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Hangola August 28-30

Friday August 28, 1998

Saturday August 29, 1998

Sunday August 30, 1998

In attendance: Mike C (had this week off), Steve K, Judy, Dan, Ed, Chuck, John McAllister

Winds: North to NE, 0-7

Result: Sleds for everyone. It was *very* light on launch, most of had to wait for even the slightest puffs to come in before we would launch.

My adventure of the day: I got pulled over on Water Street. The cop told me he clocked me going 49mph in a 25 zone, that it was considered reckless driving and I could lose my license and pay huge fines, that Maryland is a reciprocal state, etc etc. He let me go this time. Consider yourself warned. People have been complaining about traffic going fast on that street because it's so wide. They may have just recently reduced the speed limit because of the complaints.

Judy

There are too many details that I don't know about but the Fly-In turned out to be a great success and I imagine flying is still taking place today (Sunday). Karen and I had not planned to go up to the Rock until the evening. But, fortunately, I checked the updates at 1:00pm and saw that NW winds had already arrived. We arrived at launch at about 4:00 to find many gliders soaring. A couple of friends of ours also showed up about then to take a tandem. It was great boatable air and I got 2 hours and Karen got 45 minutes. Her neck got tired from all of the looking around to avoid traffic. I actually got above Mike Chevalier for the first time in my life. Our one friend Rick had a great time on his tandem flight and stayed up for 45 minutes-- we think he's hooked. But somehow there was a miscommunication between our friend Sean and Jeff as to where they were supposed to meet after the first tandem and Sean didn't get to fly. Hence, he's a very sad puppy.

Of note, Carlos had his first flight at the Rock. It also turned out to be his first soaring flight. Hurray Carlos! I also did my first South approach there and botched it by not aligning myself with the centerline of the field on final. The fact that the winds had switched around and that I landed downhill didn't help either. I had a very ugly whack but somehow didn't hit that hard or bend any aluminum.

I can't wait to hear everyone else's story and to find out if anyone ever found Marvin's Mystery Numbers.

Matthew (damn I'm tired, of Karen and Matthew)

Many flew Sunday at High Rock. I'm sure there were many I don't know about. Some that I remember are Jeff Beyerle, Fred, Raean, Steve Krichton, Mark G, Sheila, myself, Robert Sweeney, Jeff Harper, Kelly, Carlos, Charlie Poland, John Middleton, Chuck Pyle, Joe Gregor, Brian Hardwick, Tex, Tim Helms

Here are some others who were in attendance on Sunday (some set up) but I don't know if they flew: Kevin Madden, Cragin, Mike C, Eddie, Kurt, Ed Reno, Jim Kingsley, Rick Holtz, Lewis Truitt, Beard (Bob Stilwell), Marc Fink (I wonder why he didn't fly?!!)

Some soared and some had sleds. 20 minutes(?) and maybe 500-600' over for me. Some got a couple thousand over. I understand Steve Krichton took his altiitude over the back (north of the prohibited airspace) for 5-7 miles. The wind direction in the lz was switchy, making for some challenging (downwind, downhill) landings, with pilots approaching from both ends.

Mike Buckley and Mike C both came to High Rock late after having been at the Pulpit. From their reports I gather that others there included Bacil, Mike Balk, Tom McG, Will Good, Dan T. I don't know who else.

Wind Riders has a new ham, me - KB3CZI

Well ventured S of the Mason-Dixon for the grand festivity at High Rock. WRHGC had 5 attendees, Shawn getting 3 hours Sat., Jeff flying his Fusion and a 45 min. tandem. Kenny H. and Jeff B. got time also but though I was not late since conditions were good, I didn't fly too tired... ooomp.

Ate drank was merry, great beef, beer and company. Thanks for the invite.

Sun. had a quiet solo 1:30 hike from PenMar Park S on the AT to High Rock in time to help Jeff B. off, first of the day conditions were light, they got better though.

Steve Crichten (sp?) went over the back with I heard about 3,500' for a 7+ mile XC Don't quote me on this. A few other pilots got up to that altitude. Funny sorta light W cross day. Thought Sun. was supposed to be the best day of the weekend, not the case.

