First solo

Congratulations to Paul Kram on his first solo today!

Here's a picture of Paul in his next glider:

Trailer restoration

Nice job, Andy.

Some good weather at last

With only five days left, the month of May made a belated attempt to redeem its reputation today.

We had 5 knots to 6000 feet, and at one point Andy (PM) saw 7 knots on the averager during his 150 km flight. Tom (TH) had a similar report when he landed after his 2.5 hour flight. Bill disappeared in 3J, landed when nobody was looking, and disappeared in his truck, so I guess we'll get his story later. Moshe (RU) got a late start at Morrisville, but had a nice flight.

But the best flight of the day was Tim's (67). He found a climb above cloudbase, cruised up to Bradford, then back to the Elizabeth mine, and basically raced around the local area, getting the most mileage possible from a 2-33.

Here's hoping that June's weather will be true to May's reputation.

Spar Doubler

The Blanik spar saga continues.

Here is a picture of the spar doubler offered by the German company AD&C, installed on the bottom surface of a Blanik wing. It looks like a pretty neat solution, if a bit expensive.

A few gliders in Europe (most notably the Blanix aerobatic team) are flying with a conditional "Permit to Fly" (similar to our EXPERIMENTAL category) using this doubler. Full approval by the European authority is expected, and FAA will probably rubber-stamp the approval some day.

The latest news from the factory is that they are still working on a solution of their own, and they have promised more news in July.

Weekend report May 21 - 22

Lots of partying, some flying, as our rainy Spring continues.

The first cookout of the season happened Saturday evening, after nothing at all happened at the airfield that day. It was a nice gathering of friends and neighbors:

Andy, Christina, Christopher, Dirk, Ella, Gretta, Jill, Jill, Kevin, Lynn, Mary, Mike, Nathan, Olivia, Peter, Petey, Rich, Rick, Sonny, Sue, Tessa, Tim

We had our Spring open house on Sunday and made a handful of flights, including a couple of guest flights, under mostly overcast skies. Steve did the best in PM (by spending 77% of his time circling)!

New phone number

The club has a new phone number and associated answering service.

802-333-0401

Please use the new number to find out whether we are flying on a given day. We will update the message on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and on other flying days.

Also, the new number will be used to process inquiries about the club. Please give it to anyone you meet who is interested in PMSC.

The Mother of all Omega Blocks

...is right here, right now.

Read all about 'em

These things persist for days and days. Now you know why the Region 2 contest at Mifflin Co PA was rescheduled for next week.

Weekend report May 7 - 8

Saturday:

Today was a reminder that spring gives us the best thermals of the year, and despite the mediocre forecast, conditions today were excellent.

Skip (JS) made a nice 143 km flight, and Steve and Tim each flew PM for over an hour. The 1-23 was assembled and Keith, who has come back to fly with us, flew 3J until after I left the field. I'll bet he was smiling the whole time.

Thermals were 8kts to cloudbase, and tomorrow looks to be more of the same. We made a new towrope today.

Two fuel runs were made this week and, ouch, a tow to 3K costs us $10 just for the gas.

We're looking for a towpilot for tomorrow.

Good flying, mediocre reporting

PMSC operations in Vermont got off to a great start today, according to my source (whose identity is withheld to protect his reputation as a reporter).

Steve, Evan, Thomas, Skip, Rich, Andy, Tom, Christopher, Bill, Skip and Lane (yes, that Lane) put on an old fashioned flying show at Post Mills, while the southern auxilliary squadron (Sonny, Doug, Paul K) chose to fly at Springfield.

That's all I know since my source neglected to say anything about the weather, the runway conditions, the nature and strength of the thermals, the number of flights, or where the gliders went.

My source did send me this picture, and I gather from it that there weren't many cumulus clouds today:


(This photo almost qualifies as a "Name that sailplane" blog entry, but I'll give it away by telling you it's an ASW-24).

The quality of the reporting is forecast to improve.