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by Alasdair Crawford
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| I had been trying to organize a road trip to Mifflin Co. for a while, but it just wasn't looking like it was going to happen. Then a few weeks back Hank mentioned that the Harris Hill juniors were having a trip so I thought why not piggy back on that. Anyway I spoke to Monty and got the dates and tried to talk a few folks into it. Great there would be a couple of folks there that had done this stuff before! |
10 Days before the trip it was looking like just Dan Baker (JE) and myself. Then Monty emailed an apology -- he had given the wrong dates, HH was going that weekend not the following (Halloween) as he had though. Too late to rearrange. Anyway that meant Dan and I were on our own and pretty much ridge virgins. I was thinking about bagging the whole thing. |
Hank ordered me not too (and who am I to argue). Well it's now Sunday the weekend before the trip and I start to get the trailer (thanks Tom) organized. Chuck sees me and asks if we are still going. OK, now we are up to three ships. Mad Man Madigan comes back from a work trip and finally checks his answering machine - OK that's four pilots and four ships. The Ripper wanders over and says he thought it was this week but if it's next he can go. OK, now we are up to 5 pilots and 4 ships - looks like we have a trip. Pity none of us have a clue what we are doing. |
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Friday rolls around, the Ripper, 3M, the Bakers and myself meet at the airport. Hook up the trailers and we are on the road by about 9:30am to convoy to Mifflin. After a brief (1-1/2 hour) stop for lunch on route (don't ask) we arrive about 3pm. Bill Whitbeck has shown up to crew and has been there since about noon having left at "O-Dark-Hundred". A nice surprise. The airport is huge and deserted :-) We meet our host Butch Thompson and start rigging the gliders, Chuck K. shows up shortly thereafter with Delta Bravo in tow (he left quite a bit later but didn't stop at the same place for lunch). We finish rigging, put the gliders in the tie-downs and at the recommendation of Butch head to Jack's Mountain Brewery for an excellent dinner of IPA and Scotch Ale. Highly recommended - it's "just" past Wal-Mart (In PA "just" is a Unit-of-Measure equivalent to about 5-6 miles). |
| Saturday morning, we wake up early - the flags are blowing, we get to the airport. Definitely not more than a 35+ knot cross wind. A bit too much.. Bill, Dan and Mona head for the Caves. Butch say's he'll wait around and see what happens. It doesn't look good. The rest of us take a road trip along the valley to scout out the route and look and landing sites. Everything looks great until you get past the last set of power lines to, well we decided to call it "Coffin Corner" - better be high when you get there. Back to the airport after lunch, OK the wind has backed off - probably not more than 30 now - what the heck. The Ripper launches in the club 1-34, Chuck and I follow. Still no sign of JE. Dan this really is not the time to be spelunking! |
It's howling - The Ridge lift goes way above ridge height. |
 It just doesn't get much better... |
Bob and I chase each other back and forth along the ridge. We learn that the vario really doesn't mean much, just watch the airspeed (take a look) if you're still cranking and hitting your head off the canopy on a regular basis that appears to mean the ridge it still working - and it is! Bob heads back to let 3M take his turn. I start getting braver and make more and more quick runs down past Bellville and back. Delta Bravo passes by. Sometimes lower than me, sometimes higher. Everyone is having fun. A little over two hours and I'm pretty beat up. That's enough for day one - back to Mifflin. No problem never saw a sink rate of more than 1500fpm in the pattern! Ah, about time Dan showed up. It's 3:30pm, we goad him into launching. He stays gone till almost sunset. This ridge stuff is fun. |
| At the end of the first day, everyone has a smile on their face. It was worth the trip already. Back to the hotel, clean up, a couple of beers and then lie to each other about just how low or fast we were going over dinner. |
Bob K. shows up after dinner -- he managed to get a bunch more done at work today than expected - time to go flying. Hey, it's Halloween, there is a party and a band in the hotel bar -- why aren't you guy's in costume? Uhh? Just as well the clocks go back an hour tonight. |
There was almost as much eating as flying. |
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It's a beautiful fall morning, but.. The windsock is limp, there's barely a breeze at the airport. We discuss with Butch. It doesn't look good... (again).
Disappointed, Bob and Chuck set of down the Valley in Chucks truck to get a cup of tea (I didn't know the Polish were tea drinkers). They are back 20 minutes later - yelling that every flag in the valley is standing straight out and pointing at the ridge. OK, Dan - is designated sniffer. Butch tows him off to the ridge. We radio JE and ask how it's going. Nothing, no response that is. Next time we send a sniffer with a radio that works. Butch returns in the tow plane and tells us that it's once again howling on the ridge and that the wind angle is even better than yesterday. He hasn't seen a suppression like that at the airport before. Anyway, we all launch. -- Shortly, after one of the roughest tows I've ever had, I get off at the ridge. Wow!! This is stronger than yesterday. More drag racing, much more hitting the canopy than yesterday. We pass JE occasionally and wave. He's still NORDO. Bob and I tag team a bunch and Bob takes a bunch of Photographs (including all that are posted here). We get a lot further down the ridge than yesterday too. We are either getting more confident or more reckless. JE goes over the last power line, takes one look at "Coffin Corner" and comes on back. Bob and Chuck head back to give Greg and Bob (the other one) their turn. We take turns passing each other on the ridge. We hear KS on the radio, sounds like their is some wave over on Bald Eagle, why don't we... Nah, we are all too chicken, beat up and oh yea, clueless to try to make the three or four upwind jumps! This has been plenty for a first mission. Next year we need to bring a guide, Hank would be an admirable choice, how about it? |
It's almost 3 in the afternoon. Everyone is beat up (but happy), the clock went back an hour last night so it'll be dark by five. It's time to get these things back on the ground and on the trailers before we lose the light. We all land within a couple of minutes of each other. Needless to say the wind has now returned to the airport, so there is a 20+ crosswind. Everyone seems to do OK, Greg goes long in the club 1-34, Chuck (who's back in BD) lands behind him and still leaves me plenty of room to land if I keep it fairly short. No land outs, no mishaps. Well, almost no mishaps as long as you don't count Dan making himself sick - twice!!. Hey - you could always have pulled up and slowed up a bit.
A great couple of days. We really lucked out, Nutmeg soaring had a week long encampment earlier this year and got no ridge days, Harris Hill got no ridge days last weekend either - and they had to camp on the field (moral - always check the Pen State schedule and avoid home games!).
We put DB and the 1-34's on the trailers in behind the hangar to stay out of the strong x-wind. A power plane lands. This is a busy place - there was one yesterday also. Just JE to be put away now. The airport dog comes over to help. It must have seen some dirt on the tail of the ls3 - no problem a little (yellow) liquid will help! Now that was funny - I guess the dog knew it was the Bakers that picked the lunch stop on Friday ;-)
We thank Butch and settle up. We are ready to roll. What a great and accommodating host and tell him that we will see him next year. Without exception I think we are all going back, now how about the rest of you???
One more stop for a group dinner (did we mention the food?) and we are on the road. A mere five hours, several interesting CB conversations with truck drivers on gliders, soaring and that guy in California a few years back with the Balloons, Lawn Chair and a B-B-Gun and we are back at Randall. Until next year...