Too much of a good thing!

Mifflin is internationally famous for its ridge days, and we typically get one ridge day per contest here.  Well, we got one yesterday, but I’m thinking now it was a case of “be careful what you ask for – you might get it”.  I’ve been flying here in contests for over a decade, and yesterday’s ridge flight was by far the roughest, most turbulent (and fastest) I have ever experienced.

I have learned by now to clean out my cockpit on ridge days to keep loose items from orbiting around my head and scratching up the inside of the canopy, but even that wasn’t enough yesterday.  All the items I carry with me in my lunch bag (itself stowed securely in the turtledeck) got loose at some point in the flight, and they started orbiting the cockpit.  Small pocketknife – check. Apple – check.  Multiple food bars – check (singly and in formation).  Kindle e-reader – check.  USB stick for flight logs – check.  As each item made its appearance (except for the USB stick – this one (this one managed to lodge itself behind the canopy latching mechanism on my canopy, and it took me forever to get it back out after the flight!) , I would grab it and stuff it into one of the zip-up pockets on my soaring shirt.  By the time the flight was over, I had size D-cup breasts!

The day started out very inauspiciously.  Weatherman Richard Kellerman (QV) noted that there was a lot of variability in the various forecasts, as the cold front moving in from the west (actually two of them as I recall) wasn’t moving steadily enough to time properly, and there was the possibility of rainshowers or even a T-storm or two as it (they) approached.  The winds were progged to move around to 290-300 at 20-30kt as the day progressed but exactly when was a big unknown.  On the grid the winds were right down the Mifflin valley at about 20 kt – nowhere near westerly enough to support ridge flying.  KS was sent aloft as a sniffer, and reported that things were ‘a bit tricky’, so the launch was delayed.  When KS says ‘a bit tricky’ that means ‘no way in hell are we mere mortals going to be able to stay up!’ ;-).

After an hour or so, things started looking better, and KS started reporting better wind speed/angles, and also started finding better climbs, so the launch got underway.  My class was toward the back, so we at least had some markers around to point out thermals.  When I got off tow and started climbing, the winds being reported by my trusty SN10 were something like 280 at 20Kt – marginal for the front ridges and to the north, but probably OK for the southern half of the ridge system (the ridge system curves from almost due east-west at the northern end, to almost north-south in the south).

I worked my way out to the west over 7 Mountains, and was able to find 3-4kt climbs, with 7-8kt spikes thrown in for entertainment value.  Climbs were pretty rough and hard to center, as the winds were steadily picking up, now well above 20kt. I finally (after three tries!) found a decent climb toward the western edge of the start circle and got started out the top of the 5000′ cylinder, at around 3:30pm.  The task was a 3-hour MAT with a single mandatory turn at 20 Blair County, so that meant I was going to be (hopefully) flying until 6:30pm – ouch!  The winds at this point are approaching 30kt, but still in the 280-290 degree range.  As a flatlander and only occasional Mifflin ridge flyer, I was unsure whether or not those winds would support ridge flying, so I was very hesitant to commit to them early on.  And, just as I got to the Tussey ridge at about 4000′, I hear a call on the radio “Pappa Juliet down safe in a field”, and sure enough, there is a glider in a field right out in front of me, yikes!  Clearly, the ridges were not working, so I stayed as high as possible and worked thermals and streets south down toward Blair County.  However, as I worked my way south, I started seeing more and more gliders on the ridge, apparently having no trouble at all, with clearly discernible crab angles – hmm.  By the time I got to Blair (still pretty high), I had convinced myself that the ridges were working, and I was going to have to commit to them to have any chance to do well for the day.  The next problem was where to go after Blair.  The wind angle suggested that the northern end of the system wasn’t going to work very well, but there aren’t many places to go to the south of Blair (Bedford involves going over the wall, and a 5-mile upwind slog to the turnpoint.  Cumberland requires finding a good climb at Evetts Mountain – not a sure thing at all.  Most pilots chose to go back north to 12 Spruce Creek, and then many tried the Bedford trick (and at least two pilots landed there during the attempt).  After getting some miles in, most pilots then made their way back to Mifflin and spent the last hour running Jacks Mountain.  I chose to go back to Spruce Creek as well, but then I thermalled up and ran downwind to Shade Mountain (the next one east of the Jacks Mountain ridge) and ran all the way down to Dickey’s Moutain at the extreme south end of the system, and then came back up to Mifflin to do my penance on Jacks.

When all was said and done, the fast guys all had speeds in the 90’s (90mph DRY!!), and the team of Nicolas Bennet and John Good in the new wondership Arcus M turned in an incredible 106 mph!

Anyway, I was just real happy to be back in one piece after having the crap beat out of me for 3 plus hours on the ridge.  I never actually got down on the ridge at all – it was just too turbulent to control the glider down there.  I flew mostly about 300-500 above the ridges, where I had some chance to recover from the continuous severe upset events.  Too much of a good thing!

Today is progged to be another ridge day (unusual to get two in a contest), but hopefully today the winds will be a little more northerly so the rest of the ridge system should work a bit better, and also hopefully the wind speeds wont be quite so high.  I could deal with a bit lower speeds and a lot less turbulence!  Stay tuned

Frank (TA)