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Hangola February 20 & 21, 1999

High Rock Saturday: Doug, Steve K, Tom McG, Jose, Pete S, me. Launches began around 2:00, with Ironmen Wakefield, McGowan, and Schumann staying up multiple hours (approaching sunset). Hour to hour and a half flights for Jose, Steve and I. Clean launches all around, aided by experienced crew Woody Jones (Mitchell Wing pilot who frequently joins us in the air above High Rock).

While launching, conditions were no where near the forecasted 10-20 velocity, and not all that north either. Aloft it seemed somewhat north to me, though there were times when it was just as cross from the west. When I started to get cold enough to head out, I found lift all the way past the lz. Conditions coming in were dicey, and by the time we left it was blowing 10-15 in the lz. A curious day.
Makes me wonder what tomorrow will bring!!

How was the Sac?

Judy

Woodstock was working great yesterday. Nelson, Rich Lawrence, Randy Weber and myself were the only brave souls to show, with Nelson launching first at 1:30 and me second at almost 2:00. Everyone flew, Randy and Rich hung around launch and Nelson and I flew to Strasburg, running the ridge at 1000' over in the 12-18 mph NW wind.

Nelson was high--3000+ over?--when I arrived under his new Stealth at the point. I waffled around for a long time 500' above the ridge in broken thermals while Nelson stayed at least 1000' above me until a 500 fpm, workable cycle blew through. I climbed to 5000' and flew a short time inspecting the top of Nelson's sail--very clean.

When I couldn't feel my nose anymore and I started shivering uncontrollably I sped south to the lz, landing after an hour ten amongst the bulls and cows who were dropping fresh mines in the field. By the time I had packed up Nelson was back to launch and then proceeded south with Rich chasing him towards home.

I gave Rich a lift to the top to retrieve his vehicle and the last I heard on the radio was that Nelson was at the Edinburg gap. I headed down the backside towards home as cu's were still popping over the ridge.

Anyone flying today? The cu's have been overhead since sunrise, but the temps are forecast for 10 degrees colder.

Greg

Very bad case of cabin fever prompted me to head up to HR. Conditions along the way were a bit breezy but not evidently not blown out. Directions on the flags seemed good, mostly NW. (I chose to ignore the truck's in-dash outside air temp instrumentation reading in the 20's all the way up; I'm talking CABIN FEVER here.)

Arrived at ~1:30 to find Rae & Bruce Santis kicking stones. Conditions were a bit overcast, straight in at mostly 10 to 15 with an occasional sustained gust to 20ish. It was quite doable except for the fact that my Mediterranean genetics would not sustain me in this frigid environment for too long. Rae was too cold, Bruce needed better conditions. We warmed up in his truck & told war stories bagging the flying. Irish coffees at the Ott House and a strong tail wind home to help with the gas mileage. Beautiful sunset with lennies, rotor clouds, and the occasional snow flurry. Did I mention it was COLD?

Off to the convention...

Danny Brotto

A whole lot of people flew. Two didn't. Several headed south for XC. Last launch of the day was Mike Chevalier at 3:30, who ended up 5 miles south for a short XC. That left Sheila and me as the last two pilots on launch. From then on the winds at launch picked up and got stronger, not weaker.

Although there were a few launchable cycles after 3:30, we had no crew to assist getting into position. By the time several folks made it back up at 4:50, the winds had gotten consistently stronger. Sheila and I broke down, and Mike Buckley (one of the returning pilots following his early afternoon sled due to a loose tip batten) decided not to set up again. I really hate getting skunked when almost everyone flies.

I really hate it when the winds don't follow the textbooks, and get stronger instead of smoothing out in the late afternoon!

Craig (heading to Knoxville Friday)

For my first time at the Sac it was well worth the trip. Although there is still snow in the shadows it is definitely Hang Glider Heaven. It was straight in and crankin when I got there around 12. I had to do paperwork and drove about a mile from the LZ to Joe Gorries' house to find him in the shower. Paper work and reports of gnarly conditions kept me on the ground until 3 keeping Joe company. He said he likes to wait until the thermals die a tad before launching. I helped wire him off and saw how to do it just right. I followed his lead and jumped right up to 1500 over and stayed there. That place is awesome. Long straight ridges curving off to forever with bountiful tracts of land between and short little gaps to make life interesting.

