We're still fixing

This past weekend Andy, Andy and Tim began clearing out the hangar we'll be using to work on gliders this winter. They're optimistic about getting the heating system working soon, and then they'll be expecting a lot of volunteers to show up.

We're still flying

After a few mechanical missteps, we now have three airplanes on skis, ready to fly. Andy, Tim, and Rick are standing by for suitable flying weather and volunteer shoveler-pusher-passengers.

Solstice

On the darkest day of the year, 39 of us slid down the LumRuss driveway to arrive at an island of warmth, light, and hospitality. We gathered for the perennially outstanding feast known as Julbord – Swedish for “I dream of July.” And what a feast! While it is a cliché to assert once again that Judy outdid herself, and despite the logical certainty that at some point it becomes impossible to make that assertion, Judy outdid herself. The meal featured sculpted delicacies ranging from spherical to orthogonal, with origami in between. We enjoyed melon balls, meatballs, poached potatoes, spiral cut ham, folded smoked salmon, herring, various cheeses and flat breads, all of which have exotic-sounding Swedish names that Hans can pronounce, but have been forgotten by this writer. I do remember that Hans pronounced the entire presentation flawlessly authentic. Just when we thought we could eat no more, our indefatigable hostess unveiled a fancy tablefull of cakes, cheesecakes and coffees. If you made the mistake of not attending, you have my condolences. The way I see it, the only acceptable excuse for missing the LumRuss Julbord is to be out flying somewhere in New Zealand. Today our hemisphere turns back toward the sun. That thought goes a long way toward fending off cabin fever, but not as far as the sight of so many friends gathered to celebrate the season.

Wave at Post Mills

The best wave day of the year may have been last Sunday. Too bad the gliders were put away. Paul and I flew in my Champ and Andy in his. Paul and I went to 11,000’ between PM and Montpelier. At times the rate-of-climb indicator showed over 1600 fpm (with the engine throttled back to produce zero sink). We probably could have gone higher, we weren't even trying. Wave windows and some lenticulars marked the wave over many oscillations. The winds were not that strong so it probably would have been easy to transition to the next crest upwind in a high performance glider. The picture (Paul’s) above shows a wave window and the backside of a lenticular. You can see the rest of Paul’s pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/postmillsrc/2009126Paul

Here is the Skew-T for the day (sorry about the units). Wind was due west at 28 kts (14 m/s) at 9,500’ (2908 m).



Tim