Dave Proctor-
Sunday May 17th Finally get out to Cumberland, North cross, JR, Will, Marvin, Larry B, and
myself head up to High Point. Get 3500 over and drift back over the setup area, I see Will down
wind, maybe +4000, he has obviously decided to leave. I decide to go back for "one more" and
promptly get drilled back down to 1500 over, typical Cumberland flying. Eventually get back to
+3500 and drift with this one. Track is almost directly down the power lines to the South, so I
decide to run more parallel to the ridge, fly over Marvin on the ground behind Zirks, I continue on
ending up on the deck down by the Pinnacle, listening to Will talking on the radio about being 4
grand over Keiser. Shoulda followed Will. 1:45, 8 miles.
Friday May 22nd. Blow off work and go to Woodstock. It's blowing straight in when we
arrive. Set up and Bacil and another pilot jump off. It is still early so I decide to hang around
while Steve K. and Dan Tomlinson run a shuttle. It is looking schweeet the whole time they are
gone. By the time they get back with Bacil it has backed off to a trickle. Eventually around 2 PM
I decide to jump off into light conditions. Survive at 400 below launch for what seems like an
eternity, but it pays off. I eventually work light lift up to ridge top and am immediately rewarded
with the leeside contribution that I knew this sunny day would provide. Others now decide that it
is time to launch and join me. I fly up to Strasburg,, topping out at +4K to the South of the
reservoir. Fly back down to launch and just hang out for awhile before landing, lift everywhere by
now. 2:45, awesome light air day.
Saturday May 30th. Cumberland work party. We attack three sites, I learn proper turning
etiquette: always circle in the same direction as the mower already in the patch. As the circle
tightens up bail when you are about to be run over. We are rewarded with marginal, but soarable
conditions. I get 0:40 before sinking out.
Saturday June 6th. Tom and I head out to Woodstock, I get 1:40 and land, Tom continues flying. I radio him that I will retrieve if he wants to go. somewhere, only problem is his antenna has fallen off and he can't transmit. He flies for a couple of hours more and we head out to visit George in WVA.
See George Sat night and Sun morning. He is a hurting puppy. Coming back we hit occasional drizzle, turning into rain by Cumberland, so we continue to Woodstock. Tom and a couple of others launch and report the air is not real fun. It has picked up A LOT on launch and no one else jumps. I break down around 5PM. Others wait and get off around 6 when it backs down.
Doug Wakefield--
May flying started late with a sled at High Rock on May 15th, which was the
first day without rain in almost 3 weeks. It was a little better at the Pulpit on the 17th where I
got 15 minutes in a trashy right cross that switched to straight down the valley. It got better for
others later. The Memorial Day flyin yielded a sled at North Mountain. Did better at Woodstock
on June 3rd, getting 2:15 and flying out past the bridge and back, then down to the gap and back.
Took a sled at Woodstock in light conditions three days later when *everyone* else was staying
up, then flew for an hour late in the day. The next day's forecast was the same, but conditions
were much different when I had probably my worst launch ever at a high site, diving into the
front right corner of the slot before flying clear. Flew for 20 minutes in strong, trashy conditions
before landing uneventfully, but thankfully, in the primary LZ. June 13th brought 2:45 at the
Pulpit, where I landed out in the crane field, avoiding the 5 foot high grass in the primary. June
17th was Christy's birthday so we both took off work and flew for a couple hours at Woodstock,
then went out to dinner on the way home. I flew High Rock the next day, but landed after an
hour 'cause it seemed to be picking up and I wasn't having much fun. Got an hour at High Point
on the 20th, flying with the Mountaineers and the kamikazi sail plane. Sank out while scratching
low, and went brain dead when I reached the LZ, doing a low 360 instead of just landing straight
in. Got 40 beautiful minutes at High Rock on the 27th, starting with a low save over the RR
tracks/swimming pool.
Christy Huddle--
I didn't get much airtime in May, but sure made up for it in June. Between May 30th and June
30th, I got over 13 and a half hours. On June 6th, I hurt my back a little picking up my heavy
harness and have had to take it easy. I found that flying was one of the ways of taking it easy.
Sitting or standing crouched under a glider (you know, as wire crew) seemed to hurt the most.
My new Airwave harness arrived and it's a lot lighter, so I shouldn't be having this problem again!
