Team Challenge (Day 3)

Although less than the day before, the wind was a bit too strong for the beginning competition pilots so the day was cancelled during the second safety committee meeting.  However, a dozen or so pilots flew later in the afternoon and had an enjoyable afternoon floating above the ridge.

The Aerosnauts drove to a diner in the valley for lunch.  We talked with the waiter Tyrell and ended up with a CD from his band "Camp Normal".  We listened to the CD on the way back and were jamming and quite impressed.  Snot bad.

Crowd enjoying the sun on Henson's "beach".

The cathedral under the ramp.

Buddy and I hooked into the harnesses attached to the ramp and helped about a dozen pilots "elevator" off launch.

Tip showing off for the crowd.

After all the pilots that wanted to fly were thrown off  the ramp, we joined an official party at a Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga for food, drink, and lots of karaoke.  Some performers rewrote lyrics to include hang gliding references.  Definitely a good time!

A "small" drink.

Team Challenge (Day 2)

Day 2 was the kind blown-out day were you could sleep-in instead of waiting around for an official announcement.  We listened to Mike Barber talk about yesterday's flying, Dennis Pagan talk about cloud-suck, had an interactive session on thermal etiquette that looked like some type of a new-age dance session, and a session on programming and using GPS instruments.  I helped the group of Flytec 6030 owners program their flight computers so they could find some "goodies" planted around the property using provided waypoints linked together into routes.

Winning team of Flytec 6030 pilots finding hidden caches.

We watched the space station fly overhead as the sun was setting.  Very picturesque.

We rounded the day out with pizza, beer, music, friends, and the boogers putting a dozen "daddy long-legs" under a plastic cup.

Team Challenge (Day 1)

I was drenched with rain as I pulled into my new home for the week at Henson's Gap on Friday evening.  I was greeted by Steve L and other pilots, found a spot were we could plant 6 tents, and started setting up camp.  Allen, Jim, Dan, and Doug showed up a bit later and everyone got tents setup before more rain arrived.


We spent Saturday morning sloshing around playing with waypoints, radios, and the other stuff that always seems attention prior to a competition.  Later Saturday afternoon we drove to Lookout Mountain Flight Park to visit with everyone participating in the Women's Fly-In.  We talked, bought things, ate, drank, and listened to music until late evening.

Sunday was the first day of the 2009 Team Challenge and the weather cooperated.  The forecast looked like a cake-walk ridge-soaring day.  The beginning XC pilots, known as "C" level pilots, would fly 8.3 miles south to a grass strip known as "Dr. Dale's", crossing two small gaps and a set of elevated power lines draped over the ridge.  The intermediate pilots, known as "B" pilots, would fly a bit further to a blue water tower and then return to land at the Henson's Gap LZ.  The more experienced "A" pilots were responsible for helping the "C" and "B" pilots reach their goals and then turn around and fly back to Dr. Dale's field.  The flight from Henson's to Dr. Dale's would be in a slightly crossing headwind.

The wind was blowing in nicely as Mark initiated the day by launching his Ultra Falcon.  As expected he quickly climbed away which, of course, allowed many of the new "C" pilots to breath a little easier.

My team, the "Aerosnauts", decided to launch as a group.  (Don't blame me for the name, its snot my fault.)  Jim launched first, quickly followed by Dan and Erin.  I got held up on launch with a 90-degree cross for several minutes.  The first 3 pilots were already moving down the ridge by the time Allen and I launched.  I floated up and found a nice ride to cloud base but I couldn't help Allen find it.  Meanwhile Jim was doing an excellent job pointing out lift along the ridge for Dan and Erin.  Jim, Dan, and Erin were moving on so I finally left Allen behind when he was joined by several other pilots.  (Alan was doing just fine, but I had hoped we would all fly together near cloud base and simply wanted to help Alan catch up with the rest of the team.)

I caught up with Dan and Erin who were doing very well and continued on to help mark lift further south.  Once they cleared the first gap, I jumped over the second gap to help mark lift but ended up stuck on the ridge myself.  Jim was climbing near the water tower and Allen was cruising along at cloud base looking down on all of us.  Dan and Erin struggled in a difficult weak area for quite some time.  Eri n eventually had to head out into the valley and land out for the first time.  She landed very close to goal, somewhere around a mile short.  Dan gained some altitude and pushed on to the next section of ridge and soon had goal within reach.  (Dan played around on the ridge awhile before going in to land.)

Erin

Dan

Jim was already heading back to launch as Allen and I rounded the water tower.  The return trip was quick and uneventful.  Once I was sure Allen and Jim could easily reach their goal I turned back around to my goal at Dr. Dale's.  (Allen and Jim did land at their goal field but only after Allen dropped his radio somewhere on approach.)  Although I made a couple turns here and there, I essentially rode the ridge back south until I had my goal within reach.  As usual, I encountered unwanted lift on the way across the valley.  I waited until the lift passed by and then spiraled down for a sweet landing.  In summary we  had 4 of 5 pilots in goal, with the 5th just a short distance away from goal.  Erin had her first out-landing, and Allen, Dan, and Jim had their first goal landings. 

After checking in and having a big bowl of hot homemade soup for supper we listened to Mark Stump entertainingly talk about flying for fun.