Several pilots went down to the Susquehanna about 20 miles away, I believe Basil was one of them.

The PA boys are great. Joe landed about half an hour ahead of me, letting me have the ridge to myself. After two hours and twenty cold toes I headed for the LZ. There were three cars still in the LZ. They had waited for me to land! Then gave me a body ride back to launch for my car. Later on, driving back through Sacramento, only seeing a Burger King in my future but dearly wishing for a good hot dinner, I spied roof racks with gliders. Did a U-ster and was rewarded with steaming hot stuffed haddock in the excellent company of some of the PA boys.

Did I mention Life is GOOOD!!!!!

Ed

So where all did the XC folks go?

Truly a spectacular flying day. If only it had been just 10 degrees warmer. 20 would have been positively paradise. But it was just too damn cold. At cloudbase (about 7k) my glasses started icing up. I would clear them and they would immediately ice up again. According to Mike B it was 10 degrees up there. It was especially bone chilling if you had to put on any speed.

Let's see now. Mike Balk reported 10 degrees, Steve Kinsley felt that an additional 20 degrees would make it downright tropical. What's wrong with this picture???

Steve was right, though, about the day being a GREAT flying day. The cold kept me below cloud base (my highest altitude was 3200 ft above launch) but I got almost 1hr-30min before my hands got TOO COLD!!!!

As a matter of fact, I was very glad to have gotten an early start (about 1000 ft above the LZ) at trying to unzip my new (still a little unfamiliar) pod harness. My hands were too cold to feel the "pull-down" zipper lanyard -- and I haven't used the harness enough to know instinctively where it is. I finally had to just reach down to the zipper itself and lower it to just above my knees (as far as I could reach) and then use my knees to force it apart the rest of the way. I'd used up all but about 300 ft of clearance before I could finally step out of the harness. All the while, wondering what it feels like to be a "pogo-stick" in faily gnarly LZ conditions!! I realize I had the final option to "tear-away" the velcro which was next on my contingency/mitigation list if I couldn't clear the zipper.

See you folks Wednesday at the monthly meeting!
Chuck

Well, a couple of things first. . .

Ed "drove about a mile from the LZ to Joe Gorries' house to find him in the shower." Doesn't that strike anyone as being a little 'weird'? Why was Joe hiding, and why was Ed even looking in the shower for him?

The 10 degrees that I reported were at approx: 7,000 MSL. It was a balmy 28 or so at launch level. So an additional 20 degrees would have been wonderful (I can handle 30 degrees when I am at cloud base!)

Advice to people not used to flying in the winter: Dress warm. I use one-shot hand warmers. I put them in my bar mitts, and I stay toasty all day long!

OK, Sunday after retrieving everyone who landed locally, I ended up without a ride, since Tom's car was retrieving the XC pilots (with the navigation aid of Marc Fink). So I took John McA's truck and Marc's glider and went off in search of a pilot who landed somewhere around Mt. Jackson. Didn't know if he had been picked up or not, but I knew that Tom's car couldn't carry 4 gliders very easily.

Got a message from Tom on my wireless phone (wireless phones are great!), and he mentioned that Pete was the one that landed at Mt. Jackson, and he needed to be picked up. Found Pete by radio, and Tom called and we arranged that I would get Pete's glider while he brought the others to launch get the cars. We met at the (ex-)Safeway and went off to eat a late dinner.

Pete had 4 hours and was tired from flying for 3 hours on Saturday. He also wasn't sure about his gliders performance, especially with a north cross, so he landed at the end of Short Mtn. Tom was behind John by a couple of miles and they both decided to go out and land about the same time, just a few miles short of Harrisonburg (Tom a couple of miles behind John). Nelson on his Stealth got to the end before the north cross shut things down totally, and landed a couple of miles south of the Peak.

At one point Tom noticed his ground speed was about 44 mph, and when he would turn around in lift his ground speed was zero. (Can you say North cross?)

-Michael (Did I mention Wireless phones are great?) Balk

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This page last updated February 22, 1999