Volcanic Peak, 376' agl, Face 025º, 0.2mi Long

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
Monday is four days away as I type this but conditions look good for Volcanic Peak. (West southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico (USA).
If forecast holds (Fat Chance) winter clothes will be required.
Robin and I are going to follow the forecast for the next four day and run out there if it's NNE.

Robin in the LZ @ Volcanic Peak.JPG (48.68 KiB) Viewed 8324 times

[RobinHastings]

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018:
Well, yes. Airtime was obtained today. Briefly. Bill and I arrived at the Volcanic Peak launch about 10:30, listening to the northeast wind singing through the tower. It sure looked soarable to me! Temperature was 40 degrees or so, though skies were gradually getting cloudier, and I started setting up the U2-160. By the time I was ready, however, the wind had become cyclical, from 5 mph (or less) up to 15 mph. About noon I launched in 15. and by the time I reached the end of the ridge it had dropped to almost nothing. I made one turn, headed back towards launch, and by the time I got halfway back I was below the road. I turned out to the landing zone, and I didn't quite reach the flag, though my landing was decent. So, it was a flight, but it wasn't the flight the forecasts had led us to hope for. By the time Bill and I reached home, the winds had shifted from the morning's north and northeast to southeast, and early cloudless skies had turned to snow flurries. What a day! But there's truth in the comment, "A bad day flying still beats a good day working." We were glad to be out there again.
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018:
Well, yes. Airtime was obtained today. Briefly. Bill and I arrived at the Volcanic Peak launch about 10:30, listening to the northeast wind singing through the tower. It sure looked soarable to me! Temperature was 40 degrees or so, though skies were gradually getting cloudier, and I started setting up the U2-160. By the time I was ready, however, the wind had become cyclical, from 5 mph (or less) up to 15 mph. About noon I launched in 15. and by the time I reached the end of the ridge it had dropped to almost nothing. I made one turn, headed back towards launch, and by the time I got halfway back I was below the road. I turned out to the landing zone, and I didn't quite reach the flag, though my landing was decent. So, it was a flight, but it wasn't the flight the forecasts had led us to hope for. By the time Bill and I reached home, the winds had shifted from the morning's north and northeast to southeast, and early cloudless skies had turned to snow flurries. What a day! But there's truth in the comment, "A bad day flying still beats a good day working." We were glad to be out there again.
-Robin

https://youtu.be/6aMfj8kSFN0

[RobinHastings]

Thanks as always, Bill, for the instructive video. It's kind of significant that the flag, in the last frames, is doing nothing. If the lift isn't there, it's really tough to soar!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

Thanks as always, Bill, for the instructive video. It's kind of significant that the flag, in the last frames, is doing nothing. If the lift isn't there, it's really tough to soar!
-Robin

My flying friend, Don Ray, use to say to me: "It's tough to soar with eagles when your working with turkeys." (Never could figure out what he meant.)
ANYWAY Robin is coming by tomorrow to pick me up at 9:00 am. I'll drive for him and try to get some video of his flight.

Robin on a 200º heading from the truck toward the LZ, in line with the tower..JPG (55.1 KiB) Viewed 7983 times

[Bob Kuczewski]

ANYWAY Robin is coming by tomorrow to pick me up at 9:00 am. I'll drive for him and try to get some video of his flight.

Say "Howdy" to Robin for me. I hope he gets a good safe flight

[Bill Cummings]

Forgot to say hi to Robin for you Bob. I was bringing him up to date on the USHPA proposal that is to be voted on.
I told him that most of the information that I found at the oz report were leaning toward a No vote but that reports from the PG website were leaning toward a Yes vote. Of course some of the Nay Sayers, like myself, are non USHPA members that actually aren't eligible to vote. However several RD's have expressed that a No vote is the way to go. One thing I forgot to say is that since it was a binary vote that would reduce the RD's and the number of regions or keep things as they are that my advice should in no way be considered a vote in favor of the way things are. Things are bad as they are but I see the proposal as being worse.

