Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2005

Index to weather maps

Hangola April 28 - May 4, 2005

Flight Reports

Lauren and I just returned home from the very friendly and fun Florida Ridge HG competition to find our in box stuffed with LOTS of posts. Seems we missed some heated debate regarding helmets and after reading posts from all perspectives, I think the right decision was reached at the meeting. As Marc mentioned, there is no definitive testing proving the ultimate safety of one over the other, especially regarding the possibility of neck injuries, and having recently been involved in some fairly serious gaggle flying I can definitely see the importance of not restricting your peripheral vision.

Now to the FUN stuff!!! The Florida Ridge Comp is billed as a smaller, friendlier competition and it follows on the heels of the Flytec to take advantage of many comp pilots already being in the area. The numbers were fairly small but with people like world champion Oleg Bondarchuk there, it was definitely a competitive group. My rigid wing group wasn't quite so tough but I still had some very good pilots such as Davis Straub, Johan Posch, Campbell Bowen and Russell Brown to contend with.

Lauren competed in the Sport class which pretty much consisted of pilots flying king posted gliders so she didn't have to take on guys like Oleg!!! I'm going to let her tell you about her experience but I don't think she'll mind if I tell you that she won her division and set a new personal best distance while she was at it!!

The first two days of the five day format were blown out and rained out respectively so we were only able to fly for three days. The first day was blue with very light lift and I just couldn't get it together. I was a bit slow in getting launched, lost track of the lead gaggle and finally decked it just before the second waypoint. This was REALLY a mistake because several pilots made goal and put me WAY behind in points.

The second day, however, I flew much better and smarter and had good results. It was a monster 86 mile task with a down wind and two cross wind legs. Linda Salamone valiantly flew for six hours only to come up five miles short of goal. I originally flew with the main gaggle but after 20 miles or so Russel Brown and I broke away and flew together for a big part of the task before Oleg caught up with us. Our rigid wing gliders had a bit more glide than his Combat but his incredible skill kept him right with us and I pimped shamelessly. It was a rare treat and an incredible lesson to fly with and learn from such a legend. After the final turn point Russel tried to break away but then had some problems and Oleg and I overtook him. My instrument was saying that I had goal on glide but Oleg wasn't sure about his wing and diverted to a promising cloud allowing me to take the lead. I was about to explode with excitement when I crossed the finish circle thinking I was first into goal for all divisions. Unfotunately I had forgotten that Davis Straub had taken a chance early on and had gone off by himself well to the left of the course line. He had found better conditions and beaten me by 19 minutes. Still, coming second in my division, beating Oleg to goal (even though he was flying a flex wing) and completing the longest declared task of my life was pretty great.

The final day looked like it might be blown out but the winds backed down to a reasonable level by late AM and a short (36 mile) down wind task was called to make it easy to return in time for awards and the final night party. Lift was extremely light early on but I managed to hang on and once again found myself in the lead gaggle with Oleg and Russell but this time Davis joined our little group. Conditions improved and when Oleg found a boomer about 15 miles out I knew we had goal in hand and winning would be a matter of who left first with enough altitude to make it in. My 5030 said it was time to go but I didn't want to leave too early so I held on for another turn or two while I watched Davis and Russel. Then I saw Oleg pull in his VG and I wheeled out and went on glide right behind him. Davis and Russel quickly followed but I had enough of a jump to hold on for the win crossing the finish line 18 seconds ahead of Davis. Oleg did beat me this time but, of course, he was in the flex wing division.

So even though my poor performance on the first day kept me in fourth place overall, I had taken a first and a second on the last two days and created a HUGE desire to compete again. Damn, this sport is fun!!!!!

See ya'll at Highland for the East Coast Championships!

Paul

Paul and I arrived at Florida Ridge on Monday. My attitude was not as good as it should have been. I have been visualizing flying there, flying well, maybe winning the Sport class, but the week had been long. My parents visited. I competed my horse. I crewed for the Flytec and achieved my toughest free flight successfully. I collapsed a glider on top of a competitor when I pulled on his nose wires (when crewing). Originally it was believed I ruined the competition for him though later he thanked me for saving his life. Pictures taken moments before revealed a bulge in the carbon fiber where it had been damaged in a whack the night before.

