Back to Main Page Back to Archive 1998

Index to weather maps

Hangola: June 6 & 7

Saturday June 6, 1998

Sunday June 7, 1998

I went to Fairfield to meet Steve Kinsley and passed my hang 3 test. Yeah! He picked up his "new" XC from Danny and we went to High Rock. The hay was mowed at High Rock while we were there. Kelvin Pierce was the only person to fly. Air was gusty. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. How was Woodstock?

Mike Buckley

Steve Kinsley, Marc Fink, and I went to the Pulpit today, where it was blowing like stink. The sky looked great though. The wind showed no signs of abating, so we drove to High Rock. It was cranking there, too. Gusts to 40 mph. We waited and waited. Marc bailed. Steve Vogel showed up. It improved some. Steve K. launched sometime after 5:00pm in his new glider. It looked really scary from launch when he tried to climb into the control frame. We found out after he landed that his shoulder lines were caught and he couldn't get prone for a few seconds. He had a nice flight after that for 40 minutes before landing. Steve Vogel backed off launch because he saw Steve land and figured that the air was trashy. Plus, it was still pretty strong on launch. We hung out until after 7:00pm, hoping the winds would smooth out, but they didn't. So, only one flight today at the rock.
Mike Buckley

On Sun, 7 Jun 1998 21:54:29 -0400 Mike Buckley writes:
Steve K. launched sometime after 5:00pm in his new
>glider.
>It looked really scary from launch when he tried to climb into the
>control
>frame. We found out after he landed that his shoulder lines were
>caught and
>he couldn't get prone for a few seconds

The small shoulder ring on my HES harness gets on the wrong side of the big ring and hangs up. Didn't used to happen and I don't think anything has been changed back there so it's wierd. . It always comes loose after a few seconds but it can be very disconcerting. Does this happen to anybody but me?

The XC is a major improvement in the speed and handling dept. Pretty neat!

How about a George report

Well, no one got particularly high or really went anywhere (though Marc landed out at a gas station so he could get something to drink) on Saturday at Woodstock, but it was the best damn day of flying that I can recall. Everyone flew and soared. Two hang IIs had there first soaring flights (Ed Reno and Steve Padgett). Karen had her longest flight (1:22). Brian and Craig each had their longest flights (just over an hour). I got around 2 hours as did many others including Sheila, Joe, Judy and Dan. Here's the list of everyone else that I can remember who flew: Christy, Doug, Richard Chamberlain, Kevin, Kelly, Dave Proctor, Dave Johnson, Gardinator, Mike Balk, Tom, Mike Chevalier, and Jim Strube. But there were lots of others.

On Sunday, we arrived at launch at about 4 to honkin winds and four gliders in the air who had launched in a lull and were battling some pretty strong conditions. They can tell their own stories. At about six it finally backed off and Tex and Jim Kingsly launched and struggled to stay about 100 over. Another pilot (?) launched and sledded. At 7:00, Karen and I, being spooked from the endless holwin' of the day and wanting to get home at a reasonable hour, hit the road as Bacil and Ed Reno and Ray Mitchell were setting up. About halfway down the road, the sun came out and when we arrived at the LZ to pick up our windsock, there were gliders boatin' around in magic air. Damn this can be a such a depressing sport. We should have just stayed home and done some chores. Live and Learn.

Matthew (Hurray! High Rock is mowed, of Karen and Matthew)

Showed up at Woodstock Saturday with Sheila and Mark. Remembered to bring my glider and harness - and virtually nothing else. List of items left behind included: Winglets, Wheels, Gloves, Jacket, Thermal underwear, and Face Mask.

I was bound to sky-out.

Ended up borrowing a truly garish pair of neon pink gloves owned by Matt Graham (note these were Matt's gloves, not Karen's) that I at first refused to wear but was later forced to don in flight. These thing's, BTW, work way better than a dingle ball at making you visible to other traffic.

Turned out to be a fabulous day. Light wind at launch. Ridge lift to 600-800 over with abundant thermal lift to 2500 over (unless you're Tom, in which case the thermal lift extended to 3500 over). Drove all the up to the Towers at Strausburg for the first time. Piece of cake. Drove down toward the gap but couldn't hook up on the radios with anyone who was jumping and I was shivering by then so I wienied out and went for some sun in the valley. Tom and Mike C. both jumped the gap, got bored soaring Short Mountain and came back. Jeeze.

The Fusion fly's fine without winglets. Noticably less yaw stable, but easily managable, even flying fast, which is great fun, BTW. It's really a blast being able to keep up with people now, rather than watching them recede inexorably into the distance whilste doing static tricep presses in a futile attempt to keep up.

Coming in to land at the primary I noticed, with new eyes, how bloody SMALL the thing looks. Did some gyrations to insure that I didn't end up in the swing with my new glider, and ended up landing where I always do. I'm beginning to think that the float on the Fusion is not _all_ that bad and I might be able to relax on the short field approach thing.

Anyway, cast of thousands. Looked like a Cecil B. Demille movie on HG. It was soarable until dusk. People did a remarkably good job sequencing themselves into the LZ, although I did make life a little bit difficult for Judy. Sorry.

2+05. Have I mentioned yet that I love my new glider?

-- Joe

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated June 8, 1998