Saturday, August 16, 2025

August 11 report from Springfield

 Andy Kozak writes:

As you all know, it has been difficult to find good flying days this season. My logbook shows a couple of wave flights early in May. Then two good flights at the end of May and one in June, all around 400 km. It has been a long wet spell since then.

The weekend of August 2-3 was smoke impacted but I still managed two good flights. This past weekend I again had two good flights, both just over 350 km, with a bonus day on Monday of 275 km making for 1500 km over five days, in August, in New England!

Monday August 11th, 6 pilots flew from Springfield: Greg, Bill Detrich, Alasdair, Lee, myself and Tim Chow from Post Mills. Bill Batesole was kind enough to tow. Tim and I have flown together in the past and we decided to do so again. Tim flies an HpH 304CZ. My ASW 27 and Tim’s 304 were both manufactured about 25 years ago but the HPH design goes back to the 80’s so his airfoil is an older design. However, Tim’s 17.43 m wingspan results in a slightly better climb rate. My 15 m wing has a more modern, thinner airfoil, resulting in better performance at higher speeds.

Tim’s OLC link to his flight is here: BU. You can overlay my flight (2R) on Tim’s by scrolling down and clicking on “Meeting Points”. (You have to log in to your OLC account to do the overlay.)

Tim climbed up to me at the north end of Hawks ridge and we decided to head south to Mount Greylock in northwest Massachusetts. Tim had mentioned a low stress flight before we took off and I seconded that. Heading south, the clouds were nicely spaced, and we could be selective in picking thermals, typically only stopping for 4+ knot climbs. Leaving the Springfield airfield area we came into glide range of Mount Snow airfield. Unfortunately, after Mount Snow itself, there were no more clouds to the south. The clouds to the east looked good so we turned in that direction. Further east into the Connecticut river valley the clouds began to thin but we always had a cloud to mark the way. In that part of southeastern Vermont there is a grass strip, Santas airfield, in Putney. After that is the Keene airfield in New Hampshire.

On many days we see a distinct line of clouds over the Green Mountains, with another line of  clouds over the central spine of southern New Hampshire.  GBSC glider pilots typically fly north/south up that central spine from Mount Monadnock, to Mount Sunapee, Mount Kearsarge, on up to the Whites. It was still a bit hazy up high so it took some time before we could faintly see Mount Monadnock. It took even longer until we could evaluate the clouds in that area. They were not as closely spaced as on our run south, so prior to reaching Mount Mondanock, we turned north.

It is always a welcome sight to see the glider ahead of you bank sharply and climb, allowing you to follow directly into the core. There was little wind and we were staying above 5000 feet so the thermal cores were easy to find. On only one occasion did one of us turn back when the trailing pilot located a strong core. My flight computer shows my flight path as a color coded line, with red indicating lift, so it is fairly easy to find a core should I turn in the wrong direction or choose to turn back for lift I flew through. When in a thermal, my flight computer screen displays a circle of dots on my screen showing the strength of lift throughout my previous 360 degrees of turn. This allows me to extend my circle toward what I hope is the strongest lift. I focus on making these adjustments as smoothly as possible. When centered in a thermal core I will try to relax and basically not touch my controls. I believe this allows the glider to fly itself the most efficiently possible. Doing that will also show you the correct position of your yaw string for that bank angle and speed.

As we flew north, the Connecticut River valley to our west was almost all blue, to the Green Mountains. Ahead, the clouds were now spaced further apart so we maximized our climbs to stretch our glides. Our lowest altitude, approximately 4400 feet, was just before Sunapee, but we were by then within glide of Parlin/Newport New Hampshire. We could have chanced an earlier crossing, west toward Springfield, but any significant stretch of sink, with no clouds to mark thermals, would have been risky. We flew north past Mount Sunapee turning northwest toward a wispy cloud near Grantham. It grew as we climbed under it. We had kept our eyes on a large cloud over the Croyden range but I was concerned it may be late in its life cycle. Spreading out under it we both found lift but Tim had the stronger core. I joined Tim and we climbed to over 7000 feet. This allowed us to leave on a long glide, crossing over the top of Lebanon’s Class D airspace (3100 feet). The clouds there were slightly overdeveloped offering no strong lift, so we turned south toward Springfield still within a long glide. Shortly after that it became relaxed sight seeing time. Clouds and lift were plentiful, and the airfield was easily reached.

I do not recall flying into any strong lift when not indicated by some degree of cloud development. I think we made the correct call in not taking a chance on a very long crossing in the blue. Flying together served us well. You can relax somewhat when following another glider and it is a lot of fun to climb closely together in a thermal. There are not many more beautiful sights than another glider just off your wing! The ideal position to join another glider in a thermal is on the opposite side of the circle, which allows both pilots to see each other. It also puts you out of harm’s way, should a glider stall and spin. For the most part we maintained that discipline but there were a few instances where one of us ended up on the others tail. Then it was just a matter of slowing up and widening your circle.

I also post my flights on WeGlide. The free version also has an additional statistics page which shows averages for L/D, climb rate, bank angle, speed in the thermal. It also shows % of time circling. I use these to evaluate my performance and decision making. My average bank angle was a little lower and circle diameter larger for this flight which is to be expected. You are not as free to steepen your bank angle or slow down when near another glider.

Lee Blair had the longest flight of the day by heading north to Montpelier.

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Weekend report July 19 - 20

Seven flights on Saturday, including Shawn getting back into the 1-26 and two solo achievements.  Jeff flew the 1-26 for the first time, and Zach had his first solo.

Congratulations to Zach LaRochelle for his first solo!