I had my first cliff launch in a good cycle but got a bit far out from the ridge to start and then due to traffic, but hung in there and Jeff H., Brad, Judy, (Sheila too I think), and I worked a nice thermal off the rock pile. Seemed to me that the thermals I saw were of the small punchy variety but saw no more than 600' up. Got to 600' over launch and everyone was searching hard. .....then.....

THE BIG FLUSH my first really inescapable down cycle.

For those of you who don't remember what it was like "back in the days when we flew single surface gliders" let me enlighten you I fly a Gemini, nice wing single surface comet, kinda like a Falcon that takes 3 frustrating times longer to set up. However, I have yet to be passed by (my theory is the shorter cord relates to the speed, not quite sure I can slow down quite as much though) or have one above me, yet! I had to mention it, even H2 have egos. My Gem has a good sink rate, wish it was faster though.

Everyone got nailed, my vario indicated 800' down for a time but no lift anywhere. For those of you flying 2 surface wings to appreciate the apprehension of pulling the bar in and going down and how small my sandbox is, just lock yourself in the trunk of a car.

I was 4th over the LZ and getting ready to box the field but due to my lack of top end was losing ground on Judy. Just then Jeff Harper swoops by on his Fusion (I want one someday) and tells me to put it on the deck, If he is coming out others are sure to follow, and they are.

Things are getting interesting fast, I check wind direction, then drill 2 360's (sink alarm) and a short box of the S 3rd of the field, land down there into the wind, purposely on the run and just kept running for the sidelines as a glider was turning on final at the tree line coming in from the opposite end of the field. No worrys though the field is huge, and I was at the far end (negative spot points -who won that by the way?) just looked alot smaller for a few moments there.

Some of the downwind landings were entertaining but all (8-9?) got down safe within what seemed like a minute and a half. 25 minutes, learned alot, I usually do at this stage, flew another site and now have 10 hours 8 minutes.

All in all a good trip, see ya at Hyner.

Robert Sweeney

--------------------------------------

The Rock the saga continues
Mon, 31 Aug 1998 09:51:52 EDT
Robert Sweeney
To: wrhgc list

Not sure what the pilot count was but many showed 40+? There was a falconer with 2 hawks shy but great to see hope he gets to fly with them one day.

Some pilots - Bacil et. al went to The Pulpit to attempt XC to HR but not sure the day was conducive (or convective) enough for the try.

Heard tell there was fire jumped.

Fred & Rae got a very nicely done lifetime service award for their work at High Rock. Classy award, speech by Danny B., class act.

Thanks Fred & Raean and our brother & sisters of the air MHGC and CHGC(see Danny's got me waxing poetic) for making such a great site available for visitors like me.

Robert

Let me start by saying that the strip in the middle of the corn in the secondary LZ is NOT wide enough for a hang glider.

OK, here is the beginning of the story.

Will Jenkins launched and went up followed by Tom. They both went up. John McAllister and Jose launched and didn't go very high up. I waited for them to land. They both landed in the main LZ. Finally a cycle came in and I launched. I made a few passes in front of launch, then decided I had better head down the ridge.

On my way down the ridge there was sink. I was wondering if I could make it to the primary, when I saw a bunch of birds at my altitude over the secondary. I decided to go for the birds. Remember that saying, "what goes up must come down"? We refer to that about air. When air is going up, there must be air going down. Well I certainly found the air going down!!!!! By the time I made it to the secondary, I didn't have time to check things out. I remember there being a field above the corn sloping up, with power lines at one end, but I didn't even have time to see if that was doable. I mean I was really sinking! Since the wind was from the south, I came in over the trees, lined it up with the path, and had about 90 yards before the corn narrowed. I was really please that I had lined up perfectly with the slot in the corn. I was down above the ground, and just before it narrowed, I got bounced just ever so slightly to the right and whacked gently into the corn, taking out 10 stalks of corn. I measured it out, and I landed about 100 yards from the 40 foot trees!

My glider is about 30 feet wide, and the slot in the corn is about 15 feet wide! So don't try landing there unless you have one of those really really small gliders!