And then Chris died. Impossible. I do not understand how you can talk to a person in the morning and then have them go away like that, forever. A bungee jump could not have provided more highs and lows. I didn't feel like flying. I just felt like curling up with my cat and sleeping for a couple of months. Not even depressed. Just tired.

The weather cooperated at Florida Ridge for a couple of days. The wind blew and then the clouds poured rain. It suited me. But eventually it, on Thursday, it became flyable. Instead of wanting to get into the sky, I felt scared of the wind and how the tow would be. I was late getting ready and launching. Making excuses.

Bo towed me into a weak thermal, but when it died I was only at 3000 feet. I pushed upwind to try and get higher before leaving the field, instead of joining the few gliders left in the area downwind. Finding nothing else, I decked it shortly thereafter. I thought I could do better with a re-light, but after I three tows I realized the first thermal Bo had given me had been my only chance.

Well. I had lots of towing and landing practice in windy conditions. I thought my competition was beatable, but I was tied for last after that. I only got points for launching.

At a comp, you tend to get very tight and close to the little group of people around you. You root for each other and pick each other up and help. Monica and Scott from Australia, Johan from South Africa, Tom from the US, Shegeto from Japan, all became allies, as well as my loyal instructor, Kevin, Bo, and other friends. Ah, yeesh, then there's Linda and Mark from NY. But it is silly to list them. The names mean little. It is the people, the kindnesses, the laughter that means anything. I wasn't doing much good at flying but I got lots of advice and love.

The second day was windy, too, but I vowed to be first in line to launch. I tried to picture winning, or at least what it would feel like to cross goal. I wasn't first to launch, but I was early enough to fly with the gaggle. The start window for the flexies and the rigids wasn't until a little later but the Sport class could start anytime. I headed downwind, expecting the field to catch me on their faster ships as I passed the swampy, bad retrieve area immediately to the North of the field. I trekked west, into total blue conditions, marked only by the occasional haze dome. Everyone else trekked east (you have to skirt one way or another past the swamp).

I never saw anyone else until Marc Fink picked me up where I landed, 14 miles away, totally off course line. I flew so far off course line that even though I flew further than the others (in the Sport class) I only got 6 miles on course. I looked at my GPS in disgust as I broke down, wondering if I could blame my ineptitude on being left handed.

Events became more interesting as I broke down. I decided to break down into the wind since there was little of it and I was right with the glider. A dust devil turned Griffin upside down but thankfully didn't break her. OK, one more lesson. Never, never will I do that again. I got her upright right before Marc came. He chatted with me outside the barb wire fence as I finished breaking down.

He decided to relieve himself at the exact moment the Sheriff pulled up to arrest us both. He managed to shake off his, uh, member, in time to turn and greet the law. No sh** the sheriff said he was there to arrest us. Not because of Marc and his unfortunate timing in peeing, but because I was trespassing on the Lyke's land. They own 450,000 acres (this is NOT an typo) and somebody spooked their cows. My field was empty but no one seemed to care. I was trying to look cute and throw my stuff together really quick and hoping Marc didn't get mad and start talking to the sheriff about Bush. But the sheriff let us off with a warning.

Poor Marc was recovering from the flu and had to stop and barf up his ice cream and beer on a hapless tree while we picked up the very jubilant Paul and friends. I tried not to be a total downer and climbed into the back of the truck so I wouldn't spread my misery on those around me. But then my butt started to hurt so I climbed back inside the truck. Johan had flown 5 hours and was exhausted, said he would not do it again. We found Shegeto WAY behind a gate again. I drank martinis. My standings in the meet did not improve. When we arrived back all the dinner had been eaten.

Conditions looked blown out yesterday, the last day of the meet. I set up my glider when the task committee decided to call a task in spite of the howling winds. It was a simple task, some 36 miles downwind, the same for all classes, so we could get done early enough for a party afterwards. Few thought we would be able to fly, though. But the wind abated a bit finally, and I got one more chance to decide my fate.

