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Hangola March 10 - 15, 2005

Flight Reports

On tow, I heard my vario scream. I peeked at it, and it reported that we rocketed skyward at 1300 feet per minute. It also reported that we had only 1400 feet of altitude. I resisted the urge to pin off, because it is often hard to get up from below an inversion, and Jamie had told me that he thought one existed at 2000 feet.

I grimaced and hung on, expecting to fall out of the edge of the thermal, but we -- Jim Rooney (my tug pilot), me, and Griffin -- didn't. My vario howled and my next peek at it revealed our lift had risen to 1900 feet per minute and we had 2000 feet altitude.

I figured since we were going up faster than the space shuttle, I could stay in the thermal if I released. Once Griffin and I had lost the plane, we continued upward at 800 fpm. I felt surprised it was so smooth. Pete Lehmann reminded me to relax and make sure I wasn't fighting the glider when I complained about how rough the lift was a couple of weeks ago. I remembered his advice in the air, so maybe that's why it was easier -- or maybe it was just smoother.

The clouds were mere promises, wisps and haze domes, small cotton balls at their largest. None of them could digest a pilot, but they provided some guidance during their brief lives. I quickly soared to 5200 feet. Each circle I followed Mike Barber's advice, to figure out where I was going to fly to search for my next thermal, to look around, to see what cloud was developing and which was dying. I didn't have very many circles to figure it out, though, since Griffin had the bit in her teeth and happily blasted higher.

I finally saw a sailplane and glider, and as the lift weakened near the super-wisp I had flown under, I rushed off to join them. Mike also said not to count on lift if you come in under someone, but it worked fine in this case. The wind quickly blew us East, and I had ventured North to chase the others. I didn't love the landing fields and nervously watched my glide.

One of the most fun things about this flight was that after awhile, it was just Kev in the tandem with a thermalling student (Francisco, who was freezing, someone should have told him if you fly with Kev you better dress like you are climbing Everest) -- and me and Griffin. I think it was fun for him because Kevin could try to out climb me in the tandem... a suitable handicap. It was really fun for me.

Had to laugh later. Kev asked if he had scared me out of some thermals and I admitted a couple of times I had circled wide to give him the core. He told me he had wanted to demonstrate avoidance maneuvers with Francisco, but it didn't work because I would run away. I am a very bad Guinea pig.

Finally, even though I had 5000 plus feet of altitude, I decided to bolt for home. I only made 11 mph ground speed with the VG pulled as tight as Joan River's face. Mike's words haunted me again -- if you fly out into the blue, you will deck it; you are planning to land. But Clermont looked like a bad LZ. I felt like a wussie as Kev headed off a different way while I aimed for Quest.

The only thing I saw for potential lift in my direction was the smallest bit of haze, almost an illusion. I flew towards it, and though I tried to choose the best line, my sink was often 700 fpm down. I poked around under the shiny bit of sky, but found nothing -- until a beautiful white bird with blade wings, striped with black, showed me the heart of the thermal. From 1000 feet I again got to ride the rocket to the sky, just one more time. Kev -- who I thought had disappeared-- showed up from the south, and joined me on this last ride. We landed minutes apart.

The only thing that would have made the flight better was if Paul had been there -- but he is still grounded with the death-cold. Don't feel too sorry for him, though. In a couple of days he is driving north to pick up the fastest, slickest glider I have ever seen; his new, best toy ever. I will let him report on it.

Charlie (from NY, often flies at Highland) flew up from Wallaby in his Fusion, which is fantastic given the wind direction. It took him 3 hours (for 23 miles) and he shivered uncontrollably for an hour after landing. I was still jealous.

Good times.

Lauren (BTW, Mark gave me my own address for the forum, but I have not figured out how to use it yet... I will do so today, sorry)

Is anybody out there old enough to remember that?

Not a bad day at the Rock . Carlos, Matthew, me and Karen kicked butt. Spark and John Middleton arrived late and got butt kicked. Still, think they both made it over launch (albeit briefly) at some point.

Nope, Steve, I'm not old enough : )

Today was the first time I've flown both the Pulpit and High Rock in one day ... two different flights, two different gliders, two very different flights ...

