Backlogging - June 17, 2008 - Soaring Woodstock

I hadn't even wiped the smile off my face from my first soaring flight on Sunday when my H-0 to H-2 instructor, also an observer, called last night. He asked if I wanted to play hookie and go to Woodstock today because it was lookin' real good. Actually, a bunch of pilots were heading out as long as the forecast held in the morning. Even though my shoulders and neck muscles were still sore from my flight on Sunday (I'm just not used to any flights over 10 minutes! Wish I was still surfing. ) how could I resist two soarable days so close together! This ain't SoCal! Well, the forecast held today and I was out of work by 12:00, and on the highway by 12:30. On the way out, the wind was gusting hard and blowing my car around. My usual thought of, 'nope, not flying today' came into my head. I swear I'm not a pessimist, I just like to be plesantly surprised. I met up with my observer and another even newer Hang2 in the LZ around 2:00. This was to be his second mountain launch and he would soar. Big congrats to him for getting an hour and 40 minutes and at least 2K over today. The wind was pretty strong up top while I was getting set up but there were nice, easier cycles that were very launchable so as soon as I was set up and preflighted, I hooked in and walked up to launch. I had 2 wire guys, the cycle was nice and Clear! I had a strong launch and cleared the slot quickly. Ding! Elevator up! Boy, was my vario singing. In no time, I was 500' over and climbing. In about 10 minutes I was 1,400' over and then the wind really picked up. I was in 400fpm lift and going up fast when I looked down. I was pointed straight out from the ridge and going backwards. Well, I didn't like that so I sped up and I was still going backwards though not as fast. Okay...I sped up more and this really only allowed me to stay put but I still wasn't going forward. Gotta admit, that's a little unnerving. But I was still out front and I remembered to try to get under the stronger lift band. I dove down a little bit and found very easily penetrable lift. This exact scenario was one of the essays I had to write for my Hang 2 and I was totally prepared for it! I thought for a second about landing after that but after flying in the good stuff for a few more minutes, I thought better of it. But I did decide to stay way out front and if I sank out, so be it. That turned out just fine for me because there was tons of lift well in front of the ridge. That's one thing about Woodstock - the lift band is huge. There was definitely a lot of thermal lift out there also, cummies everywhere. And lucky for me I was still able to get high. I spent most of the time boating around about 1,500' over and way out front. I flew with a very large raptor at 2,000' over launch. It wasn't a vulture, but I'm not sure what it was. There were lots of birds out today. The highest I got was 2,150' over and when I hit an hour in the air, I debated landing. See, there was 4 of us up and I didn't want to be the first to land and I was having fun but I was really sore still, I was in a pretty strong headwind, and it was certainly more active flying than it was on Sunday. I also saw some pretty developed clouds with pretty dark bases beginning their path across the valley. Add it all up and I decided I'd had enough. As I left the ridge and headed out to the valley, I was still climbing. God I wish it was this easy every day. I made it to the LZ at 1,500'AGL and got to have some fun burning altitude. Woohoo! My approach was fast, and I had another no-stepper right on the crest of the LZ. Sweet. I got 1 hour 11 minutes and 2,150' over today. I'm sure I could have done better but I really was sore. I think I need to work out...or fly more.