Back to Main Page Back to Archive 1999

Index to weather maps

Hangola Memorial Day Weekend, 1999

Out of town attractions at Hyner View and West Virginia seemed to minimize the crowd at McConnelsburg on Saturday. Those of us who flew our local site found it a challenging and very fun day. The crowd included Keith Ford, Dennis Sheely, Joe Gregor, Bacil Dickert, John Dullahan, Dan Tomlinson, Judy McCarty, John Middleton, Tom McGowan, Brian Hardwick, and myself. It was a special joy to have Janet and her parents join us at launch, for the in-laws' first chance to see Joe fly in the mountains. Likewise, Judy Dickert joined Bacil as a driver with a mission. After Bacil's one allowed flight for the weekend, they were off to an anniversary weekend at a Woodstock bed & breakfast.

Bacil kept to his pattern of being the earliest to launch. However, the day started so iffy, that his early launch took place at about 1:30, not his usual 8:30. Bacil had a grand sled to the secondary LZ, adding to Judy's challenges for the day of finding the right road to fetch him. They were last seen criss-crossing 7th street attempting to find their way south to Woodstock.

About 3, other pilots decided that it was worth getting airborne, sled potential notwithstanding. There was no ridge lift to speak of, but the sketchy thermals proved workable for pilots with persistence. I'll let them tell their own tales. All did well, and several jumped the ridge.

I launched at 4:48, with Dan T, Judy McC, and Janet G as my crew. We had to wait several minutes for the notable north cross to straighten out. Once it did, I saw an approaching thermal, and tried to time my launch to meet it out front over the rocks. It arrived faster than expected, and lifted me straight up from the ramp on the second step of my launch run. I pulled in the nose for speed and gained 50 feet right away. I may have scared my crew a little, but it felt completely under control and was a great start.

I worked my way south along the ridge, finding weak thermals en route. I could not break 200' over launch. I was watching two pilots (who eventually jumped over the back) getting great altitude south of the radio tower. Once they were out of the way, I went looking for their boomer. I worked smaller columns en route, staying between 300' and 400' over. Finally I got into the good one, circling sweetly up to 750' over. While I was in this smooth lift, I looked over to see a Golden Eagle fly into MY THERMAL and join me in the circle. He 360'd with me for four full turns, following proper flight rules, in the direction I had established, staying about 120 degrees in front of me. Of course, he did enter 50' below me and depart 100' above me!

For two years I have read reports of flying with hawks and eagles, always with envy and awe. Saturday I had my first flight sharing the sky with one of these majestic birds. I cannot fully describe the near-mystical feeling of having one of them choose to join me, using the thermal I had found. I am still high from the experience!

I finished the flight leaving the ridge at launch height, landing just after Dan in the primary. My thanks to both Brian and Dan for spreading out on the ridge and letting me have the space in front of the tower. It was not the best day for close-in traffic. I had a sweet 3 step landing in the freshly mown field, for a 44 minute flight.

Life is good!

Cragin S

Flew the evening glass-off at High Rock. 1:30 ~1Kover. So smooth I flew with my hands off the bar for minutes at a time. Seached through my harness during flight and found a Strawberry Samba bar. What a treat!

Thank you to Matthew for calling me regarding the pending glass-off. Other pilots include Top-of-the-stack-Karen, Allen, and Kurtis. Kelly and Mark C. too, but didn't fly. Strapped on the feedbag at Rocky's afterwards.
-Kevin ( K&K's Wedding )

PS. Someone flew from the Pulpit to HR, and someone flew further.
PPS. Judy is my hero.

Arrived at the Rock at about 5:00 to find Brian Hardwick had made it there from the Pulpit (BIG CONGRATS!) and then he tells us that Judy-Judy went even FURTHER and made it to Tawneytown (sp?)--SUPER DUPER CONGRATS JUDY-JUDY!!!!!! And Steve, well, Steve flew at the Pulpit too...

At HR, Rob Millman was getting up on the block with a tandem passenger in a big Falcon and they got a 2 hour flight. Kelvin Pierce launched next and got 2k over and 1+ hour and landed so he could hike back up with his mountaineering pack. I got 2 hrs and 2k over at the beginning of the flight. I was top of the stack until Karen reminded me that I should finish off the roll in my disposable camera. So I'm flying around and concentrating on taking pictures and I notice, hey, Kevin Madden is now above me-- so is Karen--- oooh she is devious! So I start working on getting back up and I could get back up with Kevin and occasionally with Karen. I was trying every trick I knew-- pushing way out; bringing my elbows in and "making myself small" to reduce drag and working the Hell out of every little discontinuity of lift. But I just couldn't maintain Karen's altitude-- and she's just boating around. rrrrgggghh!!! So I gave up and flew down to the gap South of launch and back.

