the primary and secondary with John S. and I, and waited, and waited and waited just in case an opportunity to fly presented itself; and Spark, Dave B, Craigin, Karen who stuck around to provide crew in the event the magic wind genie happened for me. And to Dave B. who bought a round of drinks for the dinner crew in honor of his H3 - may your flights be wise and awesome forever after!

Actually we got Linda in flight mode when I went up and noticed the wind blowing about 10 or less with gusts of only +/-3 or 4. Stayed like that for a full minute and Sparky agreed that maybe the gale was over. After preflighting Linda I ran back up and it still looked good. As the glider moved past Karen questioned whether this was a wise idea. Got Linda up to the top and noticed it had picked up a bit. Just then Karen got Matt on the radio and he emphatically confirmed her suspicions that it was not H2 conditions. When I heard him say there were massive sinkholes all over I decided it was over. Linda wanted to stay up top to watch the other gliders and hope it would suddenly become good. But Cragin started measuring gusts above 20 mph. Sucker lull. Even without all the measurements and reports I seriously doubt I would have done a launch based on what I felt at the ramp, but it was good to get multiple feedback.
Thanks to all.

Brian Vant-Hull

My vario screamed with excitement and I stuffed the bar to my waist. 2000 feet, high enough, time to pin off. I circled quickly to 2500 feet, knowing that this might be a great day. Ron, Paul, Greg, and Dave had already headed downwind. And then I lost the lift.

The smallest wisps of cumies, more like bits of fog, decorated the sky along with some stratus clouds way up high. I was confused as to what to use for lift indicators -- the clouds vanished almost as quickly as they appeared -- and I DECKED IT.

I decided to don some more clothes and mess with my radio since I had landed. Larry Huffman, his wife Brenda, and Pete L showed up at exactly that moment. (Pete keeps saying he is going home the next day but I have learned he is a liar in this regard.) They offered to take me flying! Woohoo! We launched around 3 into a much better looking sky. I pinned off into outrageous lift that I thought was rough (I asked Pete later, he thought it wasn't bad for strong stuff). Followed my Sky God friends around at over 5000 feet. They had said they were not going anywhere but like I told you, at least one of them sometimes fibs.

We headed upwind, south down Highway 33. Pete flew his beautiful, old Falcon, I flew my Sport 2, and Larry flew his Litespeed, so it was interesting to go on glide. They radioed to help me when I needed it, but I couldn't respond because of a radio malfunction. We fanned out across the sky, and I chose a line of clouds to the east while they veered to the west. I know, this is not a sign of my intelligence. We became separated at that point.

My line was working fine, though, and I followed it for 5 miles. In the meantime, they decided to head towards Seminole glider port, 10 miles south. My line of clouds drifted slowly to the west, and if I kept curving around to the east a further line existed, but the sky was not as inviting that direction, filled with blue holes and fuzzy clouds.

I decided to try to fly back to Quest under another line. Ha ha, I was so unsure I would make it but I dolphin flew under the clouds and with the tailwind made it back in minutes, still above 5 K. I flew North for awhile then but I was really cold and came back home. The field was crazy lifting off. I finally found some sink to core and got warm enough to use my fingers. A cloud was building right over the LZ, though, and the windsock whipped in circles. I didn't want to land in that mess so ended up circling for 40 minutes until the damn thing went away around 5 PM.

Larry and Pete made it to Seminole, of course (pretty good upwind flight for a Falcon!) and I was finally able to call and tell them I had not actually been eaten by a gator out in some swamp. We all went to dinner since Paul was up North with his XC buddies until very late. I will let them all tell their own stories.

Pete says is he leaving this morning (have we heard that before???) but I have Larry to follow around until he gets tired of me being glued to his wingtip. Great times. Oh, they downloaded my flight and sent it to me, so I can admire it again and again, just like Paul does with his.

Lauren

Tim and I finally made our way down to Quest last week. We both had a blast. Not as much time flying as I expected to get but had a fun time anyways.

The folks down there were all very helpful. I managed to get a better handle on aerotowing the TRX and I'm very happy for that. It was nice to see some familiar faces too (Tjadens, Steve W., Mark Fink, Bill P). I managed to get a couple of miles out and back on Saturday just before we left for further XC training.

All in all, a good trip. I can't wait to go back down there for some 'bigger' air.

Rance

In Tjaden fashion, here's the more interesting (& longer) version:

We drove Tuesday night and arrived at 10am Wednesday. Winds were high enough to break up any thermal activity so we headed to Orlando. Tim took the plunge and took a lesson in the sky-diving chamber while Steve & I took pictures. Leaving there, we went to the Fantasy of Flight for lunch/dinner and watched folks take rides in a 5-passenger biplane (fascinating). From there, we went by Wallaby and took a tour of the facilities. It looks like a great place to take kids. Lots of outdoor things for them to climb on. After that, we headed back towards Quest but just had to stop by the glider port. We chatted with a guy just breaking down his glider ($80k worth). A very maticulous machine. He only had about a 1/16th" gap where the wing joins the fusalage but he still applied tape to clean up the air. LOTS of other fine aircraft too. We then headed back to Quest, only to find out that Bill and some others had wonderful flights. Still, I would have chosen to do what we did. If you ever get down to Florida, there are PLENTY of 'other' things to keep you busy.

Thursday brought more stiff winds. We waited a while till it died down enough for some of the locals to begin towing up. I happened to be the last one up. My tow was rather squirlly due to my inexperience with the TRX. However, Lisa did a super job of correcting on her end when I had problems. Due to the level of gusts, she decided to halt towing for the time being. After I got off tow, I quickly found some boyant air and made it to just over 3100'. After leaving the lift to go back upwind, I had a blast wanging back to the airport. Sometimes its more fun than trying to find lift for extended flight.

