Monday, July 26, 2010

Pulpit - June 7, 2010

Fun flight for my birthday at the Pulpit! It was overcast and wet in the morning, but quite nice in the afternoon, though it was a NNW cross. Weird cloud formations while the weather shifted which turned into streets as the day wore on. Bacil was off before I even set up and he easily soared while I got ready. I launched about an hour after him and didn't find much on the ridge. The thermals were trashy and I couldn't find anything cohesive for awhile. Then Bacil headed out to land while I was a few hundred over the ridge by Rt 16. Finally I found something that got me up about 1,400 over. From there I relaxed a little and noticed a nice street running toward the NNW over McConnellsburg. It wasn't too far from the ridge so I flew to it. Before long I got to the lift and started climbing. Rather than try to thermal in the lift, I just kept flying straight and by the time I was over town I had climbed to about 2,200' over launch. On the far side of town the street ended and so did the lift so I cruised around looking for something else. After searching McConnellsburg and coming up empty, I headed South down the valley over the giant fields next to Rt. 522, also in the direction of another cloud. I was down to about 900' over launch when I found the thermal that was feeding the cloud. It was by far the nicest climb of the day and I was quickly at cloudbase, 3,350' over launch. It was a steady 3-500 fpm. From there, I kept exploring the valley but seemed to find all the sink available and soon was setting up my approach. Landing was uneventful except that the field was chest high wheat. But we knew it so we both landed fine. Huge thanks to Ward for wiring me off and driving. Lots of video but I'm planning to fly tomorrow.

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