Karen got about 1:40 (1300 over) as did Kevin. Allen also got about 1:30 and Kurtis landed after an hour since he had to go to work. A GREAT DAY!!!! It was also great to see my former BOD pals (Kelly and Mark Cavanaugh) who I had not seen in a while.

Matthew (going climbing today, of Karen and Matthew)

Some great flying to be had at Woodstock Friday. Rich Chamberlain and I got there around 12:30 and launched around 1:30. I got 1 hour 48 minutes, 5700' over. Didn't go anywhere, other than down bits of the ridge. Wind about 10 at launch with some great cycles. Max gain on the averager 800 fpm.

Took another flight at 6 pm when it went magic. Mike (John's new student) got 2 hours and 45 minutes (he launched at 4:45). John got a couple of hours on his paraglider. I got another hour and 18 minutes. Late dinner at the Spring House.

Fun time by all.

Christy

Just a quick note to report that AT is alive and well on the Eastern Shore!

With Chad Elchin driving the tug, Sunny, Adam Elchin, and I flew demos for the airport manager (Tom) last Friday. Everything went great and they finalized a contract this week.

Today was opening day. Not a classic Delamarva day; some high cirrus and small cores but I broke 4K and had a nice 45 minute flight. Most everyone else had soaring flights too!

I'm VERY impressed with these guys! Two carts; full line crew in continuous radio communication at both ends monitoring the Unicom frequency and a Turbo Dragonfly that gets you where you need to be.

Wide open rollout and landing areas.

You wanted a full-time flight park...well here it is!

They'll be operating all-day Saturday, Sunday and Monday; oh yeah and then everyday for the next several months!

Beat the traffic...Fly to the beach!

Baltimore/DC pilots should get on the road early tomorrow and consider taking 301N and working your way back down to Ridgely on 312S if traffic starts to look backed up on 50.

-geoff

It's got me grinning ear-to-ear. Thanks to Chad, Sunny, and Adam for setting up shop in our area and helping me achieve two personal bests today; 45 miles and 7,830 feet. At 12:45, after Chads checkout flight, he reported nothing above 800ft. so we decided to wait until 1 o'clock. Sure enough small cummies started forming to the west and a little to the north of Ridgley's Airport. Being the wind-dummy I launched first and at 2,200 feet the tug started climbing and down below the wheat was swirling. I released in what turned out to be a great day.

My first thermal took me close to 6,000 and after about 20 minutes of poking around I decided to head to the next cloud downwind. I began cloud hopping, flying due east, always seeming to loose 2,000 feet between lift, sometimes flying into a boomer and sometimes having to scratch back up. Somewhere between Ridgley and Milford I had the chance to fly with a bald eagle. He flew in more of a ridge soaring pattern that I unsuccessfully tried to mimic. When I returned to circular coring I lost him.

When I reached Rt.1/Milford/the Delaware Bay everything changed. I got some real boomers that not only took me to my max of 7,830 but in between was light convergance (I would only loose 60ft/min average between lift). In a tee shirt, freezing, too dumb to give up lift that returned me over 7,000, I headed southeast towards Rehoboth. At this point I changed tactics. Pulled VG on, only turned when I could stay in lift with the current VG setting, and really just enjoyed the ride and the view.

When I got west of Rehoboth I had to decide to turn southwest, further inland around the bay, or boat east into Rehoboth and call it a day. The retrieve looked more difficult to the south and I had to be home by 7 so I flew east and chose a sweet LZ behind a shopping center at routes 1 and 24 that flew flags out front and even had streamers in the field out back.

Special thanks to Geoff for figuring out where I was over the radio, doing the retrieve when it still looked soarable, and putting up with my flying stories on the ride back to Ridgley (of course if he had not sledded twice the ride would not have been so bad).

Hearing that John flew down today and talked to the Airport Manager and that Chad and Sunny have a fulltime professional operation I hope to see all of us get together again soon on the Eastern Shore. And as a special treat I'm doing retrieves tomorrow....

Steve

We were treated to epic conditions out at Ridgely today with several pilots getting over 8K msl and XC's of well over 40 miles (and just under 48 and slightly above 47.4 but not exceeding 47.5). Many thanks to Steve Vogel and his very patient wife Les for dealing with multiple phone calls and the logistics of the retrieves. What goes around comes around and Steve is building massive karma.

Also, a big thanks to Chad, Sunny and Adam for making it all possible!

Sunday's looking good...Maybe it's time for you to pay a vist to your new AT park?

-geoff

No big-mileage XC's for me this weekend, but I had two very enjoyable flights.

First off, profuse apologies for the radio malfunction. The PTT switch has been summarily snipped off to be replaced with a better design.

