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Hangola
Saturday April 25, 1998

After taking a few people for sailplane rides on early Saturday afternoon, headed out with Axis in tow. Ran into Fred & Raeane at the Ott House. She launched at HR into 15ish, reported "funky" air & landed after an hour or so in strong conditions.

Drove over to HR to find it deserted and honking 15 to 25 at aboy 3:30.

Drove over to McC'burg. Others can tell that story...

Drove back to the Rock. Had gotten overcast and light. Only pilot there, lots of wuffos. Setup and launched into a light 5ish straight in at about 6:45. Straight up to 400 over in super light, very bouyant, widespread light. Light was consistent out to RR tracks. Just raced and wangged around for an hour. Only bumps caused by my own votices and a light shear over the LZ between 700 & 400 AGL. (WNW above 700AGL, light S below 400AGL.) Landed to the south in catabatic conditions. Really fun after listening to it howl all day.

BTW, many folks at McC'burg noticed the sailplanes passing by overhead. The task was:
MASA (near Gettysburg) to Burt Cabins (on the ridge about 6 miles NE of McC'burg launch) to
Thompsontown (on the ridge about 58 miles NE of McC'burg launch) to Rt 30 & ridgetop (just across the gap to the left of launch) back to Thompsontown back to Rt 30 & ridgetop back to
MASA
Total distance 291 miles. Task was won by Jonathan Gere (34) at an average speed of 89 mph. Jonathan indicated the the worst part of it was the slog from McC'burg to about Greencastle. He registered no lift to 500 down for that segment, probably downwash from the wave. It got better beyond Greencastle. Bob Jackson (RJ) and Litt (??) reported similar difficulties behind McC'burg.

Got more overcast with rain moving in about 11:30 pm.

Danny Brotto

plus response to Marc's post:

Marc

I was on launch at the 'burg when you were in the air with Jonathan Gere (34). I spoke w/ Jonathan Gere that evening. He said that there was a good thermal in the area where you mentioned. Seeing you out in front of launch he headed over to check out what you might be in. Since he was ahead of the pack he could risk a few minutes. (Strategy is to stay with the pack but just slightly ahead. More gliders to indicate lift sources if it gets iffy.) He said it was weaker than the one he just left so after a couple of turns he headed back to his "house" thermal to get high enough for the dive across the valley. He did not get to 6000ft which would have insured a final glide back to Fairfield since things began to get a bit soft. Jonathan left with 3800', taking a couple of thermals at Greencastle and Mt. Alto for the glide home.

d

Funny you mention the sailplanes. I launched at about 4:00 pm when it seemed that things had gotten less risky. Despite strong conditions from surface to launch level, things were much quieter and smoother at 1,000 over plus. I hung around to the right of launch for about an hour, mostly because I was very interested in observing the tatics the sailplanes were using as they came streaming in one by one. They came in low from the north, did a turnpoint at about the spot where the bar is next to 30, then scooted back north along the ridge low. Just around the corner it was obvious that there was a nice core working just on the lee of the front ridge, and I saw that almost every sailplane used the same spot to quickly get up and go over the back.

Well, I figured if it was good enough for them I should give it a shot, beside which I though it would be kind of neat to try to follow the sailplane's track. I tried several times to turn the knob to the north but to no avail, it just got too strong or I got too low. I might have found their leeside thermal once, but ditching over the back past the towers at 1,000 over didn't seem to be a great idea. After having had my fun and noticing that most of the sailplanes had gone, I decided to finally try my luck over the back. Lift became sketchy, and I dropped fast after clearing the back side. I found a little light burble at about 700 agl which I worked high enough to get me another 6 miles. Only 10.7 total, but it was still a fun and safe flight for me which ended in a graceful no-stepper right next to a good road.

Marc

Bailed strong and cross winds at the Pulpit. 2:15 later arrived at Woodstock to overcast skies speckled with soaring gliders. Jose and I discussed the clouds and started monitoring their development. The sky appeared fine when I launched, but two minutes later I was above launch and it started to rain. Though it was pretty isolated in area, the rain was heavy enough to get the glider wet; landing seemed the only reasonable choice. The wheels came in handy.

Jose launched later and landed after 15 min and 500' over reporting an unpleasant texture to the air.

Other flights ranged from sleds to 2 hours. Several Hang 2's flew but I didn't meet them all. Perhaps they will tell their own stories. Also Rich Lawrence, Rich Donahue, Richard Chamberlain, and Randy Weber. The event with the rescue squad apparently went well.

With a few hours of daylight left I ventured over to Skyline Drive to find and check out the Dickey Ridge launch. Travel total for the day: 402 miles.

