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Hangola April 3, 1999

Only about a bazillion folks flew at Jacks yesterday and everyone had a soaring flight. I got my usual boring 2 hours and 1100 over-- flew up to the double power line cut-out and back. Karen got about 40 minutes, 400 over. Traffic was pretty intense in the air. Fred and Raean, Joe, Mike C., Steve Chricton, Dan and Craig, and a slew of pilots from Hyner were all in the air at the same time, including Jeff Harper, Spoons, Dennis and Claire, Mark Dunn, Bill Buffam, Joe and Karen Gorrie, some guys from Jersey and a couple of Jeff Harper's new Hang 2s (Alana and Scott, who had his first soaring flight). There was barely room to set up when Karen and I first arrived at launch. Lots of others flew-- I didn't have a chance to meet them all. Dennis sunk out on his first flight while 3 other pilots were soaring. I'll have to remind myself of that the next time it happens to me that even the best can find massive sink.

Joe, Mike, Claire and Fred and a few others landed out to the North near the gap. That left me with some room to myself on a piece of the ridge for most of my flight. Dan and I soared together for a while and he landed out a few miles to the North of launch. When I finally crawled back to launch (there was a South cross), it was like merging onto the beltway with a huge gaggle congregating in front of and to the South of launch. I stuck around for a little while and flew side by side with Karen before heading out to land.

After landing and breaking down, we gave Bill Buffam and some guy who was flying a Twister a ride back up to the top only to find Jeff Harper setting up to do a tandem with one of his students (Ayesha?). So we stuck around to help wire them off. They were staying up in magic air as we departed.

We heard some radio chatter from Tom at Fisher Road. How was the flying there???

Matthew (Happy Easter, of Karen and Matthew)

Also Bruce Satatis had two flights- - a sled and :20.

The forecast was SE @ 10. Sounded like a typical Fisher Road day, and Dan T and I were planning to head to Breezewood. However, Matthew has been trying to get me to check out Jack's for over a year. The long drive was never appealing on the many Sundays, but we were ready for an early start, so Dan and I changed destinations and headed north.

Dan had flown Jack's once before, while I had never seen it. Therefore, I took his advice on the route, and we headed up through Baltimore and Harrisburg, seeing the crowds at the Inner Harbor and getting to drive along the edge of the Susquehenna River. Approaching Harrisburg, Dan blurted out that he had not actually driven on his previous trip, but had ridden up with Mark G and Sheila. Hmmmmmm. As we left Lewistown heading south on US 22/522, we raised Matthew on the radio. He was on launch, reporting light conditions, waiting for better before flying. We asked for markers to Jacks Mt Rd. When he heard our direction, he said, "Why did you come that way? That adds 45 minutes to the trip!" Hmmmmmmm confirmed!

Well, we got to launch about 2:30. The place was PACKED! We saw 3 gliders in the air, including a Falcon doing fine. Yet, there were about 20 gliders set up, pilots waiting around for it to get better! As we were dragging gear to precious bare spots, the locals declared it was time to take what you could get - it wasn't gonna get any better. I took a clue from the fact that Dennis & Claire Pagen and Fred & Raean Permenter were all hopping into harnesses and pushing to launch as quickly as they could. Dan launched shortly after Raean. He reached 700 over, flew well over an hour, and landed out, about 3 miles to the north. He will probably report more details.

I launched at 4:20, and got to 400' over within 5 minutes. I worked some rock piles to the south of launch, but was staying away from two other crowded stacks of gliders. However, east facing slopes don't get much rock heating in the late afternoon. I lost a few hundred feet, and worked back in front of launch where five gliders had been using some lift over the power lines. I maintained for a while, but was not able to get back up to launch level, so I headed out. Arrived over the LZ behind but below another glider. She set up at the south end, and dove fast on entering her pattern. I hung out boating at the north end, to make sure we had plenty of room. as soon as she was down I set up final on a parallel track well behind her. Landed mid-field with a great no-stepper! Total flight only 20 minutes (thanks for the radio time hacks at launch & landing, Matthew - my watch band had broken during setup) but had a very enjoyable first Jack;s flight!

Other pilots there included Joe Gregor, Mike Chevalier, and pilots from all over PA and even at least one from NJ. 'Twas a FINE day!

Cragin S

OK Matthew (and anyone else who cares), here is the report.

Tom McG, Pete S. and I drove up late Saturday morning to join Pete L., Larry H., Paul, from Pittsburgh, Brian H, Marc F, Marvin, Gardner, and Charles. Did I miss anyone?

It was cross from the south. Marvin was first to launch and had a brief soaring flight landed in the secondary. A little later it straightened out a little bit. I think Pete L was next to launch on his high performance Attack-Falcon. It had straightened out enough that everyone was able to stay up, even if at times they were only 100 - 300 above launch. I heard altitude reports of as much as +1100. I stayed mostly in the +100 - +300 foot range for the first half hour, then stayed around +500 - +800 until later in the day when conditions got a little lighter.

Larry, Marc, Tom and Pete all landed up at the Ritchie Knob LZ for a short XC flight (beats entering a zero I guess).

The south cross in the LZ made for some entertaining landings. . .

-Mike Balk

So I arrive at Lookout in a drizzle after having picked up an early morning speeding ticket. The presence of Pool tables in the bunkhouse was a cheering sight, though throughout my entire stay I never played with anyone.

Met a couple of the bunkmates that night, and was joined by tandem instructor Jim Prall, who under my prodding (and through a haze of beer) discoursed at length upon the history and practice of Florida aerotowing. Jim is from Questair (as is Sonny, soon relocating to Gettysburg) and gave a fascinatingly different perspective from what I learned at Wallaby. Apparently many of the innovations which made modern aerotowing possible originated from the guys now running Questair, the dolly, the fin, the drag'n'fly. I'll have to try them out next time I'm in Florida.

It was never soarable while I was there, but I did finish up my aerowtow rating. Having never heard of a "check-out tandem" they were all ready to charge me the full $129 fee for a tandem lesson. Fortunately Matt Taber could see the logic behind a special category and i got checked out by Dave Glover for a reasonable fee. My solos went smoothly and I got my towing papers. It only took about a year from my first tandems at Wallaby. It was good experience learning to keep a tug in position when the mountains screw up the horizon.

Despite non-soarable weather I had a great time. Joined my tinwhistle to a fiddle player for the bonfire saturday night. Tried to buy the ground crew a few six packs of beer before I left Sunday morning, but quickly discovered such things simply aren't done in small bible-belt towns on an Easter morning.

-Brian.

hg related obligatory stuff: went towing at Manquin last Saturday. 5 tows. highest tow to about 1400 feet. got to thermal again. :-) some vulture (white wing patches) came to check out the lift and hovered right underneath of me, but didn't stay long. all landings on my feet (yeah!) - not to say they don't still need work.

-- ellis

p.s. are there books that show pics of birds from ABOVE not only from below?

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This page last updated April 9, 1999