ANYWAY The flags in the Rio Grande Valley were showing north wind at about 10 mph and as we planted the American flag in the LZ it was trailing toward the south but only because it was caught on a bush. (No wind in the LZ.)

At the top we saw a sign warning that 8 rattle snakes had be seen at one time in back of launch. This did chill our efforts to check for thermaling hawks skyward. Looking skyward while walking issued forth an abundance of trepidation.

Caution. Don't look up!.JPG (68.11 KiB) Viewed 7967 times

I'll let Robin fill you in since it was his turn to fly.

[RobinHastings]

The January 7th expedition to Volcanic Peak was fun, pleasant, and productive, in that we inspected my U2-160 pretty well before I stepped to launch. When we arrived the winds were right up the ramp at 10-15 mph. That is quite suitable for launching and maybe soaring this site. By the time I was ready the winds were - well, actually, there weren't any. Stray puffs, every now and then. We had a good time telling stories to each other as I waited in my harness, and at one point I got hooked in again, as we saw 5 mph bubbling up the hill - but, alas, it was not to be. We finally packed up the glider, drove down the hill, and picked up some good sized rocks with which to maintain our roadside dams. (Build a little dam on the downhill side of a road, in the arroyo, and eventually the rains will silt it up and smooth it out. If there's rain, that is...) We got home by 4:00 pm. No airtime today - but the temperatures were nice, the scenery was great, and even the roads weren't bad. As they say in Bill's native Minnesota, "Could be worse!"
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Saturday, January 26th:
Well, a volcano doesn't have to erupt to make things tough on humanity. The winds looked good as we left Las Cruces, about 8:30 this morning - 10 to 12 mph out of the north and northeast. Optimism bubbled over as we drove towards Volcanic Peak. And when we reached the launch, guess what we found? A whole lot of nothing. It was a cloudless, warm, beautiful, CALM day. In a few minutes, with the glider still on the rack, we busied ourselves cleaning up all the trash that had blown in to the launch area. By 11:00 am we called it a bust, and drove back down the road. Thanks to our efforts at staving off erosion, it's staying in pretty good shape. To that end we also built a couple of dams across minor arroyos down near the landing zone. Then we made the drive back home. Not a bad day, but not very good for airtime. Still, considering that it's 20 degrees below zero in much of the nation, and we were enjoying a sunny day in the 60's, it could have been worse. Lots worse. OK - on to the RGSA meeting tonight!
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Wednesday, October 30, 2019:
I had already done some flying this week, a nice Saturday afternoon at Magdalena Rim - but, when the winds are right, you have to go! (The last time we flew here was in November, almost a year ago.) A cold front blew through our region today, bringing strong NE winds and some chilly temperatures. I thought, at noon, things looked like a blowout, but Bill Cummings said, "If you don't have anything better to do today, let's check out the road - and maybe it'll be flyable." Well, the road out to Volcanic Peak was looking pretty good - and the conditions, given a lull to launch in, were flyable indeed. We got to the launch by 2:00 pm MDT (and don't forget, we're back on Standard Time this Sunday). The winds were coming in at 20+ mph, right up the ramp, but when I stood there with my Sport 2 it was already trying to fly. I waited until the winds lulled to 15-18 mph, and I had control of the glider. Bill cleared right out of the way, I got about one step in and I was flying, rising up and turning right. The ridge lift was good; it didn't take long to get 100 ft over launch height, at this 375-foot hill. Just making S-turns today, I made it up to 400 ft over. (Sometimes I sank down to 50 or 100, but there was usually something to sustain me right after that.) After 25 minutes of smooth ridge lift flying (and occasional thermals) I headed out when I got back down to ridge height. Heading upwind, with no additional lift, I ended up 100 yards short of the flag, landing in the creosote bushes but doing it fairly well, for me. Duration was about 30 minutes of real fun airtime, and I am ever grateful to Bill for a) Suggesting it and b) Making it happen. Isn't autumn wonderful?

Bill loading up the glider after a really nice day, Volcanic Peak in the background to the southwest.

BillCummings_VP_10-30-19.JPG (82.45 KiB) Viewed 6152 times