Hyner | Soaringroadtrip

It turned out to be a nice day. We flew at about 2:45. I'd say Steve was over 400+? I was over by 150ft. We both flew about 15-20 minutes. The wind shut off and we had to come down. There was a few thermals over the highway and lz field that kept us soaring a little longer. I bought all the bread, milk and toilet paper on the way home that I could possibly stuff in the car and tie on the glider rack in prep for the big storm ;) Anybody have a snowmobile with a glider rack? Paging Spoons...Spoons! Let's fly soon!

Aron

12/10/2020

Unofficial report: We had a pretty nice day at Hyner today...not bad to have 7 in the air in December, T-Bone launched first at around 11 and got over an hour of airtime. I went 2nd and had say a 20 minute flight. Wind was getting lighter as the day went on making soaring more challenging, and causing some sledders.
Will H., Dennis, Sam and Chuck were next off. Steve launched later and the sun came out and blessed him with the flight of the day with 1:45!
I'm not sure but there may have been more HG attempts to try again after Steve was in the air...
Thanks to Will P., Pat and Julie for being the support crew!
Let's fly soon!
Aron

11/29/2020

The wind went slack in the afternoon at Hyner. Found some lift at the point but couldn't find enough of it to stay up.
Steve

11/21/2020

Great flying at Hyner today! Tom B led the charge. Dennis, Sam, Chuck B, and Will P all soared. And then in another league, pg Steve launched early and landed late.

04/19/2021

It was a changeable day. It was blowing in, then not, then spritzing raindrops, then little teasing rays of sunshine. T-Bone was in the air early say 1:45PM when Julie and I were driving up to launch. The rest of the gang setup and launched after 4:15PM since it was flag snapping strong wind. I'm on launch at 4PM and the wind quits as the sun pokes out. At 4:15 it is launchable after doing a dance between W and NW launch areas back and forth...so I danced over and off the NW one without putting the glider down. I worked to get like 25 over. Will P. Was next off, then Sam P. then eventually Dennis P. once the wind turned back on. Will P. was up say 75 over working it over the spine and over toward the point. Next came the landings, mine was uneventful to the W into a 5mph headwind. Will came in next to the W and then the wind switched on him. Sam comes in with his Alpha to the W for the slowest most graceful "dune goon" style landing...it was blowing hard at his 40 ft height and he is moving forward just above parked speed, the gradient wasn't bad and he comes almost straight down like an elevator and had a soft 2 stepper. Dennis comes in last and it seems like not much wind...go figure. The max airtime was like 10 minutes at best. Probably Will P. could have done more but the air was punchy and not so much fun.

We broke no aluminum, didn't get too wet.

The birds soaring made us look like fools...there were 30 soaring around the cell tower after we all landed.

Thanks to Julie and Mike for helping us get setup and launch.

All in all it was still a good time at Hyner.

Aron

5/6/2021

Tom, Sam, and I flew. Tom flew early and got 1K over in some very bouncy air. I launched at 6:30 into some really smooth air.
The Hyner launch and landing look great. The camping field has been cut. Looking forward to seeing everyone later this month.

Steve

5/31/21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIiEDcHQRc

From what I hear the Thursday flying didn't really happen until 6 pm, with earlier flights being slapped around, but then it went magic. Kudos to those who pulled it off. It must have been pretty good for they stuck through a rainy friday to greet the less hardy folks showing up after the rain.
Got up there saturday to find Jim, Bunk, Bob and Cookie, Eddie there. Was excited to finally meet Chris and Carey Boland, who perfectly fit into the Hyner gestalt. Dave Bodner and JB joined soon after. Overcast, and though the drizzles of Lock Haven rarely reached that far into the mountains there was a psychological feeling of dampness to the dry grass. Most of us ended up at Socky's for dinner. The fact that I even mention that shows how riveting the flying scene was at this point.
None of the pilots went up to launch, but Two-town was encamped at Hyner Run, and Emily went up with her boyfriend, and came down with a fiance'. Congratulations Emily!
Sunday I hear no reports of anyone bothering to go up to launch. Aron arrived, couldn't face camping next to the remains of his wall, which had been subject to legalized vandalism by someone who had taken out a permit to harvest stone. I could say more but don't like the cloud of rage that consumes me when I think about it. I have to feel that if Forestry had known the details they wouldn't have issued that permit. They've been informed it resulted in the destruction of a beautiful campsite. Okay, I'm backing out of that topic.
The Bolands were leaving sunday, and I returned to find folks ready for dinner and we headed down to Lock Haven for a mexican dinner with Rocco, who had surfaced as intended. Another reflecting on flying that I feel called upon to mention that. He was moving to another house, and had brought the contents of half his liquor cabinet that people had left after parties and he needed to dispose of. We spit most of it on the fire. It was fun making the rocks glow blue.
Everyone was looking forward to Monday. The sun came out, flowers bobbed in the breeze, everything had that glow that reminded us why we actually love the place. Headed up late morning to find it strong and crossing from the north, but it would die down with long launchable cycles between the two rocks. I was the first to launch a bit before 1 pm, and immediately felt like I was rotor surfing. Sharp edges and potholes. Got away from the ridge but still got kicked around enough that I couldn't hold a straight line on final approach.
Called up and relayed my experiences to Jim, who naturally decided to try his tandem falcon. He went out along the spine and caught a thermal that took him above launch, but didn't like being carried away from the LZ in that wind, so abandoned it to come land through the expanse of potholes and air cannon. Aron launched next and sort of enjoyed being roughhoused. As I broke down camp the flag was clearly cross and nobody launched. Looking forward to hearing what happened later in the day.
It was a weekend of contrasts. I don't regret at all making the trip to sit around a fire with friends under an overcast sky. Gave me time to explore the road that Joe Gorrie cut into the back 40, and that others have labored to improve. There's some nice campsites back there, and I see niches for more. So when great weather returns we'll have places to put visitors, as I foresee a packed July 4 weekend.
Brian Vant-Hull

6/6/21

Hyner was flyable all day long. A bit rowdy early but then things mellowed. Bill and I both got three flights in. We found some friendly folks to drive our vehicles down.

Here's a link to the afternoon flight just boating around in the SW wind...

https://ayvri.com/scene/e9k4nvr7jo/ckpmiltgh00013a6i637rhvet

Let's fly soon!

Steve