Flights: 1, Duration: 2:15, Distance: 25.3 miles

Trial Run

I originally planned to practice with the team at Henson's Gap in Dunlap Tennessee for a few days before the Team Challenge. However the Tennessee forecast was plastered with images of pouring rain so the team decided to fly at Ellenville New York before heading further south.

I met Allen and Jim at the LZ. I talked with Dave H and Tony while Allen and Jim completed their waivers. (Dave was doing some sewing on his ATOS sail before he took off for Tennessee). We tossed their gliders on my truck and drove to launch.

It was lightly blowing in when we arrived. Moments later Dan and Doug arrived and offered to drive my truck back down to the LZ where they needed to pay their flight fees. Sweet.

Allen

Jim

The wind got progressively stronger as we setup gliders and chatted with the local pilots. I just zipped up the last zipper when someone launched and slowly climbed out. After deciding on a radio frequency, Jim and I suited up and headed to launch. (Allen suited up as well but wasn't happy with they way his harness impeded his run.) Jim had to wait for the wind to swing to a desirable direction before running down the slope and into the air. Jim was just maintaining in front of launch so I chatted with some pilots until Jim started climbing above launch. I ran off in nice conditions and also started my slow climb up.

Gliders flying around launch

Initially the air was flat with just a few small thermals mixed in. I floated above the top of the back ridge line and started searching for stronger areas of climb . Meanwhile more pilots were running off so we had a good sprinkling of thermal indicators along the ridge. Some breaks in the the overcast allowed the sun to produce some strong rowdy thermals that lasted about 20 minutes before they faded and we returned to the mellower weak thermals. This alternating pattern of strong rowdy thermals and gentle weak thermals continued through most of the afternoon.

At one point I had a large military transport plane passed 500 - 700 feet over my head. Needless to say I quickly heading away from the planes old path to avoid any sinking wake vortices. I also watched the commercial passenger jets flying along behind the ridge.

I also noted the trees starting to change color on the high ground.

I spent the afternoon flying around with probably 20 other pilots that decided that flying was more rewarding than work.  ;-)  I also got a chance to fly with some of my Team Challenge team mates which should help us.

Doug

Dan

After landing and packing away our gliders, we drove to southern Pennsylvania before stopping for sleep in our trucks before continuing south Friday morning.

Flights: 1, Duration 2:49

Mount Washington Sled-fest

Rhett wanted to fly Mount Washington before he heads south for the winter and I thought last Thursday might be the day.  I gave Rhett a call the day before so he could clear his schedule.  Once word got out that we were heading to Mount Washington, Dan G, John P, and Steve P also decided to give it a shot.

I left home around 6:00 AM so I could meet everyone at the parking lot at the base of the auto road and point out the LZs and warn them about the fickle weather common in the valley.  (For example, the wind at the base of the Wildcat ski slopes was south at 24 km/h (15 mph) while the winds just a couple miles away at the toll road was north at 8 km/h (5 mph.)

Steve and the cog railway engine

The wind on top was light northeast (almost 90 degrees across launch) instead of the light southeast as predicted.  I hoped the winds would switch around to the predicted direction before clouds engulfed the summit or it started blowing down.  We played the waiting game while watching clouds form as the southerly and northerly winds collided in the valley below us.  We also watched the clouds push in from the southeast and flow over the ridge into Tuckerman's Ravine.

Steve and Rhett

Dan

Once the the wind dropped to nothing or came in a bit, we setup our wings the best we could on the rocky slope.  Dan was the first to launch and even climbed a bit above launch on his way out to a gap between the clouds.  We could hear Dan hooting and hollering as he flew alongside the clouds!  He really should relax and enjoy the moment.  ;-)

I launched next.  I flew through a weak climb hoping to find something stronger on the south side.  That didn't happen and I was soon carving my way through the clouds over Tuckerman's Ravine and below launch.  I made a few turns in the bowl to the north before buzzing spectators along the road.  I might have been a bit too aggressive as one photographer fell back into his car has I zoomed straight over his head.  I managed to climb several hundred feet over the last knob but moved on to the LZ when it faded away.

Dan announced the wind in the LZ was from the south, directly opposite the northerly flow we saw earlier.  That didn't surprise me, but the velocity and turbulence did.  At 240m (800 feet) the leaves were still and the wind was 5 km/h (3 mph), but on the deck the leaves were thrashing and it was blowing 35 km/h (20 mph).  I circled the LZ and noted the parked cars and people milling around at the same time I noticed multiple dusties whipping along the driveways and walking trails.  Add in a sudden 45m (150 foot) drop in rotor turbulence and I was running downwind to a larger field nestled between some trees but further away from the ridge throwing off the rolling bundles of joy.  I flicked the glider around about 1/2 the way along the field, threaded it between some trees, and hovered down to a no-step no-flare base-bar landing in front of a fence.  Yeehaw!

The winds subsided a bit as I tried to warn the other pilots about the landing conditions.  Steve got a taste of the horizontal rollers on his approach but he came in during a relative lull and was spared the full treatment.  By the time Rhett and John arrived the wind was substantially less, but still strong enough to keep them busy and to cause them to come up short.

I didn't get any flying video, but here are some clips from before and after the flight.  Steve flew with 2 video cameras so he should have some nice footage.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their flights, although more airtime would have been better.  Thanks Marilyn for driving the truck down!

I noticed too many trees starting to loose their green color which can only mean cold weather and endless days plastered to the ground are nearby.

Flights: 1, Duration: 0:18