Ascutney: South Launch

A small crew flew from the south launch of Mount Ascutney yesterday. I stopped on the way to the mountain to work out some retrieve details with Julie. I met Jake, Judy, John, and Greg at the base of the mountain at 11am. We were almost to the top when I got a call from Allen at the base. Oops. (Allen made it up later, but decided not to fly). The winds were forecasted to be SE but some of the pilots thought the winds were coming from some other directions. Without any clouds it was tough to verify the direction so we hiked out to the south launch without our gliders. It was blowing in lightly when we arrived at launch so we made a quick trip back out to get our gliders.

Jake and I were soon ready to launch, but were blocked by John and Greg. Greg had problems with his radio. We had to contact Julie so we could change frequencies. Meanwhile John was having radio problems and then had some sort of problem with his VG. Jake discovered that one of his bungee locks for his parachute was missing. Sigh. Maybe I will launch tomorrow! One by one each problem was solved and we started launching. John and Jake got off into a nice cycle and soon were above launch. A few minutes later Greg moved to launch and got the end of that cycle and got up. By the time I made it to launch the wind was too cross to launch. I waited, with Allen's help, until it was launchable. I should have waited until it was launchable AND soarable.

I got hit with sink right out of the gate. I had to quickly make a decision between the "scuba field" LZ and something more friendly to the west. It was an easy decision so I continued my plummet to the west. Once I rounded the mountain it become painfully obvious that the wind from the southeast. Crap, I was flying on the lee side. The air dropping over the mountain was smashing the thermals escaping from the rocks below. It was like one of those "bull rides" at country and western bars. I managed to extract enough altitude to drift to the west of the mountain and the LZs we use for the northwest launch. I found a nice little thermal that actually got me back to 2500 feet before it faded away. I headed towards Greg who was climbing to the south, but was rewarded with 900 fpm down as I approached the rising terrain. Crap! I had to turn around with my tail between my legs and head to the LZ, making it there with just enough height.

Julie soon showed up with the truck and we both watched Jake and Greg climb out over the mountain. They flew together for awhile, but Greg decided to stretch for the clouds above the convergence line to the east while Jake continued north in the blue. Jake landed around 25 miles to the north and Greg landed around 56 miles to the north. Jake said he heard John was moving up the river after he landed. I don't know how far John made it, but he had to rub it in with an article on the Vermont Hang Gliding forum titled "Hibernating bears blow comp pilot out of water". It's nice to have such good friends!

John Chambers had a nice out-and-back from West Rutland yesterday flying in the same convergence. You can read more about his flight on Al's logbook.