Back to Main Page Back to Archive 1999

Index to weather maps

Hangola May 8 & 9, 1999

High Point, Sunday, May 9

Started launching around 1:30, Mark Gardner off first, then Will, Larry, me, Marvin, Doug, and JR. All spent the next hour or so trying to get high enough to go over the back. Air rowdy at times with small strong thermals, many multi-cored going up at different speeds. Finally, a big one (diameter) comes along and we all climb on. Mark and Will are on top with me, Larry and JR below. The thermal drifts over the back. I see Larry head back and figure he knows what he's doing, so I head back too despite being at 5600 msl. Saw I couldn't make it back so continued on trip over the back with JR a little ahead of me. Will and Mark are much higher and also heading easterly. JR and I land 5.5 miles from launch near a grocery store. (1 hr 42 minutes) A couple of nice old men gave me a ride back to the LZ in Cumberland where I got JR's truck (and beer). In the meantime Mark had landed somewhere west of Winchester on 522 (if I heard correctly) and Will made it to Winchester - where he was able to visit his mom on Mother's Day after all. Doug and I took the back roads home with Doug driving Will's SOV and me the car. Will's mom was especially happy since that meant she wouldn't have to drive her son back to Cumberland.

Christy

Doug was in that big thermal too, but he doesn't like crowds so left it before it went too far over the back. Larry stayed flying for a total of about 3 hours. Doug for over 2. Marvin landed because he was about to toss his cookies, apparently airsick.

Christy

I'm not sure of the details but Mark went 30 miles.

Sheila

Major way cool boy did we have fun on Sunday kind of flying day! After much hemming and hawing in the morning, a moderate crowd headed to Woodstock, diverting from a planned Pulpit day because Tom McGowan saw morning winds near the Pulpit at 17 mph and likely to increase. It was gonna be blown out there, we were sure. So we were off to Woodstock!

The crowd included Tom McG, Brian Hardwick, Mike Chevalier, Steve Padgett, Matthew G & Karen C, Dave Johnson, Ed Reno, Eric Logan, Jim Strube, Gary Campbell and "Bob from NJ" from Fredericksburg, Brian V-H, Dan Tomlinson and myself. (Apologies if I missed anyone.)

Dan and I got there at about 12:30 to find folks sitting around watching it blow in rather gently, and few signs of workable thermals. During this period, Mike C heard John Dullahan at the Pulpit reporting 500' over. That resulted in an hour or so of recriminations along the lines of, "Why are we here? Whose idea was it to change from the Pulpit?" Tom and Brian H launched early afternoon and spent much time scratching for all they were worth. Any gains rapidly deteriorated back to 100' over launch. They both had good long flights and showed great skill in tricky conditions. They earned Stalwart Pilot awards for showing us it COULD be done, but not easily, as the rest of us waited it out. Brian H also earned SkyGod of the Day for skying out over the valley at 500' below cloudbase and coming down after 2 hours only because he was tired.

The next crop of pilots to launch took their sleds like men, and came back up to fly again. Then shortly before 5 Dan T took to the air, and worked it for all he was worth, getting up and doing good. The rest of us waited. Well, uh, it got GOOD! The thermals started coming in nicely, and there was a hint of magic in the air!

I launched at 5:39, in light breeze, with a self-launch, no crew (many others had done the same). I reached 1,500' over launch, working some fun but fairly easy thermals at the first and second fingers to the north. Early in my flight I had to work a bit. Late in the flight it became nearly a no-brainer. I spent most of my time between 900' and 1,300' over launch. Total air time 2 hours & 11 minutes, a new personal record for duration! My previous high time was 85 minutes, so I broke both 1 1/2 and 2 hours on this one!

From 5:15 to 8:00 p.m. we had gliders all over the sky. LOTS of happy folks, Dan T, Ed R and Mike C landed in the airstrip to the south. Lots of very happy pilots! Turns out it WAS a good call to divert from PA and fly in VA!

Cragin S

A morning call from Tom McGowan, diverted Craig Shelton and I from our planned trip to the Pulpit to Woodstock instead. Woodstock's infamous lighter than average conditions promised to provide an abundance of sled rides. Tom and Brian lauched first and proved that superior flying skills could win the day.

