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Hangola September 9 - 13, 2005

Flight Reports

Yes, it's true---I finally made it back to the mountains! :) Got my first HR flight this afternoon, thanks to Sparky who observed and Eddie Miller who helped wire me off. When we met at launch around 2pm it was soarable, often blowing straight in (or crossing from the north) around 5-7. Winds calmed down an hour later, by the time we'd run shuttle and set up.

Sparky and I stopped by Emma Jane's, where I met her, Harry and Randy (hopefully I got those names right). We chatted, and I filled out the paperwork and left the fee plus some.

This was the first mountain flight in my Eagle. Launch was fine---got off in a lull, no problems. Not enough wind for ridge lift, so I flew over the rock pile, circled once in weak lift...then flew over the railroad tracks where there was a bit more lift, circled several more times, almost made it back up to launch, then headed out to the LZ.

Arrived at the LZ around 500', flew over the streamers---direction looked good, more-or-less right down the field. Flew back to the downwind side beyond (and well above) the slot...circled down...and pulled in for good speed on final, right up the centerline of the field. Rounded out perfectly, toes just skimming the tallest grass...bled off energy...and flared to a no-stepper just 10 feet short of the cone. WOOHOO!

I radioed Sparky at launch to let him know I was fine, then parked my glider by the trees and relaxed in the pavilion, replaying the flight in my mind. It was encouraging to see that all my recent landing practice has paid off---I don't think I could have landed any better!

Yes, I know it was a mellow HR day, and gets a lot rowdier. But it was a perfect first flight for me, and I look forward to many more! :)

Scott

Photos at

http://community.webshots.com/album/447263934mHMEEZ'

Spark

Had a nice two hour flight at Quest today. Ophelia has been screwing with us for over a week but she finally moved north and today was pretty good. Wasn't planning on flying cause Dr. Jack said it was going to be crappy but at about 2:00 Kevin Carter, Mitch Shipley and a couple of others started setting up and, of course, I couldn't let them fly without me. Turned out that Dr. Jack didn't know squat and we had nice flights with gains to nearly 4,500'

Tomorrow looks even better so plans for an XC are on. Lauren flew her new Litespeed three times this AM before the sky turned on but then had to stop due to a HUGE reaction to some fire ant bites she got while waiting to launch. Hopefully she'll be better by tomorrow so she can finally get a soaring flight in on her new toy.

Hope you guys are having another good weekend.

Paul

Hi there,

The PG group flew at Bills Hill today. Conditions were not overwhelming, most flights resulted in sled rides or extendos at best. The big exception was Tom Ceunen, who miraculously went to cloudbase from about 100-150ft AGL over the LZ. He then flew above our heads for hours, very well done!

For me, it was kind of an unlucky day. Besides two not so exciting flights, I lost my GPS. It's a Garmin Geko 201, green-yellow color. I don't think it happened in flight, so I must have lost it at launch, or in the LZ, when I kited my wing overhead from the point where I landed down to the road. I'm about 95% sure that I've lost it in the LZ, but despite several hours of search, we couldn't find it anymore.

So if someone comes across it by any chance, I would be more than happy to have it back. If switched on, it will show my name and address.

Best regards,

Marcel

http://members.cox.net/comppg/Breezewood2005/index.html

Without vario quite low save and +7000 feet asl for couple of hours with landing next to the restaurant, what a day...

After fighting a tooth ache all morning it finally subsided and I decided to catch whatever I could at Highland. I rented the Discuss 160 because my U2 sail was shipped to Wills for repairs. Launched around 3:15 and landed around 17:35 for a 2:20 minute flight. I dressed in only a Tee shirt to insure I would get high and it work! Got to 5500' and never got below 3000' for almost 2 hours.

Got in a thermal over Jim Rooney in the Tandem catching maybe 400 up. I thought I would leave Jim in the dust but as I kept watching him that sucker was staying right with me, I wasn't gaining much lead on him at all! I think he finally ditch it as he was drifting too far from home. Amazing guy!

