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Hangola March 12 & 13, 1999

Talk about lightening up... man, the winds sure lightened up at the Rock yesterday. What the Hell happened to the predicted 15-20, 10-20, 10-15, etc.? It was barely puffing in at launch most of yesterday. And it was warm too. I had to strip off a layer of long underwear and you didn't need gloves to wire crew. It was a surprizingly pleasant day with lots of great flights. I got about an hour but only 600 over. I waited to launch until I saw a bunch of pilots getting up. It was easy at first because I just used a couple of lift indicators (Mike Buckley and Danny Brotto) to know where to go to find the thermals. But after about 20 minutes, they abandoned me to my own devices so I continued to use the areas in front of and to the South of the rock pile to stay up. I got below launch numerous times but was able to climb back up and I got real low once and used the pool thermal to get back up. It was a blast!

Marc was the first pilot off for the day and had a great flight-- getting up right away. A whole slew of pilots that followed him sledded out. Of those that stayed up, I think Jose got the highest-- 1800 over. Fred and Raean, as usual, had no problems getting up. Terry Spencer and Lyman had their first flights there (first cliff launches) at the end of the day. Marvin, Karen and Chuck each took turns at the end of the day scratching for about 10-15 minutes. Chuck had earlier taken a flight without his fin and decided that he very much preferred having the fin. Brian VH and Judy-Judy each had two flights. Dave Proctor and Steve Kinsley also flew and Danny had his great flight as a test flight on a Moyes Xtralight 137.

Big, Big thanks to Ellis Kim and George Tudor for coming out to help for the day and running lots of shuttles and learning how to wire crew.

Matthew (oooh, it's snowing, of Karen and Matthew)

Great day at the Rock for most folks. Which unfortunately didn't include me. Launched immediately after Chuck P who didn't hit anything. Shoulda waited. Oh well. Nice warm sunny day. Waiting for a full report from Mathew. I bet if we all said please he would tell us about his low save over the swiming pool.

Did anyone happen to pick up my blue zip up sweatshirt? Very valuable. Reward offered.

How about a Woodstock report? Terry Spencer said it was totally dead there in the morning with a high overcast.

Here's my story. With the 10-20 forecast, I headed to Smithsburg hoping for multiple flights from the middle of the hill to work on my landings. Arrived to find Ellis already there, and the winds barely blowing from the north, sometimes nne, sometimes straight in, at less than 5. And the farmer was spreading manure on the hill. Ellis (hang 1) was interested in seeing wire launches, so we bailed to High Rock, where it blew pretty light all day. But even though the winds were light up top, I understand it could be pretty dicey in the lz, with one pilot taking out a keel.

It really was a hit or miss kind of day. I launched and sledded, but when I went back up top there were birds boating around, so I set up and flew again. Of course, the birds were gone by the time I was set up! I was delighted to get above launch on this flight, even though it wasn't for very long.

One reward of the day was that I got to improve my landings even though I didn't go to the training hill. Kind of by accident I remembered something that I had completely forgotten about -- when coming in on final to keep my eyes on the horizon instead of looking at the ground coming up! (I know I should have remembered this.) Well, I did keep my eyes up on my second landing and it really helped. It's hard to explain how good it felt to get it right.

Judy

p.s. Thanks also to Marvin who came at nine am to clean off the rock.

Well with the forecast, it was obvious that Woodstock was the place to be. Every time I have hiked up the back, I have soared, so why not!

Tom & I went to meet up with John McAllister and a driver that he had. By the time we met him in Strausburg, he had arranged with his partner to bring their six wheeler ATV. Awesome, we wouldn't have to hike all of our stuff up!

At the back of Woodstock, Ed Reno was waiting for us, and Doug and Christy were right behind us. Tom carried and Doug wheeled their gliders all the way. I made it most of the way before and empty ATV gave me a ride the rest of the way. It was fun following Steve's grocery cart tracks from the day before.

We set up in the snow, it was a gorgeous day, we didn't even need our jackets while setting up! Oh, did I mention that there was no wind? It wasn't quite 90 degree cross (about 87 degrees), but once in a while it would puff straight in to make a safe launchable cycle. Oh well. Christy was first, and I think she had the flight of the day with 4 - 5 minutes. Most of us got 3 - 4 minutes.

Moral of this story? If you're going to hike up the back, hike up the back! Don't wimp out and get a ride!

-Mike Balk

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This page last updated March 14, 1999