Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2005

Index to weather maps

Hangola February 23 - 26, 2005

Flight Reports

As some of you may know, I have been considering the purchase of a new glider this spring. Nothing really wrong with my Litespeed's performance that I couldn't fix with a new fared base tube and thinner side wires but some of the newer gliders also promise slightly easier handling and landing characteristics which, as my beard gets grayer, are attractive assets.

I've been hearing rumours about a new Talon that sounded like a good possibility but I'm also being seduced by the siren's call of rigid wings. Yesterday I flew the Exxtacy (SP?) that Quest rents. Now this wing is the lowest performing, oldest rigid around AND it carries a heavy conrol frame, landing gear and lots of other draggy attachments. I flew it in strong conditions for an hour and got a taste of how it handles turbulence and strong lift. Only landed cause I became concerned that the weather conditions were looking threatening and the lift was becoming too wide spread.

The glider handled a turbulent tow with ease and performed just below the level of several newer Topless flexwings. Without the gear, etc. I believe I could have easily kicked butt. Now if you add to that the much higher performance of a newer ATOS..... Well, you get the picture. Landings also seem to be easier with these guys (even without gear) and after flying an hour or so I felt completely comfortable with the minor difference with the feel of control.

Pete Lehman would argue, "If you're going to go that far, why not just fly sailplanes?", but the thing is, I still felt I had the same touch with the sky and the wind in my face as I would have with a flex. Things I've heard you loose with a sailplane. Bottom line is, there was no loss of enjoyment and there's no question that you'll spend more time in the air going XC, my two favorite things.

Negatve side is expense (but good used ones are about the same price as a new flex) and I don't think I'd want to set one up and fly out of the slot at Wood Stock (but I guess I've pretty much become a permanent tow head anyway).

I know that this post sounds like I've pretty much made up my mind but I'm still in the decision mode. If anyone has constructive input, I'd love to hear it.

Paul

p.s. Weather forecast for the next several days sucks. Hope none of you are coming down to fly right away. Should be better by next Tuesday or Wednesday.

I went up to high rock friday afternoon to meet up with Spark for an afternoon sled. I was hangin out in the beautiful weather on the rock waiting to see who all was there. Ralph showed up first after his lunch break to hang out, help me,-thanks man, and snap some shots.Sparky came rolling back up after his flight with Steve Kinsley, I believe they stayed up for 45mins, or so. Steve was hiking back up to launch! It was my turn after a while since I last launched at high rock, and it felt righteous!I had but a sled, but everything felt good, my landing was on the upslope across the whack dip, but on my feet ,no big hassles! Damm good to fly the rock again! Shawn. pulpit tomorrow?

There was a pretty good turnout at High Rock yesterday. Conditions early on were light to moderate west cross with winds increasing as the day went on. Pilots in attendance were Daniel, Sparky, Wesley, Marc, Brian H., Danny, Carlos, Bruce (not flying because of broken arm), Hugh, Mark, John S., Linda and possibly a few others. Daniel was first to launch at 12:10. It was still fairly light then and Daniel gave it a valient try and soared for about 15-20 minutes. Wesley was next about 12:30 and several others followed soon after. I was 4th to launch and felw for just shy of an hour at between 700 to 1000' over in OK conditions. The conditions changed pretty abrubtly about 45 minutes into the flight with increased winds and fairly textured air. Most went out to land with moderately rowdy conditions around the LZ but not too bad. Most of us flew about an hour more or less. Sparky, Mark, Carlos, John S. and Linda had not flown by the time I headed home about 3:00. Conditions by then were pretty stong. Heard that Mark launced later but not sure about anyone else. All in all a pretty nice day.

Kelvin

Woodstock report:

About 12:30, hiked up the back (PG) with Juan, Tom and Ximena. I hiked through the snow following Juan's footsteps. Get to launch and no Juan, but his footsteps continue. I see him through the trees hiking steadily along the path. Peepee break? Nope. Still wearing his pack. I think he just got into the zone hiking. He'd probably be half way to North Carolina now if we hadn't called him back.

It was pretty darn calm. At most 3mph. And overcast. We weren't awfully motivated to fly. But then Juan decided to give it a try. He sledded. Bummer. Should we follow him or not? Eh... It was early. Ximena and I decided to go and pick up Juan.