The Pulpit flight wasn't pretty. I flew the Moyes CSX and made the mistake of picking up too much speed right after launch. The CSX gets kinda squirrely when you fly it fast without VG.

So I launched and proceeded to roll 30 degrees left, then right, then 15 degrees, then 5 degrees ... blew some key altitude trying to get the wing level. Of course, then I couldn't get above the ridge and blew more altitude trying.

So I signed up to land a flippin' slippery blade wing in the bailout LZ. Arrived with maybe 200', made a base-leg and got rolled hard to the outside (by a thermal popping off in the LZ) just when I wanted to turn right onto final. I almost ran of of room (and time) rolling back to the right. As I turned onto final, all the sudden, my nose is pointed down at the road ... and I was ground skimming 10 feet past the road. I rounded out and landed in less than 100 feet .. not entirely on both feet, either. On the other hand, no bent aluminium, or bones.

... and I had a tail wind. I'm thinking maybe I was getting some rotor from the trees ...

I had a mini-DV cam mounted on the keel. That last 30 seconds of video is pretty interesting - especially my remark whilst pointed nearly vertical..

So while I'm grovelling in the bail-out, Tom and Kelvin are OTB, headed towards Greencastle, and everyone else is high and havin' a good old time.

So, I figured I'd go to the Rock.

I made the crossing in a record 45 minutes and arrived with just enough time to fly the Falcon. The wind crossed N and started to die while I was on the block. I made maybe 4 passes and then headed to the rock pile and got zilch. Headed out to land and hit a N headwind. Arrived at the LZ with maybe 100'.

Andy Harrah met me in the LZ and provided a ride back to my car. We got to the gate with 30 minutes 'til sundown and these two guys in green in a HumVee with helmets and guns were locking the gate. I sure was happy when they opened the gate, let us drive by and waited for us to return.

'Spark

Sparky's launch looked great, but as soon as he left the ramp the bottom just dropped out from under him. I remember sucking in my breath as I thought I was going to witness a tree landing.

I was the next launch after Sparky. It took skill to get up and stay up in the North cross; hence, I landed after 10 minutes with a max of 150 over (measured from setup area). Still, it felt great to dust off the cobwebs that had gathered since Woodstock the week of Christmas.

David Bodner

All in all it was a great day out there. We arrived at 10:30am with the winds crossing from the SW. But...with faith that they would straighten out per the forecast, we unloaded and set up the gliders. By 11:30- 12 noon the wind was straight in at about 10mph. Surprisingly, there was a very low turnout at the hill. Jim Hodges was there with his Sonic and Glen Hardy was flying my Falcon. Another guy in a Eagle was there, as were two paraglider pilots. But that was basically it. Juan Sonen stopped by as did Greg the Greek, but they didn't fly. Eddie Miller was there flying his RC sailplane with another guy too.

We could see someone soaring the rock from time to time, but...the conditions at Smithburg would be boarderline blown out during some time-frames and then damn near dead calm during others. BUT...the changes were steady and gradual, and not gusty.

Everyone had their fill of flights and a good time was had by all. The slope conditions were very good as well.

FYI: We learned today that Eddie Millers' Father passed away last week. As you can imagine, he's hurting. Give him your condolences if and when you see him.

Yes I vaguely remember Aquasco Speedway but why did you title your post that way? Even though I got to the Rock late and only got a sled, it sure was nice to fly!

john middleton

Hey Gary,

Yes we had good flights yesterday at the Pulpit and I could also hear several pilots getting high over at High Rock. I launched a little early with Tom M and we had to scratch for 20 minutes or so just getting a few hundred over and then sinking down to launch level again. Conditions were a steady 10 but it had a 15 degree cross from the north which makes it challenging down on the ridge. The sky was mostly cloudy but quickly broke up and turned into scattered Q's. Finally it reached trigger temp and we went right up to 1000' then road a few up to 2200' which was still shy of base. Tom went over the back along with a few others and landed somewhere near GreenCastle. I flew for awhile longer and then decided to land out front and got a body ride back up to my truck from Bruce and Sparky. Helped Joe S. launch around 3:30pm into a good 15 to 20 elevator ride up the 1K. I was packed up and on the road by 4:30 and home by 6:30. Turned out to be a stellar day. On the way home I couldn't help but notice the flags were all blowin out of the north. Wondering if it worked at any of our sites or Ellenville. Today and tomorrow look good! Any takers??

