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Hangola October 2 & 3, 1998

Interesting day at Woodstock for Bacil and me.. West cross. Rough as hell low. Thermals to 1200 over only with the drift almost straight up the ridge to the north. After half hour or so of getting the crap beat out of me I contacted some smooth as silk wave that took me to 3500 over. I was way out past the river in the bowl to the north of the LZ and was able to maintain in a SW direction past the LZ. It was unusual in that the wind speeds involved were quite low. My highest sustained climb rate was 1,000 ft per minute when I had the glider pretty much stalled. Bacil was intent on reaching the north point and jumping over the back to Front Royal airport. Unfortunately the west cross did him in where the ridge turns more northerly and he ended up on the deck.

How 'bout a HR report?

Ed, Marvin and me. Winds 14-18 when we arrived, backed off while we set up and screened potential wire crew. We launched in 5-10+ which turned very smooth a couple hundred over. My highest sustained climb rate was 45 fpm when I had the glider pretty much stalled. We each flew for about an hour and topped out between 600' and 900' over, landing around sunset. Landing in an ever so slight downwind (goggles + getting dark = can't see the streamers on the arrow).

I'm sending along (for those who can receive it) the Weather Channel forecast map for Friday afternoon. It was more windy than the isobars would have indicated and I wondered about the effect of the occluded front to the north. (The occluded front may never have materialized--I don't know. It wasn't on the current map when I last checked at 2:00 pm.)

Judy

Whadda way to end the week! (Sorry Karen, I must speak truly) On the drive up I thought it would be blown out and it was real gusty on launch. Marvins evaluation of conditions helped make up my mind: "It's straight in... I'm fly'n!"

I was a tad trepidatious at launch. When I said "C-CLEAR!" insead of stepping forward, I unexpectedly jumped into the air like Peter Pan. (Wheeeeee! C'mon Wendy, we can FLY!) Zipped right up to 600 over and stayed there. For an hour it was smooth and magical, I flew out to the LZ and back to the ridge and barely lost a foot.

Back at the top, picking up the cars, we stepped up to launch for a minute to take in the after dark panorama. The air was still crisp, clear,.... and flyable. Kinda makes ya dream,... don't it?

Ed

Great day at the Manquin Flight Park near Richmond, today. I got five flights, releasing from tow at AGL of 850, 1080, 1130, 1150, and 1000, in that order. All sleds; it was pretty overcast, so not much to work in the way of thermals. (Two weeks ago one pilot had a 3 hour flight there!) Nailed 5 landings on the 200' line on the center line of the runway. The last four were all beautiful no-steppers!

Craig S

Headed out to the Towfarm with Steve K. on an overcast day expecting sleds. Ended up soaring around for 0+50 and 0+20 in fairly light lift. Max altitude 2999 AGL. Cold. Passed a balloon spider at 1000+ AGL on the second flight. Pretty amazing.

Even more amazing, I've learned how to land my glider once again (thanks to some sage advice from Greg DeWolfe and Pete Lehmann).

-- Joe

Both Rich and I were teaching at Oregon Ridge on Saturday. The wind of course was crossing from the right but funnel up the slot fairly regularly with conditions improving by getting lighter later in the day. My students all got lots of flights and three passed their Hang 1 flying requirements. Hopefully this week they will pass the written test.

- john middleton

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This page last updated October 5, 1998