Saturday, I finally made the Rock from the Pulpit, dog gone it! Waited until about 4pm before resolving to take my sled like a man (Janet's folks were there to see hang gliding, not hang waiting). Got lucky and managed to stumble into an aniemic little thermal that was, nonetheless, a thermal. Just as I was deciding whether or not it really made sense to go over the back at 700-800' with a broken little 50-100 fpm up bubble, it consolidated into a booming 200 fpm up and I was joined by Keith Ford. I basically just followed Keith to HR. Never saw better than 250 fpm up the whole way. Spent, literally, an hour over the fish ponds slowing climbing through a minor inversion around 4500' msl and up to near cloudbase at 9400' msl before proceeding on-course. My best altitude gain and the highgest I've ever been in a HG! It was quite cold and I had to don my gloves while thermally. An hour or so later I landed to the south in Emma Jane's with Keith and Dennis. This time I stayed out of the grass, thank you, and had a nice one stepper. 2+05.

Missed Sunday. ;-(

Monday I went to visit Sunny and Chad at Ridgely. Nice field. These guys have more experience at AT and tandem operations that you can imagine - and it shows. They are also extemely nice. I set up the Fusion and find a major ding on the aft side of the leading edge, presumably due to breakdown damage. No way I missed this on my last pre-flight. If you have a Fusion be very careful about where the VG pulley assembly ends up when you fold the damn wings together! Expensive mistake! Chad immediatelly offered me his Stealth but we find that it's locked up and the airport guy with the key has flown the coop. I'm grounded. I end up jumping on a single surface Aeros Target that they have for new solo students, figuring I'd boat around while waiting for Steve to tell me where to pick him up at (sic). I very quicklfind myself drifting slowly from the field in a nice 500-600 fpm up thermal that topped out at 7100' msl. Hmmm. Sunny says he doesn't mind if I put a little mileage on the Target - except that the bag and stuff is at the airport. Duhoo! Steve Turner immediately gets on the radio and says he'll drive for me and bring the bag. I owe this guy BIG. I go on course to try and get somewhere near Tom and Steve, who took off XC some time earlier but are still on the radios. Soared with Ospreys. Scratched my way along. Had a C-5 Galaxy fly directly underneath and about, maybe 1000' below me outside of Dover. Impressive. I hope he didn't see me 'cause if he did there is no doubt he'll want to know where the *&%$& I came from, legal or not. Ended up landing just West of Clayton, DE for 26.0 miles (1+40) and - for the first time in recorded history - I went further than Steve Kinsley by a whopping 0.626182 statute miles! My destiny is fulfilled, I can now retire.

Of course, Geoff handily smoked us all by flying 34 miles and even got back to the field before we did!

Sunny and Chad insisted that I only had the Target for one flight and I should not be charged the daily rate. The day was salvaged and only cost me $35. What great guys!

-- Joe

A very relaxing memorial day at Hyner. People from our area included Fred and Rae, Louis and Doreen, Bruce and Barb, Lynn Alexander and steve, Lynn Barnes and friends, Beard, Danny, Kate Spoont, Scott Smith, and myself.

Conditions were mainly sleddable. Fred spent several hours each day in the hot sun and dust helping to throw people off: What an absolute Dude!

On one of the sled days Danny, Denis and Claire Pagen, and some wacko from Colorado caught the only bubble available and climbed to an incredible 8,000 feet! Everyone else afterwards clutched at it in vain. Dennis buzzed launch on the way down shouting "take your sleds like men!". We threw rocks.

Bob Buchanan got his first 3+ mountain flights and did an outstanding job. Welcome to the mountains!

My main two feats were juggling fire-tubes with Scooter saturday night (if you catch the inside of a large cardboard tube on fire, it sucks air up the bottom and shoots flames out the top like a blow-torch. Another fine product from the incomparable mind of Mr. Spoons) and out-flying the Pagens at Jack's on monday.

Okay, let me believe that last one for a minute. The wind was crossing down the valley from the south, producing a very disorganized collection of thermal lift against the ridge. After waiting out a couple hours of gustiness, I was the first to launch. I managed to get up and slither my way up and down the ridge from thermal pocket to thermal pocket for about 10 minutes before getting flushed and heading out to land. Dennis followed and came down immediately. Claire launched and followed the ridge DOWNWIND, causing great confusion in the LZ before she gave up and squeeked over the power lines to land.

They were both nice enough not to tell me I got lucky.

-Brian.

A really nice weekend in W. Va. Sheila and I flew Friday afternoon from North Fork Mountain while Mark G, Fred and the land owner's great-nephew wired us off. Unfortunately, the wind at launch required a 3-person crew so neither the Gardinator nor Fred got to fly. Sheila and I worked the thermals and ridge for about 1-1/2hrs. We'd hoped to make it to Seneca Rocks but massive sink between N. Mtn and the Rocks kept us local. Ohmigosh!!! the primary LZ is INTIMIDATING but both of us made decent landings and finished the day with smiles.

