Joerg Stieber, fresh from a trip to Ridge Soaring Gliderport in Julian, Pennsylvania, sent his story and photos.
Wave cloud in Pennsylvania. Bald Eagle Ridge can be seen at the left of the image:
Juliet Sierra headed north on Bald Eagle Ridge:
Every year in spring and fall, glider pilots from the eastern US and central Canada converge on the Ridge Soaring Gliderport in central Pennsylvania. Ususally, there is a good contingent of SOSA pilots present. Last weekend I felt I had to get away from it all, so on Sunday afternoon, Oct 26, I hitched up JS for the six hour drive to the Ridge.
Monday started out as a clear thermal day with thermal averages of 4 kts to 5600. Later in the afternoon, conditions got weak as an overcast pushed in from the south, cutting off the sunlight.
Tuesday was the most amazing Ridge day I have ever experienced. The sky was completely overcast with low wet cu racing across the ridges. The wind was strong and the direction was ideal. When I released from tow at the top of the Ridge I couldn't believe the turbulence. The SN-10 showed a wind speed of 43 kts at Ridgetop - no wonder! While I was trying to decide whether to land or continue flying, ridge lift and rotors carried the glider up the cloud base at 4000 ft. Further up, the turbulence was a bit more tolerable and I decided to stick it out for a few hours. The prospect of diving down into the valley to land in these conditions wasn't really appealing either. Snow and rain showers rolling in over the Allegheny Plateau made it impossible to go very far. Over Altoona I contacted wave and climbed to 6000. It was wonderful to rest in the silky smooth air of the wave. I was just high enough to take a peek over the tops of the lowest cloud layer and to see blue sky in the distance to the SW. It didn't take long until the wave window below started to close, so it was time for a full dive brake descent to get under the clouds and also back into the turbulence. The ideal wind speed for the Ridge is 25 kts. At over 40 kts the speed one can achieve is not only limited by the turbulence but also by the crab angle of 30 degrees one has to maintain in order not to get blown into the lee of the Ridge. Even with indicated airspeeds in the 80 to 90 kts range, the speed over ground was rarely above 60 kts.
I landed after 4 hrs and 370 OLC (Online Contest)) km - "shaken, not stirred", to use Jerzy Szemplinski's words.
On Wednesday strong and incessant lake effect (Lake Erie) snow made flying impossible. There was a heavy winterstorm warning in Clearfield on the plateau.
Thursday was a beautiful day. Terry McElligott in JT had joined the Ridge Runners. Reliable ridge lift In the morning made a quick run up to Jersey Shore easy. Down in Altoona the wave worked again up to 7500 ft. As the day went on, the wind and ridge lift diminished but the thermals were plenty and reliable. Like most pilots, I landed early to pack up and make my way home.
Looking back, these were great four days:
Flew three out of four days; over 12 hrs flying time and 965 km OLC.
Joerg Stieber (JS)
Rigging on the Ridge Soaring Gliderport:
On Sunday 23 Nov all of these conditions were met and out came the Puchacz and Citabria for a little bit of flying in the snow - if you have not yet tried - it is lots of fun.
We even modified the gator into a 4 passenger vehicle for winter operations. The two rear seats, sitting right over the rear axle, give that little bit of additional traction in the snow when occupied. 
