The Weekday Slackers strike again

It wasn't too difficult to see the good weather coming last Sunday. A well-defined cold front was forecast to pass through in the evening, and we could see from the map that it would be followed by high pressure and light winds.

However, it was difficult to pick the right day.

Kevin predicted that Wednesday, May 13, would be the day. A Slacker Alert went out Sunday evening. The second-guessers chimed in with alternative days. A few of us were convinced that Wednesday would be too late for the peak conditions and made plans to fly on Tuesday. But in the end, Kevin was absolutely right, and Wednesday turned out to be the best day we've seen around here in seven years.

The participants, in order of takeoff, were Evan (T8), Tony (7H), Tim (PM), Paul (S1), Kevin (6Q), Skip (JS), and Rick (S2), slackers all.

(Paul's flight log was glitchy and couldn't be analyzed properly. We have asked OLC to analyze it manually. Here's an image of his flight; click to enlarge. Update: it's OK now.)

We were assisted by a pair of transient airplane pilots who arrived in a Cessna 182 as we were assembling. They were visiting Post Mills after reading about us in the AOPA article.

The first takeoff occurred at 1130. Just before closing the canopy, Evan commented, correctly, that we should have been launching an hour earlier.

What a day! The best thermals averaged an honest 7 knots, and everyone reported seeing 10 knots on the averager at least once. The clouds were reliable, and their bases were in the vicinity of 10000 feet. The last climb of the day was 5 knots to 6500 feet, at nearly 6pm.

The seven of us flew a total of 1826 km. Evan went the farthest at 529 km and can claim his Diamond Distance. Tim flew 316 km, visited the summit of Mount Washington, and earned his Silver Distance on the way back. Skip flew his first hundred miler, and Kevin (who outclimbed us all) completed a 100 km speed triangle. The day ended with everyone back home in the trailers and free beer for the towpilot.

If you see Thomas, ask him how his cello lesson went that day.

(The doubters who flew on Tuesday also had good flights: KG and S2).