It was a nice opportunity to get to know the Discuss and do some comparison with my U2. I really love my U2 but the untuned Discuss performed well and the sink rate and energy retention seemed better than my U2. Even though it felt trucky and hard to coordinate turns in thermal conditions, it didn't seem to wear me out. Bar pressure is lighter than the U2 on tow. It's a close call, I would really like to try the tuned version some time.

A good crowd was on hand, Ric Niehous I think did an XC somewhere and back, Christian got a couple 1.5 hour flights on his Millenium. Tad E. got maybe 3 hours. Bob Buchanan I think had a good two hour flight early on. Steve K., Steve V., Joe G., Darrel ?, Barb and Bruce had the Extaccy up., Arial, the 13 year old (female) new solo pilot, many tandems, a few other I can't remember.

The whole time at Highland my tooth never bothered me, on the drive home it was killing me. Overall a magical fall day at Highland!

Paul Adamez

Susie and I arrive at Ridgely around 10:15 after navigating a horrible car crash right at the 50/404 intersection. They had traffic stopped both directions so we diverted using farm roads to get back to 404. Susie took her 4th tandem while I was setting up and ended up with a thermaling flight in the tandem glider. With her current scheduled flights, weather permitting, she should be quickly advancing to soloing. I launched around noon for my first flight and climbed up to 3800 under a big fatty. Once I left that thermal, I decided to cut the first flight short and go attempt to land (key word attempt) the Talon with my new Viper harness. Lets just say that the gracefulness of flight was not experienced in the first landing. I got just under 45 minutes in the first flight and it really tired me out. Thermals were strong and bulletlike so it took a lot of control input to maintain lift and control. I waited until around 3:00 and decided to take a late afternoon sled for my second flight. Windsor dropped me in an awesome thermal and I beamed up at around 6-800 FPM topping out just under cloudbase at 4800. I needed about 300 more to get into the wispy's but it was as if someone turned off the up switch. I was boating around in zero sink, but I couldn't get any higher. I tried to head towards Joe G, but both of us were sinking like rocks so I headed out slowly and ended up with a less than stellar landing in the new harness. Ended up with another 45 minute flight for a total of 1.5 for the day. Great conditions although I sore as hell today. I guess thats the cost of getting old and the flying muscles being out of shape. Lot of people went high and soaring conditions were to found pretty easily, although if you missed the lift off tow there were equal amounts of nasty sink. Susie is scheduled to fly on Friday for her 5th lesson and continues to excel. Another Helicopter transitional pilot on the way to moving to the dark side!

Chris

I arrived at Blue Sky around noon on Saturday to find BVH and Cragin already staking out long plastic sheets in the wind shadow of the hangar for repacking chutes. A good crowd was on hand---from CHGPA, Daniel B., Carlos, Dan T., Hugh, Dave B., Cragin, Linda B., as well as a good crowd of Blue Sky regulars.

Alas, it was a crappy day for flying---winds were blowing from the E around 10-12, with occasional gusts up to 15+. Bill Priday towed up around 1:30 and came back down pretty quickly. On his second tow, things got so nasty Bill bailed at a couple hundred feet, which convinced the rest of us to stay on the ground (Bill's a solid aerotow pilot who rarely pins off early).

The chute repack was great! Many thanks to BVH and Cragin for supervising/teaching all afternoon. I've been wanting to do this for a year---never having seen the contents of my chute pouch and wondering if there even was a chute in there! :)

Several of us hung in Steve's simulator (with control frame) to throw our chutes. In my case, I pretended to be flying along happily, and asked Linda to say "NOW!" to simulate a sudden catastrophe---at that point, Dave started wrenching me around violently enough that my (helmeted) head got abused by the control frame. I was glad that my chute came out pretty easily, and I hossed it with both hands, getting it 10' from the simulator. Not quite as good as spinning around...but way better than never having done it at all.

Then we inflated our chutes to air them out. The day's excitement came when Linda got caught holding her bridle in a stronger cycle (chute inflated) and started getting dragged across the field. I jogged after her, thinking I'd catch up and help her wrestle it down. Steve came after us in the golf cart yelling "Let it go Linda!" which she did, right before I got there. The chute then picked up speed (still fully inflated and dragging Linda's knee-hanger harness).