On the hike out we met Adam and Hubble and Hubble's dad who were hiking in their gliders. They had driven up the front. "Drove???" They laughed. "yeah, you'll see our vehicle of conveyance when you get to the parking lot". At the parking lot we see an ATV with two padded 2x4s strapped on the front and the back. I would have loved to see them come up the road on that thing with three people, two harnesses and two gliders.

We also met Marcel and Corinne who were hiking up the back for their first look/flight at Woodstock.

Picked up Juan who told us a harrowing story about a big bull in the Woodstock LZ getting overly curious(upset?) at Juan's invasion of his territory.

As soon as we step back onto launch, the winds pick up. The front is rolling through. It's 3:30. A bit too much now for our taste. We look at Adam to see if he's preparing to launch. Nope. He's waiting for his pizza. Very impatiently now. Pizza? Yeah, they had pizza delivered to the gate and Hubble had jumped onto the ATV to go and pick it up.

Hubble arrived with the pizza, they snarfed down a few pieces and then jumped into their harnesses and launched.

They immediately climbed to about 500 over and then cautiously (we heard a report from HR that there was an inversion around 2500-3000) proceeded climbing. We watched them for a while, they seemed to have to pull in a bit. We waited until it looked like most of the front had passed and Juan launches.

He had no problems getting up and is soaring nicely. Using some speedbar. Hmm... He's flying a high performance PG. Probably not good for Marcel and me. Tom watched a bit and followed Juan into the air.

We watched Tom for a bit trying to discern if he was using speedbar or not. He radios down that there's a bit of wind and we'd need to be careful. We watched some more, then decided to take the plunge. Marcel was off first. Had a good launch.

My launch felt good. Decided to fly out and not chance getting stuck on the ridge (or -ack- behind). Progress is slow, but there's penetration. Climbing all the time almost out to the end of the left finger. Definite west cross. Going back to the ridge lift and wind get stronger.

Juan lands at the bridge field. No bulls there.

I try to join him, but by the time I am back at the end of the finger I'm not sure if I will make the bridgefield. Not wanting to rely on the wind getting lighter closer to the ground and maybe being wrong and landing in the Shenandoah, I turned and headed to the LZ.

Marcel (keeping the story of the bull in mind) lands in the field just west of the LZ. I land next to him. MUDDY. We were rescued by two 3 foot high tykes in wellingtons (and their mom).

Tom landed in the bridgefield as did Adam and Hubble.

We finished our day at the Springhouse.

Nice flights had by all. Smile
Thanks to Ximena for driving retrieve for us!

-- ellis
p.s. btw, the little guys' mom said the bull was nothing to worry about. That he's pretty timid. Juan looked dubious when we told him.

P.S.
Tom and I could hear Sparky talking at HR while we were in the air! Pretty cool.

Arrived 9:30A to snow flurries and light SW to W on the old ramp. Dropped off the salt and shovel at the base of the parking lot and parked the truck at the bar. Got the old ramp shoveled, salted, and cleared by 10AM. Monitored the Hagerstown Airport AWOS. It was reporting 220 at 06. Sky started clearing upwind around 11AM, and the wind straightened out on the ramp. Hagerstown Airport now had 260 at 8. By 12 noon it was straight in and soarable, and beautiful cloud streets beckoned downwind along Rt. 30 towards Chambersburg. When I left at 1:30PM it was strong (15 to 20), straight in, but launchable. Looked like a great XC day along Rt. 30.

Bacil

http://photos.sickinger.net/20050225_highrock/

This is my second outing with the new camera, and the first with a new 28mm-300mm zoom lens. I did something different with the website this time; In addition to the folders that I make for each pilot, I've created a new one called "favorites"; these are the shots that I like best from the day. It's something that I am going to try to do on a regular basis, so people with slower connections (or just less interest) can go view that one folder directly (43 images) rather than sift through *all* of the pictures that I took that day (in this case, ~280).

Friday's folder is:
http://photos.sickinger.net/20050225_highrock/00_favorites/index.html

Shawn Ray sledded, and didn't even bother to make any turns on the way to the LZ (which could have made for some beautiful shots!), but I was actually able to take pictures of him landing, while standing on the rock itself! I normally resize images to 20% of their original size before posting them on the web; but if you look at the last photos of Shawn, img11095 is the original image (3008x2000). In img11095c I cut out piece from the middle of the original (hence the "c" designation) measuring 1204x800, and then reduced it by 50%. In the last image, img11095c2, I cut out a smaller rectangle (602x400), but did not resize it at all. Pretty cool, huh?

