Weekend Report June 23 - 24

INSPECTIONS
All the gliders have passed their annual inspections. Thanks to all who helped on Saturday morning.

SATURDAY FLYING
Saturday was tricky. There was too much wind for instruction, almost too much for flying. It was gratifying to see several members realistically assess their abilities in the face of a 10 knot crosswind. We had just 3 flights. On one of them, Paul Natkiel returned to active flying status with a 2 hour battle with the wind in the Blanik.

COOKOUT
The cookout, lightly attended due to the discouraging flying conditions, was fun nevertheless. Food and drink were provided by Nancy, Mary, Marsha, and Sue Marsha. Topics of conversation included why men are so bad at providing food, and included an interesting review of a magazine article. I miss the days when all we talked about was flying :)

SUNDAY FLYING
An interesting day. Weak, widely-spaced, but high thermals, exactly as forecast by Pete Dodd and Tony, our newest weather gurus. Evan had a couple of hours in PM, and Pete finally got to fly the 1-23 he's been restoring. We had plenty of tow pilots and instructors, so I went flying myself. Thanks, others, for the "CFI Care."

NAG LIST
1. We seem to be losing sight of our objective of operating efficiently. Let's make a bigger effort to think ahead to the next tow, keep the golf cart moving, parking gliders in takeoff order, etc. We had a big delay on Sunday when the golf cart ran out of fuel.

2. The log sheet is very difficult to read. I know it's hard to fill out a form on a high-speed golf cart, but have some pity on the club secretary and treasurer, who have to make sense of what happened. If you make a mistake, cross out the entire row and start over in a new row. Also, let's start identifying the gliders by the competition ID (the big numbers on the tail), whenever possible. This will avoid ambiguities.

3. If you haven't already done so, please let Andy know what days you will be attending the Franconia encampment, and whether you will be there for the party on Saturday night. It is not too late to participate in this survey. An accurate roster of attendees really helps planning.

FRANCONIA
In case you haven't heard, we will be flying at the Franconia, New Hampshire airport from June 30 through July 4. No flying at Post Mills on those days.

Several members have volunteered to move gliders and equipment to Franconia for next weekend. Stay tuned for assignments. The long term weather forecast for Friday looks good. The Blanik and both 1-23s could soar there. This is encouraged. If you're not an XC pilot, volunteer to crew for someone. If your car has a trailer hitch, do not depart for Franconia with an empty hitch. Check with Gregg, Andy, or me for the current trailer-dragging plan.

Contact Rick if you have any questions about any of this.