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Hangola
Friday July 10

Saturday July 11

Sunday July 12

The Pulpit secondary is fairly restricted as I found out Saturday on my second flight. 0:18+0:32. The grass strip is just wide enough for a glider...thank goodness. I'm anxious to hear others' stories and any observations regarding the smoke from the fire. It seemed to be stinking up the place but smelled stronger in a few thermals south towards the towers. Some of you were speck'n. -Kevin

I was one for two this weekend. Had a great day Friday with my wife and son at High Rock and flew for 2:55 and 2234' over. Today was a day for sleds for everyone except Eddie Miller, who got pretty high before I lost him. Also sledding today were Fred, Doug and Christy. We each took two, but no one was able to get into anything more than a few turns. Fred got 50' over! There were lots of hikers and wuffos around launch. A copperhead, too.
I'm anxious to hear how the towing went...
Mike Buckley

Mike Buckley wrote:

> I was one for two this weekend......
> I'm anxious to hear how the towing went...
> Mike Buckley

An Epic day at the Towfarm, I released at 2000 and eventually climbed to 6400, cloudbase. No XC for me today, just a tour of the area. 5 miles upwind, past Chestertown, 5 miles downwind to Churchhill. Got a low save with the help of some birds early on in the flight. Landed after 3:15 and got a ride in the tug. Crabs afterwords at Harris' Crab restaraunt. Someone had a long retrieve, he'll tell the story. MC

Two flying days.. not too shabby!
On Saturday I went with the crowd to the Pulpit. After playing fetch the lawn darts in Lemaster, I launched in light bumps about 5. Thanks to Mike C for Observing, and Judy McC for assisting. It was a 7 minute sled, with little bumps en route that I was unable to do anything with. I landed in the short grass on the top of the primary, so I had four stretches of tall grass to carry through. I just hate when the walk to the road with the glider takes longer than the flight.
Sunday was a better day!
You need an AT to tow? I don't need no stinking AT to tow!
I spent the afternoon with Steve Wendt at Richmond, truck towing. Got in 5 nice flights. The best was #2 .... released from tow at 1,000 AGL. Latched onto several nice thermals coming off the field, and rode them up to 3,500 AGL. That was a great 30 minute flight!
Lyman Hart was towing Sunday, also... and finished up his H3 for Steve. Congrats, Lyman.

Craig S.

It was an interesting day for me in my so far short and (by all tales) fortunate career as a Hang II. Instead of the milquetoast straight in conditions that I have thus far enjoyed on each and every flight, it was the first time that I had flown in significant crossing conditions. Rather than lucking into billowy currents that bore me effortlessly upward and then floated me back down to be rescued by a pillowy ridge lift, I found myself scrrrrraaaping along at launch level working every junky turb and sweating bullets the size of corn cobs. Interesting? Yes, but I can see how it would wear thin. Meanwhile other people like Marc Fink, and Mike Chev. made it look easy by getting some apparently nice thermals out in front.

Ahh Yess, but for awhile there "Los tres Falconyeros" OWNED THE AIR! As Brian, Steve and myself were the only ones up (for about 15 min.).

Of note: A couple of gullible HII's landed to the call of "Body rides are leaving in 2 minutes!" As it was the only ride up, they quickly abandoned their gliders and jumped aboard. Another more experienced pilot then spent the rest of his flight staring at the two aircraft left in the LZs. After trying repeatedly to raise someone on the radio he then spent the next hour or so applying a torque wrench to various parts of his anatomy. All three arrived at the LZ at about the same time. The unsuspecting HIIs, smug in the idea that the pilot would be grateful for the timely ride were instead greeted by a pilot that unwound on them like a alarm clock gone berserk. (Game was startled for a 1 mile radius). Other incoming pilots complained of freak thermals over the LZ. Calm was only restored by poring multiple bottles of beer on his steaming head. Needless to say those HIIs
will never.. Never.. NEVER do THAT again!

Another note: In an earlier post someone complained about having to walk out of the "high grass" in the primary. Well..., it's wheat. As one of the last to leave I noticed more than one trail through the stuff as well as a crushed area about 10 feet across. I don't know who it would be the one to do it, but I think this might be a case of offering to pay for damaged crops. Hopefully before the landowner sees it.