~Ralph

Oh it was soooo dam good here in Santa Barbara! Cloudbase was just below launch during set up and gliders were squeaking out below the soup here and there. I took my turn in a clearing and boated out the center of the valley gaining rather then loosing. Cloudbase was lower out in the front range so a couple spirals down kept me oncourse. CB was about 3k and the back range here gets as high as 4. Most of the triggers out front are at 2-2.5k. Flying XC here I like to keep high as the triggers out front often don't work well. Get high, stay high. Obviously with such a low cloudbase, that doesn't work. But it didn't matter. Wind is usually offshore or over the back. All flying is done in light lee side. Yesterday was onshore hence the buoyant air and low coudbase. Lift was pretty easy to locate, the cloudbottoms and obvious terrain features were working in relative harmony. EJ, John Lyon and I headed west towards the 154. JL bailed and headed back. Glides were very smooth and efficient close to cloudbase. Most of the spines had a nice elevator back up to the 3k deck. Out at the 154 I was going to head back but EJ pushed a little further and marked one down below. I got a fast climb there and use the deck to glide back towards launch. Back near launch coudbase had raised a bit and more gliders were setting up for fun. I buzzed the crew and headed east to finish my lap. Out here the deck was higher so I cruised the back spine (3-3.8k?). The line was buoyant with fatties to park in. I just dolphin flew for about 4 or 5 miles. The standard lap here is the VOR to Romero Canyon. The VOR was above cloudbase so I guessed on the west end with EJ leading the way. Out on the east leg I wasn't sure so I just crossed Romero Canyon and took a couple of fingers further east to the tip of Carpenteria. Pulled a U-E back to launch. EJ was playing some Zagi combat with Tony's Monster Zagi. I joined in for a couple of rounds until I caught myself mushing downwind towards the ridge. OK, enough of that game.

The need to relieve was busting out of many places but I had forgotten to unzip on launch. One handed/chin gliding, remove a glove, find a zipper... the rest is too much info. Feeling great now I had new vigor for lap two. This time there were no other gliders on course, only the cloudbase pylons near launch. At the west end a curious cloud pulled me further out and into the valley before the tractor beam got me to hover level. Now that it was later, there were more good glide lines in front of the range, but at the end of those, I would have to dive quickly back towards the ridge. The air was getting more predictable and covering ground was speeding up. The spines worked when up close, and occasionally I would find a fat one between fingers. Even still, I got stuck a second time near launch. This time I realized that the umbilical pilots boating around were very bad markers. They were the thermal "has beens" and leading me to areas that had already cycled down. After about 15 or 20 minutes of clawing I was happily back at hoover-ville and yo yoed out to Romero Canyon again. The air was just so readable! This time CB had dropped about a thousand feet and I had to cross this intimidating canyon more out front. Thankfully the spines on BOTH sides were working well so it was no drama. Once again at the tip of Carpenteria I pulled a U-E and headed back. There were no pilots left to play with and a handful of semi broken down gliders in the LZ. The OD was now extending even further out over town and the sun was pretty low. The need to relieve had me seeing cross eyed so I was ready to deck it. No love from the sink demons (amazing that far out front it was still lifting) so I fought her down. Landing in Parma always has some drama potential. This time with many pilots and a large group of Hashers (running club) downing beers under the breakdown tree. There is not much room to get creative landing in a field shaped like an aircraft carrier only smaller. Actually, it resembles a shallow slot launch with a narrow downhill end. Adding to the excitement the heavy rains caused a small ravine to open up at the slot opening. The fence posts and streamers delineating the hole make a tight spot even tighter. West wind = Upper field and if it has any velocity, come in high. I have been coming in too low lately and landing shorter then necessary. The west was cancelled by the lift in the area and I found myself trying to thread the goal posts too high. S turns were not a good option because the slot is too narrow and my roll rate too slow. So here is the interesting part. I was still a 1 to 2 glide to my target roundout spot at about 150 feet. I extended my base a short way and kissed a stall while turning. The kiss killed the altitude, turned me where I wanted to be, and gave me my dive for speed. Swooped her down into G.E. for a nice touchdown halfway up the field. The crowd was pleased. So, here is my point.