Back to N. Mtn Sat but winds didn't cooperate. Drove up to Spruce Knob to find very L&V (sometimes over the back). The Gardinator declared it not good enough to warrant a setup for himself; and Fred followed suit -- a second day of no flight for them -- extended sleds for Sheila and I.

Mike C showed up for Sun flying and was well rewarded for it. And Mark's patience paid off at last. From Spruce Knob, Fred got a couple of sleds. Sheila got almost an hour. I got about 20 minutes. But the real stories of the weekend were Mark's and Mike's.

Mark launched into a nice cycle (again mostly L&V), caught a little thermal that just kept growing and climbing until he was at cloud-base. As he flew toward Seneca Rocks, he lost and regained cloud-base at least two more times. All this altitude was, of course, inversely proportional to the amount of clothing he wore (shorts and t-shirt). He reported that his teeth were chattering and he was shaking so much that he couldn't read his instruments. It's really hard to feel sorry for the guy -- he endured the elements for FOUR HOURS! and finally landed in the Seneca Rocks visitor center. This was his first time to reach the Rocks from Spruce Knob.

Mike C did almost as well -- not quite so high and not quite as much air time, but he also had a PR in the form of XC from Spruce to Seneca Rocks. Congratulations to both these "sky-gods".

Chuck

Another great day today at Ridgely! XC's of up to 34 miles and another 8K day!

As an FYI; with a higher overhead than expected it may be that Highland will need to increase the per tow and tow package rates. Also it's likely they will take a couple of days off during the week depending on demand (probably Tuesday and Wednesday off).

I'm sure we're all committed to seeing these guys succeed and if you have any thoughts on that, please let me know and I'll pass them along. Alternatively, they should be back on-line later this week.

Come on out and ride Delmarva's E-ticket to cloudbase!

-geoff

I have just returned to my Philadelphia home after the best weekend of flying ever! A detailed story will be written eventually; here's a summary for now:

Friday. Pulpit. Flew to the High Rock ridge for the first time, crossed the High Rock ridge and landed between Taneytown and Westminster (slightly west of Baugher's Orchard) for 47.7 miles and 2:40.

Saturday. Pulpit. 1:40, 100' over.

Sunday. Highland Aerosports (Ridgely, MD). 1:40, 7,000 msl, flew 20 miles adding up the turnpoints (not for contest purposes). Landed back at the field. Great day.

Monday. Went to Ridgely again but didn't fly.

Added to the odometer: 965 miles

Judy

Arrived at the Pulpit at 11:30 to light winds and a small but growing pilot assemblage. Bacil, Keith Ford, Dennis Healey, Joe and Janet Gregor (with Janet's parents visiting from Alabama, Louisiana? anyway, a deep-South state), Brian H., Judy (who got an enthusiastic ovation for her Friday 47-mile flight to near Westminster; Brian flew to HR the same day), Tom McG., John M., and later in the afternoon, Dan T. and Craig S.

Bacil launched into a light cycle, struggled with whispy lift, and sledded to the secondary. About an hour (?) later, Brian also launched into a some-what stronger cycle, fought the good fight, and extendo-sledded. Launching after Brian, I got a stronger cycle, and worked the ratty lift around launch, going yo-yo 50 over to 50 below for maybe ten minutes. Bailed off down the ridge, working over trees with rustling leaves, getting more of the same but a little higher. Started drifting back, only to top out at 1,450, and was forced back to the ridge by strong sink. Got no higher than about 600 over until flushed for 86 minutes.

Other pilots waited about 70 minutes, then got no more than 300 to 600 over for quite a while. Some sledded, but Dennis Sheeley had a great very-low save over the LZ, then climbed out and up; all the way to 9,000 + MSL. Meanwhile, Joe and Keith F. had their persistence rewarded. They found enough weak and sporadic lift to go over the back and eventually land at HR LZ, as did Dennis. Joe has had so many great XC flights this year that he dismissed his 27 miler as "no great mileage!"

Up to that point I had been reasonably content with my 86 minute flight, but standing in the main LZ, listening to Joe, Keith, and Dennis reporting: "9,000 MSL; Passing over Greencastle; let's just boat around HR for a while!" I felt such a left-behind failure. This was somewhat ameliorated with the sleds/extendo-arrival of John M and Tom M. Brian H. and Tom McG. also flew again but were not lucky enough to snag the elusive thermals.

Dan T. sent a friend to pick me up for wire crew duties. Wired off Dan, Craig, Judy and Tom, all of whom enjoyed long flights in smooth magic air to about 200 over.

On Monday, Nelson Lewis launched from Massanutten Peak (SE of Harrisburg, VA) and 6.5 hours later landed just short of the Pulpit at Mercersburg for 109 miles! Now that's daydreaming material!

John Dullahan

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated June 4, 1999