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Hangola March 27 & 28, 1999

Well, I was the only to take the bait and head up to the Sac. Forecast was north, but I saw mainly east and even a little west on the way up. I grimly decided to keep going just so I could see the place.

Some of you may have noticed that the directions in the site guide are way off (at least in my edition). For other newbies, this is what you do: Find your way somehow to Sacramento on Route 25. The Site Guide suggests you take 11/15, but you will be distressed by the lack of a bridge over the river. So use a map before you leave Harrisburg (luckily i did). In Sacramento you turn LEFT (not right) on the road with the inexplicable name of "Mahatongo". It IS well marked. The rest is obvious.

So I arrive at launch to find the wind blowing in PERFECTLY. Only one car was there: Tom(?) Gartlin(?) had been soaring for about half an hour before landing because he was lonely. In short order Jeff Beyerle, Ken Harrison, Shaun(who's last name I can't remember) Sweeney (who's first name I temporarily forget) and *** (coulda swore his name was unforgettable and familiar) showed up.

Shaun gets on launch and after heming and hawing about the windsock for a long while, finally takes off and does an extended sled. I decide that after driving all this way I may as well take my own sled like a man and begin suiting up. As I take out my old sweatshirt I notice Steve Kinsley's blue jacket which he left at High Rock. I pick it up and look at it. "Hmm.." I say. "I wonder....."

So I launch and turn towards the LZ. I don't seem to be going DOWN. I turn around and pass by launch. I'm just barely going up. I spend the next 20 minutes scratching and clawing my way up to 500 feet, where I discover a fat juicy lift elevator behind launch and begin to climb. Somewhere around 1500 over *** ( later identifed as Bob Beck) joins me in his Fusion. I'm afraid he'll climb through me so I move over in the big lift elevator and we begin going up side by side: him in broad Fusion circles, me in tight Falcon circles. We rise in perfect tandem until the distance behind the ridge disturbs my comfort zone and I head out front to look for thermals. I only found one which lifted me back up a few hundred feet before losing it, so I come in to land. 1 hour, 2500 over.

We spent a good hour in the LZ just chewing the fat over some excellent beers. It's nice to tap into a whole new universe of stories I've never heard. As I was leaving they told me they were glad I came because if I hadn't launched and climbed out they would have broken down instead. And *** was still amazed that a Falcon could match the climb rate of a Fusion.

If Steve wants his Jacket back, he's gonna have to fight me.

-Brian.

*** in the Fusion is later identifed as Bob Beck

Got a real itch to fly, thinking of heading to Woodstock to fly Monday afternoon - is anyone interested? Took a sled ride at Highrock today.

i.e. Marvin

Super great day!. Took a while for the total cloud cover to break up and the winds to get a good direction. Launched at 3:18 p.m. Got an hour & 25 minutes, 2,800' over launch. My highest and longest to date. Tons of other folks flew, including two paragliders. many flew out. Dan T. got his firxt XC of the Regionals. I am sure he will report tomorrow. Dinner at Strasburg Hotel, very good as usual.
This was one FINE DAY!

Cragin

Woodstock provided my first x/c on Sunday. I launched very early thinking there seemed to be good ridge lift. Bacil had launched before me and was maintaining fairly well. I scratched for a long time at about 150' over until I hit some decent lift near the Strasburg Reservoir that carried me to about 1100' over launch. With this altitude, I made the mistake of leaving the lift and heading for the North Point. Nothing but sink for the rest of the way so I turned back but continued to lose altitude until I was below the ridge. I'd been checking out potential landing areas and had spotted what I thought had fit the description of the field that Judy and Ed had flown into and were invited to join the anniversary fete that was in progress. Just after landing, the lady (Mrs. Wain?) came over to the fence to ask if I'd been stranded. I apologized for using her field without permission but she was so gracious and accommodating. She said that if I wanted to wait a minute, her husband (Jack) had planned to go into town and he could give me a ride. In the end, she and her husband even loaded up my glider on their Blazer and hauled me all the way back to launch!! Who said this cross-country stuff was tough without a driver?! Anyway, total air time was just short of an hour (55 min) and I'll have to ask Judy what the official distance was per her GPS -- I drive with one but I don't fly with one (yet!).

By the time I got back to launch, the day had "turned on" big time and I was faced with whether to fly again. I decided instead not to tempt the sky gods and helped launch the remaining pilots.

All in all, a very good day!
Chuck

And what a fantabulous day it was at Woodstock. Karen also had her highest altitude gain of 3000 over for an 1:30 flight. I got barely got 4k over a couple of times and 2:10. I flew down to the gap with vague thoughts of trying to cross it. But by the time I got down there, the radio chatter was not very encouraging (except for maybe Pete Schuman who kept reminding us that he was 4700 over) and the gliders trying to cross the gap looked awfully low to me. So I retreated and played with Mike Buckley in the thermals that were South of launch. I made another journey toward the gap but turned back when I saw Joe Gregor, my hero, below me flying back toward launch. In addition to Craig and Chuck and Karen, a few other pilots had firsts. But I don't want to spoil their stories. So I'll only identify them via the Brian Vant Hull asterisk method. ** had a first high flight on a double surface glider. Two pilots made it to Harrisonburg-- it was ***** ********'s first trip there and **** ****'s first, of what I'm sure will be many, trips there for the season.

