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Hangola
week of 7/20-7/26

Mon,7/20 & Tues, 7/21

Friday, July 24

Saturday, July 25

Doug and I went out to Cumberland yesterday to fly the county fair 'show'. Marvin and Will Jenkins also were there, plus 2 drivers (Jennifer and Will's cousin). It was blown out at the Fairgrounds launch (NW 15-20) so we headed for High Point. Kinda strong there, but doable. I launched first a little after 6:30 (no point in waiting for 7 when it's soarable). The air was not evening glass off conditions. In fact, we were bouncing around pretty good and no one wanted anyone else near him (or her in my case). Will landed first and reported switchy conditions in the LZ - we're talking 7:30 here, guys. Doug landed next, followed by me, then Marvin. Doug and I stopped for barely edible subs at a convenience store on the way home (last time we buy them at RG's) for the ride home. In bed by 11:15 pm. Awake with the alarm at 4:30 am. Oouf. What a job.
We're going out again today since the forecast is for the same. By the way, it must be at least 15 degrees cooler there - in the LZ.
Christy

Not as interesting flying last night in Cumberland. When we got there the wind was light out of the north. We got a ride to the Fairgrounds launch with Will Jenkins, meeting John McAllister and his driver Adam (who plans to go to Kitty Hawk and get his Hang 1 and 2 ratings in one fell swoop - so to speak) near the gate at the big gap. It was blowing down on top - probably thermals coming off the Fairgrounds pulling it in. We set up anyway since we wouldn't be launching for an hour. Sure enough it started coming in nicely about 10 of 7. But, by 7 it was totally dead. Oh well. I went off first and had my shortest high flight yet. I did a bit of a wang over the fair before turning on final which probably shortened the flight, but even so 1 minute 40 seconds isn't very long. I came in fast over the cars and gave some new arrivals a thrill. John McA was the last off and his almost-on-the-spot landing was caught by a photographer who used to fly hang gliders (Oregon Ridge and some other training hill) 15 plus years ago.

When Doug and I got back to Harpers Ferry around 10 pm, all the lights were out. I borrowed a flashlight from one of the guys sitting outside the firehouse (next to the post office) so I could get my mail from my post office box, and learned the lights had been out since a storm cell rolled through around 5 pm. I was thinking how hot the house was going to be with no electricity to run all the fans (I don't have AC) but I didn't need to worry. Thirty seconds later as we were driving the 2 blocks home, all the lights went on. Now that's timing.

Gonna stay home tonight and get to sleep early for a change. Have a good meeting!!
Christy

Showed up at HR today around 12:30 and the wind was coming in nicely at 10-15. Dan Tomlinson, Mike Balk, Tom McGowan, and Judy arrived shortly thereafter. We all got up easily in great conditions. Everyone got at least 2000' over except for me. I only got 1625' over. Dan Tomlinson had a great flight without a vario! Determined to make it to the top of the stack, I flew until everyone else landed. Then, I saw Danny Brotto and Lewis Truitt show up and I got excited about flying with Lewis after his long hiatus. So, I flew some more. Things actually turned on a little more for a while and I got back up to 1200' over. Danny flew for a little over an hour. Lewis had a nice flight of 55 minutes ( his longest ever) and I finally landed after 4:15 (my longest ever). Tried out Emma Jane's new porch swing afterwards. Very nice! Another great day at the Rock.
Mike Buckley

Exellent Woodstock afternoon for Chuck, John Middleton, and me. Nice warm 10-15 NW with some big thermals. Off launch we all Sky Hooked right up to 500 over. Chuck had a nice 1/2 hr flight. At times I was at least 1500 over and no instruments. It was sooo shahh..wheat!!! John was consistantly another 800 to 1000 above me. (Cept once I caught I nice one, went ear-poppin-up and managed to be about 20' higher than him for about a minute) John shadowed me up to the north end passed the tower then back down almost to the gap and then back to lauuch. Consistenly booming lift at every bend of the river and light sink passing over the fingers. It was easy!

So for the Region 9, Falcon, Hang II XC contest the entry will be 12.7 miles end to end (25.4 round trip) in 2 hrs 7 min. Also my longest air time yet. (And boy were my knees tired)