Tom was 100' over launch, but hit the same massive sink I did, and had to land in the secondary also. He decided (wisely) to come in low at the NW corner, and land uphill to the SE.

That was fun! (After those landings, I can't understand why Mike Buckley and Dan T. didn't want to fly there?!?)

-Mike Balk

PS. To balance out my 5 minute Ride-of-excitement Sunday, Saturday I made cloud base at 4100' at the tow farm.

The Fly-In was fantastic! I saw the SW forecast Saturday and decided to head to the tow-farm before going to the party/fly-in Saturday night. Many thanks to Judy and Steve K. for helping get me get set back up at the tow farm. Then I headed over to High Rock and actually managed to get in a sunset soaring flight! I still can’t believe I got set up in time to launch but Kelly inspired me since she was setting up when I got there. The lift was everywhere but had to land since it was getting dark. Then it was partying Saturday night and enjoying the comrarderie. I wonder if Marc’s head is still spinning??? Sunday morning it was off to an early bleary-eyed breakfast then a little while later heading up to launch to set up and fly. Checked out my new harness and tried out a new helmet on a couple sleds then it was off to dinner with Mark G., Judy, Joe and Chuck. Thanks to all of them for helping push my car when the electrical system gave up the ghost :-)

Sheila

For me and a few other people HR was a three day event. Friday looked promising. When Judy McCarty and Mike Chevalier posted that they were headed for Woodstock several others decided to tag along. I met Chuck on the way out of the LZ and we headed back in time to see Mike, Judy and Steve Kinsley get some extended sleds with nice landings. Chuck and I took Mike back up to the top where we met Dan Tomlinson and John McAllister. It was right on the edge of being soarable so we all ended up with extended sleds. That made six weeks of sledding with no soaring flights for me. The NW wind wasn't quite strong enough but it was definetly on it's way. We finished off with some fairly decent pizza at Fox's in Strausburg.
I learned from Dan that in preparattion for the Fly-in, a painting party was planned at the cube on Saturday morning. The next morning there were no reports of flyable winds for HR so I went to Hechingers and bought a quart of almond oil paint. (Not all rocks should be painted grey). On the drive up I270 some very encouraging wind driven flags were at odds with my expectations of a rather low key meeting with crew involed in a somewhat odius chore. Imagine my delight when I pulled into launch around 11:30 and spotted several pilots in the air well over launch. (YIPEE!!! thought I) I almost launched my rollers and paint but decided they would be better used later. I counted five pilots in the air and at least 5 others waiting to launch. I didn't recognize anybody as I untied my glider. I started to get stoaked because I realized this had the potential for an excellent event. Right about then an ultralight buzzed the launch and got a good reaction from the crowd. Then I was sure the weekend was going to be great! Just then Chuck Pyle pulled up so we canvased around for an observer and met instructer and Bodhisattva Jimmy Long. Thirty minutes later we were flying in somewhat choppy ridge and thermal lift. Traffic was heavy with about 15 pilots in the air with several near flush cycles. Over the radio someone in the LZ commented that it looked exactly like an aquarium full of tropical fish. Plans for a screen saver were discussed. One hour and one tired swivle neck later I was dropped out from the bottom of the stack and back in the LZ. Danny Brotto marched over and offered some very direct advice for thermaling in traffic. I remember having stayed well clear in the air but apparently there was something about the way I was thrashing my thermals that made people nervous. The advice was like a revelation and I wanted to get back up immediately and try it out before things shut down. On the other hand, if I was going to make other pilots nervous in traffic I wan't sure that I should.
On the edge of the LZ Fred Permenter had gotten some coals going and was slow cooking some cube steaks the size of large pineapples. I had never seen anybody cook that way before and imagined that I would be chiseling through carbon to raw meat for dinner. I got a big welcome from Fred and he pointed out Jeff Harper for me.