I was in line early but had a green tow pilot. My weak link broke after an extremely fast 350 feet. I forget how spoiled we are with our exceptional pilots to tow us. Thankfully my friend Bo was there to drag me up the second time. Thankfully also my radio had become broken so I had blissful silence. Bo dragged me downwind to the remaining gaggle. No chance of flying home from there. I was in zero sink at 2500, drifting fast towards the swamp. The gaggle flew west but I was too low. For 14 miles, I flew at 3000 feet or below, from field to field, butt clenched strong enough to break a man's arm. I tried to stay towards the edge of the swamp, so I could glide out, taking any scraps of lift I found. I saw maybe 200 a minute at best.

After Highway 29 and 27 joined, I saw 2 other gliders. At 1000 feet, unzipped over a field with cows (oh yeah, I was going to jail for sure this time) I discovered they were just as stupid as I was. They struggled in the same rat crap I did. When I followed them I just got lower. At least I would have friends to land with. But then I saw some birds. Unlike my hang gliding buddies, they knew about the air. I flew over them and found 900 up a minute. I remembered what Kevin said about hanging onto the side of your glider when it tried to pitch up too much but I was damned if I was flying out of that devil thermal. Minutes later I cruised along at 5000 feet, finally getting some cool air to breathe. The other gliders never got that particular climb, I just got lucky and caught the bullet.

The last 22 miles were nothing. Clouds formed, and I only turned in strong lift. Conditions got smooth. Mainly I just drifted along, arms slung over the base tube, pushing out when I had lift. I saw the airport where goal was a little later, just like it looked on the Delorme map. I didn't race hard enough and arrived with 3500 feet, but it didn't matter because none of the other Sport class made it to goal at all. I did it in an hour and a half. I landed really nicely.

Ah, it was so great. Paul won the day. He ran up when I landed and so did Monica. God I love her. Shegeto landed awhile later and we took pictures of each other. Linda and Mark made goal, too. I got drunk and threw Russell to the ground and kissed him. I thought Laurie, his wife, might think I was lusting after him instead of being excited about flying so then I threw her on the ground and kissed her, too. I think she liked it.

I not only won the day but won the Sport class since I got 933 points for the day and we all were fairly close before that. I couldn't sleep at all last night. Like, at all. Not ten minutes. I just laid in bed thinking about it all. Today we drove home and I have been mauling my kitty since we got in. Wow. I will really miss all our new friends. I am lucky to have these opportunities.

Lauren

Although I have been flying in the mountains just shy of 8 years, I have been pretty conservative in most of my flights. You can count my cross-country flights on one hand. And all of them were over the flats, either over the back at the Pulpit or short sojourns out from Ridgely. I had never felt comfortable leaving the safety of glide-range to the main LZ on any of our ridges. I always worried that I would not find enough lift as I moved out, and would sink out to an ignominious unplanned landing out.

That status changed today, when I took advantage of a really rowdy west cross day at Woodstock. Mid-afternoon winds in the slot were relatively straight and 6-10 with gusts to 16. I launched at 2:30 and hit clean lift right out of the slot. Turned right, and at the first finger found a fat thermal (1000fpm) that quickly took me to 2100 feet over launch. I used that altitude to make my way north, hitting numerous bumps and troughs along the way. Reached the reservoir in less than 30 minutes at about 3100 msl, or 1000 over. Found big sink just south of the pond, and was down to 2500 quickly, but a yellow/green Talon that had preceded me (Dennis McReedy?) was in firm up right over the water. I rushed over to the same spot as he began his run back to the south.

With my altitude back up to about 3000 msl, I started my slow crawl back to the south. The west cross took it's toll. Within two fingers of the ridge I was down to 2300 msl, or only 200 over launch. I started planning my LZ in every section of the valley. I milked every bump or thermal I could fund. I spent a lot of time between 2400 and 2700. Then about a half mile down, I found another boomer. It took me from 2300 to 3100 in just a few minutes. However, the drift put me darn near back at the reservoir again!

This was going to be a slow trip down the ridge. With the VG pulled on and moderate speed, more than once I found myself watching the trees below go backwards, or stay in the same place but moving upward toward me rapidly. Each time I pulled in the bar more, and gave thanks I was flying the UltraSport and not my Pulse.

