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Hangola September 17 - 23, 2005

Flight Reports

Paul, Kevin, and I flew at Quest yesterday, in conditions that were forecast to be marginal. Kev asked before we launched if I thought he should put a Tshirt on. I said yes, and donned some speed sleeves myself. This was a good move!

Lift was everywhere, and we all raced around the sky together, fighting for the best climb. Most of the climbs were only 300 up at best, but I spent most of the flight at 5500 or higher -- FREEZING cold. You should see this friggin' Litespeed glider of mine -- I spent lots of the flight with one hand one the basetube thermalling. She just doesn't come down. I kept thinking I needed to get lower and warm up, probably land, but then the climb would be so great and I would think maybe if I got up again I could practice flying upright, or steep turns, or... I am so cheap. Omigod it was fun.

Paul disappeared somewhere and I was tempted to go with him, but I really should spend another week practicing approaches. I feel really good about them but I need to make my practice harder so I am better prepared for XC.

After an hour and forty minutes I absolutely had to land -- I was totally frozen. My vario kept beeping over the field, in spite of me begging, Oh no, please, I have had enough..." I had a great landing in almost no wind and that just made the day perfect. I was sitting out on that big field by myself, saying YES!

Anyhow this is just a silly post but I can't wipe this huge grin off my face. Paul landed down by Deen Still (on the way to Wallaby) which Kev has been razzing him about ever since ("Good job on the task, Paul").

Our glider rack collapsed on the way home and Kevin says that is how you can tell when your glider needs to go on a diet. Anyhow, things are pretty great. I hope the Pulpit is honkin' for you this weekend!

Lauren

I begged Mr. Beep to be quiet, but my 5030 wouldn't listen. Just kept screaming like he had been raped. I wore more clothes today -- a jacket instead of speed sleeves -- but cloudbase was even higher than yesterday, around 6000 feet, so I still was as frozen as a Bird's Eye chili dog in a 7-11. Most of the lift was around 300 up, though I found a couple of rippers at 500 or more.

Kevin took off for Virginia this morning, so only Paul and I enjoyed the unbelievable conditions. I couldn't stand to stay right around the field today, so I flew down to the tower 5 miles south a couple of times, and then back again. First you have the Quest field, then this big strip I have landed on twice this last year, and then the tower field -- all really big. So I figured it was a way to have some fun and be over easy fields the whole time. I thought I was going to deck it early on -- and away from home, without my cell phone -- but after I found the "savior thermal" halfway back to Quest, I could do no wrong.

I decided to check out my glide according to my 5030 in the blue but I kept getting higher. I tested clouds. Ditto. The whole planet was going up. I tried to pratice flying upright. Damn! If Angel would just quit climbing!

I really could not get Angel on the ground. I was over the field for at least half an hour, like at 1000 feet. I was so tired I finally said screw my landing spot. I just headed in when I thought I would not overshoot the field.

I told Paul how exhausted I was. I swam 30 laps this morning, then rode my horse, and then flew for over 2 hours. But he just started laughing about how hard my life is. He has a point. I am tremendously lucky. I need to get flying fit, like the fittest of my life. But I seem to be in the right place. In fact, I really feel like I am in the right place, in more ways than one.

Please come visit us this winter. We have room, and flying is always more fun with buddies.

Lauren

The flying gods smiled on the club this weekend! Weather and conditions were great yesterday (Saturday) and look to be just as good today. Winds were blowing strong, from W to NW all day long, averaging 12-15 with gusts up to 20.

Sparky, Matthew, and Marcel Dettling did some PG flying early before winds ramped up. Bacil Dickert was first off around noon and reported conditions a bit strong for H2s before heading over the back. John Dullahan, Dan Tomlinson, and Hank Hengst followed. All had XCs ranging from 13mi for Hank (after a spectacular low save over the LZ!) to 26mi for Dan Tomlinson, who reported seeing an entire field of corn at 3-4k.

