The Scott Wise Report
Friday, June 3, 2011
Well, a whole lot of pilots had a good time flying yesterday at H-Port. Among the pilots present were Canadians Bob Grant and Patrick O'Donnell, Bill Vickery, Jeff Ingersoll, Jim Kolynich, Ed Jowett, Myself, Moritz Wagner and Matt Calladine. The wind was a bit on the high side around the noon time frame, but gung-ho Bill V decided to go for it (not sure of his launch time). He was considering a possible XC flight. I got up to launch around 3:30 pm and Bill was still in the air at the time - not too high though. Within about half an hour of arriving it seemed that Bill had gotten flushed to the church LZ. But he had gotten pretty high earlier in his flight, and upon arriving back up top from the LZ reported that the air, while a bit swift, hadn't been particularly rough or rowdy. Around 5 pm a number of already set up pilots, began seeing conditions that looked comfortable. Bob Grant volunteered to go first. He took off and got above launch pretty quickly. But the lift did look a bit variable. This became evident when Moritz, launching next, failed to gain anything after launch and had a short flight to the church LZ. But it seemed like Moritz may have been the victim of bad timing since Bob G, also losing some altitude at this time, regained to over launch and continued to soar and thermal and gain out. As I recall, Ed Jowett was the next to launch, then it was my turn. I launched at 5:49 pm. The wind was still a bit breezy, but not too bad. One thing is for sure, the upper launch needs a good trim. I turned right after launch as that seemed to be where Bob and Ed were circling and gaining. In deed, there was some good lift in the bowl to the north of launch. And that was the case on multiple occasions during my flight. As I flew, one after another of the rest of the pilots launched and joined our squadron. It would be nice to hear about their flights. As for me, I landed at 6:29 with 40 minutes air time. My max altitude was 3,629 ft MSL (2,529 above valley level and 1,779 ATO). Just before deciding to land a cycle had dropped me to just above my cut off point for shooting a top landing so I decided to take her down. The top LZ has just been very roughly ploughed and thankfully I had a powder puff stand up landing among the large over turned clods of dirt and turf. Walking the glider off the field was a harder work out than flying! Ed Jowett had preceded me into the LZ and next in after me was Jim K, then Patrick O, and then Bob G. Patrick could have used a bit more speed and/or a firmer flair, as he kind of belly flopped on landing. As far as I know, Jeff Ingersoll and Bill Vickery were the last HG pilots remaining in the air and were (minimal) ridge soaring for a good long while after many of us landed. I think, however, that they had to land in the valley as a result. Finally, Matt C launched his PG at the end of the day and himself soared the ridge for a nice while. So 9 pilots showed up and got some air time. Nearly everyone got to fly as long as they wanted. Good day!
S C Wise
Here's another from May of 2012 (http://www.skydogsports.com/hg-1/2012%20NY.htm):
Thursday May 31, 2012
The Scott Wise Report
On 5/31/2012 12:54 PM, S C Wise wrote:
Right now in Bath -
Valley winds make me think it's blowing swiftly up top at H-Port. The flag up at Mossy (line of sight from my back yard) is blowing mainly NNW - N, but predominantly NNW. The flag is not whipping around as it would be if it was blowing 25 mph. It looks more like it's around 15 mph). Sky is at or above 50% overcast with some "darker" bottomed (but I wouldn't say threatening) clouds here and there. I'm still going to head up soon, but I'm not rushing at this point. The best time for a flight may be in the later afternoon.
--------------------------------------
The Flight
Got an interesting flight in at H-Port today.
It seemed a little strong this morning, along with some clouds with dark under surfaces, so I took care of some other business until it looked like it was moderating some - and not ODing. Somewhere around 3:30 it started to look nice and I headed to launch. When I arrived Linda S's car was there, but I think she was up at the upper launch. The sock at the lower launch was showing some WNW cross cycles (unexpected) so while observing how often this occurred I trimmed some tall weeds and sumac over growth at the top of the lower launch. I was also keeping an eye
on the wind streamer that I've put up on the top of the hill behind the launches. It (being in somewhat "cleaner" air) seemed to show a balance of NW - NNW winds. Linda finally appeared and we
both made our way with our gliders to the upper launch. Just about as I was finishing up my set up Herb Horning showed up. The question arose as to who would wind dummy (launch first). Vacillation took place until I was suited up and ready to go - so I became the default "wind technician". : - )
I launched at 5:04 (how'd it get that late?) in a nice cycle, shortly after watching a red tail circle up, out in front of launch. After a couple passes I found some consistent lift to the north of the upper launch and began to circle. I began to go up and up. Nice. I kept going up. : - ) The lift got stronger as I climbed and oddly seemed to drift around a bit. Generally, the air was going up a little north of the area behind the north launch. Now and then I noticed my GPS registering 450 - 500 fpm up. Things were beginning to look small. I could just about see up Keuka Lake to Penn Yan. This occurred as I reached 4,631 ft MSL (3,531 over the valley and 2,858 ft over launch).
