Eighteen Dollars for Emma Jane

Matthew Graham

The phone rings early on a Saturday morning as it always does. Instead of the usual "Where ya going?", I hear the breathy sound of Mark Cavanugh saying just one word-"PUL-PIT". He's joined the Bacil bandwagon in trying to round up as many pilots as possible for an over the back attempt. The winds are forecast to be NW at 5-10 and we've had two days of sun to cook the ground. The forecast also looks fantastic for Ridgely. But after some hemming and hawing, we agree to join Team Pulpit, hoping that we're not make the wrong decision.

Karen and I pulled into launch a little after noon to find Steve Kinsley, Dan Tomlinson and Kelvin Pierce setting up their gliders. Mark and Dennis Sheely were already in the air and struggling at ridge top. For some strange reason, Bacil was not setting up. Since his radios weren't working, he figured that it would be a good day to just help out. (Thanks!) In the sky, Mark and Dennis finally started to reach some decent altitudes and Kelvin deemed conditions worthy. His assessment proved to be correct. Soon after launching, the three of them beamed out together in the same thermal.

Conditions on the ramp were somewhat gusty with a North cross component. But we've been there when it's been far worse. So with Mark reporting climbing to 6000 over, Steve and Dan jumped into the soup. I asked Karen if she wanted to go next. But she was concerned about dealing with the rotor along the ridge. As Bill Garrison and Keith Ford showed up, I readily consented to take the plunge since she'd still have wire crew.

A nice lull settled in. But as it always does, it started to gust again once I got up onto the ramp. Bacil, Keith and Karen held me down until the cycle blew threw and then I joined Steve and Dan. It was just plain nasty on the ridge with all of the rotor. Little bubbles of lift would be followed with screaming sink alarm flying straight down towards the trees. I couldn't believe that Mark had flown for an hour and 15 minutes in this crap before he climbed out. Hearing my report on conditions, Karen decided to wait a bit.

As Dan and Steve worked to the South near the Primary, I blundered into a big fat thermal in front of launch. At 1200 over, I was well centered in the core and decided to go with it. By the time I reached the back of the second ridge, I was 4000 over. Woo Hoo!!! This is the highest I'd ever been at the Pulpit and I was still climbing. I looked down at Dan and Steve still struggling and hoped they'd hook a good one soon. I knew Dan would be a very unhappy camper if he didn't go over the back.

The thermal didn't drift very far and eventually petered out just as I entered the valley. Even though I knew that the drift was from the North, I headed cross wind to the mountain on the North side of Route 30 to find another trigger point. Bacil radioed up, "Matthew, you're going the wrong way." So to appease him, I turned downwind and ran smack into another thermal (Thanks Bacil). This one took me up to 5K over and I slowly drifted with it across the blue hole towards Greencastle. Dan and Steve were now also climbing out. The lift topped out and I thought Id have to something else to make it across the valley. But I just stayed with it in zero sink as I paralleled the North side of Route 16.

Nearing Greencastle and getting a little bored of circling in the same direction, I saw a big cloud forming over the city. I pulled on the VG and left the security of zero sink and luckily zoomed into a boomer. I climbed up to 6400 over (8800msl and 7500agl-- my highest ever!) Damn, it was cold! I was still going up, but a cloud street now extended the rest of the way to the Rock. So I dove and porpoised through the next cloud and arrived over Waynseboro at 4K agl and then thermalled back up to 6K agl before gliding on to the Rock.

Back at the Pulpit, Bacil and Keith (with his kids in tow) had called it a day. So Karen decided that it made more sense to break down and head back to the Rock since there were no cars in the Pulpit LZ and none of us had made retrieval plans. We agreed to help wire her off once she arrived.

Upon reaching HR launch, I was still at 3500 agl. I enjoyed boating around a bit before heading out to land. Had the damnedest time getting down though. In full slipping turns, I was still going up. Dennis and Kelvin were already in the LZ and Mark was just landing after buzzing the HR launch about a billion times. He had made it up to 9250msl- the cold didn't seem to bother him.

Thermals were still popping off in the LZ, which made landing a tad difficult. But I pulled off one of my famous running landings after screaming in on final "Christy-Style". Steve arrived over launch and Dan was past Waynesboro heading towards the LZ. Dan asked for a condition report and Mark and I told him that it was rather turbulent coming in. Then Dan says that he'll land in some other bigger field a mile away. Is this guy nuts? After some well-deserved criticism, he agreed to be a man and land in Emma Jane's field. Steve came in next after having to fly back upwind to Waynesboro to get down.

Unbelievably, we all made it! It was the first complete crossing for Dan and I... and Dan's first Pulpit OTB.

Karen's sacrifice was rewarded as she got a nice 90-minute sunset flight while I drove everyone back to the Pulpit. Bill Garrison also returned to the air at HR and landed in the LZ for a change :-)

As it turned out, it was also a great day at Ridgely with Joe Gregor flying 54 miles and Fred flying 60. But I wouldn't trade this epic flight with several of my good friends for a 300 miler.