The next wave off the ramp included Carlos Weill, Linda Baskerville, Steve Padgett, Dave Bodner, myself, and Bill Priday. Everyone got some nice ridge soaring flights. (I was happy with 50 minutes for my first-ever Pulpit flight!)

Chris McKee did his usual excellent job as fly-in safety director and ramp manager...and excited the crowd with a full-body tackle of Matthew who was headed for the woods in his PG after a valiant launch attempt in strong winds. ("Aww look---you guys are spooning!" cried Sparky. Much laughter ensued as all was well.)

Finally, the late-day glass-off wave launched, including Gary Smith, Mark Cavanaugh, Dave Rice, Mark Gardener, Christy Huddle, Karen Carra, Linda Baskerville (for a second flight) and several other pilots who I forget (with apologies). Everyone boated around above the ridge for 1-2hrs.

Winds blew right up 'til dark and kept on blowing as the full moon rose. The campfire started, food was arrayed, the keg was tapped, guitars and African xylophones filled the air with melody, and a great time was had by all! Kudos to Daniel Broxterman for such a great job running the fly-in (including some really slick new banners, slick recycling and trash signs, and no-parking sandwich boards along the road to launch).

The evening raffle was good entertainment, with a slew of gifts ranging from Flytec speedsleeves to DVDs by Paul "James Bond" Hamilton and Gary Smith, a 10-aerotow packgage from Highland Aerosports, license plate holders, t-shirts and caps from Moyes, and a coveted Kestrel wind meter, won in the final round by Linda Baskerville.

Today looks like another excellent flying opportunity for all, so if you missed yesterday, come on out today! I'm off to load the truck and head back up myself.

Scott

I had a blast. Thanks to Daniel and all who helped make this event such a success. I've posted photos at

http://community.webshots.com/album/455321605RRltMQ

'Spark

Just wanted to express how impressive both the High Rock and Pulpit Fly-ins were to me. Its' great to see the energy and fun and comradrie that ( still ) exists at these "fall classics". Both appeared to be incredibly well organized and.....what great luck to have both weekends flyable. Wow. And in both cases the attendence was really impressive.

Its' great to see the MHGA and CHGPA clubs alive and well, and great to see that those involved in the clubs aren't afraid to step up and make the fun happen.

Big hearty "thanks" to all involved. Truly impressive efforts !!!

Rich Hays

I agree! Though I missed the HR Fly-In, this weekend's fly-in was great! Lots of pilots, lots of supportive family and friends, and lots of flying! Many thanks to everyone for such a fantastic event!

For a new pilot like me, weekends like this are an incredible opportunity to benefit from the collective wisdom of so many experienced pilots. I learned a lot, and it just whetted my appetite for more!

Scott

First of all, I want to thank everybody who made this year's Pulpit Fly-In a resounding success. It was fantastic to have plenty of paraglider pilots flying during the Fly-In as well. The conditions were great on Sunday for the paragliders. Saturday was borderline at times for the paragliders, but plenty great for the hang glider pilots.