I launched at just before 4:00 (not 5:00) and spent the first 30 minutes or more scratching low just to the right of launch. I finally managed to work enough light choppy thermal lift to get above the ridge, then hooked a small thermal to get 600' over. My day was off to an excellent start, I had salvaged a particularly difficult soaring day. Hearing Brian call the rest of the pilots a bunch of wimps for potatoing while I scratched up made it even better, (;-). I tried twice to fly to the resevoir near Strasburg, once sinking out and returning to my source of lift over the old launch ramp. The second time I hooked a nice thermal to 2100 over and I was off. I reached the pond, losing my usual 1000 feet over the last mile, then headed for the south end. Less than half way back I was down to 300' over and looking to bail out while several pilots were now high in the launch area. Ahh, but the thermal gods were with me, the strongest one of the day took me quickly back to 2000 over and enroute to the gap.

I reached the south end and flew out over the house with a parked airplane (and windsock!) and landed in the giant field to the west. Logged 2 hours 20 minutes and a flight from the Strasburg reservoir to the big field, approximately 11 miles I think. These were my longest time aloft and longest XC flights. It was particularly gratifying to get up in conditions that would have quickly put me on the deck this time last year. Ended it with a perfect no-step landing, with no witnesses as usual.

A great day was had by all. Thanks for the call Tom, it was one of my favorites.

Dan T.

Went to Manquin Saturday, watched it blow stink all day. Went to Pulpit on Sunday, watched it blow stink all day again. 12 hours of glider uv baking, 0 hours/xcmiles airtime. But I got a great sunburn.

Marc

So after phone call after phone call after phone call (ya know it's really hard to watch cartoons and read the funnies with all of the phone calls) it was decided that we'd go to the Pulpit. But then I get another call from Craig that he and Dan are bailing to Woodstock. Fine, we're still going to the Pulpit. Load up the gliders.. yadda... yadda... yadda.. and I get another call from Mike C. on the road that he's bailing to Woodstock too. I thought he had said the John Dullahan was bailing to Woodstock as well. So back on the phone to everyone to tell them the change of plans. I get a hold of everyone but Joe and Marc; so I leave messages.

Well, it turns out that I must not have heard Mike correctly about John since John went to the Pulpit and flew (apparently having the flight of the day). Joe also got to fly and still make it to his Mother's Day dinner. But it sounds like Marc got skunked. Sorry Marc, I owe ya dinner or an XC retrieval. Look on the bright side, no one ran the ridge at Woodstock and you were able to get home before midnight. And there were no nuclear thermals at Woodstock either.

I didn't launch until about 5:15 and got 2200 over, 2:15 and flew down to the reservoir and back. Karen got 1900 over and 1:10. Dave Johnson, I believe, had a personal best of flying 90 minutes on his second flight.

Again, sorry Marc.

Matthew (thanks for all of the phone calls, of Karen and Matthew)

PS Congrats Dan!

Suspecting that Sunday could easily be too strong for me at the Pulpit, and not wanting to drive to Woodstock, I decided to use the day to check out the Windrider west facing site, Elizabethville. Not knowing whether anyone would be there, and not having gone through all of the formalities, it was unlikely that I would be able to fly, but it was a nice day for a drive. Took my glider just in case.

One of the formalities necessary to fly Elizabethville is a notarized waiver. Before leaving town I searched fervently for a notary that was available (Sunday morning) to no avail. I decided to continue my trek anyway.

On the drive out most of the flags were indicating northwest to nnw winds. I started wondering about other flying possibilites for the day, and was glad I had my glider.

Still thinking about the waiver, and remembering that many real estate agents are notaries and are doing floor duty on Sundays, I passed by a little real estate office in Douglassville PA and decided to stop in. The agent was not a notary but said he would call around and see if he could find someone. Sure enough, right there in the phone book, 24 hour notary service! He called them up and got directions, and off I went! Score one for small town America!!

So I arrive at the town of Elizabethville with my notarized waiver, searching west facing slopes for something that could be launchable. Sure enough, there it was, bold as day! There was one road up and it went right to launch. Get up top and no one is there. The wind is blowing pretty much straight in at about 10. Nice launch, but the closest fields out front seem pretty far away. (Turns out the lz's are off to the right, easily reachable, but not visible from launch.) Remembering the n-nw wind indicators earlier, I head over to Sacramento, just over the next ridge.

