Boy Scouts cleaning up (after pilots?) at Woodstock Photo by Christy Huddle

January Hangola

Sheila Gardner

Monday, January 1
High Rock. Kelvin Pierce, Bob Gillisse, Mike Chevalier, Terry Spencer, Allen Sparks, Ed Reno and Gary Smith greeted the first day of the 3rd millennium in the air at High Rock. Winds were 15-22 mph on launch with cold but smooth conditions. Kelvin, Gary and Allen all flew for about an hour with 600-700' over. Everyone else flew as long as they wanted to as well. The last flight of the old millennium was had by Brian Hardwick at High Rock on 12/26.

Saturday, January 6th
Woodstock. Tom McGowan, Mike Chevalier, Terry Spencer and Gary Smith all enjoyed the mostly sunny day at Woodstock with 1-2 hour flights. Mike had the best altitude gain at 3700' over. Shweeet!! Downside was flying through a cloud of ice crystals that were beautiful but stung and catching a side wire on transition that made for an interesting landing.

Sunday, January 7th
Smithsburg. Conditions started at 20-25 mph straight in but backed down later while getting more north cross. Bacil got in 5 flights, Marc Fink flew his paraglider, and Eddie Miller, Bob Gillisse and others flew RC sailplanes.

High Rock. Conditions were strong but forecasted to back off so Matthew and Karen, Mark Cavanaugh, Doug Wakefield, Brian Vant-Hull, and Kelvin all headed to High Rock. Matthew flew for an hour maintaining 300'-600' over and maxing out at 1000' over, Brian flew for 15 minutes and Mark C. soared. Kelvin, Doug and Karen decided not to fly.

Marshall Peak, San Berdoo, CA. Steve Kinsley enjoyed a flight in the 60's with a nice landing since he said he's "perfected the art of running 40 mph".

Thursday, January 11th
Wallaby. Sparky and Bob Gillisse headed down to Wallaby where Sparky got his aerotow rating after 1 tandem and 3 tows - Congratulations!! Later in the day he got in more flights. Bob flew for an hour and got to 4K over - in t-shirt weather no less! Later in the afternoon he flew three more times. Once to 10' with a weak link break, another early release at 900', and a 1 hour soaring flight to 4k after a low save.

Saturday, January 13th
Fisher Road. Conditions were relatively calm at Fisher Road where Brian Vant-Hull observed Bill Garrison off for his first two mountain flights. Congratulations Bill!! His first flight was into the tertiary and his second was into the secondary (now the primary). Brian flew as well and landed in Anna's field. Mark and Sheila showed up to help wire-crew and drive. Hope to see a lot more of you in the mountains Bill!

Sunday, January 14th
Wallaby. Sparky enjoyed towing his K3 with a fin for an hour and got to 4K.

January 15th - 18th
Wallaby. Sparky and Bob Gillisse continued their warm-weather vacation at Wallaby with Sparky getting one hour and to 4750 msl on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, Bob flew for about 1'30" and got to cloudbase. They rounded out the trip with Sparky getting in three flights on Thursday and returning to the cold north with a love of aerotowing.

Friday, January 19th
Elsinore, CA. Steve Kinsley loves his glider (at least in the air) and had a great soaring, low-save flight on it at Elsinore while most others sledded.

Sunday, January 21st
Smithsburg. Bacil Dickert and Eddie Miller had a few nice flights at Smithsburg in W, NW and N conditions with winds blowing 10-20 and 7" of snow on the hill. Marc Fink brought his paraglider but didn't fly since it was a little too strong for his bagwing. Sparky's kids enjoyed sledding down the hill.

High Rock. Conditions were strong at High Rock where Ed Reno, Tom McGowan, Terry Spencer and H2's Joe Grebb and Gary Smith all flew. Tom and Terry both flew about an hour and Ed flew for 2 hours.

Sunday, January 28th
High Rock. Conditions were 10-15 with occasional freight trains. Lengths of flights depended on how many pairs of long johns pilots had on. Terry Spencer, Kelvin Pierce, Mike Chevalier, Karen Carra, Tom McGowan, Mike Balk, Danny Brotto, Pete Schuman, Marc Fink, Craig Williamson and Deb (from Pittsburgh) all got to 3 grand over. Ed Reno flew about 2 hours and Paul (from Pittsburgh) flew 50 minutes and got to 1400' over. Deb and Paul had come over from the Pulpit where it took them awhile to get their truck unstuck from the snow.

Smithsburg. Matthew, Marc Fink, and Ellis Kim all had multiple paragliding flights while Joe Brauch flew his hangglider.