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Hangola July 24 & 25, 1999

Finally realized my objective of flying over hordes of screaming people as it was soarable at the fairgrounds on saturday. Arrived at the LZ around 4 pm, waited for others to show until 5 pm while watching the paragliders do their thing. Gave up and caught a ride with Fred to the top. There was some thick haze off to the west, but since it didn't seem to be doing anything I went ahead and launched and went right up. Played around for about half an hour, wondering why no-one else was launching. Turns out they could hear the thunder from the storms embedded in the haze, but i couldn't due to helmet and wind noise. Wasn't on radio.

Doug Wakefield tried to make a noble sacrifice by taking a rocket sled straight to the bottom in the hopes that I would figure out something was wrong. Sorry Doug, it flew right past me. (HAR! HAR! HAR!...snort).

Landed. Half an hour later the rain hit. Didn't last long, so went to the fair, which seems to be largely a teenager event. Didn't mean to lose you so quickly, Doug and Fred, but this cute girl was trying to convince me to bid on her sheep. I eventually explained me fears that carrying a frightened sheep home in the back of my car would be a baaad decision (HAR! HAR! HAR!.....).

I figure everyone's had enough of me. End of Post.

-BrianVH.

Just a short report on my flight at the Pulpit Sunday:

I had a nice flight from the Pulpit to High Rock yesterday. After reading Pete Lehmann's article on XC flying I was interested to try out his advice.

After scratching around for almost 2 hours and hearing Judy and Marc Fink go XC, I decided to follow a fast drifting thermal over the back. I left at about 1800' over just to the south of launch but the thermal was still working 150 fpm (previously I seemed to lose them at this stage). It seemed to drift quickly as each time I felt I lost the thermal, it reappeared a wingspan further downwind. I couldn't believe it, but it topped out at 5500' over (still below cloudbase) and I had drifted all the way to Lemasters (apprx 6 miles).

From there, I glided downwind to just north of Greencastle where I caught another thermal which took me back to almost 5000' over. The drift in this one took me to I-81. From there, I essentially glided the whole way to the Rock with a groundspeed of 47 - 42 mph (decreasing as I lost altitude). I made it to the Rock with 300' to spare.

Who says July is a bad month for XC?

Tom

Mark G, Sheila, Marc, Tom, Joe, Janet, John Middleton, Doug, Pete S, Craig, Dan

Pulpit

11.6 miles and :45 for me, not quite to Greencastle. No drift to the thermal that I was in. The huge cloud in the valley over the back never did provide any lift. The original thermal was good to 4500' over, the rest was glide plus a little zero sink. Marc made it to west of Waynesboro, reporting great kick-ass thermals. Thanks to Doug for the retrieve. And a special thanks to Doug for noticing I had left my basetube in his car and driving back to drop it off!

Sheila kicked some butt, staying up for two hours while others sank out (2200' over)! Many pilots flew twice. Janet and Tracy provided invaluable assistance on launch. A few pilots got their first Pulpit XC's, but not over the back as they'd hoped for--they landed a few miles to the south escaping a potential storm cell.

Judy

Judy,

Checked the DELOrme Street Atlas, your flight was actually about 13.5 miles if you landed at the cemetery.

Mine was 20 miles. I probably missed making it to the Rock because I forgot to charge my Tangent (which crapped out just after clearing the back of the Pulpit ridge at 6500+ msl).

On the subject of the great thermals that were there that day... I think that it was a crank-n-bank day to nail the rocket cores. Flying fairly flattish turns tended to get modest lift rates and frequent "turbulence" as portions of the wing transitioned between strong lift and sink. When I cranked it up I hit cores that were so strong and fast that I had trouble holding on and keeping the glider lined up. Can't remember thermals that nice all year.

/Marc

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This page last updated July 27, 1999