Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Party at the Mountain

Two weekends ago, Sunday May 20, most of the New England flying community rendezvoused at Mount Greylock in western Massachusetts.  I met Jeff and Randy in Leominster so we could carpool.  Rodger showed up as we were tying down the gliders on Randy's car.  We needed to take 2 vehicles so Jeff hoped in with Rodger and we drove the 2 hours to The Range, the primary LZ at the base of the mountain.  Randy, Jeff, myself, Filippo and his wife jumped in with Kip for the ride to launch.  (Rodger rode up with Lee and Peter).

Although we were early, the parking lot and mountain top was already crawling with pilots.  (59 pilots registered in the log book).  We rigged while talking with pilots and spectators alike.


Since the paraglider pilots showed it was soarable I wanted to launch, however I was trapped.  With some mild coaxing, Filippo and Randy moved to launch which opened a corridor for me to escape.  I immediately turned right after launching and found a quick pop over the road that put me near the top.

Notice the leaves are still absent on many of the trees near the summit.

However I was quickly back into the mix with everyone else, bobbing and weaving through the airborne crowd.



It was crowded but not unpleasantly so.  I easily climbed with others above launch several times before settling back down for more mountaintop flying.


I played the up-and-down game coming back to the mountain several times until I squandered my altitude at the same time Filippo, John, PK, and Randy decided to leave.  Sigh.  I was alone below launch as a sink-cycle sent many gliders towards the bail-out LZ below.  Seeing the writing on the wall, I flew north until I found a broken area of weak lift.


I left the climb too early trying to catch up with my XC buddies that previously abandoned me.  That left me low over the airport in the gap.


I usually don't find climbs here since the wind blowing through the gap shreds thermals.  However, today was my lucky day and I stumbled into a climb that allowed me to continue on.


The thermal started fading around 4500 feet (1300m).


I should have stayed in the climb, as I learned later, pilots were climbing to 7000 feet (2100m).  Instead I dove off to the tree covered mountains to the north.


I carefully looked for any other gliders to the north but didn't see any because they were further west.  Doh!  I flew a large slow search pattern and couldn't find a climb.  As I descended to tree-top height, I had to decide if I wanted to probably land outside the reach of the local cab company or return to the airport and get a cab ride back to the LZ.  In an uncharacteristic move, I decided to give up and return to the airport.  (No one, aside from Filippo, had a driver and I wasn't up for a long convoluted retrieve.)


I made it back to the airport but the fun wasn't over yet.  As you can see in the picture above, I'll probably land near, or on, the paved crossway between the taxiway on the left and the runway on the right.  There is a large runway sign and lights along the crossway as well.  I knew I should toss in a quick 360 and land short, but for some unknown reason I thought it would "be ok".  Right.

I glided down the middle of the grass between the taxiway and runway and *surprise* had to veer to the left to miss the runway sign.  Just as I was slowing to flare, the wind swung right to 90-degree cross to the runway.  Wouldn't have been an issue, except I was turning away from the runway sign (crossing downwind) and poorly flaring over the asphalt crossway.  I put on a good show for the sailplane pilots. At least I broke my fall to the asphalt with my elbow ... and my nose cone ... and my carbon base bar.  Sigh.

I picked myself up and walked the glider off the taxiway.  Aside from the road rash, me and glider seemed ok.  I looked up and several paraglider pilots taunted me by floating by far overhead.  I then watched Bianca land along the runway closer to the hangers.  I packed up and began hiking to the gate.  Bianca met me part way and carried my harness out of the airfield.  Thanks!

Gary drove in and graciously offered a ride.  Super!  I talked with Gary, Nick and Meagan while we waited for Stephan to land before driving back up the mountain.  Since we left Randy's car at the bottom and Filippo's wife drove Kip's truck down, I searched the parking lot for an open vehicle.  I found Keith's keys and drove his truck down.

Once back at the bottom I noticed the tip of my elbow had swollen to the size of a tennis ball.  It didn't hurt, but did look, um, odd.  Kip showed up in a taxi and said he landed with Jeff, who was keeping a watchful eye on their gliders, in a hayfield across the border in Vermont.  I followed Kip in Randy's car to their LZ. In another uncharacteristic move, I asked Jeff if he would pick up Randy, who landed much further north and out of cellphone range, by himself.  He was a great sport and signed on for a late night picking up Randy (and PK as well) by himself.

The slacker, me, rode back with Kip to the LZ and then rode east towards home with Lee and Peter.  We stopped for dinner which allowed me time to reflect on my less-than-stellar performance (on many levels) with good friends.  I realized maybe I was placing too much value on competing with myself and others and not enough on just enjoying flying with friends at a mountain in the spring in New England.  Using an admittedly poor analogy, "I didn't go home with the best woman at the party but it was still a heck of a party."

Pilots posted many videos from that day.


Flights: 1, Duration: 1:12, Distance: 13 miles (3-point)

1 comment:

Eva said...

Thanks nice write up :) I hope you don't mind I put a link to your blog on mine thought I'd best check. happy landings!