by Kevin Madden
XC, HIGH ROCK TO SUGAR LOAF
by Kevin Madden
Purdue MOS charts for Dulles and Pittsburgh airports almost pulled me to Fischer but the visible
light North wind kept Kelly and me at the Rock. I still prefer the OSU wind vector chart.
Conflicting wind predictions abound. The hint of a potential east prediction for the afternoon had
a few pilots planning their holy-grail of valley crossings from HIGHrock to the Pulpit. Peak
heating for the day looked to be at or after 3pm. Thermal indexes indicated Dulles -3 to 2500ft
and Pittsburgh -3 to 7000ft. I wanted off the hill around 1pm, conditions permitting.
I launched at 12:48 into mild right cross. A few minutes patience and work were rewarded by a
workable thermal that took me up and back. Lift on the ridge was drifting fast over the back into
P40. I didn't feel like diving for the next thermal. Lately, I've had notoriously bad luck to the
point where I'm getting leery of diving anywhere without really, really good cause. Instead, I
opted to fish way out front for lift that wouldn't be on its' way directly over the hill so fast. Lift
out on the flats seemed to be slowly drifting straight down the valley. My GPS shutdown due to
low batteries 222 degrees 6.6 miles from launch. This constituted my first leg. The GPS III has
an awesome track record of this leg of the flight. My flight path for this leg was almost
exclusively to the west of the 6.6 straight distance leg. Definitely flying on the flats and didn't get
anywhere near the ridge until south of Alt-40. My flight path took me west of Smithburg,
directly over Cavetown, straight down Rt 66, downwind past three rock quarries with three nicely
wrapped thermals (better than any Easter egg hunt I've everbeen on), and across 70 at the Rt66
intersection. It was completely cool looking from the air - way better than I had imagined.
Above 3000msl it was nice smooth cruising. Below 3000msl it became increasingly difficult. I got
low a few times, but those quarries we're really nice to me. And their spacing is right-on. I plan
on visiting them again soon.
Pretty much stayed over Rt 66 past Greenbrier State Park, over Boonsboro, then South on Rt 67.
The next few miles seemed to indicate that the thermals were drifting almost directly east over the
mountain. Despite my best effort to track south, I finally figured-out that it was time to cross
over to the next valley east. I crossed over South Mountain south of Alt 40 a bit. Once on the
lee side, I sank, picked a field, unzipped, then found lift. Finally got above ridge, flattened out
my turns a bit, and drifted with the thermal across the valley. The thermal picked up north of
Burkittsville near Arnoldtown and I topped out at 6400 msl with a sail plane there. I drifted with
this until about half way across the valley.
I crossed the Catoctin Mountain in the gap where 180, 340 and 15 intersect. Got low, picked a
field, unzipped, and found another one on the lee side that I took to around 5K. This is where I
believe I made "the mistake" that had me kicking dirt soon later. I was now, for the first time
EVER, within gliding distance of Sugarloaf. Target/Coolness fixation set in, the nice rock face
facing the sun, climbed it many times on foot, dreamed of flying there more. Daydream was soon
shattered by sink followed by more sink. I landed at the foot of the mountain and enjoyed the
view just long enough to see a cume forming just southwest of me. I believe that I fixated on the
Sugarloaf-dream when I should have minded my altitude and followed the lift closely and more
to the south. Safe, wonderful, and fulfilling flight. Plus a lesson too!
Launched 12:48pm from HIGHrock: N39d 41.722', W77d 31.374'
Turnpoint 222d 6.6 miles from launch: N39d 37.446', W77d 36.389'
Landed 3:34pm, west of Sugarloaf: N39d 16.855', W77d 25.417'
Flight time: 2:48, straight distance: 29.1mi, w/Turnpoint: 6.6 + 25.6 = 32.2mi
Max altitude: 6393ft
Above launch: 4769ft
Peak 20sec average lift: 792fpm
Peak Instantaneous lift: 1929fpm
