April Hangola

Mark Gardner kicks off April flying at Bill's Hill

Sheila Gardner

Sunday, April 1
Bill's Hill. Marc Fink, Ellis and the Gardinator all flew at Bill's Hill after the sky opened up and the sun came out. Marc had two paragliding flights with his second taking him over the turnpike and landing on the other side. Mark and Ellis both had short flights with Ellis checking out the small Ultra Sport.

Monday, April 2nd
Woodstock. Steve Kinsley, Terry Spencer, Doug Wakefield, Bob Radcliffe and Gary Campbell all flew Woodstock where Terry made it to Elkton getting up to 9K and Steve sank out before the gap. (bummer)

Wednesday, April 4th
Ridgely. Judy McCarty enjoyed her first two flights since October at Ridgely. Steve K, Geoff, Steve V, Bruce, Joe McM, also flew and got in short flights.

Saturday, April 7th
Jack's. Despite the fact that it rained their entire trip up and all indicators were showing North - Sparky and Ed Reno both (very determinedly) headed to Jack's where it was actually blowing straight in! Allen got 35 minutes and 400' over and Ed flew for an hour.

Sunday, April 8th
Ridgely. Ed Reno, Mike Chevalier, a tandem student and others all flew. Sweaters on the ground and t-shirts above 1200'!

Taylor Farm. John Middleton was at the Farm with 4 students (yeah!!!) along with Cragin Shelton and Dan Tomlinson who were get in some training hill practice after not having flown since fall. Everyone had multiple flights.

Monday, April 9th
Ridgely. Craig Williamson, Fred Permenter and others waited out the rain for the forecasted partly cloudy conditions and were rewarded with nice flights. Craig's max was 3300'.

Friday, April 13th
High Point. Christy, Sparky, JR, Homer and Adam all waited out the strong conditions until about 5:30 p.m. Christy flew for 1 hour and got 3300' over, Allen flew for 45 minutes and JR, Homer and Adam all soared. Marvin packed it up earlier and didn't fly.

Saturday, April 14th
Pulpit. Cast o'gazillions at the Pulpit!! Spring is finally here :-) Conditions were North cross and winds got stronger as the day progressed. Doug Rogers and the Gardinator went 23 miles, Steve Kinsley and Pete Schumann went 22-22.5 miles, Joe Gregor got to 6400' msl and went 16.1 miles (and had an interesting incident with setting a farmers' field on fire), Matthew Graham went 12.3 miles and Bacil went 4.5 miles. Marc, Tom, Terry, Ed, Marc C., Mike C., Bruce, and Keith Olena all went over the back for 6-16 miles. Karen, Cragin, Kelvin, Brian Vant-Hull, Doug Henderson, Steve Padgett and others all flew as well. Janet, Judy, Sheila, Carlos and Fred Carter for various reasons all stayed ground-bound. Congratulations to all XC'ers!!

High Point. With a lighter forecast than the day before, Doug Wakefield, Christy, Mitch Shipley, Homer, JR, Marvin, Larry Ball and Adam all headed to High Point. Mitch landed west of Williamsport, MD, Homer went about 15 miles and JR went about 8.4 miles.

Ridgely. Winds were straight down the runway from the bay end where Tad Eareckson flew 57 minutes and got to 3000' msl.

Thursday, April 19th
Dickey's Ridge. There was booming lift with great cloud streets at Dickey's Ridge for Steve Kinsley, Terry Spencer, Pete Schumann and Marc Fink (on his paraglider). Unfortunately Terry and Pete didn't get there 'till later so Steve got the highest and farthest with 8500' and 20 miles. Marc (and his paraglider) had an unfortunate run-in with a tree and he and Pete spent most of the evening detangling it.

Ridgely. Judy McCarty had two enjoyable flights at Ridgely along with Joe McManus, Doug Rogers and others.

Friday, April 20th
High Rock. Hoping against hope that it would be good, Allen Sparks headed to High Rock where winds were light and tailing with a few calm cycles. He launched with keel assistance from Bob Gillisse who showed up to fly powered RCs. Short flight.

Sunday, April 21st
Ridgely. It was a small crew at Ridgely where winds were 90 cross and strong most of the day. Desperate pilots included Matthew and Karen, Ellis and Marc, Joe and Janet, Ric Niehaus who flew for over an hour, Bruce, Ed Reno, George Tutor, Mike Chevalier, Aisha and tandem students. Janet drove and just about everyone else flew.

Friday, April 27th
High Rock. Sparky flew for ½ hour at High Rock where winds at launch were 15-25 mph. He launched when things lightened up a bit and had an enjoyable flight.

Ridgely. The day started out with light winds from the east then picked up to 20 mph later in the day. Ric Niehaus went 20 miles where he landed at a Mennonite school. The gym teacher brought the kids out for a quick hang gliding lecture. Geoff Mumford, Joe McManus and others also flew.

Saturday, April 28th
High Rock. With the forecast for North for the day, Sparky opted for an early morning sled. Later in the day Kelvin, Marc Fink, Brian Hardwick, Rob and ChiChi Millman showed up later and flew, reporting conditions turbulent and cross from the north. Susan Pierce was there but decided not to fly.

High Point. It ended up being a good day at High Point despite the North cross conditions. The Gardinator went 26 miles, Marvin went 24.2, JR about 18 miles, Dan Tomlinson (on his first visit to the site) and LE Herrick landed in the Zirk's LZ and Doug Wakefield landed in the former Holiday Inn Field. Marvin's dad and Sheila were on hand for retrieve duties.

Sacramento . . . was definitely the place to be!! Conditions were North 15-20 mph and a blue thermal day. MANY Congratulations to Terry Spencer who was 5280' over and went 70.2 miles - AWESOME!! Tom McGowan went 29 miles, John Dullahan went 24 miles, Bacil 16.8 miles, Mitch Shipley 12 miles and Ed Reno 5100' over and 10 plus miles. Also flying were Joe and Karen Gorrie, Bruce Engen, Jeff and Alana and others.

Sunday, April 29th
Ridgely. Tom McGowan and Steve Kinsley went XC for 14 miles, Rich G. flew 9 miles, Mike Chevalier went 6.4 miles and Congratulations to Erik Johnson on his first soaring flight!! Others flew as well.

Greg deWolf hanging out at Manquin

Manquin. Conditions were sunny and winds variable at 5-10 mph. Kelvin went truck towing for the first time in 8 years! His first tow was 10 minutes and second 20 minutes. Others were towed higher and stayed up longer. Ellis flew for 1'30" and got to 5K', Jim Keller for 2 hours, Marc, Terry Spencer, Cragin Shelton, Greg DeWolf and Susan, among others all had awesome soaring flights.

High Rock. Mark Cavanaugh decided to give the Rock a shot and was rewarded with over an hour and 700' over. The bullet thermals were out of the North/NE and Mark actually got two blisters from holding onto the basetube so hard!

Bill's Hill. Marvin Presley, Kevin Jones, Jim Rowan, Will Jenkins, Pete Lehmann, and Mark and Sheila all ended up going to Bill's Hill where Mark and Pete went 9 miles. Everybody else landed in the LZ. It was a gorgeous day and Mark said it was the most fun he's had in a long time.