Friday, I spent time talking with 'Awesome' Bob as well as with Steve to analyze my problems towing the TRX. That evening, I applied those changes (a small adjustment to the glider, a lot to my technique) and took a baby-butt smooth tow. MUCH better. Now I feel better about going back out in the middle of the day with it.

Saturday came with expected lighter winds but it just didn't happen until later. I spent the afternoon on a stroll picking oranges & tangerines getting my sun tan. There's an art to finding the good ones. Smile

As soon as I got back, I found the winds subsiding so I quickly set my glider back up and got in line as fast as possible. This mid-afternoon tow confirmed my corrections and the tow went without a hitch. I had spoke with Bill just before launching to find out upper lift conditions. He said 'it was over Rt 333'. I immediately headed in that direction to find it precisely between the two adjacent lakes (ponds).

During the climb, I saw an Atos pilot 200-300' above me and a fisherman below me in the lake that looked similar to Micky Mouse. From what I could tell the Atos was above me but wasn't outclimbing me. We were near each other, but climbing in different columns most of the time. Having slowly drifted downwind, he decided to head back toward the airport. I slowly gained enough to reach his altitude and then passed him. He then re-joined me in the sufficiently rising air to finally reach me. We were rather far apart, but still circling around the opposite sides of the same circle. I finally found a healthier column near me and tightened up my circles to rise above him. I maintained that distance above him and enjoyed watching a rigid from above. (The last time I was in this position was when Davis S. was at Blue Sky, but Davis soon soared past me.)

We both eventually left that lift to head back to the airport. At 750', I arrived at the 'house thermal' and rode it back to over 3k' while watching others being towed up. It wasn't strong, but it was still reasonably workable.

After not being able to milk it any more I found myself again just above the MM lake at less than 1k, but with no fisherman and no more lift this time. I reluctantly headed toward the East to set up for landing. I saw that the Atos had landed just earlier. I circled above our camping area and took it in for a base leg and then on to final. Although I was headed directly into the wind, when I got to about treetop level I found some turbulence kicking me to the right side of the 'slot' of trees. Each time I leveled the wing out and was back in position, something gently pushed me to the right. Tim had noticed this same thing. I've made a note to watch this in the future coming in from that direction. I had a decent landing, running it out just slightly and was very happy with just under an hour.

We quickly broke the gliders down, broke camp and headed home that evening. This trip just fueled my desire to go back down there again as quickly as possible. If you can't make it down there, I hope you venture out to get some of this great air that is beginning to happen.

During the trip, we spent a good amount of time hang waiting for the winds to subside. However, I had a chance to meet Awseome Bob and Tow Joe, real down-to-earth guys that are very knowledgable and willing to help. I also enjoyed a great chat with Jim Rooney talking about both flying and non-flying. A great group of folks down there. Jim also gave me some advice on aerobatics, can't wait to use that. Wink

Fly Safe, fly far.

Rance

PS: Tim, you should give the group more details about your skydiving experience. Flapping cheeks and all. Videos?

I will try and be brief (I have a few moments, waiting for the shower to get ready for dinner). Today, I flew with Larry Huffman, a vastly experienced pilot who is staying with us, and Paul. The lift was not nearly so great as the clouds promised. My first flight I just sunk out, like Paul did, although Larry managed a very low save. It was tough.

My second flight I found SOME lift, but the traffic scared me. Each new day brings its own challenges.

One thermal had a sailplane, a flex wing, a rigid, and a buzzard. They climbed better than me but I just let them have the friggin' thermal. Being with others affects my abilty to climb well. I am good when on my own or below or above others. Larry promised to explain how I can deal better with this later.

Once high (well, 3500) Larry asked if we wanted to head upwind -- North -- but I voted to go to Wallaby. PLEEEZ, I begged. The pilots on our frequency all asked twice, but I pleaded again. So we headed out, on a "death glide" -- no lift, stupid low -- to the south.

Well. I landed a few miles down the road, but had a great landing. One of my three goals to accomplish in the next two weeks was to fly XC in Florida. Between my 10 mile out and back Sunday and this kinda pathetic flight where I at least landed out I figure this counts as at least one XC. I landed PERFECTLY though the field was huge as Kansas. One down.

Larry landed with me and Paul made it to Seminole glider port. I have two other goals for the next 2 weeks, to get my spot landing for my 4 --I have my written test passed-- and to tow off of my shoulders.

Ha, this was silly today, even a failure by many pilot's standards, but I am novice enough I had fun. I have only gone XC out of Highland, which is totally inviting, so this is some sort of progress. Oops, gotta go. Happy flying.

Lauren

Monday looked pretty darn good with CB's over 5K and 5 knots from the south so several of us headed XC. Flew 26 miles to the NW with a new friend on an ATOS but got seperated when he chose to continue downwind and I decided to try to get home. He decked it almost immediately and I made it about 8 miles back before landing along the Florida Turnpike. I could see Ron Gleason circling 2 miles to my soulth (he eventually made it back for a nice 80 miler) but I just couldn't get high enough to get to him and the nice Q's just out of my reach to the south.

Tuesday promised good things, too but didn't pan out so well. After a few false starts, Lauren, Larry Huffman and I headed south to Wallaby after topping out at around 3,500. Unfortunately, Lauren and Larry had to land after our first glide. I had a couple hundred feet on them when we started and was able to finally find something and get back up but it didn't last long. After climbing out to 4,200 I went on a "death glide" to Seminole Glider Port and landed for a total of 9 miles.

Enjoyed seeing Rance, Tim, Steve, and Bill while they were here. I know they had a good time! Come on down and enjoy this great winter flying.

Paul

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This page last updated February 24, 2005