Judy

I think we beat your total travel mileage with our trip to KHK to Aero-Tow. We arrived on Saturday at 3:45; Joe and Janet had been there since the morning and Joe had done one early tow on Janet's glider in which he found that it had a slight right turn. It was blowing kind of strong for a while so we hung out and at about 6:00pm it started to smooth out. Joe did two more flights on Janet's glider, each time adjusting the tip, to get the turn out. I got in one tow on a Falcon. It's the first time I've had penetration problems in a glider. Even though it was fairly calm in the field, it was still blowing about 15+ above the tree line. Janet got in two flights and Karen did two tandems and her first solo. By then it was dark so I didn't get to fly my UltraSport. I had it set up and I was ready to go. But upon hearing that Karen was going to solo after her second tandem, I bailed and raced to put the little teeny-tiny Falcon together for her solo.

Then Joe made us drive fifty miles so he could go to his favorite restaurant in Nags Head. Nothing like dinner at 10pm. We got up early to fly Sunday but it was already blown out. KHK did a few tandem rides for vacationers in which the tug and glider were going backwards and we saw an exciting early release by a TRX. Long story short-- Karen got her solo but not her rating and I got refreshed on my towing.

Matthew (anyone up for another trip to KHK?, of Karen and Matthew)

While driving up the hill to the Pulpit saw a glider pretty high and climbing. It was Bacil who had arrived at 09:00 and launched at 10:20 into strong conditions. When he lost that one and came out front he started boating around about 500 to 600 over and appeared to be unable to hook into anything worthwhile. Conditions were strong but launchable, however; nobody launched because for about two hours Bacil was not getting any higher.

Then at about 1:30 PM, Bacil went out front and after getting about 3,000 over, went over the back. Of course there was a stampede to launch, however; the wind picked up, probably gusting to over 30 mph. Kevin Madden got off in a lull, but as George Price got on launch, it picked up again, and the wire crew had a difficult time holding the glider on the ramp. After about 10 minutes, George backed off, taking his glider back to the set-up area and getting out of his harness. Next in line, I unhooked and watched conditions from the ramp. It eased off a little, and there were lulls of about three to five seconds. I hooked back in and got on the ramp. After about five minutes, I was able to pounce on one of the short lulls and launch.

Once at about 200 ft over, conditions were quite civilized, with constant lift, and no difficulty in penetrating. Anticipating a southeast drift, I stayed in about 200 ft up just south of launch; all the way to 3,644 ft over, with fairly pronounced 120 degree drift. As launch receded into the distance, I assumed the wind had picked up again, because no other gliders moved to the ramp.

Hit sustained sink before Upton, but at 1,500 over the ground hooked into a sustained 200 up core. As I circled a blue stunt plane flew about two circles around me at about 500 meters away, waving his wings before leaving. It looked as if I would land about a mile short of 81, north of Greencastle, but at about 800 over the ground gleaned about 300 ft from a little one, enabling me to cross 81 with about 900 ft. Running downwind, ground speed was about 55 mph, enabling an extended glide to 1.3 miles east of 81, just past a small reservoir. Total flight time was only 45 minutes, for a reading of 16.7 miles on the GPS.

Bacil, who had landed after 3.5 hours, was on Rt. 16 west of Greencastle for 13.5 miles. With almost 20 miles, Kevin Madden got the longest flight. After picking up Bacil, Craig Shelton graciously and successfully hunted around for me, as well as Steve Kinsley who had launched in a lull and landed in Le Masters.

Adroitly using a one-foot-in-the-cocoon launch, Alan Sparks flew late and landed in the main LZ, and Mark F. launched late and got 10.6 miles. Was on Mike Chevalier's wire crew, but it had picked up again and, after about 15 minutes, Mike had to back-off the ramp.

Kelly, Kevin, Mike C. and Alan Sparks and I stopped in the Antrim House in Greencastle for dinner; recommended.

I understand Tom McGowan and Mike Balk had great flights at Cumberland, with 50 and 35 miles. Other very experienced and accomplished pilots were present, but apparently did not do as well as our guys. Tom and Mike, how about some details on your great flights? What about you Joe (Gregor)? (Joe went to Kitty Hawk to pick up his Fusion and also to fly). We on the list server would like to know!
John Dullahan

I think the final results of Saturday's flying from Cumberland was:
Marvin had the longest flight, landing a little north and east of PawPaw (about 24 miles, his longest to date).
A few pilots (Larry Ball among them) landed at the Highway Dome field (about 12 miles).
JR and I landed in Fort Ashby (a measy 5 and a half or so). I hitchhiked back to my truck at the Fairgrounds LZ and then bought some beer and went back for JR. Some service!!
Conditions were fine in the beginning but the last two off had a little trouble with higher winds. It wasn't too turbulent in the air....

The real flying took place on Friday which, like a fool, I didn't take off:
The longest flight was by Larry Ball who landed in Middletown, MD,
I think he said it was 72 miles, but it might have been 67.
The next longest was Tom McGowan who landed at Summit Point, WV.
The next longest was Will Jenkins who did something in the upper 40s.
Mike Balk was next, landing near Winchester I believe.
JR landed in the Highway Dome field.
Conditions were more turbulent Friday. I think Larry said he got to 9.2K msl.

Christy

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This page last updated April 27, 1998