Opening Day at Skinner State Park

I flew Mt. Holyoke in Skinner State Park South Hadley, Massachusetts, for the first time last year.  It is a great little ridge that can handle a WNW to NNW direction.  This flying site spent years not being flown, and last year a group of pilots got together and cleared the launch so we could fly there again.  After years of limited use, trees start to grow in and the launch becomes blocked.

Many pilots stopped flying there because the same wind direction is found at Mt. Ascutney in Vermont.  Mt. Ascutney promises X-C flights that are complicated at Mt. Holyoke by Westover AFB' over the back - illegal airspace for us.  It is not impossible to go X-C from there, but, it would be quite a challenge.

One of the reasons I like this site (aside from the 2 hour drive versus 3 to 4 for most of our other sites in New England), is that high winds at 3000ft., mean Ascutney is blown out.  Mt. Holyoke range is only 900' MSL, so if surface winds are low, and 3000ft. is too high, you can get an in between there, and launch and fly when Ascutney is off limits. 

I had a work commitment on this particular day so I did not arrive until 2:30pm, shortly behind John B, who also had other commitments.  I was chomping at the bit to get there, but not as bad as usual as the weather forecast called for conditions to be unsoarable before 2pm anyway.  This day, the forecast was actually accurate, and Jeff C., who launched before 2pm, sunk out.

As if on schedule, we arrived on launch to find the winds picking up and conditions getting better and better.  John and I set up our gliders and ran through the pre-flights.  Doug B. was ready to go but waiting a bit.  Four para-glider pilots sat on launch in dismay, as the winds were too strong for them.  Rodger was put off by the crossing winds on launch, as well as it being a new site for him, so he decided to hike his glider out and not fly.

John and I finished our setup, in the meantime Doug B. prepared for launch.  The park gate closed at 4pm so the everyone else bugged out to get down to the base in time.  The para-glider pilots had hiked up so they were available to assist us on launch.  John and I joined Davidson and the other para-glider pilots, and we wire crewed Doug off the launch.  Doug climbed out and John and I made final preparations.

Davidson and crew assisted me to launch, and crewed me off (THANKS!).  The wind was blowing straight in on launch at this point and it was 2 steps, and into the air.  I turned right off launch and climbed immediately out.  I soared the ridge gaining more and more altitude and John came up to join Doug and I for all the fun.

We soared for hours all over the valley.  Mt. Holyoke has a unique attribute that I've yet to see at our other flying sites - lift lines.  You can leave the ridge in multiple places, and travel out into the valley, climbing the entire time.  I only have 3 or 4 flights off Holyoke, but each time these have been consistent in location, but varied in length/strength.  Two times I learned of these by watching a Bald Eagle use them.  Last year I followed him out from the ridge, all the way to the river climbing hundreds of feet in the process. 

Even though we launched pretty late in the day, the thermals were everywhere and good climbs could be relied upon.  I maxed out at 4200' MSL.  Once I reached that altitude I headed out across the river and halfway across the giant farms before turning and heading back.  Although I was not losing a ton of altitude, there were no thermals to be found and I wanted to maintain as much altitude as possible.

I continued into the evening getting a ton of thermaling practice.  Once the evening rolled in, lift decreased and I played in front of launch and the hotel on top of the mountain, doing a few wangs, and high speed passes.  Unfortunately, things were pretty turbulent down low, and the wind changed direction to a more northerly flow.  I lost altitude on a pass in front of launch and made the call to go in and land rather than scratch in the turbulence.

John followed shortly after, Doug had been on the ground for 45 to 60 minutes.  As I was breaking down Davidson tried to launch his para-glider and after almost being pushed backwards off launch, was able to escape the hill and come in to land.  John decided to assist the farmers with some plowing before we called it a night.  Great day finished off with a nice dinner on the way home.

Flight Time: 2 hrs 25 min

Highland Aerosports Ridgely, Maryland - 1st Flight

Over April vacation, we headed to the Eastern Shore for a few days to see my good friend Peter.  We had an awesome time and were able to enjoy some much needed relaxation.  Peter and I started hang-gliding at the same time and quickly became friends during flight school.

We both had to stop hang-gliding for a few years due to other commitments, but in 2007 we camped out for a week at Morningside and re-entered the sport.  I stuck with it but Peter has had to put his flying on hold again while he focuses on finishing school.  I told Peter I was interested in flying at Highland Aerosports in Ridgely, MD while I was there.  He'd been talking about the site for a few years as his house is 50 minutes from there.

I called Highland before we left and spoke with Sunny the owner about renting a glider so I would not have to transport mine down there.  Sunny was extremely helpful and welcomed me to come by and try the place out.

Peter and I arrived at Ridgely on Monday, which looked to be the best day on the forecast.  I met with Sunny and he showed me the Sport 2 I would be renting, a first production model versus the second year model I have; there have been some improvements but the overall wing was what I was used to.  We were introduced to the tug pilot Zach, and Adam, another instructor at Highland and the days ground crew. 

This was my first aerotow of the season, and only about my 20th aerotow ever, so I was a bit more nervous than when I foot launch.  I waited for things to calm down a bit as gusts were rolling down the runway all morning.  I launched around 2 pm when things seemed OK, although the tug pilot had commented that things were "interesting" upstairs after tugging 2 xc pilots in their topless gliders.  I had watched their takeoffs and thought it was fairly smooth.  Since they were in topless gliders and I in a lower class glider, I thought the conditions were good for me.

