Weekend Report September 1 - 3

It was a great weekend with clear weather all three days. On Saturday, Doug towed all day and good solo flights were made by Tony, Pete, Skip, and Kevin. The student pilots were Tom C, Jason, and new member Faraday. On Faraday's flight, Jason hooked up the rope and John M ran the wing, making it the first all-teenager launch of the season. When it was Jason's turn, he made a 2000 foot climb, the first real thermal climb of his career.

On Sunday, the conditions were a little weaker. Mike, Jason, and Kevin started the day by digging post holes in the back yard for a new fence for North. By the end of the day, nearly everyone was involved in the fence project. Flights were made by Tony, Pete, Tom H, Gregg, Rich and Sonny (who seems pleased with his new variometer). Gregg and Kevin served as instructors for Jason and Faraday while Rick worked on the fence. At one point, all the gliders were in the air, and we took the opportunity to mow the tiedowns. Andy towed all day. At the after-flying party, we watched a slide show of Pete's photographs. Some pictures were truly excellent, and we hope to publish them in the club's web photo archive soon. By the way, we are really getting the hang of this cookout thing. We had 21 participants, and there was food left over.

On Monday, the sky was still blue, but the thermals were even weaker. Peter B started the day with a 1-hour lesson in the 2-33, but the thermals eluded everyone else. Valiant tries were made by Steve, Skip, Doug, Tony, and Rich, with Bob D towing. After a few pattern tows, Jason made his first solo flight. Here's his picture perfect final approach:


And here is what happened next:

The guy with the bucket is Creighton. Too bad you can't see his evil grin in this photo. Laurie took the pictures. After he dried off, Jason made another solo flight (for a total of five flights for the day) and managed to stay up for about 4o minutes. Congratulations, Jason!