Arrive to find no one there, and myself a little sleepy. Take a nap and wake up to find Robert Sweeney, who had also been to Elizabethville. Conditions at launch are cross w-nw, but light. An occasional bird confirms the cross, but the air seems pretty smooth. We set up.

While we set up, the cross gets worse. We run a shuttle and see that the wind in the valley is completely west, but pretty gentle. For as cross as it is the slot is full and there are lots of cycles where the streamers are all coming in. My sled ended in the secondary lz, with a great landing!

Just a sled, but still quite fun.

Judy

John D. should really be telling this, but...

Was comitted to a Mothers day event at 6pm, so flying was out unless I went to the Pulpit and Janet drove for me. Janet agrees to come out just to drive, for me! Steve lends me his cell phone to replace Janet's, which was stolen in a movie theater just the day before. Cumies are popping off in DC at 9:45 am. The stars are aligned....

Showed up at the Pulpit expecting to see 500,000 gliders backed up to Lamar road. Find 3 gliders set up and plenty of parking. Hmmmm.

Winds were strong but somewhat short of nuts. John D. acted his usual fearless self and launched first. Standing on the ramp the air felt a little ratty, but John's launch and climbout were smooth. Well? Waited for 30 mins while John climbed out and went over the back for what I thought would be an easy HR run, at least. The occasional freight trains were far between and prevailing was fairly steady 15-20 so - with the potential reward of a decent XC (for a change) - I take the ramp, launch, and after 30 mins or so of diligent effort, prove once again that it _is_ possible to sink out on a ridge regardless of the wind velocity. Can we make up an award for this next year, huh? Luckily, no one was in the LZ to witness so I had a nice landing despite conditions.

Back in time for Mother's day, at least.

John kicked our butts with a 13 mile XC. Good work, John.

-- Joe

Went camping with the girls this weekend at The Crows Nest (Thurmont, Md.) Sat. evening I decided to head up to the Rock to see if an evening flight was a possibility. Just as I started up the mountain on High Rock road I noticed some guy in a green Blazer was right on my bumper. A few seconds later he turned on his emergency flashers and stayed right on my tail. About 30 seconds later a county cop came up behind the Blazer with his lights on. I thought maybe he was going to pull the guy behind me over but instead he passes him and pulls up beside me so I slowed down and rolled my window down. The cop begins to scream at me "Don't you know what it means to @&*%! pull over, the guy behind you is responding to an emergency." I politely told the cop that I didn't know that and that if I did I would certainly have pulled over, even though there was no place to pull over. The cop spent another few seconds screaming at me and then told me to stop and turn around and get off of the mountain. It turns out that a young woman standing on the Rock taking pictures lost her balance and fell off of the front edge. She landed on one of the rock ledges about 20 feet below the ramp. She got pretty messed up so they brought in a medivac helicopter to pull her off of the ledge and take her to the hospital. She was listed in critical but not life threatening condition. While the rescue was taking place Susan drove me down to the LZ and I hiked up to the top. When I got to the top my friendly cop was still up there so I stayed well away from him. There were also a couple of cops up there with bloodhounds searching the parking lot area and surrounding woods. By the time all of the rescue people left it was past 7:00 so I didn't bother setting up even though conditions looked good.

Sunday after checking out of the campground we went back up to the Rock and arrived about 3:30. It was blowing NNW about 12-18 with some higher gusts. Bob Gillise was up there without his glider and offered to help wire me if I wanted to fly. While I was setting up Danny Brotto showed up. I launched at 5:30 and flew until 6:20 in fairly nice but cross conditions. Plenty of thermals to stay up and enjoy the beautiful day. It felt good to be back in the air (without a motor). This was only my second flight since last August. While we were at Emma's talking and waiting for Danny to land Emma mentions that a helicopter was going to land in her field to spend the night. The helicopter was going to be spraying the area today for gypsy moths. No more than 30 seconds after Emma mentions the helicopter we could hear it coming. It was also at that same time that Danny is committed to landing. It was interesting to watch the helicpoter and Danny trying to decide what to do. The helicpoter pilot saw Danny and decided to land in Mong's field while Danny had an uneventful landing a few seconds later in the LZ. All in all a great weekend for me and the girls.