On Saturday, I listened to the Hagerstown AWOS early around 11A, and cloudbase was 2900' MSL. At around 12 noon it had risen to 3500' MSL. It was time to go! I took off a little after 12 noon into 8 to 12 MPH straight in winds. Struggled a good bit, only getting a few hundred over. Almost got flushed down by 16. Actually got below the ridge and had to work hard to get back up. Found some good lift halfway between launch and 16. Got to 1300' over. Was spooked by some clouds upwind to the north and south of me with lots of vertical development. Actually radioed John Dullahan I was thinking about landing, but he got me back to my senses by telling me the clouds above me and close by were not towering. All the time I was talking to him I was climbing w/o knowing it. Looked at the altimeter and I had gained 300'. The clouds looked good downwind. Locked into the thermal and announced that I was taking this one OTB. Maxed out at 4600' MSL drifting under a wide, gray cumie. Got real gray around me. To the north some tendrils of the cloud were hanging below my altitude. Lost a few hundred gliding out from under the cloud, found another elevator around LeMasters, and got back to 4400'. Drifted and spotted I-81 and was down to 2400'. Found some light lift and gained back to 3000' drifting over 81. Spotted a cleared cornfield and beelined it to there for a possible landing since back down to 2400'. Loitered over the field in zero sink. It turned on, I locked in, and I was on my way after climbing to 3800'. Drifted over another cleared field and loitered again, this time down to 1700' (1K' above the ground). Once again found zero sink and lo and behold, it turned on again. Gained back to 3000' before it quit. Drifted and started losing it quick. Looking for fields now. Lots of corn still in the fields. Dead ahead I spotted a golf course (turned out to be Penn National Golf Course), just north of Mont Alto. Looked like I could make it, w/ a backup field of a short crop as a bailout LZ. I glided over two fairways, one oriented North/South, the other East/West. A pond in between had no wind lines on it, so I chose the N/S fairway, which was next to a nice road. There were lady golfers on the tee and on the green when I blistered in diagonally across the fairway and landed at the edge of it. Had a good landing, and parked the glider in the rough, not far from the road. The ladies on the tee stopped by and were friendly, as was the starter who stopped by in his golf cart. He mentioned that a Bill Crist, who used to fly hang gliders (and who opened "Bills Hill"), worked at the driving range. Was retrieved by John Dullahan and Rich Donahue, thanks to Karma (and Hank the airborne repeater!) who coordinated the retrieve. After 8 years of trying to cross this *&%$# valley and always coming up short, I finally did it! Around 22 miles from launch to the 17th fairway. Back at launch it turned magic, and hang gliders and paragliders were performing a spectacular aerial ballet.

Sunday's conditions were very light. Juan the awesome paraglider pilot arrived, liked what he saw, immediately took off, got up, went down, got a low save near the secondary, specked out, and went XC to the other side of the valley at Fayetteville, dropping in on a pee-wee football game for free drinks and food. The paraglider guys were enjoying the light conditions. Mark Cavanaugh decided to give it a go around 2P and got up. Mark Gardner followed and got up. I got up on the ramp, and they were down to ridge level, w/ Mark G. above Mark C. I gave it a go and beelined/dolphin flew to them down by 16. Got there way low, 50' below Mark C. Got scraped off the ridge and headed out to land. Tried for low saves in some lift on the way out and over the LZ, to no avail (I'm no Hank Hengst! :-)). Landed to the NW in some mild chop on final. Mark C. landed shortly after I did. Looked back to see Mark G. climbing out and going OTB. The rat! :-). Got a body ride back up w/ Bill Priday. Thanks Bill. Decided to pack it up and head home. Gardinator calls Sheila reporting he made it over the Michaux and doesn't exactly know where he is. Great flight Mark! It started going magic around 4PM. Saw BVH climbing out, with a low save over the LZ and going OTB. Great flight BVH! As I'm leaving I see Mark C. going OTB, heading along Rt. 30 downwind. Excellent! Both days flyable at the Pulpit. Paragliders soaring/XCing as well as hang gliders. Evening glass-off for the Hang IIs both days. It doesn't get any better than this.

Bacil

Big thanks to Daniel and Charlotte and Mark C. and everyone else who helped to make this year's Fly-In better than ever. Winds were NW Sat and Sunday. Who would've ever predicted that???? Oh yeah, I did.

I think about 40 people registered for the event and it was truly a hang gliding and paragliding festival. I flew both wings. I got 10 minutes in my hang glider after launching into a flush cycle and never getting above launch. I followed Linda from below out to the LZ and saw her climbing in something over the LZ. While I struggled to get into the bottom of the thermal on the South corner of the field, Hank hooked one on the North end of the LZ at 280' and beamed right up. As did Linda. Craig and I and a few others missed the trains and ended up on the ground.

