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Hangola September 17-19, 1999

For those of us who flew, Woodstock was pretty good on Friday. Brian H. and Steve got there earlier and had launched by the time we dropped off our cars in the LZ. I think both of the went up to Strasburg and back. Mark C. showed up with a driver only to discover a bent hard bolt on pre-flight. So then we had another driver....

Karen and I went up to Strasburg to find Brian VH still up at the point and heading back (or so we thought). We tried to radio him but once AGAIN his radio wasn't working. I left the ridge to scope out some LZs while Karen hung back on the ridge-- but unfortunately she lost visual contact with me. Heading back to the ridge to find her I saw a glider above me which I assumed to be Karen and tried to show her the field that I was going land in. But she still couldn't see me even though I was doing high banked 360s to show my lower surface. After more confusion, I landed while she said she'd pick out her own field. I thought she could see me better on the ground once I landed and still be able join me. As the glider apporached to land I was finally able to make out that it wasn't Karen who was with me... yep, it was Brian. Brian and I landed in a field next to Rte 55 while Karen landed out by Rte 11 and SR 648. We were still able to maintian radio contact.. even though I had to climb a tree to get past the static. And pick up wasn't too much of a problem thanks to Dan. But the landowner of the field that Karen chose doesn't want anymore pilots landing there and wasn't to thrilled about having Karen "invading" his privacy. We each ended up with about 9 miles-- I got 2.5 hours and 2K over (briefly)-- Karen got 1:05 and 1300 over. Homer, Tom and Adam also had good flights.

Matthew (only one week to the Fly-In, of Karen and Matthew)

> land I was finally able to make out that it wasn't Karen who was with me...
> yep, it was Brian. Brian and I landed in a field next to Rte 55 while Karen

..yeah, damn blinking radio once again passed the radio check then started to recieve but not transmit.

Actually, I had got up to the Edinburg gap, and on the way back heard Matt and Karen discussing whether they were going to Strasburg. As I neared they started to head out, but hit a massive sink hole and turned back towards launch. I heard Karen ask Matt if he was able to make it towards Strasburg, and he replied with and emphatic "NO!"

So I headed north with the the most pure and virtuous reasons: I wanted to piss off Matt! I was below them, but they lost track of me until they finally caught up with me at the point. Then they lost track of me again. Matt was truly upset when he caught me impersonating his wife. Mission accomplished.

-Brian.

After taking a 1/2-day of leave on Friday, only to find a bent heartbolt during pre-flight, and then Fly-In preparations on Saturday that ended up taking all afternoon, I was pretty hungry for some airtime yesterday!

For weird brain-lock reasons, I just looked at the forecast and figured "light, southerly, ok, Fisher". Didn't even bother calling anyone, or even take a minute to say "hmmm, high pressure, moving off-shore, bet it's going to be more SE and stronger than they're saying".

So not surprisingly, there was no-one else at Fisher when I got there at 11:30 ;-) I spent some time cutting down scrub trees on the right side of the slot, and eventually two HG pilots (Paul and Deborah) from the Pittsburgh area showed up. Three PG pilots also arrived.

So we all set-up and Paul launched first. Wind was predominantly cross from the left, 10-15, with gusts of 15-20. He got up after some scratching, then a PG pilot launched in a lull, for a sled. Next PG pilot launched and immediately soared. Then Deborah launched, and got up as well.

That left me, with two inexperienced wirecrew. I took a pretty light cycle as a result (it was real switchy when it was blowing hard) and wound up sledding out.

As I watched Paul and Deborah enjoy a 1200' over kind of day, I consoled myself (yeah, right!) that at least I'd had another launch and landing. Besides, I hadn't flown Fisher in well over a year...

Deborah eventually landed due to some air-sickness symptoms, and very kindly gave me a ride back up top so that I could give it another go. The direction had improved a bit, so I felt ok self-launching (Paul and Deborah were watching from the LZ). Turned left after launch and was immediately up, phew!

Conditions kept *trying* to go magic, but the SE cross wouldn't let them. Best I got was 300' over, and most of the time I couldn't do better than 100' over. But nonetheless, the ridge was mine and the sun was out, so I had a great time!

The highlight of the flight was a game of tag with a redtail hawk. We made four passes by each other, the redtail a bit below but within about 20 feet. I'd whistle a call, and s/he would answer on the next pass. It was pretty damn cool!

By the time I landed the sun was touching the ridge and no-one was around. A smooth approach and no-step landing concluded my flight. Of course, now I had to hike back up, which I did first by road, and then by bush-whacking. Got to the car by 7:50, and was in Breezewood enjoying a cold beer by 8:30 or so.

Was there a big turn-out at Jack's yesterday?

--mark c.