Kelvin

This year so far training has been minimal mostly from lack of student interest. Last Saturday, I taught at Taylor Farm with 3 students. A prior student as well as another pilot also flew. Looked a little windy when we first arrived and about the time I decided we should set up, a cloud mass arrived with rain in the distance. We decided to have lunch and about the time we finished, the rain arrived. It didn't last long so after a while we did set up. Wind was somewhat cross from the right at times and up to 10-14 mph on the top of the hill. Lower on the hill it was less windy and when direction and velocity were lower my students got to fly. All had a good time getting 5-6 flights each. Two students (1 male, 1 female) were out for their second time and the other male student who had previous experience was also taking his second class with me. I believe they will all be back for more! I also had a nice flight where I hit good lift for 2.5 seconds after launch getting above the hill. If it had lasted another second I might of tried a 360.

- john middleton/Silver Wings Inc.

In keeping with my new found motivation for xc improvement, I have once again decided to contribute to the techno-industrial entertainment complex that unintentionally controls our society.

I flew with our local experts at Avonmore (near Pittsburgh) on Saturday and had a fine time with Larry H.-Pete L.-John F.- Jim M.- and of course the main reason for long xc miles flown in this area, Brenda Huffman and Lynn Meadows. The most famous Pittsburgh sites Avonmore & Templeton are described as very small and difficult to soar. I am happy to report that Avonmore exceeded my expectations, and am sure that these sites are not deserving of their difficult reputations. I had a fine time thermalling for 30 minutes, but didn't go over the back- mostly for reasons of unfamiliarity. Larry H. and Pete L. took a hop for a mile or two, but the threat of t-storms & low cloudbase didn't support long distance. Had a great time and will return often I'm sure.

Sunday I decided to fly with my mountaineers out of Cumberland and ended up fairing well. As has been reported, we all launched and flew around for an hour or so before we got a really good one to leave with. Truth be told, I had gotten fairly high a couple of times early on, and I know others had also, but I think no one wanted to be the first to go. I was not in an xc mode at all, but was in the top of that first thermal we all left with and was convinced to JUST GO! Topped out at @6000msl (highest of the flight) and drifted for a while with Will, JR & Christy. When it became time to glide, we spread out a little, but I was intent on staying with Will. That was probably the best decision of the flight and got me between 25-30 miles. JR & Christy were too low to join us, but Will and I found a second good thermal about 6miles down range. Will stayed above me the rest of the flight, but we worked together pretty well during a bubble hunt valley crossing. I'm pretty sketchy on most details, but at some point Will went on glide ahead of me while I worked some scattered bubbles, and I was a couple miles behind in a crappy little valley before I decided to try & catch up. As I was on glide, I could see that I would just barely make it to where Will was climbing on the next ridge. The crappy little valley we had just crossed had limited landing options, so I got into nervous mode and started making mistakes. I hit some strong but broken lift a half mile from Will, but didn't work it hard enough. I felt that he would get ahead of me again and that I needed to catch up, so I bailed toward his position and was rewarded with excellent sink. I should've stayed on that ridge and searched for lift, but with the possibility of sinking out and having a long glide to a crappy field, I decided to bail over the back and hope for something over those nice big landing fields. I was again rewarded with even stronger sink and a decent DOWN WIND landing with mild whack.

I am now a little more familiar with the towns & roads over the back from Cumberland and owe a huge thanks to Christy & Doug for making retrieval painless. Will went another 15 miles and landed near Martinsburg for a reported 43 miles. I can only make a rough guess as to how many miles I went. Again much thanks goes to Doug & Christy for dropping Will's truck off on their way home. Will retrieved me and we drank a lot and talked about women on the ride home. Good things: stayed with experienced pilot, thermalled well. Mistakes: got nervous, didn't trust skills and knowledge-trusted landing fields, didn't recognize wind direction in landing fields (Will had mentioned that he had noticed north wind on all surface water)

Note: my skill in determining wind direction in landing fields is seriously lacking- I would guesstimate that I have landed downwind on nearly 50% of my xc flights. the lack of broken down tubes and bones belies the fact that I have been EXTREMELY lucky thus far. You cannot rely on luck...

fly smart,
gardinator

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated June 3, 1999