And congratulations to CFI Moshe for the signoff and to Tim for the bucket work.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Seven by Five

Yesterday was a hot and hazy summer day with a maximum temperature of 90F, a dewpoint of 66F, and negligible wind.  The air was hot, but the ground was even hotter and thus we had a soaring day.  There were cumulus clouds, thankfully.

Photo by Greg Hanlon

Five Slackers made seven remarkable flights yesterday in the heat.

With care, everyone took off safely out of Post Mills, despite the 3400 foot density altitude at the beginning of the launches.  Jeff was the first to go in the 2-33, and we joked about getting his 5 hours on his second solo.  He took off at 11:30 and found nothing but sink, the only short flight of the day.

Photo by Dave Baxter
Jeff getting ready to go
He was also the last to take off, at 12:21 (more about that later).

Greg (JR), Peter (HG), Dave (NT), and Kari (2C) took off in rapid succession.  One of these days Peter will learn how to record his flights.

Greg had the longest flight of the day, a tour of the White Mountain peaks (Moosilauke, Lafayette, Washington (twice), Speck, followed by an excursion out to Catamount airfield and a return via the Knox Mountains, for a total of 339 km.

Greg visits several peaks
And here's another picture of Greg's knees:


The other three had nice flights as well.  Peter tried to chase Greg into the Whites, but wound up making a perfect landing at Dean, his first sailplane landing away from Post Mills.

Dave had the longest flight of the day, over five and a half hours, with a high point of 6000 feet, where it must have been a little bit cooler.

Kari made a counterclockwise tour of our task area, visiting Dean, Montpelier, Sugarbush and Brandon before returning to Post Mills.  Then, at the end of the flight, he headed back out toward Wentworth and didn't find any climbs.  He turned around and made a slightly uncomfortable final glide home.

Meanwhile, Jeff vanished on his third solo.  Just when we were beginning to wonder where he might have gone, he showed up in the pattern and made a perfect landing shortly after 5pm, only 11 minutes short of his five hours!  If only he had stayed up on his first flight!

Andy did all the towing (thanks, Andy!)  Seven tows in total, including one at Dean.

Monday, July 14, 2025

Jeff Solos

It was a hot summer day yesterday - a perfect day for getting a bucket of water dumped on your head. 

Congratulations to Jeff Bernard on his first solo in a sailplane!

And congratulations to CFI Greg Hanlon for kicking Jeff out of the nest!

Monday, May 26, 2025

Memorable Day

 Wow.  Evan (T8) flew 750 OLC kilometers today.




Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Weekday report May 20

It was the best day in a long time:  low clouds, a crosswind breeze, and cold.  But at least it wasn't raining!

Tim and Greg, heroes both, decided to force the issue and put on a day of training, daring any student to show up for some pattern tows in the 2-33.  Two took the bait, new member Jeff Bernard and Erzo.  The two of them got some great flight and ground instruction from Greg, while Tim did the towing.

Here's a picture of Jeff getting ready for his third flight.  Note the winter hat and down jacket.

The forecast is for more of the same weather for several more days.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Together, then apart

 The soaring weather has been so crummy so far that we've begun grasping at straws.  Perhaps we should do that more often.

Last night the forecast for today was "mostly cloudy," which sounds a whole lot better than "rain all day."  Indeed, the sky was grey all morning.  But that didn't prevent the four desperados from showing up and rigging their gliders.

Here's a nice view of a completely unpromising sky:


Tim (BU), Greg (JR), Peter (HG), and DaveB (NT) launched in rapid succession (4 takeoffs in 21 minutes), and even though there were no shadows on the ground, they were able to stay up!

It is interesting to compare the flights of JR (red) and BU (cyan):


For the first half of the flight, they flew together, advising each other of climb rates and trying to stay out of each other's way in the haze.  They wandered across the river and found their first good climb over Mount Cube.  Then they split up and went their separate ways.


Tim eventually went back to Vermont and found a good thermal to 6000 feet.  He landed just after it started to get sunny on the ground.  A three hour flight, not bad!

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Lightweight report

Peter K writes: 

This is for anyone who is interested in the Hang Gliding world. Maybe just Rick…. 

I just got home from the Bobby Bailey Hang Gliding Nationals in Groveland, Florida.

First thing to state is that I do hang gliding competitions for pure fun. Like-minded pilots, a formal task and a dedicated retrieve driver make it very fun. I try not to come in last, but often I am close.

I had three practice days to try to remember how to fly after not flying since last Spring down there. Just like in my Discus at Post Mills.

First Comp task was a 135 km box around the Green Swamp, finishing by flying over Seminole-Lake Gliderport and back to our takeoff. Very difficult in a hang glider. I made it to within 12 km of the goal. I flew 5 hrs 15 mins. In addition to not making it, I missed the first turnpoint due to my well-documented technology issues… Great day. Would've been 7th…. Near zero score. OOPS.

I won’t go into details about every day. On the second to last day, I was too slow and decided not to fly over the city of Groveland to get home. I flew 93 km.

The task on the last day was a 106 km bow tie. I had a very bad Start, behind everyone else. I flew the entire Task alone, which is hard. And that made me think a lot. It was a very good day with 7000 foot cloudbase and light wind. I made it home with 900 feet and 4 hrs15 mins. A great way to finish.

All in all, including short practice flights, I flew 20 hours and nine days in a row. That might be my record.

I hope I brought some better wx back with me…

Friday, May 2, 2025

In spite of the weather

Even though the weather has not been cooperative so far this year (especially on the weekends!), members have been squeezing in their checkrides when they can.  Full credit to the members for taking this annual requirement seriously.

Here's a photo of Greg and DaveB inspecting the Blanik yesterday:


And here's a trivia question: What procedural mistake is illustrated by this photo? Leave your answer in the comments.

Tuesday, April 29, 2025