Wednesday, June 17th. My 49th birthday. They're calling NW 10-15. Must be a birthday present
Doug arranged. The night before, the train I take to and from work was really late getting home -
a storm had passed through and blown some trees onto the tracks. The whole train business
being heavily unionized, no one can do anyone else's work, so we had to wait for the crew to
come out from Brunswick to clear the tracks. Luckily we were fairly close so it was only an hour
and half before the train was rolling again. So, the next day, being my birthday, I slept in. Doug
took off work, too, theoretically to drive for me if it looked like an XC day. It didn't. We did
some clean up at launch before setting up. By the time I set up it was looking sweet. About
10-15 WNW. It was a boating kind of day and the max I got over was around 1700 feet. I
boated to the north. I boated to the south. I boated forward. I had an interesting landing,
something I wouldn't recommend to anyone. I let the nose pop and instead of pulling it in right
away, let the glider do a mini-stall. I then pulled in sharply, swooped down, flared immediately.
Might come in handy if I needed to land abruptly. You know, to avoid some barbed wire or
something. Saturday, June 20th, Doug and I were a little late getting up. I'd stayed up til 1:30
the night before transferring everything over from the old harness to the new Airwave Race 2+.
We checked conditions on the computer, then told, Mike Balk that were planning to go to
Woodstock. Fate intervened, i.e., I called JR. We got sucked out to Cumberland. It was quarter
to 10 when I called JR and he said they were meeting in the LZ at 11:15. Gonna be tight getting
there. Made it at 11:20 - before JR. Had a great time. The wind was coming in nicely at launch
and we all set up. JR off first, then Larry Huffman, then me, then (not necessarily in this order)
Larry Ball, Doug Wakefield, Stretch Menas, and Greg Beyer. JR was the first to try to go
somewhere and he ended up hitting massive sink and landed in the Zirk's LZ. I was next to get to
cloud base which was at about 6500 msl. I was already committed by the time I got there, so I
drifted slowly with the cloud until I started getting bored with that and struck out on my own. I
thought the two Larrys had already gone over the back and I might benefit from their
conversation, but I couldn't get the radio to work. I ended up not finding another good thermal,
just burbles, until the town of Levels. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 miles from High
Point. No stepper landing. No witnesses. Doug landed in the LZ (sunk out after an hour), broke
down, and came and got me. Larry landed in Springfield. Larry Huffman, flying the only topless
there, got the flight of the day, landing in Berryville.
Kevin Madden and Kelly Billings-
Kelly knocked off hang III runway/spots. Got highest ever and top-of-the-stack at da Rock.
Then, upon landing commented "Get used to it!". So far this year Kelly has logged 17 flights, 9
hours, tried aerotowing, and is _this_close_ to her III.
Kevin enjoyed a few evening desert flights where Cliff bars were the in-flight meal... gotta start
planning to bring strawberry shortcake and cold soda. So far this year I logged 36 flights, 30
hours, 111 xc miles, tried aerotowing, and finally broke the nagging 25 mile barrier in Region IX.
Is this fun or what?
Judy McCarty-I did my first two over the backs at the Pulpit! I didn't go very far, but it was still
exhilerating. A whole new perspective.
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want a great view of Greencastle? click here for full image |
Mike Chevalier- I went to the Towfarm on Sunday may 24th when I should have been at the fly
in. Towed to 2200, got to 3300 and stayed up for 2 hours, suprising we all did well since it was a
cloudy day. June 14th at the Pulpit I lawn dart over the back for 5 miles, bag it up and go to High
Rock for a glass off flight. June 30th at the Pulpit I beat the Greencastle effect, flying over it for
some aerial photos. I land in a playground a few miles later, perfect spot landing, a shade tree, a
bench to sit on and enjoy the view. 18.2 miles. A hang two retreives me, we get back to launch
and I observe him off. July 5th: My XC at the Towfarm was short but exciting. I released at
2000' in a weak thermal. I'd lift a wing once in a while to check on the small but building cloud
above. I climbed at about 100 fpm or less till I got to 3500 at which point the turbo lift kicked in.
600 fpm took me to cloud base and cloud suck topping out at 4950'. I fly away from the thing to
get out of the suck and come back looking for the lift. No luck. Just sink so I tried flying ahead to
the next building cloud. It was soon obvious it was out of reach because of the sink so I picked
out a field and landed just east of Centreville. The GPS showed 10.9 miles. A corrections officer
pulled up in a prison van, asked if I was OK and then asks "Watta ya got there a sailboat?" No
wonder there are so many prison escapes. So I explain to him the concept of hang gliding,
thermaling and towing, he leaves a little older and wiser. I walked out to rte. 213 where Steve
Vogel picks me up. Many more less memorable flight in the last couple months.
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Mike Balk-I've had some good flying in May and June. Finally after 7 years of flying I broke 100
hours cumulative time. 35% of my total air time has been in 1998! I've flown a couple of
less-than-10-miles cross country flights, but broke my duration record, which now stands at 4:15!
This has been a wonderful year!