Weekend report June 18 - 19

Our string of unflyable days ended with the passage of a weak cold front Friday evening.

It was still drizzly and foggy Saturday morning and we almost called the day off after breakfast. That would have been disappointing for our towpilot, Bob, who drove all the way down from St. Johnsbury (Thanks, Bob). The day turned out to be surprisingly good, with weak lift under every single cloud. The bases were low, however, and you had to spend most of your time circling. Tim and Steve (both in PM) earned some OLC points in the local area. Mike S and Sam both had good flights in the 2-33. Sam impressed his instructor with how little his year-long layoff has affected his stick-and-rudder skills.

In the afternoon, the sky to the northwest turned black, and we started to hear thunder. Everyone landed, and we hustled to put everything away. We were running for cover by 4:30 pm. This allowed an early start to the cookout, which was well supplied and enjoyable, as usual.

Sunday was the kind of day we dream about. The lift started early and cloudbase eventually reached 6500 feet. Almost everyone had a long flight. Mike S kept the 2-33 in the air for 1.7 hours, and got to 6300 feet, both personal records. He flew with Tim (PM) for a while, on Tim's jaunt to the northwest, a flight that was not recorded, alas. Tom (TH) got stuck at low altitude over West Fairlee and was forced to creep home early. Skip (JS) headed for the White Mountains but was unable to get past Mount Lafayette, where he turned around, completing a nice 121 km flight. The best flight of the day was made either by Evan (T8) or Thomas (ZP). They both were gone for over five hours, but only one of them turned in a flight log.

Andy towed all day and finally got to do a ride flight in the 2-33 at the end of the day (Thanks, Andy).