Ed

Doug and I went out to Cumberland Saturday. We met in the LZ at noon to wait for Marvin's father who was coming with us. John McA and JR launch first and struggled hard to get up. Success for John. JR sunk out after several attempts to get high. Marvin launched into a great cycle and got right up. I waited for a good cycle and got right up, but then a big sink cycle hit and I ended up in the LZ (for :12). Larry Ball launched shortly after me and was able to maintain through the sink cycle, getting back up and eventually going over the back for 25 miles with Kathy following in his truck. Doug launched much later and got up. I got Fred C. to take me back up to launch and set up in 3 minute (actually a little more, but not much), and launched into ridge lift around 5 pm. I boated around for an hour, catching a couple of late day thermals for a grand over and keeping the one sailplane at bay.

Christy

It was a real ying and yang weekend for the Fusion.

Saturday at the Pulpit. Nuclear forcast. No driver. Scraped myself up from 100 ft over RT 16 in front of the ridge to climb to 2K over while everyone else is in survival mode. Shoulda been good. Ended up doing a total lawn dart for 5 miles. My shortest XC flight to date. Marc Fink goes over the back and looks to see where I landed. "No Marc, look closer. Closer." "Oh, your down THERE!" Steve K. goes over the back with 500' less than I had and burbles along at 700AGL directly past my field (and his waiting car) to land 1 mi further away in a perfectly manicured town park surrounded by shade trees. He's there sipping a mint julip under an oak when we pull up 5 mins later. He did that extra mile on purpose, I know. Marc gets another mile or so further. Keith Ford, well, you know. He flies to his house and whines about not being able to get down. Tom McGowan toasts us all by going 51 miles. I felt like the Pentium Bunny-suit guy.

Sunday at the towfarm. Forgot my radio. Only brought shorts. Left the old half-dead batteries in my GPS. Forgot the cell phone until the very last minute (Jose sticks it in my side pocket as they're taking up the slack). Did everything I could to fool the sky gods into thinking I wasn't going anywhere.

The tow was surprisingly civilized up to 1150' 1 mi ENE of the towfarm, where my tow bridle self destructs (do we detect a patter here yet?). Managed to climb out and, with a little help from Geoff, made it to base at 6500AGL. Drift was very light SE but I decided I oughtta do something with the altitude so I turned on the GPS and took a line that would keep me clear of the Pax River restricted airspace.

The GPS geeks out after about 45 mins, of course, but I spot Geoff again (as he blows past me) so I try to following him, under the assumption that at least one of us should know where they're going. I'm eating his used up air molecules the whole way. I couldn't keep up with the guy in the climbs. Lost him crossing one of the fairly numerous blue gaps and after several minutes of sustained 800fpm down on the averager I was forced to performed the obligatory low save (no good XC flight is complete without one). I picked a really nice looking trigger point (30 acres of cleared earth partially lined with black tarp material) next to an open field containing an RC airplane paddock. Unzipped, worked some bumps while figuring out how to sequence myself in with the 1/200 scale British Zeros. The bumps consolidated into a good thermal and I actually got back up. All the way to 6k AGL. No one could have been more surprized. Coudn't help but notice that I was STILL over the field I was gonna land in. Zero drift.

Now, I can take a hint. So I spend less time working evry little bit of lift I find and start taking risks looking for fast climbs near to base (up to 6700AGL now) - so that I can get on course and perhaps catch back up with Geoff before nightfall. All the while I dodge SE whenever the clouds permit in my paranoia to avoid Pax River. Flew directly between Harrington and Milford on a SE track, although I didn't have clue #1 what those towns were at the time. Passed over a C-130 about 2k below me and looked around in panic for Dover AFB. He was just going to the coast for a little sightseeing, I guess. Kept coming up to blue gaps that I just knew there was no way I'd make it across.....and kept making it across with enough altitute to take advantage of the cloud I had picked out. I love this glider.

Finally, my adrenalin saturated brain takes note of three things: 1) I'm running out of land (those container ships sure look pretty from the air); 2) I've still gotta land this thing; and 3) I've been flying NORDO for over 3.5 hrs (the longest I've ever stayed up). I begin to worry that Janet thinks I'm dead and that I better land and give her a call before she sells my coin collection. I begin to pass up lift and go on final glide toward what turns out to be Rehobeth Beach. I impact the earth on Rt. 1 near where the Deleware Bay meets the Altantic - precisely 52 miles from the picnic table at the towfarm. Total time: 4+00.