I took off about 30 minutes later.  Everything seemed smooth on the takeoff run even though it was 10 to 15mph winds down the runway.  All was going well until about 100ft off the deck, a huge boomer lit off under my left wing and I got rocked all over.  I just about had things back when I was hit again and the glider careened off to the right in a hard bank.  I looked off to my right and saw the treeline getting closer and closer as I veered toward them.  I was fast approaching lockout (when the glider goes off to the side of the tug plane so far that the controls are locked out and you can't recover), and knew I had to get things under control.  I mustered everything I had and jerked the glider back to the left.  I saved it and was able to get out of all the rough air and carry on.

I towed up through more junk air till about 1000' when things smoothed out.  The rest of the climb was easy in comparison.  Zach waved me off and I released @ 2500 in a nice thermal.  I climbed to 3100' while drifting back to base.  The winds were moving me at a good clip and I did not want to end up downwind of the runway/LZ, so I left the thermal to fly upwind and find another one.  No such luck, I hit what I believe was a downdraft wave as it was massive sink for 1/2 mile with vario pegged negative.  I finally broke out of it and found two small thermals that I tried to climb back out in, but they were being sheered apart.

I ended up landing with about 20 to 25 min.  I was congratulated by everyone there for my skills, although, I did not feel it was warranted after the disappointing flight.  Everyone on the ground and the tug pilot thought I was going to lockout.  About 45min later one of the "big" xc pilots returned with a small 10miler.  He was pushed down about the same time I was.

I'm happy I got to fly Ridgley, but I was not interested in repeating that takeoff a second time, so I packed up and Peter and I headed out early so we could all go to dinner.  The flight was a nice bonus to our trip to visit a friend.  The view of the farmlands for miles and miles is an impressive sight and I only my flight were a bit longer so I could take in more of the scenery.

Tom L. and I were in touch later that day, he had gone through massive rains in Florida while waiting for the comps to start.  Everyone at Highland was extremely helpful and pleasant to deal with.  I look forward to returning in the future, perhaps for a first attempt at a comp.

The Waiting Game

This was a day that looking at the sky, we should not have been able to stay up.  Morning cloud cover, high cirrus, light winds. Many pilots sunk out, and only a paraglider had any real success at soaring, and even he was eventually flushed.  Keith, Amy, Doug, Pete, Pat, Gary, PK, Bob, Jeff, and myself were all very aware of the meager conditions.

As we waited, I saw a line in the clouds miles away, and a wave of sunlight moving across the ground under it.  I had decided that I was going to wait it out, as I had seen too many pilots sink out already and the conditions couldn't get lighter.  Pete Judge was going to hit a patch of blue when it broke over the valley, but was held up by a tandem HG on launch and launched late in the window.

He took off when the next wave of cirrus was moving back in and sunk out almost immediately. PK launched and also had no success.  Things were looking grim as PK stays up when a butterfly passes wind.  I waited...and waited...and the next wave of blue carrying sunlight arrived. Almost on cue, the winds on launch turned on and the thermals started kicking in.

I launched in the first strong cycle I could get, and climbed off launch.  I followed the lift for maybe 200 yards and immediately turned back to launch where I knew there was more of it.  I saw too many previous pilots, attempt to jump to the high ridge right away, and then end in sled runs.  So I decided to work with what I had first, and see if I could get above the ridge.

I turned and burned with tight figure 8's in front of launch, and made it up to 100 ft below the top of the spine.  Once I reached this altitude and headed along the ridge, I felt I could keep climbing to the higher ground.  If not, I could easily scramble back to the lift if I lost the climb.

I hit the spine and continued to climb; everything was cake from there on out.  Jeff Curtis joined me in the air about 30 minutes later, and we soared the ridge alone till Bob Reynolds joined us as well.  Bob had sunk out earlier, and true to form, drove back up and took another shot at it with Keith B.  Keith still had trouble getting up over the ridge and ended up heading to the LZ early.  Bob managed to fly for a little over an hour till his shoulder said "enough".

The lift band was pretty narrow the whole afternoon/evening and at times it would move out away from the ridge a few hundred yards, and then tuck back in. The valley kept letting off heat from the day and we had some turbulence come in from time to time.  I ventured off to the west ridge and tried to soar the face, but after significant altitude loss, and no major gains, I decided to head back to the main ridge.  I made a couple more attempts at this as the day wore on, but no such luck.

This was a great day to work on maximizing lift and being patient; a little Tai Chi practice creeping into my hang-gliding.  I worked a bit on using best glide between sink and lift to maintain my altitude when things would shut down.  My highest climb was just over 3000' where the lift seemed to top out.  The rest of the afternoon, was complete cloud cover and no sunlight shown it's head anywhere near West Rutland. 

As the evening set in, the air became more textured and there was a considerable amount of turbulence as the valley let off the remaining heat.  This caused the descent to the LZ to be a bit rocky but no severe issues arose.  Jeff followed me out to the LZ after hours of soaring and thermalling.  I set up over the South treeline in Ducky's field, and burned off the excess altitude with figure 8's.  The LZ was calm as can be, and the air felt like glass.



Flight Time: 3 hours and 12 minutes.

Photo courtesy of Pat.  I didn't have my camera this day.