Moves like that can be a real stupid stunt, but you never know when calling on unique skills can turn a potentially dangerous situation (trying roll reversals low where there isn't enough room much less room for error) into a comfortable margin. Knowing the wider performance envelope of your glider can come in handy. Stalling, stalling in turns, mellow wingovers... practicing moves that can all play a role in safe flying. The anti-aerobatics crowd is missing part of the picture. I'm not talking about the eternal quest for inverted flight and going beyond certification limits, just the stuff beyond cruising up and down the range in ridge lift. Turbulence can easily kick you to 90 degrees or more. Obstacles can demand evasive action beyond that full weight shift slipping turn. It's good to be ready.

Kev C

I think I was the last to launch at 1:20 (Mark may have launched a couple of hours later...) Many thanks to Professor Sparks, Mark Cavanaugh, and Carlos Weill for launch crewing/advising in conditions which had begun to ramp up. After I zipped up, I headed north along the ridge and pulled on 80% VG. Needed it all to crab back to launch against the west cross. It was active flying, but I was comfortable at 300-600 over. After Kelvin, Mark Fink and others had been on the ground for awhile, I overheard a conversation they had with Mark Cavanaugh indicating they had felt it was too rowdy to be fun, reporting uncommanded turns, etc. Having learned that if the smart guys are bailing, I should, too - and having been in the air for 45 minutes or more - I considered going out to land. Right about then, I got turned strongly such that after fighting it for 120 degrees, I decided to just go for the 360. This happened twice, confirming the smart guys' judgment. Found lots of lift on the way, reaching 750 above launch. This gave me plenty of time to get rid of VG, unzip and plan my approach. With reports of crosswind in the LZ, I was uncertain whether to land the "other" way, but both GPS and eyeball confirmed the normal pattern, so I set up for a corner-to-corner final to address the crosswind. Cleared the whack dip and made a mental note not to throw a big flare lest I pop up in the strong wind. Turned out the gradient was in effect and I should have flared harder. Ended up (as often happens to me) running along behind the glider as it flew to the ground, then the wheels must have stuck in the mud, 'cause my hand bent the right down tube neatly in half. (On reflection, what really happened was probably that the DT folded laterally and it just felt like a gentle push buckled it forward.) - Hugh

Steve Kinsley, Adam, Hubble French, Wes Comerer - have I forgotten someone? Conditions were LIGHT. Steve and Wes had already flown once and Wes was setting up for a second when i arrived. I scratched for 10-12 minutes never getting above launch, then went out to land in the cowpie LZ (they are visible from altitude - looks like bombsight photos from WWII). Hubble came in a bit high but made a very stylish flare 20 feet from Adam's parked glider. He was kind enough to mention that my launch sucked. What happened was that Steve was standing with me as I prepared to launch (no wirecrew necessary). I asked something like: "it's not going to get any stronger than this, is it?" - then leaned forward for the first step of the launch run. Steve replied something like: " No, I don't think it will." Hearing the "no" as "NO!", I hesitated for a moment, then yelled clear and regained momentum. Probably popped the nose in the process. Anyway, Hubble's family apparently owns about 5 potential LZs - he's ambitious to set up an aerotow operation on one of the family farms - and he seems to know every other property owner in the valley. We've got to get him in the club and elect him "Vice President for Shenandoah Valley landowner relations". Wes, Steve and I went for pizza in town and avoided the worst of the Beltway traffic. - Hugh

I had a lousy/scary launch at High Rock on Saturday. The how-and-why are pretty clear-cut; but the process might be of some interest to others, so I thought I'd provide some details.

Conditions at High Rock (Sat28Feb) had picked up by about 1:00 due to a frontal passage. Definitely rock-and-roll... the early wave of pilots had landed because conditions were getting strong and the fun factor was low. Up top, we (Spark, Carlos, myself) were seeing 15-20, with gusts to 25+; clearly not flyable. I ran a shuttle with Carlos, and then the waiting around began. An all-too-familar pattern lately, eh? Rolling Eyes

Conditions were forecast to start backing off after 2:00. At 3:00, I started to see some 12-15mph lulls that were tempting. Based on clouds and birds, I figured that the flying itself would probably be pretty fun, I just needed to get off safely.

(And this turned out to be true, at least on my U2. I got about 2 hours, no penetration problems, 1300' over a few times, a great flight!)

But the strong cycles were still gusting to 20+ and the direction was sometimes significantly cross-left: good judgement and technique would be required. I watched a few more of the lulls, and finally geared up around 3:30 with a definite picture of exactly what I wanted: a lull on the pine trees to the left and right; no gusts visible/audible; enough time to get out to the edge; enough time to pick the glider up and get balanced.