I faired better in my paraglider with 5 soaring flights (2 on Sat on 3 on Sund) and a total of 4 hours airtime. I was able to get up to 1500' over a few times on one flight on Sunday but didn't have the cajones to go over the back with it even though I was still climbing, albeit slowly. Juan had a low save early in the day in his comp wing PG, beamed out and made it to the Micheaux State Forest. Other PG pilots included Marcel, Stephan, Andy, Charlie, Laslo, the Cleveland Crew of John, Brian and Noah... Andy, of course, Sparky. Sparky did about six million PG flights. Karen returned to the dark side with her first PG flight from the Pulpit and her first high PG flight since breaking her arm over a year ago. Yay!!!

Big congrats to some others-- Carlos had a great low save and took his first trip over the back on Saturday. Brian jumped to Merceresburg after a low save on Sunday. Dan, the man, did 27 miles or so to Chambersburg and then dog-legging to the South. That no good rat, Gardinator, actually crossed the 12 mile sea of trees that is Micheaux. John D., Hank and Mark all went OTB. Bacil made his first trip across the valley and landed at Waynesboro, short of High Rock only because the POTUS was once again vacationing at Camp David. And David Rice returned to mountin' flyin'.

Everyone who came had at least one soaring flight. It went magic both days. Though it was a tad strong of a wonder wind on Saturday. After my dissapointing HG flight I didn't feel like setting up again. So I tried to launch my PG in a lull. Winds were 15-18 with lulls down to 10-12. The first attempt didn't go so well as a gust picked me up and I started going backwards. I got on the speed bar and came back down on the ramp for a tough and go. But a cross wind hit me and sent me up again and to the South. I danced over the rocks and then onto the back side of the old ramp before getting the wing deflated and having Chris McKee save me from being dragged by takling me. This somehow ended with Chris spooning me on the ground next to back side of the ramp. Yes, there are pictures. Thanks for the fast action Chris! Hmmm. There has to be a better way to phrase that.

Undaunted, and not wanting to sheepish (like others Chris has aledgedly spooned), I went for another try. Sparky acted as an anchor holding my harness and I waited for a longer lull. This worked better and I joined Karen and John M. and Christy and all of the HGs in the sky. Marcel was able to catch a lull about 15 minutes later. But then winds at launch ramped back up to 20-25 and Sparky and the other PGs couldn't launch. Surprisingly, I had no trouble penetrating on the ridge and never touched my speed bar while flying. I did, however, use the speed system to head out to the LZ. But I probably didn't need it even then.

Sunday-- winds were lighter and the evening magic was light too. It was so light that only the PGs were able to stay up till the end. This was the nicest flight of the weekend for me... calm and smooth but still patches of lift to climb in.... circling over the Mountain House and watchig the bikers clad in leather get down to a bad Doors tribute band, seeing other PGs boating on the ridge, watching a bright red sun get close to the horizon.

What a great weekend.

Matthew

p.s. And BIG BIG THANKS to Sparky for carting his grill and about another billlion things to and from the Fly-In and for helping out all of the paraglider pilots get into the air.

And BIG THANKS too to Shawn for driving retrievals.

Matthew

What a weekend HUH? I enjoyed camping out Friday night, and all the good flying both days!I got to watch, and ask questions from alot of skilled pilots. Nobody got hurt.The weather was "tits".I came away with some memorable moments--- Watching Brian Vant Hall sunday catch a thermal over the lz and take it over the back! Watching Hank do the same right in front of me. I was cheering you both on!!Watching Matthew PG launch in some strong wind saturday morning. That was exciting..Let's see- Hank coming in to land sunday evening with fire coming off his wing tips. FAST!- exciting. I got it on film. I was up in a deer stand filming all of the landings. That was fun!!Everyone that wanted to fly, got to fly.Great! ( Those of you that came into land a little rough sunday evening) If you don't want anyone to see it . The bidding starts at 100 clams! [Twisted Evil] Just friggin wit ya! I had fun! I think it was a great success! Where in the hell did those sandwich parking boards come from? Fancy!!

Peace, Shawn.

Work to do, but enjoyed my last flight so much I just HAD to post.

