9/26/98 - Fairgrds, W 5-10; John gets his first mountain soaring flight with Larryboy, JR, Ben & LE. JR geeks his way to an extended sled dive while Larryboy makes it to Zirks and back. Ben & LE get late soaring flights. JR takes the spot money.
9/28/98 - High Pt, NW 10-20; a somewhat strong and punchy day with a pretty good turnout. Will had the best flight after he hooked a good one at the N Pt which got him on his way to Levels, WV for 15 miles. Nobody else was able to get away, although Larryboy made it to Zirks and then landed at the HI LZ along Rt 220. JR chose to land in the Fairgrds LZ where it looked like he had the spot contest locked up. Homer and Gardner were still boating around and after they saw how close JR was to the spot, they decided to try to make it to the HI LZ (cowards). Gardner made it, but Homer came up a little short and pounded it in trying to get turned back into the wind at the last second. Who says there's no such thing as karma?
10/11/98 - High Pt, N 5-10; another good day for the time of year saw the Pittsburgh boys arrive to show everyone how it's done. Larry H made it 11 mi to Reese's Mill, WV with Jim M not far behind at the 8 mi mark. Pete made it down the vidge to Rawlings, MD where he sunk out for 8 mi. JR cruised down the valley after getting up pretty good out in the middle and he landed at the HI LZ. Homer made it down to Zirks, but couldn't make it out and had to land the Zirks LZ. Stretch showed up late (what a surprise) and got about a 20 minute extended sled ride. Ed showed up at the Fairgrds launch (?) and took an extended sled ride from there.
10/15/98 - High Pt, N 5-10; JRI Will, & Greg get to soar although no one gets very high boating on the ridge. JR takes the spot money.
10/23/98 - Fairgrds, WNW 5-15; Homer and JR (on Will's Fusion) soar on what turns out to be a pretty good day. They were getting to about 4000'MSL in the middle of the valley. JR commented that the Fusion 150 seemed to fly very much like his XC155. Homer almost nails the spot and takes the money.
10/24/98 - High Pt. WNW 5-10; a good day and a good turnout as JR (on the Fusion), Homer,
Marvin, Larryboy, Stretch, John, and LE get good soaring flights with several folks getting up
well out in the middle of the valley to 4000' MSL. JR wins the spot contest after only his second
flight on a strange glider (what an awesome guy).
10/25/98 - High Pt, WSW 3-5; JR, John, and Mike Selig take sleds or extended sleds while LE proves she's "the MAN" by putting it on everyone after she went back up for her second flight of the day. Rocky made a rare appearance and drove.
10/31/98 - High Pt, NNW 10-20; Will, Homer, & JR boat around for an hour or two before landing in the main LZ. No one got very high, but Homer took the spot contest. Later in the day, Homer and JR took Adam & John to Zirks for a sunset flight (and Adam's first mountain launch). Both of them soared briefly before they had to head out and land in the main LZ due to darkness.
11/1/98 - Zirks, NE 0-5; Homer takes Adam up to Zirks for his second mountain launch. He gets a sled ride after waiting for it to quit blowing over the back. Later in the day, Danny & Stretch show up and get soaring flights after imposing on JR to give them a ride back to the top at the end of the day. Danny made it to the HI LZ while Stretch landed in Charlie's field (main LZ).
11/7/98 - High Pt, WNW 5-15+; a somewhat marginal day despite the apparent strength of the
wind. Almost no ridge lift w/ poorly formed thermals being the main source of lift. Marvin sunk
out on the W face after about 1 hour. JR watched Marvin go down and decided to hang around
launch where it was more consistent. It was switchy in the LZ but everyone managed to have
good landings (JR pulled a good downwind landing out of his hat). John drove for the boys.
11/12/98- High Pt, WNW 5-10; JR, Homer, Adam, and Greg boat the ridge between launch and the N Pt. It was a warm and beautifully clear day. The air was very "phoosh out" and fun to just spend time sight-seeing around the valley. Homer took the spot after JR ended up w/ a case of "spot fever" and tried to fudge it around a little while on final approach which ended up in a mild whack (hard to flare properly while in a turn).
11/15/98 - High Pt, WNW 10-15+; Larryboy, Stretch, & JR get a late afternoon soaring flight
after the wind abates a little bit. It turned out to be a pretty good day with decent thermals and
altitude gains to 4300'MSL. The air wasn't too strong despite the gust factor on launch. JR took
the spot money and John drove for the boys.