But that's not what happened. I launched unbalanced with a lifted left wing, and had one of those can't-believe-he-got-away-with-it launches, with my right wingtip clearing the pillar and/or tree by maybe a couple of feet.

Given that I knew the challenges I was facing, how did I let this come to pass? *This* is the interesting part....

Two things come to mind:

- the inherent stress/anxiety of launching in those conditions
- a desire to fly that compromised my safety-conscious decisions made minutes before

It was strong. The primary wire crew were roped in; they were both backed up by someone holding onto them, and I had a keel assist. We waited out gusts at the back of the cube. Then slid forward during a likely lull; I would try to pick up, but no go; so back off and wait. We did this twice. On the third try, even though the lull was not the 12-15 I was looking for, I chose to go. And on that third trip out, I did not have my right wing forward, as conditions demanded.

I think that I simply *forgot* to do this, given everything else that was going on (watching/listening/wire-crew feedback/trying to balance the glider/trying to get to the edge). That's just LAME!

Adding to this was my desire to "make something happen". I've been out there a lot lately: cold crappy weather without much of a pay-off in terms of airtime. So there I was, willing to launch in winds that were not comparable to the halfway-decent cycles which had gotten me up there in the first place! Geez, am I really that air-horny??? I guess so....

I'm not going to say that I will never try to launch in similar conditions in the future. So, what change in behavior might help prevent me from the failures of technique and judgement of this launch?

One idea (Spark's) is to set a limit on the amount of time that I'm willing to hang out on launch. If I can't launch in 10/15/whatever minutes, back off of the cube, unhook/climb-out, and "reset" for another try after re-examining conditions.

Another idea (mine) is to try to 'break the ice' somehow. You've gotten out there, had to pull back because things weren't working...

Ok, so come up with the mental equivalent of backing off of launch, sort of a 'time-out' on the stresses of the situation. If you've got a wire crew that's willing to hang out for a bit and continue giving you a hand, well... tell 'em that you're just going to sit and watch things for a while. Chill out! Tell a joke! I know it sounds trite, but... RELAX!

Many thanks to Spark, Carlos, Danny, and Wesley (and whoever I'm forgetting) for helping me launch. For all the new pilots who were there : I hope this gives you some insight into my thought process, but remember, your choices must always be your own. Think about what the day was like, talk to other pilots, talk to your observer, think of the types of conditions you've launched in... and let it all sink in!

Mark,

Sure glad you made it. I was trying to think what other things I could have done to ease the launch, the one that comes to mind is better coordination with the other wing. I have seen you launch in challenging conditions many times so at no time I thought this was pushing anything, but I agree all of us had to be aware when we are in launch mode too long. I had seen wings drop in lighter conditions earlier. In one case the pilot clear and the wings were neutral, but as soon as got the wing in the air, on the last step off the rock it was unbalanced.

After all you got a well deserved good flight (We forgot to put in your harness the brick you earned) . I saw you doing 360s with ease, leading me to believe the conditions aloft were pleasant.

I waited some more thinking launch conditions had calmed down, after all the excitement I wanted a brain dead launch. I got to the bottom of the rock and heard more wind action, decided to check the rock. It wasn't the brain dead conditions that I was looking for, so I backed off, packed up and went home.

Carlos

Hey Mark

I didn't think the wind was too strong at the point of your launch. While it wasn't the lightest cycle, it wasn't too bad. I think the majority of the problem stemmed from the left wing being high when you launched. That immediately rolled you to the right with an ensuing slip. It was a little scary, but I've seen worse. I think it's imperative to launch with wings level; a yaw is acceptable but level wings are really important. It is also imperative that we clear the pillars of spectators. What happened to you could happen to anyone in any condition, not only gusty and strong.

I don't remember seeing a streamer on your flying wire. In gusty conditions, that streamer sure provides insight as to what the air just in front of the glider is doing. It's a very reassuring piece of thread (at least for me.)

Introspection and analysis is very important and the hallmark of a safety-oriented pilot. You should be applauded for sharing your insights for this experience. Too many people are delusional about such events and simply blame their mishaps on conditions. Don't kick yourself too much. You got spanked a little... chalk it up to experience.

You sure looked good up there plastered against that impossibly blue sky!

Danny Brotto

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated March 3, 2005