For almost the entire trip back to the south I was expecting to need to land out, and had two LZs picked at each finger. Virtually the entire trip was around 2400 msl, since my one attempt to gain big altitude also gave me big drift away from goal. Then, I reached the first finger north of launch. That same thermal was still working there, and in another 1000fpm up, I found myself back at 3700msl. Dang, and I was tired and sweaty and ready to land. The trip up to the reservoir had taken about half an hour. The trip back was a solid hour and a quarter. I decided I did not need to play in the sky for another 15 minutes just to cross a magic two hour mark. Even with that, I did some real speed flying out over the valley to get down to landing pattern height.

I made a standard left hand approach down the tree line, came in fast, and flared a tad late, flaring to my knees instead of my feet. But, it was a great flight, lots of work, and a new adventure out of the crib for me! Total time 1:53, max altitude 4200 msl, and my very first ridge run!.

Lots of agreement in the LZ that the day was rowdy, big lift, and alot of work. Pete Schumann collapsed onto the grass after unhooking, declaring himself exhausted. He and Tom McGowan reported 6000' over down to the south, but they both came back to land in the main LZ.

We ought to have a bunch of great flying stories from Woodstock today. I look forward to reading them all!

Cragin

Yup, there were 15-20 gliders at Woodstock. (I'm not going to try to name them all.) It was rowdy with a pronounced south cross. Several strong pilots went south against the wind: Bruce Engen made it to New Market, Dan T. to Edinburg, Tom McG. went out and back. The rest of us got bounced around locally. Wiser pilots waited late for conditions to moderate: Christy, Karen, John Middleton and the H-2s: Dan B. and Linda. Matthew *did* get to fly his paraglider late in the day after a long hang-glider flight (minus a left wingtip which he lost early in the flight). Pilots reported altitudes of up to 6000 feet over launch!

Gorgeous day with 30 mile visibility. Sailplanes buzzed launch and I saw an airplane headed south over the LZ a good 2000 feet below my altitude. The season is in full swing! - Hugh

P.S. Woulda been a perfect day to fly to Front Royal - but who was going to drive retrieval?

P.P.S. Props to Dave Bodner for riding out on his motorcycle and helping a bunch of people launch before he had to go home early.

Congratulations Craig!
As you can see there is more to that ridge than the two fingers around launch.

My day was fairly similar to Craig's and most everybody elses I expect. Really rough conditions with a west cross to make the run to the South a tough go. Even the topless gliders seemed to by flying pretty slow.

It's the middle of Pete's contest season and I was hopeful of putting an XC in the books. I figured I'd run north to the pond to declare a start point then see if I could cross the Edinburg Gap. Doug Wakefield gave me his old vario last holiday season and it got a workout yesterday. I heard sounds both up and down I didn't know it had!

Anyway by the time I finally reached the gap nearly two hours after launching I got a good look at the sea of trees upwind from short mountain. That gap looks mighty wide when you appear to be making only about 3 mph upwind. Better sense got the best of me and I landed out by hwy 11.

All in all the day was more fun after thinking about it while safely on the ground.

Dan T.

Many thanks to the many pilots who delayed their Mexican dinner to assist me in launching. And then I probably gave them a good scare. Matthew and I were the bad launch couple yesterday. I'm not sure what happened. I assume that I probably popped the nose. All of a sudden I was headed towards the left side of the launch which I thought was odd because we had a left cross all day, and then I rocketed up into a wild ride out of the slot. Once out there I just parked for awhile, contemplating what might have happened. Then I realized I wasn't going anywhere and pulled a little more VG. I had a really nice flight. I haven't flown Woodstock for maybe a year and it was just gorgeous. But any feedback on that launch would be appreciated.

Karen

Had a clean launch, and a decent landing with about 10 minutes of soaring just before sunset.

Absolutely beautiful day. My loaner kneehangers performed beautifully (thank you!) as did the new primary hang strap that has me lower and in better proximity to the control bar. I practiced the difference between flying minimum sink and best glide (even with the full face helmet you can hear the difference in the wind) and there is the bar pressure difference too.