I lost count of how many pilots flew. And everyone had a soaring flight-- well, everyone except **** *******. Oh well.

Tom flew to New Market. Mike, the Incredible, Balk and Joe, my hero, Gregor flew up to Strasburg. Steve (where's my blue jacket) Kinsley went over the back and landed in his blue silo field. Dan landed up at Tom's Brook. Gardinator, Mike C. and Pete Schuman landed out in front of Short Mt.. Sheila, Terry Spencer and Jose had great flights. And I think that John Middleton snatched a magic air sunset flight.

What a great day!

Matthew (but where were all of the H2s? of Karen and Matthew)

Your hero, for the second time flies through constant sink alarm stuff as he watches the gaggle a mile or so ahead of him maintain all the way across the friggin' gap. Unsure of the presence of ridge lift on Short Mtn given the N cross he spent an hour in total disgust slowly but surely working his way down to a couple hundred over that knob at the north end of the gap. Finally giving up he finally finds good lift near launch, almost decides to beat his head against the wall for a 6.7 mi XC but though the better of it and worked his way N to make a stab for the Airport up there. No dice, he lands at a big beautiful, clean, LZ literally a 5 min walk from the Strasburg Inn. For once the easy retreive on the way home thing worked.

Found out that virtually everone in the know universe who tried went further including Mike Balk who pointed out that, although we had near identical flights, his field was a couple tenths further North than mine. Drowned my sorrows in ketchup.

-- Joe

Yup, it wasn't a whole lot of fun being the only pilot to sink out while watching everyone else speck and rave about how great the lift was!

Actually, two other hapless souls, Mike Balk and Dave Proctor, had a similar fate to mine. Marooned in the lz, I tried to persuade Mike and Dave to go back for another shot, but they seemed pretty dubious about the prospects. But when Dave said that it was too late and there was no way we could get a decent xc I knew I had to go back up and try again. Thanks Dave!

I think myself and Mike B. were the last pilots off at around 4:30 or so. I simply put the vg on and decided to see how fast and far I could go, which turned out to be 39.7 miles in just over an hour to a little SE of Harrisonburg. Brian Hardwick also made it, but he will have to tell his own story.

Marc

And a good time was had by all!

Since everyone else weighed in, I couldn't resist telling my story any longer. I showed up at Woodstock with Craig Shelton and a plan to try to reach the Front Royal airport. I figured that the predicted North Cross would make running Short Mountain difficult and not having any experience doing it, I thought a north run would be more prudent.

There were lots of gliders in the air by the time I launched. I found reliable lift just south of launch and was soon more that 3,000 over launch. Lot's of gliders to the North and low. I decided to try it anyway and made it past a couple of bends in the river north of launch, but losing altitude the whole way. Turned back, found the lift in the same spot south of launch and tried it again. Flew almost to the Strasburg reservoir, got low (1000 over) and tired. Flew out over Judy and Ed's field, landed in a large field just south and somewhat further west of there.

I estimated it at 6.4 miles adding and subtracting odomoter miles from the Texaco station. (The estimate is a crude on and I'll accept a correction from someone who has a more accurate fix on the "Estate" field.) This is a new recorded XC record for me and my first entry into the Region 9 contest book.

Dan T.

Ellis reports:
went down to Manquin on Sunday, despite lousy forecast. Just wanted to see if I could knock out my Hang 2 written test. Figured, i might as well toss the glider on top of the car in case the weather cleared up.

Got to Manquin. Wind blowing hard and cross. <shrugs> Figures.
Took my hang 2 written test, passed. :-)

Just Doug (don't know last name) there who just came to hang out and check if the wheel hub he designed would work on his ultrasport. He filed around on his wheel hub, then left.

Ray Mitchell(?) showed up to check out any activity, just found Steve playing with a little styrofoam hang glider and me taking my written test. Stayed around to catch up on HG news. Then the clouds started breaking, wind smoothed out, turned north.

I set up my glider. :-)
Had six flights. Loaned it to Ray for two flights.
Flew with a big brown raptor (later identified as an immature bald eagle) right off my wing tip. :-)
Towed to 1600 or 1700 feet several times.
Had a nice sunset flight. Could see the sun setting behind the blue ridge mountains (first time i've seen them from Manquin). Made three spot landings(no steppers) in a row - 30, 10 and barely 100 feet away from spot.
Followed up by a whack. :-( I guess that was to keep me honest. Hopefully the last whack I'll ever have (stop snickering!).

-- ellis
(did her thing to replenish the Hang 2 pool)

i got my cliff launch sign off!!
geo.

Great day at Woodstock yesterday! It's wonderful that the weather is now getting warmer - 1'54", 3000' over for me. Karen and I tried to go North but couldn't make any progress at all (or *very* slowly). Decided to head south a little bit then back again. Had a great time working the fire thermal. Cast of thousands - congrats to the XC'ers!!

Sheila

I'll be brief. An enjoyable 2/hr flight. Finally bailing off the end of the ridge and heading downwind yielded a PB of 38.4 miles. Experienced some wave. Getting low on the far side of short mountain I found and tolerated a little 200/min nasty smelling thermal. Surely, something has crawled up and died on that ridge.

-Brian Hardwick

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This page last updated April 3, 1999