Five days in a row

We've had some really great weather recently. The slackers and the regulars combined for another "five day weekend," ending yesterday, with a total of 31 flights.

WEDNESDAY
Tim (PM) took a high tow on Wednesday, hoping for wave. The forecast said it was a possibility, but the wind had died down by the time he took off. He turned it into a nice 3.5 hour flight in thermals, visiting Goose Pond, Cookeville, and Strafford.

THURSDAY
Dennis made the trip to Post Mills to work on patterns and landings. After the last one, there was nobody left on the airport and no hurry to put the glider away. We stood around talking and enjoying the late afternoon sun. A perfect day to be outside in a beautiful setting.

FRIDAY
Dan and Greg showed up and Karl flew in. The weather was good, but the thermals were a bit widely spaced. Greg had his first extended flight in PM, and Dan flew 3J for about an hour - twice.

SATURDAY
It rained a bit on Friday evening, and the forecast for Saturday was pessimistic and completely wrong. The day turned out fine for flying, if not for soaring.  Tim towed early, and Andy took over for the rest of the day.

Kevin started things out by flying PI with a guest and then had to leave. Mike and Sonny showed up to help out but didn't fly. Greg and Andy Lawrence had short flights. Mark had a good day: 3 flights in two gliders with two instructors.

But the best time was had by Dennis Cavagnaro, who made his first solo in a sailplane!

It was a bit too cool for a water dunking, so we used leaves instead.

Dennis saw me coming with the bucket, and he didn't know it wasn't water.

SUNDAY
We had another frontal passage Saturday night, and Sunday was windy. We put student flying on hold, hoping that it would calm down toward the end of the day. In the meantime, we had a day of maintenance, standing around, and socializing, with a little bit of flying thrown in.

Tim, who started our five day weekend, finished it off with another 2 hour, 114km flight in PM. He heard Evan on the radio somewhere in New York (Evan, apparently, is slowly making his way home after finishing second in the Region 4 contest. Good job, Evan).

Karl made it to 7000 feet in 3J, and found so much lift in the pattern that we thought he was going to land somewhere else.

Then something strange happened. The wind and the lift both quit in the middle of the day. Late launchers Skip and Mike found nothing at all, and flight instruction suddenly became possible. John Lippman had a pair of flights with Thomas, and Bob flew with Rick. Dennis capped off the day with his second solo.

Five straight days of flying. Congratulations to all.  Anybody want to go for six?