People had been sinking for a while, so folks were just hanging out on launch waiting for a change. Finally the sun pops out and I decide it's time. As I carry my glider up people are shouting this is the best cycle they've seen most of the day. I hoof it up the ramp and don't think I even set the glider down - just got the glider somewhat balanced and shouted "Clear!". Shimmied off to the right a bit due to imperfect balance, but it wasn't terrible.

Then despite all indications I didn't go up. Hit a few spots along the ridge but nothing really worked. By the time I was even with the LZ I decided I wasn't getting anything and turned towards the field with a feeling of resignation. People started coming out to watch my landing.

But then my variable started beeping. Not very strong, but I was near the LZ and it was worth stopping for anything. I nursed that baby for at least 20 minutes, a slow glow building inside me. When I was 1500 over launch and climbing I knew I had it. The lift gave out halfway over the back, but I could lawn dart. Found a baby bit of lift over the back that got me within striking distance of Mercersburg. Toyed with the idea of following the drift out over the dirt road regions, but hey, it was sunday afternoon.

Found a nice field right at the edge of town, and as I came down found it was even better than I expected: nice trimmed grass, with a nice upslope hill placed as thought I had ordered it in advance. No-brainer no-stepper.

thanks to Dan and Charlotte for the retrieve. The flight wasn't my longest, but it was by far the sweetest, being handed this gift right as I had given up all hope. Doesn't get much better.

Brian Vant-Hull

I wanted to add a few additional highlights and 'firsts':

Congratulations to H2 pilots Rich Bloomfield, Dave Rice, and Scott Wilkinson on their first Pulpit flights. It was particularly cool to see Rich soaring his home site, within view of his house.

Congratulations to P2 pilots Charlie Givens and Andy Harrah on their first Pulpit flights. These were Charlie's first flights in our area, having previously flown only Torrey Pines.

I had a few 'firsts' myself: This is the first Pulpit Fly in that I have not assembled a hang glider. 7 PG flights on Sunday is a personal site record.

The most memorable flight was at approximately 7:30am on Saturday. A cloud bank enveloped much of the ridge, with small cloud fragments forming below the top and passing through the launch area. I was able to weave my way amongst the wispies, as I made passes along the ridge, and briefly climbed above the cloud. It wasn't quite a 'cloud dive', but a very unique experience indeed.

Thanks again to all who participated!
'Spark

had a great time,as usual made my share of mistakes,my thanks to the pilots and instructors who provided friendly and informative insights of my flights,it is always welcomed and appreciated.the soaring flight landed downhill in the primary,used a little less than half the lz, 2 steps and a gentle belly flop,love that falcon. can't wait till next time.

Rich Bloomfield

Great day Saturday.
I tried to launch early to have a chance of second flight.
Eventually got ready, started playing the typical low ridge soaring at the Pulpit. A lot of turbulence, as long as you are on the rising side, it was OK. On the left tower something started to cook it took me to 3K over but then I looked at the dark cloud right above. The lift got even stronger, and I was getting closer to it. Lift this is what I want, yikes too close to the cloud. I moved to the front, about 30 min into the flight sinking like a brick. I saw other gliders in front of launch, and tried to get there. Darn! I won't even make to the primary. Heading to the secondary, I felt a few bumps, as soon as I crossed the into the clearing, it was a more defined thermal. What the heck! I'm going to land, I might as well play some. This one took me to about 2K over, it seemed a lot of work to move to the front.

This time everything felt right, I had the radio, the cell phone, and checked the map. I could see possible LZ's. Called on the radio to let people know my intentions.

Maybe I headed a little too early and didn't squeezed everything out of the thermal. As soon as I crossed the ridge all lift was gone. Followed the road and spotted more LZ's.
Checked for wires or other obstructions. Finally found a huge field, from the drift I could figure the wind direction. Two step landing.

Only 5 miles but a special satisfaction, first XC ever after 9 years of mountain flying.

The way it was organized made it lot easier. Thanks to everyone.
I'll let everyone tell their own tales.

