It's not quite Opening Day, but the die-hards are in the air already.
Greg, Tim, Andy, and Don unwrapped the Blanik, assembled it, and made two flights today. The conditions were good, albeit a bit breezy.
Congratulations to the early birds!
Oh, yeah, the golf cart broke as well.
Whatever we think we know about the new climate is probably wrong.
It used to be that we never got a cold front in July, and on the rare occasions that cool air from Canada arrived, we never got Spring-like windy conditions the next day. Finally, we never used to think about wildfires a thousand miles away.
Yesterday, for the second Friday in a row we called a Slacker Day following a frontal passage the night before. Most of us expected cool dry conditions with high cloud bases and a light NW breeze. Moshe was the only one vigilant enough to check for wind and smoke. He warned us, but we didn't listen.
He discovered, from the usual sources, that it would be atypically breezy, and from a newly discovered website, that a high pressure system would be bringing us a band of smoke from Saskatchewan. We went flying anyway.
Seven gliders launched in gusty conditions, beginning about noon. At first the sky was blue. We found climbs to about 5000 feet, but kept blowing south while circling, making it a struggle just to stay local. Greg (JR), Dan (EA), and Andy K (2R) took advantage of their high performance gliders and charged off to the northwest. Moshe (RU), Peter (HG), and Dave (NT) fought the wind and sink to no avail and landed back home. Rick (LEL) took the easy way out and dashed down to Lebanon, found a nice climb to 6000 feet right over the control tower and followed a street back to Post Mills.
By mid- afternoon the sky to the northwest was completely gray. The combination of a relentless headwind and decreasing visibility made it difficult to be optimistic about getting anywhere that day.
Greg made a low save at Morrisville and finessed a return to Post Mills. Andy turned around just past Catamount and nearly landed at Montpelier. But he made it home. Dan didn't get the memo and landed in a field near Morrisville. Everyone was on the ground early, several hours before sunset.
Greg went off to retrieve Dan, so we'll probably get a story from them later.
All in all, it was a fun day for everyone - except the firefighters in Canada.
Andy Kozak (2R) writes:
May 31, 2024 - My most spectacular flight!
The Skysight forecast was for strong NNW winds with high cloud bases. I had left my glider in the trailer overnight at Post Mills Airfield and was once again going to fly with Tim Chow (BU) and Greg Hanlon (JR). The morning sky showed lenticular clouds, indicating the presence of wave, although Skysight had not predicted wave. We prepared our oxygen systems. My pulse oximeter system can be preset to automatically provide oxygen once I am over 10,000 feet. All I then have to do is put on a nasal cannula.
The goal for the day was Sugarloaf mountain. in Maine, 250 miles round trip.
Here are Tim and Greg over Lake Fairlee. Post Mills is just to the left of the lake.
I topped off first and set off hoping to spend at least some of the day leading. This would not last long. After a climb over Piermont Mountain, I was a bit higher so I probed the leading edge of the cloud, hoping to connect to wave. Tim and Greg continued on course and I was suddenly off course and behind.
For any sustained longer term flight, being able to thermal in consistent, steeply banked (45+ deg.) circles is critical. The NESA 1-34 is great for this with relatively good performance and a good trim control to reduce your workload. It helps to have a relaxed, light touch on the controls.
Finding myself behind I was anything but relaxed and my thermaling showed. Greg reported good lift over Mount Lafayette but by the time I got there it may have been too late, or I was just not flying well.
The thermal seemed broken up; there was noticeable strong drift over the 5,000 foot peaks, and I did not have a lot of room to work with. I was forced to penetrate out toward the northern entrance to Franconia notch. I flew through what seemed the worst extended sink and strongest turbulence I have experienced.
Then, as if by magic it all changed. I turned the corner past Mount Lafayette and flew over of the north facing Lafayette ridge. A two place ship from the Franconia club was thermaling further to the east along the ridge. It was bright and sunny, with smooth air. After gaining some altitude on the ridge I headed for the clouds in the valley. I was somewhat low but within an easy glide of either Franconia, Mount Washington or Twin Mountain airfields.
