Page 1.
6-21-08 was a work night for me; (Stan) So I tried a Triangle. I was always within quick retrieval to my house and my awesome wife Sandi was monitoring the radio from the house; ready to come to the rescue in a moment so I could get to work with no worries.
Here's the IGC file:
Here's the Google Earth
file with Photos to view along the track log:
Below, is an overview of this flight shown in Google Earth. Also:
This Photo below is a link to the flight that you may open within the Google Earth software on your computer without the photos along the track; which makes for a smaller file to download:
Hey Bobo, it looks like I hit a bunch of E-Tags on the way down to Otisville... anyway, I made it to Otisville first. Then I tried to fly directly over Rock Hill, NY to go towards Woodbourne, NY. But the lift over Yankee Lake melted off (usually the Lakes trigger something) so I had to loose progress and drift back to Wurtsboro and look for a save; and have Wurtsboro Airport has an LZ if necessary. That strategy worked and I saved it just NW of Wurtsboro. Then I was more carful; not to let myself get too low again.
I watched the cloud cycles carefully while thermalling; hoping to plan my next cross / upwind move intelligently. The clouds were working well as long as I did not go to a dying one and looked for fresh clouds or at least young clouds. The sky was also cycling, BIG TIME, which is how I almost drilled in Wurtsboro on the way back from Otisville.
So then, using the above strategy, I worked my way towards Thunder Hill; E-Tag 10. Since I chose to be careful and look for lift lines, I found some. Now it was fun! Yippee...! By playing it smart and careful I was able to stay high all the way to Thunder Hill Where there was an awesome thermal and I got to 7 thousand, 600 + feet!
See:
Hey Bobo, I could have E-tagged numbers 12, 11 and maybe even 19? If we were still playing E-Tag. This was a first for me ever over Thunder Hill and wow; I will now include Thunder Hill as a great trigger when I'm out here again. So now decision time. Go back to Ellenville and end this... or fly towards the Catskills...hum...but if I fly back, then I'll have to land... and this will be over with. I'll be on the ground again...
I had just a little time so I flew towards the Catskills; there were great looking clouds there. See:
I went to Sugarloaf Mountain. But this time; when I got there the sky decided to cycle down. Ah Oh... Now I had to shoot back to Ellenville Airport. I almost landed in some fields along the way.
I thought I was being careful... nope, I had to make it harder on myself by going to Sugarloaf Mtn. even though I was specked out over Thunder Hill and had an easy glide back to Launch to complete my triangle. But it was SOOOOO much fun out here however; I didn't want to go back just yet.
This example shows how great the glide going back to launch would have been at this exact moment:
Or maybe those great clouds would have melted off. They did when I pressed on over to Sugarloaf Mountain.
So... after getting to Sugarloaf Mountain and then finding a dying thermal...
I had a surprise moderate South cross wind heading back. So my last leg of the attempted triangle; ( I say attempted because I wasn't able to make it back over launch to close the triangle; I just had to go to Sugarloaf) was a lot more difficult then anticipated!
Ok, this next page will show a few Photos to help illustrate the ending of this real fun flight.
Thank you my Sandi R. Butler-Roberts for being so vigilant, ready with my SUV.
Click here for the rest of the photos from 6-21-08.
Click button below for an FAI triangle calculator