Thanks to Matthew for observing and Matthew and Gary S. for wire crew, and Gary for the retrieve.

Christy got in a nice flight - she said it had been a while for her but she that she was willing to observe for me also if Matthew had been stranded in the air by too much lift.... <grin>. - Linda B.

Yep. Great Day! Got over 2 hours and 5100 over launch (6100 agl). Haven't done that in a while. And had a good landing despite the turb and switchiness in the LZ. Crappy launch, though. Been trying to slow things down into more of a walk, jog, run. Went off too slow and started moving before yelling clear. Wing came up slightly and I got turned to the right. Started running faster then!

Landed due to frigid temps up high and so I could run up and help Linda off. She had a great launch! Then I launched the PG for a 23 min flight. Way turb and strong for the PG. I spent a lot of time on my tippy toes on the speed bar to creep out front and I had a few small tip collapses. There was still so much lift that I climbed all the way out to the LZ even on full speed bar. I thought that I might not get down.

Karen got about an hour and Gary Smith got 4800 over and made it out to I-81 and back. The mountains were a beautiful green and glowed in the late day sun.

Oh yeah. Lost my left winglet sometime during the first hour of my HG flight. Rowdiness was a 6 on a 1-10 scale for the first hour and there were a few moments of BIG ASS TURBULENCE where the wind gusts/rotor/thermal/sink attempted to rip the base tube from my hands, turn me back into the mountain or drop me out of the sky. The winglet must've sheared off of the Velcro off during one of those moments. (I've been in worse at Woodstock!) Despite that, it was the best day I've had flying for a long, long time. It mellowed out and really turned on during the second hour. And I didn't notice any difference in handling with only one winglet.

I didn't notice it was missing until after I landed.

Matthew

Was thinkin you might have been out in the glider today conditions look stellar. Glad to hear someone got some airtime today for as far as I know nobody flew Elizabethville today winds were gusty and too strong. I spent most of the day cutting trees up and down to open the road into Ring Town and the setup areas. They had a hell of an ice storm up on top of the mountain which damaged mucho treeo's. Then tried to go mountain bikin with Shawn on the way home at Blue Marsh but bad rear wheel bearings kinda shortined my ride, I never got out of the parkin lot. Shawn let me take a spin on a 2005 Fuel that he had for the weekend while his bike was getting fixed. Wow what cool bike!!! Glad you got some airtime Dennis,

Doug.

Dennis Monteiro wrote:
I was curious if anyone was flying today or if it was too strong. Good day for gliders. Cloudbase at about 6000 AGL, winds aloft fairly strong, good lift at 800 fpm often. Flew with dive brakes full open from over 5000 to get down. Hope some people got in the air.

I found a velcro zipper pull (whatever it's called). Let me know if you're missing one.

I was rewarded for my decision to launch late with smooth air considering the strength of the wind and lift. 2:18 flight, with much of the time parked on my Mark IV. Lots of time to take in the incredible view. The Shenandoah Valley was glowing!

Thanks to John M. for observing me so Matthew, my scheduled observer, could enjoy his flight.

Happy Monday!
Daniel

Took some students to Smithsburg on Sunday and after we got the gliders set up and moved to the landing area for ground handling/running it got windier. Sounds like Richard's attempt during the week. Figured we had a 50/50 chance and lost this time. We broke down after waiting for a while and left about 3:00 PM with a couple of students going with me to Woodstock to see this mountain site. Since I thought we could get blown out at Smithsburg, I had put my U2 on the Jeep with the trainers, so I was prepared. I launched a little before 6:00, flew close to the gap and back getting 1:10, a couple of thousand over and a picture perfect landing. Didn't get to teach much but atleast got to fly.

john middleton

Had a nice flight at Elizabethville Tuesday evening with Shawn. Air was a little more textured than preferred but nothing outrageous. There was alot of up but most of the thermals were hard to track and were not your usual find the core and stick with it and get the big altitude gain. It was more like grab what you could and work it until it vanished then look for another. I think this is what made it feel choppy and rough at times. Altitude gains to 2500' and flight times of 1.5 hrs were bagged.

Doug.

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated May 7, 2005