Doug.

Yall should've been there.

I launched last at 3:15pm (after Adam, Homer, Alek and Steve) into a nice cycle and beamed up to 1k above launch within a few minutes.

A half mile to the north, I found a big fat one to 4200' above launch (~6200 msl). The core was a solid 800 fpm for several minutes. I sure love that sound. The view looking east toward the fresh snowfall on Skyline was awesome.

Too bad I was in the wrong glider (Falcon 225). At about half way to the Strasburg, I lost over 2000 feet in a half mile, so I turned tail and crept back toward launch, finally finding another fat one to 5200 msl. Nice stuff - strong but smooth.

On the radio, I could hear Pete and JR and John Fenner over at High Point.

Later on, the thermals became smaller and more sparse, and the wind switched a bit more west. I boated around for awhile by myself at 3k msl with some buzzards. I went out towards the LZ to land twice, and both times found small cores taking me from 500' back to 1k over. I finally got serious about landing and touched down after an hour and forty-five minutes, arms just a bit sore, feeling better than yesterday.

Maybe it will be even better tomorrow.

'Spark

I had a fun hour long flight until I got too cold. Got up to 3200 over launch and ventured further north than I had ever before at Woodstock. Getting back in the air after a couple of months off felt great!

Huge thanks to Sparky who took time off work to observe me!

Alek

Pretty spectacular day. Think people were getting to 6400 msl. I didn't dress warmly enough and stayed below 5k most of the time with a brief excursion to 5500. Steady (and generally smooth) 4 to 5 kts up. Landed at Sburg, walked into town and bummed beer, dinner and a ride back to my car from Joe and Zelda. Don't get much better than that. Spark, Alek, Adam A and John MacAllister. There was obviously a crowd up at Cumberland too as we were all on the same freq.

Gonna try it again today.. .

It was a beautiful day at Woodstock. Clear and warm. Carlos launched first a little after 2:00 pm and Steve declared the day soarable. Wesley and myself launched shortly thereafter. There was plenty of lift and I got up to 2000 over. After about 45 minutes on the ridge I head out into the valley and boated around for another half hour or so. Joe Schad flew to his house and Steve seemed to get really high, but I'll let them tell their own stories. Later on Adam, Hubble and anther pilot flew as well.

How is it looking for tomorrow?

Launch at around 2:00PM as Alek, the instigator, mentioned and almost immediately I was 500 over. It was purely a thermal day, and that created some turbulence. Most of the flight was searching for them, taking it easy. Except at one point as I found one thermal with relative strength that took the glider behind the ridge, on those conditions I like to be about 60 degrees or more and definitely no less than 45 degrees. After a few turns it was growing weaker I chose the get out of it. I started at 1300 over and I was quickly loosing altitude. At that point I made an alternate plan to scope an LZ behind the ridge, I was making forward progress and cross the ridge at a little less than 200 over. After spending some more time on the ridge, the arms got tired and went to the LZ, my highest at the ridge was about 1500 over, but over the LZ without any effort I was 2000 over. As I was working my way down a number of cows gather around Alek's glider, they have been multiplying from last time I was there. Overall an enjoyable day.

Carlos

Woodstock was exceptionally good. I launched around three and got right up with the rest of the crowd. Hung around launch watching Steve get to launch and then launch. Thought he was going to go Strasburg with me. About three fingers north caught my first thermal to two grand over and lost nearly a thousand crossing the wide treed finger north. A finger south of the reservoir I got a thermal to three grand over and decided to try to fly straight toward the Strasburg high school and the field that I wanted to land in. Lift was abundant and I maintained 2400-3000 over all the way to the school where I found another good thermal that got me to 3700 over. Spend the next forty minutes cruising around Strasburg and talking to Zelda at my house. The whole neighbor hood was out watching me fly around. Max altitude was 3900. I landed near my house. Next time I will hike my glider home. Great Day.

Joe

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This page last updated March 16, 2005