A much gratified/satisfied not to mention stoaked,
Ed

Doug and I got out to Cumberland around 1 pm Friday, meeting Larry Ball, Jim Rowan, and Will Jenkins in the LZ for the ride up. We piled onto/into Larry's truck. It was blowing in pretty good when we arrived at the High Point - even a little on the strong side. By the time we were set up it was looking really sweet. John McAllister showed up on top with Marian as a driver. We all launched around 3 pm. It was pretty easy maintaining 1-2K over, but an inversion layer was keeping us from the clouds. JR sunk out after getting too low over the west facing section of the ridge - not a good place to go in a north cross.
I was the first to punch through the inversion layer, having come across a thermal that was going up 5-600 fpm on the averager. I topped out at 6550' msl (cloud base, in the dome) about over the airport. This, of course, meant I was committed to an xc flight. I radioed that I was going over and wasn't anyone going to join me. Nope, not this trip. I was hoping to drift along under the cloud, but it wasn't drifting. So I struck out alone, following Rt. 51. I found one little burble of -50 fpm. Ended up at the highway dome field and landed in the only wet spot of the huge field, but managed to hop from hummock to hummock out of it. Marian came and got me. Before we got out of there, the 3 boys (Will, John, and Larry) radioed to say they were on their way. They had finally found something strong enough to punch through. Larry bent a downtube (beyond repair) on his landing - successfully avoiding some huge boulders hidden by the grass. I broke down John's Klassic (I didn't want to be there all night) and we headed back up to launch to get Larry's and JR's trucks. Doug was still in the air (he got 4.5 hours) and JR had driven himself back up and relaunched. The boys drove the extra vehicles down while I relaunched, getting another half hour in (total airtime a little over 2 hours), and once again participating in the Mountaineer HGA 'show'. Spent the night at JR's.
Saturday was looking good - if you had a tow system. Seems Greg Beyer is making noises about buying a Milennium and we're hoping that he decides to also get a Dragonflyer to get it in the air with. In the meantime, we headed over to the Pinnacles to try our luck. It's a shallow site facing SE. It was blowing a light NE when we got there. I launched first. Hay-seus, what a run! About half way out to the LZ, I found a little lift and gained a hundred feet, but wasn't willing to drift too far from the LZ so lost it. Larry was next off and got nothing. Ditto for JR and Doug. I broke down JR's glider so we could get back up to launch in time for the evening 'show.' It was blowing down at the Fairgrounds launch about 2-4 mph so we set up. Larry was off first, then JR, then me. Hay-seus, what a run! Doug was last off. Ben and LE and Wayne Elseth all elected not to fly. Another disadvantage of the bagwing. Super short flights had by all. After breaking down our gliders, we headed for the fair. Got to eat a hot Italian sub and some lemonade before riding on the rocket machine. Then shared a hot Italian and cheese steak sub with Doug, some funnel cake with Ben and LE, and a chocolate dipped ice cream to top it off before catching the dog and black bear show. Best part of that show was when the bear crapped on his plastic log. Well, at least the Pope's still Catholic.
Christy

Per Geoff's invitation about the corn devil, here's my write up on Saturday's flight.

Since Geoff often has the first tow and then has the best and longest flight, I thought that I would follow him off at 12:50. For the first 20 minutes, I had just enough lift to maintain at 2,600 agl, but I drifted pretty far from NE to SW of the towfarm. Just as I was drifting over the river west/southwest of the towfarm, the overcast skuz disappeared and I found a good thermal to cloudbase at 6,150 agl.

Things looked poor to the south, so I headed back to the towfarm and some better looking clouds. Mike Balk and I both got to cloudbase and then headed south, crosswind but we had no other choices due to the drift over the bay. Mike promptly found some lift at 4 miles out and climbed to 4800 agl and headed south, while I flew circles underneath him and sunk down from 3,600 to 2,000. I had picked out a field to land in near Centreville at 900 agl when I hit a Kevin Madden type thermal - once I hit it, I knew I was getting back up. Sure enough, clouds exploded all around me and I eventually got back to base (this time 6,600 agl).

It took me awhile to get up here; that first thermal only took me to 2,700 agl. Ordinarily, I would have immediately gone on glide at this point to get at least 10 miles, but this time a stayed around and didn't give up and leave the area because so many clouds were forming above me. I finally quit trying to get up by flying under dark spots on the clouds and finally found a good thermal by flying over what looked like a good thermal looking field. I think it was a re-cycling drop-off field near Centreville off Rt. 213.

I then flew south down 213 past 301 to Rt. 50 where Mike Balk was pulling off his own low save. Flying with Mike I had the same trouble as earlier - clouds were forming all around and Mike was climbing but I couldn't find any good lift. I was just maintaining around 2,700 agl.

Then I saw the corn devil. What I saw was the swirl of a strong thermal in a corn field. It was strong enough that the swirl was a full 360 degrees. It was about 40 feet in diameter with a well-formed eye about 3 feet across. But I didn't see any debris in the air. I watched as the entire thermal drifted across a 200 acre corn field. I immediately flew over it and found a nice 400 up thermal and took it to 5,200 agl.

I then followed Mike down Rt. 50 (lots of air traffic - there's a small airport next to 50 in Easton as well) and landed near Rt. 50 about a mile short of Easton for 23.7 miles and 4:30 p.m. And thanks to Gardner for picking us up. I definitely owe a driver/driving day.

Tom

P.S. I made sure that I marked my landing point not where I broke down.

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This page last updated July 26, 1998