Weekend Report October 4 - 5

On Saturday, if you had assumed a supine position in preparation for a postprandial nap at Fiddlehead Field, you might have caught a glimpse of a shiny dot, 11,000 feet overhead. The dot would have been nearly stationary from your point of view. If you had concentrated on that dot, you may have been able to see it drift slowly southwards, eventually being joined by another yellow dot, and if you had remembered your binoculars, you may have been able to discern two other airborne dots in the blue area between the clouds.

Welcome to wave season! Jon, Tim, Pete, and Skip took high tows and all four were able to contact the wave just north of the airport. Andy did an outstanding job of towing them to the areas of lift, which were not completely obvious from the clouds. Jon's three-hour flight in the Blanik allows him to claim the current 2008 club altitude record (11,800 feet). We don't expect this record to last. Tim and Pete made it over 10,000 feet, and Skip was able to maintain 7,000 as the wind died at the end of the day.

Almost as an afterthought, we spent Sunday installing the oxygen systems in the club gliders, in anticipation of our annual Gorham encampment over the next two weekends.

If you're planning to go to Gorham and haven't filled out the attendance survey, please do so as soon as possible, and don't forget PMSC night at the theater on October 10.