Carlos

A great fly-in and a great crowd! I had 2 flights Sat (30 min, and 47 min). Hooked a winner of a thermal on my first flight, over the LZ no less, and spec'd out, wondering why that poor fellow [Laughing] (Matthew) below me was choosing to land when I was headed for the clouds! Not a stellar launch on my second flight (nose angle too high) but I recovered okay and the flight was fun - parked in the magic mountain air with lots of other pilots/traffic to watch. Good landing.

Sunday had a short flight (14 min), didn't enjoy scratching so low over the mountain, approach didn't pan out right and I landed downhill, with a power whack landing (first in about a year) when I flared a bit early and popped a little high and got tipped by the wind before coming down. Nothing hurt but my pride [Embarassed] . Shawn, feel free to post the video - ought to be enjoyable! - Linda

What a fun event, I enjoyed the fly-in very much! Thanks to everyone who contributed to make it so good.

I've had good flights, however without taking the fullest possible advantage of the conditions. Saturday morning the winds were light enough that Spark, Andy and Charlie (two novice pilots Spark observed) could do multiple sledders. By the time we arrived at 11am, the wind had already ramped up. Soon after, Matthew launched his PG and had a good flight, although with quit a bit of speedbar use. The winds even got a tad stronger, so that we could only watch the HGs launch and (some of them) climb to cloudbase. By about 2pm the winds had mellowed down a bit to around 15mph average/20mph peak at launch, so that I decided to give it a go. I had a good launch and a good flight of about 1 hour. Got to 700ft over several times and always waited for the thermal which would take me to cloudbase. Never found the one, though. But on the other hand, none of the HGs made it to cloudbase during my flight, so it might not have been there. The wind aloft was ok to fly a PG, noticeable north cross and lots of drift in the thermals. It was not a necessity to use the speedbar, but very convenient to escape sink and to go upwind, so I used it a lot. Finally, I got flushed together with all the HGs and landed in the HG primary LZ.

Back at launch, conditions seemed to turn magic on Saturday evening. Most of the PG pilots were waiting for the wind to back down a little. With a dramatic launch, Matthew showed that even with the current wind, it works for PGs as well. I set up and perfectly got off in the next lull (still around 15mph). None of the other PGs could launch unfortunately, wind speeds of up to 25mph were reported after I had launched. Again aloft, it was fine. Though I sometimes didn't have penetration in min sink configuration, I always had some with hands off, so again, a safe flight was possible without speed bar usage. After I was in the air for 45 minutes, the glass-off decided to be over and I again landed in the HG primary LZ.

We camped in the setup area behind launch and woke up around 7am. Spark, Andy and Charlie were ready for their morning flights. The wind at launch was a nice 5-8mph breeze, so that I joined them for an early sledder (and to get breakfast at McDo) in very smooth air. The winds didn't build up as quickly as on Saturday, so that the three took multiple flights. By about noon, Juan had arrived and launched soon after for the first soaring flight of the day. After he got above launch quickly, he lost more and more altitude and was seriously struggling for at least a quarter of an hour. It was impressing how it seemed that he could still go search for lift here and there, taking advantage of his Boomerangs speed and glide. Finally, he picked up something maybe only about 400ft over the LZ, took it to cloudbase and over the back for the PG site record of thirty something miles. During his flight, I was ready to go, but for a long time not too convinced by what I saw. Finally, I launched and was joined by a bunch of other PG pilots (Matthew, 3 guys from Cleveland, Spark, Charlie and Stephane). I never got a chance to get really high and the sink monster caught all of us after about 30 minutes of flight and forced us to land in the HG secondary LZ. Since Corinne didn't feel to well and decided not to fly, we left after this flight, missing the good conditions that were to be enjoyed in the later afternoon.

Thanks again to everybody who helped organize, drive retrieval and take pictures!