I continued to run after it, and when I heard Steve approaching from behind in the golf cart I thought "Oh good---Steve will go get it." NOT. Steve started yelling "Go get it Scott! RUN!!!" So I went into full sprint mode and made a diving tackle of the harness (Cal Ripken would be proud). Of course I then found myself being dragged across the grass, skinning my elbow...but I slowed it down enough for Steve to grab the gore lines, and together we wrestled it down. Definitely a good lesson on the power of a chute in the wind! (Is that what PGs feel like? :))

In spite of not flying, it was a fun day. Daniel, Carlos, and a few others aerotowed around 6pm when things had calmed down, but I think they all had sleds.

I feel much more comfortable now with increased knowledge of and experience with my chute!

Scott

We packed 11 chutes on Saturday at Manquinn and returned a small profit along with our thanks to our host, Steve Wendt. Thanks to Cragin and Brian for giving their time, energy and expertise to this important task! The plan is to hold the next repack at Highland and then continue alternating between our two awesome local flight parks.

If you could not make it and are overdue in repacking your reserve, PLEASE drop it off with a pro or mail it to the manufacturer.

Pleasant sled Saturday evening. Dinner at Vinny's w. Cragin and Carlos. Passed a late night fireside, passing a bottle, listening to Brian, Bill Priday and Jim Carrigan(?) play music and Tex tell stories.

It was soarable Sunday by 10:30 a.m. Rowdy day! As Mark said about Windsor, Tex saved my butt a few times. Strong lift in very defined streets but it was windy and I had a hard time managing both drift and lift. Got to cloudbase a few times (around 4600 agl) but only managed 40 minutes or so times two flights.

I was hoping to try out truck towing but the wind was too strong and cross. Steve did have a successful scooter tow lesson, Cragin joined in. It's great that he has all three towing options: stationary, platform and aerotow. There might be other operations with all three, but I can't think of any.

I kited both days. I'm getting pretty comfortable in the reverse position when I can watch the wing. I'm still fairly incompetent forward when I have to adjust by feel.

More on Pulpit tonight.

Glad to read about so many great flights lately!

Daniel

Sunday at Bill's I launched in no wind and after a series of beginners mistakes stalled into the hill at launch. Had the nose too high..no air in wing...ran too slow..tried to save by jumping into glider and I met the hill. My neck was snapped pretty good and my shoulder went through my keel. All my fault. I had come back to flying with certain expectations and I have not met them. I do not fly as much as I thought I would and I do not have the same desire I use to have. With that in mind I have listed my equipment as is on the marketplace list.

Finally the monsoon season here in CO is over and I got some good airtime in this weekend. A bunch of us showed up at the local site, Villa Grove on Saturday. Too strong midday so we came back in the evening for a glass off and what a glass off it was. Lift everywhere, easy to get to 13,500. Some of us went north, some went south and the goal was to land at a big pot(ter's) party in the little town of Villa Grove. I flew to the north end of the Sangres went out over the valley and headed south to the party. Landed well after dush and about a mile short, packed up and beelined across the prairie to the party. Dark by then but I had a little flashlite. Found the big party by the sound of the live band and the smell. Of food and pot(s). Being created and heated. It was at a big studio and workshop called Escuella. All kind of pot(s) for sale. Bought a tee shirt with a picture of pot(s).

Sunday was strong again midday so we came back again for the glass off. Got to 13 5 again. We all went south this time and almost made it to Crestone into a headwind before deciding it was getting late and hightailed it back and had to work to get down. I brough a camera and took a few pictures while flying which you can see at http://community.webshots.com/user/mchevalier77 in the folder called Villa Grove Flying. September and October is the best time to fly here.

Flew last weekend with my new harness for the first time. Got a Dust Devil harness which is supposed to be a copy of a Rotor. Not sure I like it, couldn't go upright enough for a good landing and pounded breaking a downtube. Needs some mods so I'm back to using my old Blackhawk.

MC

>>Incredible photos! (I thought Woodstock was beautiful...) Is Villa Grove a reasonable site to fly (e.g. forgiving)? Or is it hardcore, rough-and-tumble, Owens Valley-style big air?