Sorry about the length, folks, I'm still pretty jazzed. My shortest and longest XC flights both in the same weekend. And I think I mighta gone farther than Steve K. for once!

Used up ALL of my retrieve chits on this one as it took Janet 2 hrs driving the wrong way to come get to me. Gotta start collecting more right away.

BTW, Janet had several personal best's yesterday, as well, but I'll let her post about those herself.

-- Joe

I had my highest and longest flight Sunday. (I really love towing!) We arrived around 12:30 . We set up immediately. People began towing around 1:00, I think. Report from the air was strong thermals and it's only going to get stronger. Tug pilot suggested that I might want to wait awhile. (wasn't a problem) I did my time on line crew. Towing really demands teamwork... retrieving the cart, setting up the glider on the cart, retrieving the towline, making sure the towline is connected properly to glider, traffic controller, etc. I paid my dues. I started thinking about flying around 3:30. I was on the cart at 4:15, sure I was only going to get a sled ride. I was towed up to 2200 AGL. There was lift everywhere. I began turning. My glider seemed to find its own bank angle. I said, "OK." I just went with it. I wasn't struggling to keep the angle. I spent the next 30 minutes spinning. I made it to 4500 AGL. I was cold and my nose was running. I was having a great time. But it was short lived. I began to get airsick. I stopped spinning and began to fly straight, and felt better at once. Still thought it was best to land. I began my figure 8 approach and got physically sick in the air. I knew I just had to get down. I could hear Joe telling me, "Whatever happens, fly the glider, fly the glider." I was still a bit high but knew if I made another turn I was really going to lose my crackers. I began final high, used the length of the field, landed about 2 ft. out of the field in an unused section of the corn field. I did manage to move the glider out of the way before emptying my stomach. Lesson learned: I definitely get airsick. I'm going to try Mike's C. suggestion of ginger pills.

Janet

Mike Balk

I wanted to post a quick summary (that's not so quick now that I read it) of my 51.3 mile flight Saturday from the Pulpit to near Sugar Loaf.

Although conditions on the ridge appeared to be difficult (approx. 45-60 degrees cross), I was lucky enough to launch into a good cycle. I waited until 3:00 to launch because of the cross. My thought was that thermals on the west facing ridge would be at their peak about that time of day. For once that theory worked and I got right up along with Marc Fink and Steve Kinsley.

The three of us climbed out to about 2,500 over when I lost the thermal. Marc and Steve were still climbing, but I saw Nick Stammers out front climbing and saw no signs of lift over the back (no good clouds nearby). So I went out front again and caught a thermal out over the valley above Nick and under a small cum. That thermal took me to 3,200 over. This cloud appeared to be the first of a weak cloud street that tempted me to go over the back at 3:30.

Essentially, once I started XC, my goal was to just stay up. I worked the lift I found until it died, and my only other strategy was to fly under any cloud street that I could find. This worked repeatedly as each time all the clouds around me died, a new street would appear close by. I jumped streets to the south twice. Once just south of Upton (to get around Washington Co. airport) and once SE of Hagerstown (because a better cloud street was just 1/4 mile away). Generally, every cloud or at least every street that I flew under seemed to work. My max altitude was 4,200 over. So I would have to say that conditions for XC were great, not that I did any stellar flying.

My route took me directly over Hagerstown, then just north of Boonsboro and directly over Middletown. From there, I flew directly towards Sugar Loaf. Once south of Frederick, I started seeing lots of aircraft - jets but just small ones - not passenger jets. But they were right at my altitude. This made me nervous about getting close the the Wash/Baltimore controlled airspace. So rather than try to fly over Sugar Loaf (which I now know that I could have done), I landed just to the NW of the mountain at 6:15 for 51.3 miles. In contrast to my early long XC flight, Mike Balk picked me up before I could break down (thanks Mike).

Anyway, another good day - especially for a day that looked so tough with the crossing conditions. Again, I have to say it was good conditions that produced the flight, not skill. For once I was up and over the back when there were some clouds. The cloud streets were not continuous, but lift existed along most of the streets. Anyway, it's a flight that I will remember for a long time.

Tom McGowan

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This page last updated July 16, 1998