Cheers,
Marcel

Hi Dave,

I like Linda's strategy so here goes:

H2 - Treemendous Tallywhackers - Duration - 1:30

Saturday was my first flight at the Pulpit and it was extremely fun! I flew the glass off but it was the punchiest glass off air I've ever been in. It was the first time my glider has been turned 180 degrees by turbulence. No worries, I was far enough from the ridge that it was just cool. It was very different than the air I've flown in at Ridgely. I can't wait to do it again!

Big thanks to Sparky for observing me, and for recommending that I take a morning sled to the secondary. It decreased the stress later in the day to already have a launch under my belt and to know that I could get my Falcon into the secondary if I had to. I almost did as conditions were shutting down and I was getting tired. When I got to the primary I saw three other gliders in various stages of landing so I stayed on the ridge for one more pass. I was in sink halfway to the secondary but knew I could land there if I had to so no stress. By the time I got to the secondary I was back at ridge level so I headed south and found the airspace above the primary to be empty. I went out and landed with a nice fast approach into what had become a calm field. I reviewed my log and found that 1:30 is my longest hang gliding flight ever!

Great flight, great weather, great weekend, great friends. What more can you ask for!

Dave

Sorry for the delay, but I've finally got my photos from this weekend uploaded!

They're available at:

http://www.sickinger.net/photos/20050917_pulpit/index.html
http://www.sickinger.net/photos/20050918_pulpit/index.html

Remember, if you don't have time (or interest) to go through all 1000+ images (in 50+ folders), you can just look through the 00.favorites and 00.general folders.

Enjoy!

~Ralph

I had planned on attending the fly-in, but we (Marvin and I) ended up flying here (Cumberland) on Saturday for a photo-op after the editor/photographer of "Mountain Discoveries" (a tourism magazine for Allegany and Garrett Counties and surrounding areas) contacted Marvin about doing a feature article on hang gliding. We flew with sailplanes and a golden eagle while zooming around launch trying to stay low enough for him to get some quality photographs.

I have no excuse for not showing up on Sunday other than an aversion to traveling on Sundays when I have no one to sit with the dogs and two good NW sites in my backyard. Homer, Adam, Marvin, and Pete showed up here and everyone soared with Pete and I (Falcon and Sport2) lawn-darting OTB for five miles after getting 6K. We landed at the old Millstone Tavern on Rt. 51.

JR

The Rance half of the Tim & Rance team went to Blue Sky. It's so easy to leave here at 11a fly and get home by 6p. Even when you have to stuff 34 battens [Laughing] . I must be getting lazy. That was only my 2nd time out in almost 3 months. I would have had fun flying with you all. I can still remember 2yrs ago at the Pulpit with all the gliders (& a PG too I think) in the air at the same time flying together. I had a nice flight down south though, 1:29 @ 4850, circled in a thermal w/a hawk 100' below me. (He never did catch me.) It was nice to top it off with a good landing since mine have not been perfect lately. Landed with my left wingtip on the cone. Maybe next time guys.

Rance

Guilty as charged!

Yup, I'm one of them. One of the lazy ones. Especially when it comes to reporting...
I'm really not a total a**hole, but I hate to write, and I forget most things 10 minutes after they happen.

The worst part is that there are few things I enjoy more than reading a well written flight report. And I love hearing the hang lies around the campfire late into the night.

So here's mine

Before I get to the details, I have to give props to the boys...

First in line is my good bud Mark Cavanaugh.
That poor bastard was where I usually am....just a couple hundred feet below the bottom of a thermal somebody else is getting up in. Fortunately for me, I was the one a couple hundred feet above this time. And as I'm usually cussin' that SOB as I look up from below,( and praying for him to go to some sinking area so that I might briefly get above him, ) I was truly hoping he would get a piece of my thermal on Sunday and go with me. Oh well...

Next in line is my hero, Bacil Dickert. I am so happy that that f*&#$r sank out!! His flight of 22+ miles on Saturday (done varioless) is plenty good enough! I certainly didn't need him spankin' me without no stinking vario!I have, in the past ,flown without one and have to admit that it is extremely rewarding just to get up at all, but going OTB naked and far is truly amazing.