I had arranged to have my 15 yr old son take a tandem flight with Jeff. It worked out that he had landed a couple of gliders in front of me. My son was apparenly first in line for a flight. I quickly got on the cell and left a message at home for his mother to drive him up. When I got back to launch I found conditions had actually improved! It had glassed off and about 10 people were spread out all along the ridge. There was a que so I called home again. Daniel had decided to help one of his girlfriends set up her birthday party rather than fly. To me it was 'inconceivable'. To other people it was: "Let's see 15 yr old boy: Party with girlfriend or fly with dad? Hmmmmmm.... Makes sense to me!" A freind of Karen and Matthew got to go out on a swooping launch and rack up 45 min of flying time. The next time I saw him all he could do was say in a sort of bleary eyed way "I'm.. hooked,.." (what a rabbit).
Back in the air Eddie Miller had let out a 100 foot streamer of orange crepe paper. I knelt back in my knee hanger and watched Steave, a new arrival from Arizona, chase him around for about 20 min trying to snatch it. Eddie said "Yeah! I just let it out for fun and then I noticed this guy was actually chasing me. At first I was kind of scared and I kept looking back over my shoulder thinking 'What's this crazy guy DOING!' Then he'd get close to the end and he'd fly with one hand and jab snatch at the streamer with the other. After awhile I realized this guy really knew how to fly and I started to play with him. I'd speed up and make him chase me, then I'd slow down and let just catch up, then speed up again." As I watched I thought of how RC pilots like to tie streamers to their planes for mock dog-fights. "Finally," Edddie said " I was looking straight ahead and I heard a little 'twink!' And the sreamer was gone! It had snapped off right at the bar! I laughed my head off."
About the time I was ready to come down I noticed a glider with a streamer circling in front of and 50 ft below me. Immediately I flashed back to my hours and hours of playing Red Baron on my PC. He was in the dead center of the kill zone! It was the easiest shot in the book! I had done it at least 50 times in simulation! I could not resist. I judged the distance between us and laid it out on the horizon in front of him. Then I measured 100 feet back from that, picked a mark and dove toward it. I prepared my mind so that if he made any manuver at all, I would immeadiatly pull up. He continued his circle watching me the whole time. 75 feet behind him the streamer waved across my vision 10 feet away from my hand. The thought flashed into my mind: "What if the ISN"T crepe paper and I end up pulling both of us out of the sky!?" I got scared, I couldn't avoid it by climbing so I dove. As I looked to the right I saw the streamer go into a sudden corkscrew as Steave flew away. I thought "That was a neat idea but I am sort of glad that I missed it." Now I could see him towing the streamer above me and I knew I could never chase him down and grab it from behind. I made a couple of more passes and landed.
Down in the LZ a couple of people came up to me and one said "So YOU were the one!". He turned to the other and said "It's a paper streamer." The other one said "OH! Ok. Some pilots were making remarks about 'What the ____ is going on up there?'" I was a little confused. I said "Yeah, I think that was Eddie Miller with the streamer. It looked pretty cool." They looked at me funny and walked away. I blinked after them and turned to break down my glider. Then I noticed pinched between my right kinpost guy and the wing; about 25 feet of orange crepe streamer. I had my first kill.

I botched a few decisions this weekend. I thought it might rain on Saturday night, so I decided not to camp at High Rock. I went househunting on Saturday morning/afternoon, because I expected Southwesterly winds. And, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time yesterday.
The good news is that I arrived at HR in time for a beautiful, relaxing flight on Saturday. I only landed because I didn't want to test my wife's patience TOO much. Great time in the LZ, too. Yesterday, I went to HR and saw the first pilot of the day sink out very quickly. So, I went to the Pulpit, hoping for more wind. As I arrived, Bacil was launching and sank out quickly, but still made the primary lz. Being optimistic, I set up. Mike Chevalier did a little better than Bacil, but never got above launch. Then, there was a time when a the other guys got up and then it lightened up. After watching Mike Balk's and Tom's excellent landings in the secondary ( I mean that. Talk about restricted landing fields!) I packed up and went back to HR. I arrived in time to sit on the rock and enjoy the dark, cloudy sky and watch Charlie Poland and Mike C. dive off. Mike won the tree skimming contest. The leaves russled as he went over them! Kudos and thanks to all who helped with the party! Great job!
Mike Buckley
2:40
1590' over

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This page last updated August 31, 1998