After gaining altitude over Cherry Mountain, the clouds provided mostly straight line flight with minimal circling toward Mount Washington. At 9,000 feet. I put on the nasal cannula. I passed just to the south of the summit. To my surprise there was no sink. Lift seemed to come in surges that threatened to pull me up into the clouds. I blundered about over the Carter range until Tim suggested I fly back toward Mount Washington and over the “Horn”. This is the sharp, uphill, left turn under my wingtip:
It used to be customary that drivers on the Mount Washington auto road sounded their horn at this turn. The road was narrower at that time. It is a well known location for wave lift.
I found smooth, steady 2-3 knot lift. Not very strong for wave. Greg and Tim had topped out at 13,000 feet and headed NE toward Old Speck Mountain, but I was too low to follow and very content to continue climbing.
In this photo you can see Huntington Ravine as the prominent rock bowl in the lower left third of the frame and at the bottom you can see snow in Tuckerman ravine, a mecca for extreme skiing.
And here I am at 16,500 feet next to a lenticular cloud:
At that point I noticed a much higher lenticular cloud had formed just to my south. I lost some altitude getting to it but there was good lift along its leading edge:
At 17,800 feet I headed away from the lift so as not to violate Class A airspace. It looked like the cloud and likely the lift, extended another 10,000 feet higher.
The flight back was smooth and fast. Once at cumulus cloud level, turbulence restarted and continued down to the ground.
We never reached our goal but found something special. The White Mountains are beautiful viewed from the air as well as from the ground. Add cumulus and lenticular clouds and their associated shadows and the views on this flight were spectacular. The OLC link is here.
There was good flying on both days of the weekend, but Sunday was better.
We welcomed new member David Schafer on Saturday, and he got two lessons in the Blanik, the second of which lasted over an hour. Dennis (DC) finally got in the air for his first flight of the season, and Greg (JR) and Evan (T8) flew together on a 400 km zigzag flight that took them to both the White Mountains and the Green Mountains.
Sunday was the day we have all been waiting for. Excellent lift in blue conditions. It was very good in the high ground, and Greg (JR), Dan (EA), David (JD), Rick (LEL), and Kari (2C) all made it up to Mount Washington. Moshe (RU) explored central Vermont, with turns at Montpelier and Lebanon, where he was happy not to land.
When David got back from the mountains, he made several O&R excursions and finally landed after everyone else had gone home.
This was David's first serious cross country flight, with a credited distance of 312 km. He flew for over 7 hours, which may be a duration record for a flight out of Post Mills.
Back in Post Mills, Pete D (3BA) and Paul (S1) made local flights, and Sonny made the mistake of flying his airplane on an outstanding soaring day.
Thanks to Don and Andy for towing, and to Darrek for improving the 1-26 trailer.
On April 25, the wind forecast for two days later looked like this:
Recognizing that it doesn't get better than this, Evan dropped everything, planned an out-and-return record flight, and spent the next day driving to Eagle Field in Pennsylvania.
On April 27, he took an auto-pulley tow at 07:30 and proceeded northeast to his start/finish point at Lock Haven. From there he flew about 400 miles to his turnaround point at Gate City, Virginia. He then flew back to Lock Haven to complete the task. He landed back at Eagle Field, after 11 hours in the air.
His total OLC distance was 1436 km, which was the longest flight in the world on that day. The flight should qualify as a new National O&R Distance record.
Congratulations, Evan!
A lot happened on April 18, our first day of operations at Post Mills.
First of all, the weather was beautiful.
Andy and Don traveled up to Franklin County airport to pick up our freshly-painted towplane. While they were gone, our new roller (donated by St. Johnsbury Academy = arranged by Andy L and Bob D) arrived on a really big boom truck.
Our friends at NESA have announced that they have applied for a sanction to organize the 2022 Region One contest at Springfield.
It will be in the Sports Class and "Bus" (2-seat trainer) classes, and the dates are July 2 - 9, 2022.
Check the contest webpage for more information.
All it takes to enter is a Silver Badge, and all it takes to become a volunteer is to volunteer. It's a great learning experience if you haven't seen an official contest before.