And then there's my personal favorite , Dog Pit Dan ( as we Mountaineeers affectionately call him) He pretty much had it all wrapped up until I stumbled into a good flight. Like me, he fully relies on technology to aid him in going far, and it would have been a hoot to go over with him.

And lastly there's my good buddy Rick Holtz. Every year we re-establish our old team as best we can and 9 times out of ten I just land in the LZ. But Rick ALWAYS goes for it! Year after year, He always does SOMETHING. Even if it's a sled, he'll stretch it and land at the golf course. And again this year, he stretched it 7 miles to the end of the valley. Gotta love that...

OK, enough about those ground pounders... Here's what happened.
It was Sunday and I had to fly early and get the girls home at a decent time... It would have to be a quick sled and then home.

I saw that Cavanaugh was on launch and figured I could pimp off him if anything ...
By the time I got launched, we could see him up, and I went down the ridge to join him. Of course it immediately got sketchy. After floating around for 2-3 minutes, I figured I'd get closer to the LZ and luckily there was just a tiny bit of lift down there where Mark had been 5 minutes previously. It was barely 50 up but Mark and Bacil were low and coming back over to avoid sinking out. I would have gone back up the ridge the first time I lost it, but I saw that they had come from sink and figured I had better stay in the area. It was crap, but I saw that the boys were sinking out and just kept working. It finally got better and I started climbing slowly

@ 100-200 fpm. It was really snakey but I finally drifted into THE ZONE where you gotta decide to stick with it or come back... I was only about 900 over, but figured I would sink out if I bailed, so I stuck and milked it to about 1700 over. It turned to sink just barely over the secondary ridge, so I got small and pointy and headed into the valley.

The sink weren't so bad, and after only 2-3 minutes of glide I hit a good one under the cloud I had aimed at. It suddenly got easy...200-300-400 up. I took that one to 5K msl, and milked it.

Now, I know you're supposed to go downwind and all, but I didn't think there was that much drift. And the closest cloud was north over Thomas. I was also thinking about the extended P40 and since I'm a moron, I thought I better go as far around it as I could cause I usually have no idea where I really am. But I did know Thomas,( having landed thereabouts many times).

So I aimed, and after a while got there at @3K msl.

Same thing... EZ 300-400-500 fmp. An immature bald helped me center up initially and then of course climbed through me. Base was 5500 msl.

I kept jumping North. Mostly because the best / closest clouds were up there, but also because of P40 fears. It was probably 2-3 more times to base before I went for a good cloud that was a bit far. I had never gotten much lower than 2500msl but this time would be different... I knew I would get across I80, but I kept going down and the cloud seemed farther and farther.

When I got there I couldn't find anything and after searching and drifting helplessly, I started lookin at a beautiful big field a mile or so across I80.

At @500 over, I had a lowish save , from a buzzard no less. (We all know what liars they are) But I got up again and was drifting into the Micheaux. Again approaching THE ZONE.

Worse than that, I had never been this far north before... I knew that I was north of Chambersburg and that's about it. The haze was pretty thick too and I really couldn't see into the forest to gauge a possible LZ. I didn't get to base but at 5K msl I looked back once more and decided that the fields I could sort of see across the forest were about as far as the ones behind me, so I milked it until I had to point and didn't stop sweating for 3-4 miles.

As it turned out I made it with plenty, and although the first fields were actually orchards of death, I found gentle sink and a nice uphill field 100 yards from Gardner Station rd (no bull)

This fine flight ended with an unusual excellent landing ( 5th in a row!)After many years I think I finally have learned how to land a hang glider after reading some advice written by Kevin Carter.

As per usual, I had no radio and my GPS batteries were dead. But after using a home made measuring device and a well worn Delorme I have decided to stretch my pin to 40 miles.Just south of Idaville PA.

My wonderful wife answered the cell and all my girls came to get Daddy and pick apples.

Thanks to all the fine folks who continue to work hard to provide us with great fly-ins like this one!

Your bud,
gardner

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This page last updated October 4, 2005