The lift was very pleasant for the most part and felt real nice and
surprisingly smooth. But, in an untypical way, the lift began to get a little choppier up high. After a 5 - 10 minute wait Linda launched. It wasn't easy to see how good her progress was but it seemed to me like she was climbing out in a similar manner as to what I experienced. I was figuring that she'd catch up with me. I noticed, however, that after gaining out some, she began to head north along the ridge. She had talked about preferring a tension free landing at the grass strip just south of Hammondsport (the church LZ, with the bordering dark brown ploughed field could easily have presented some low level thermal turbulence) and it ended up that was where she was headed. I ended up following her for a mile or so to the north before realizing her intention. Still being at around 4K MSL, I decided to head back to the ridge top (and maybe back to above launch) to relocate some nice lift.
Well, lift became a little scarce and at a grand over launch I looked down and saw the wind flag on the hill behind launch blowing out of the NE! Hmmmmmm. I looked at the south launch and the wind sock was pointing the wrong direction - down hill. Herb had his PG laid out on the upper launch and the sock there was (at that moment) still blowing up. What the heck? I looked over to the wind markers in the (new) alternate top LZ and they were also blowing out of the NE. At one point I saw them turn to the ENE. Yikes!
I think this fairly quick (as far as I'd noticed) wind switch psyched me out some and convinced me that the direction change had also shut down the other wise nice lift cycle. I lost a couple hundred more feet hoping to locate new lift, while, at the same time, heading to the air above the (new) alternate top LZ.
I chose to be nice and safe and set up an extended length set up to drop into this alt. LZ (only my second landing there). By the time I was at final approach altitude, the wind had aligned with the long dimension of the field (parallel with Mt Wash. Rd.). This is not unusual and one of the things I like about this field - i.e., lots of nice straight final approach distance - with a very gentle up slope on the first part of the field, ending with a generally flat (ideal target) touch down area.
As I came in I did hit a minor burble of air but noticeably less then I usually encounter over the regular top LZ. I came up a little short of the flat section and had a not bad landing 100 yards back on the gentle up slope. I ended my flare a little high and gently plopped down. It felt like I got a stronger puff of air just as I flared for what, otherwise, would have been a perfect touch down. All things considered, this was another nice touch down in this less experienced field. My touch down time was 5:31 pm for a total air time of 27 minutes. I'm sure I would have had more time had I gotten to launch an hour or more sooner, but I enjoyed the flight and loved the great climb out. Too bad the wind rotated close to 90° to the NE. I didn't expect that, and Herb got screwed out a flight for the second day in a row. He should have jumped (pardon the pun) at the chance of being the wind dummy.
Scott W
These are just a few (very few) of the many great hang gliding photos available at SkyDogSports.com!!
- Patrick_and_Scott_2011_IMG_8576.jpg (31.17 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Patrick_and_Scott_ready_to_launch_2011_IMG_8580.jpg (38.95 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_on_Launch_2011_IMG_8594.jpg (26.3 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_on_Top_2011_IMG_0847.jpg (14.28 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_ready_for_takeoff_2011_IMG_2282.jpg (58.56 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_setting_up_landing_2011_IMG_8600.jpg (15.89 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_Wise_and_Ed_Jowett_2011_IMG_6676.jpg (18.42 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_Wise_contemplating_flight_2011_IMG_2275.jpg (21.65 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Scott_Wise_launch_2011_IMG_6668.jpg (28.49 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- SkyDog_2011_IMG_0818.jpg (10.8 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- SkyDog_2011_IMG_6629.jpg (8.32 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- SkyDog_ready_to_fly_2011_IMG_2277.jpg (27.88 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
- Patrick_Scott_Maureen_IMG_8530.jpg (56.74 KiB) Viewed 8094 times
Thanks to Bob (SkyDog) and Maureen for all these great photos!!