BTW: I've got a piece of rope that Paul & Deb used to put up some streamers in the LZ. Would appreciate it if someone who knows them could pass this info along...

Decided to go to Manquin on Sunday with Ellis to see how the boys were doing with their aerotow operations.

The day started off looking specktacular, perfect lookin cums studded the sky everywhere. Despite this look of perfection, few people were managing more than extended sleds and brief soaring flights. I think Terry and Bill (?) managed to extend about a half hour or so.

I watched Roland do a few aerotows and decided that nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I consulted with Tex and Roland vis the particulars of their Loadstar tug. Although they generally advise on the use of wheels and fins, they gave me a bye on these requirements after I assured them that I had quite a bit of recent towing experience and that the Fusion doesn't like add-ons anyway. Roland warned me that his tug can take you by surprise by how fast it lifts off the ground and to be prepared to "catch-up" if necessary. Strangely enough, I remember Chad saying something similar, but I usually rocketed into the air well in advance of the tug's lift off.

And so it was after my roll out, I was easily 25 ft up for several seconds before the tug left terra firma, had to stuff it pretty hard to wait for the tug to catch up, but that was no problem.

Climbing out, Roland seemed like he was going to take me higher, but I took a good thump before being waved off and pinned off early. I found disappointingly light lift and could do little better than gain a little and then maintain. decide to go hunt elsewhere, and found that the sink was as usual reliably strong near the field. I then noticed a glider stinkin high just to the north, and made a gamble to fly high speed over to his area, arriving quite low but at least found the burble. Worked seemingly forever but got to cloudb at 4,000 msl. Was very surprised when I was joined by Doug from KHK on a Falcon, I was very excited about setting off xc in the company of a Falcon, since the lift was generally weak and the drift was slow. Unfortunately he bailed back to the main field.

I then had the first of two fairly close encounters with commercial airliners vectoring into Richmond international. Made me nervous.

The drift was westerly (towards the east) and I tried to claw my way north along 360. The routine was find a light bump, work it for all you were worth, and then go on a monster glide low down for several miles before finding the next thermal. usually said thermals were encountered within 500 agl and prepatory to landing mode, I eventually failed on my third attempt at a low save somewhere near Toddsbury for a straightline distance of 11.6 from release.

This was my first aerotow and xc from Manquin, but I have some general observations anyway.

1. The area east of 360 is pretty heavily forested, looked like indian country from the air, so I think westerly days are going to be pretty tuff there for anybody but the more experienced xc'ers.

2. Lots of aviation of all kinds, got to keep your eyes open (and hope their's are too).

3. The Loadstar seems to be an easy tug to follow, though it appears to get pushed around the sky a little easier than a Dfly. This could be due to pilot experience level. It seems to me that the Loadstar might make for an easier transition to aerotowing than a Dfly in lighter conditions. Pressures seem to be on the light side, but this could have been because of the tow speeds. Definitely a slower climber, be prepared to stay on longer to get high.

Marc

Like Marc's report from Manquin we (Fred and Raean Permenter, Steve Krichten, Bruce, Louis, Geoff Mumford, Mike C., Daryl, and others) arrived at Ridgely to find the sky littered with beautiful cumies. This was between 10:30 and 11:30. By noon things started to not look as good. Geoff launch shortly after noon for a sled ride. A few others launched in between noon and 1:30 and little was found. I launched at 1:30 after a couple of other pilots and found light 100' up lift that I was able to take to 3'000 agl. The flight was a one thermal flight for approx. :30 minutes.

After I launched others (Fred, Raean, Louis, Steve K., Mike C. Geoff M., Daryl) began to tow up and all got soaring flights of a 1/2 hour to an hour. Pilots topped out between 2500 and 4500 AGL using lift from 100' - 500' up. All in all everyone left with a satifying flight in challenging conditions.

We were all on the ground by 3:30 breaking down.

As a side note, it seems that Hurricane Floyd has reopened many more XC LZ's that were previously corn fields. On the drive in many of the fields were blown over and farmers were out cutting down and salvaging what they could.

Plug for Chad and Sunny For those who have never been to Ridgely, the landscape is similar to Iowa where it's 40+ acre LZ's everywhere in all directions for tens of mile in each directions. Come out and join us and bring a friend for a tandem.

Steve Vogel

All in all it was another great weekend at Manquin. Saturday had very light conditions but Jim Kingsly managed to stay up for over two hours. Sunday the conditions were better with 40 - 60 minute flights the norm, Kevin getting 1:15 on his best flight (off truck tow), Doug getting an hour on his best flight, Terry probably getting at least 40 minutes (I didn't ask) with a great low save and Bill M. (from NC) getting 40 minutes.

Roland

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This page last updated September 21, 1999