Scott

It can be either way, you've got to pick conditions carefully. During the summer, most pilots won't fly it during the middle of the day when you can get your ass kicked. Early or later are usually better. It can be very fickle, reminding me of Spruce Knob and North Mtn. in WV in that you can go there and it's tailing and go to Whale Mountain across the valley and it's tailing. The weather can change quickly, I've broken down on launch in a snow squall in August. But the launch is easy for being at 9600 ft, and the LZ is big and easy for being at 8000 ft. The mountains above launch rise to around 13K, some peaks to the south at over 14K.

MC

Went to Fisher to toss Tim Harlinger off into some wonder winds. Got some thermalling and wonderwinds in myself out of the deal. Winds were light from early to mid day, 0-5 at best, straight in. Mid day was easy climbs in strictly thermal conditions. Late day went magic.

We stopped in on our LZ roadshow and talked with the "Do not land here" landowners. They were very freindly and we still can't land there (they have horses that spook). They asked that the club remove the stairs and sign for them. Since Tim is a contractor, we had tons of tools on hand and easily took both down.

The entrance to the primary is locked with a cable fence. Steve Kinsley has talked with the new landowner and we can still fly but it's currently a long hikeout as we do not have keys. Someone might consider asking if they run into him sometime (he wasn't there yesterday).

Jim

In a word... WOW!

It was booming at Highland! For a stay-local day, I had about the most fun I've ever had out there. Topped out at 5200' AGL a bunch of times and was never below 3k AGL. Thermalled a few miles downwind (WNW) for a while, then had fun punching upwind and meeting clouds as they drifted through. Flew with a sailplane for a while. Continued upwind to Goldsboro, cruised south along the river, and hung a right to fly over Ridgely. Put it down after 2+ hours because I was tired and cold.

Very rowdy tow however. Windsor saved my butt at least once, somewhere around 1500 AGL or so (saw I was struggling, and swung down and left to get me re-aligned). I eventually pinned off at 2200' because I was rapidly diverging from the tug; it was textured up there.

Other pilots included Jim Lawrence (visting from NY), a fairly new student (Mel?) who soared for hours, Karen, Matthew, Ellis, Tad, Dan, Christian, BH-Bob, Bruce, and Barb. I was surprised not to see more people given the conditions...

Fall flying is definitely here! Let's hope we have equally good conditions for next weekend's Pulpit Fly-In!

--mark

It was sweet! I was told not as good as yesterday but still plenty soarable. I think everybody who flew got to about 5k msl. A dead vario brought me down early or I could have stayed up for hours like Mark Cavinaugh did!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Dan T.

Sunday was a great one..

I had my first XC on the Millennium. On my way down to Ridgely I got a call from Rick that the Williamson's were towing at Massey and I was invited. He thought it would be fun to fly together over to Ridgely. I got there late like 11:00 and the cues were already amazing. I was watching corn stalk devils all over the place.

Things move slowly at Massey and I didn't get towed up until 2:00.. The tow was a lot slower on their dragonfly with the smaller engine but we got there. I found great lift right away and got almost to cloudbase but I stuck around waiting to see if Rick was going to follow me in John's Tempest. After about 45 minutes, I headed for Ridgely.

The beginning of the flight was easy but about 15 miles out, the sky opened up and I was faced with a big blue hole between me and Ridgeley. The winds aloft were all over the place according to my vario but primarily east at around 9 MPH. I headed into the blue and found something around 2500 feet that turned into a great one. As I was circling a cloud formed over my head (what fun)..

Made it to Ridgely with over 3000 feet. It was fun dropping in and having people say "I don't remember you taking off today"..

Great day.

Christian

Yeah, there seemed to be a lot of lift everywhere on the Delmarva Sunday. I flew the Phantom out to Lewes/Cape Henlopen into the headwind for about 1:15, then came back by a somewhat more direct route in only 45 minutes. Even with a summer mesh motorcycle suit and light gloves, I got cold at 1000 feet. Wished I could have been flying unpowered! Congratulations, Christian. It's great that we're starting to see rigids in this part of the country. - Hugh

Thanks to Norm and Gary and some calm winds I got two sled rides this morning!!! I ve finally left the ground!!!! SO, what will the club be wanting to drink after this Saturdays flying?! Dan

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This page last updated October 4, 2005