Monday, September 17, 2012

Weekend report September 15 - 16

The seasons are changing. The weather is dynamic again. This was the last weekend in which the days were longer than the nights.

Technically, this was a three day weekend, since we flew on Friday (see previous post). A frontal passage Friday evening brought us cooler air and a brisk northwest wind for the next two days.

Saturday was unstable, with several cycles of clouds and blue sky. New members Mark Hopkins and John Lippman started their training and Sonia got checked out on the golf cart. Mark and John had a couple of good lessons each, despite the turbulent conditions. Our default towpilot, Andy, came out and towed because our scheduling system seems to have failed.

The wind died down for Sunday, and it was much drier aloft. We made a total of twelve flights, all local. Unusually, the lift was on the east side of the field all day, with no lift at the usual hotspots of Tug Mountain and the copper mine.

Karl showed up in the Cub and made two flights in 3J. His first might have been longer if he hadn't misread his altimeter on tow. The second one was of satisfying duration. In between the two flights, Greg disappeared in 3J for an hour or so. Neither one of them carried a flight recorder.

Rick and Thomas (and everybody else) ganged up on Christopher for his first Flight Review (has it been two years already?) Mark and Dennis were good sports about losing their spots on the waiting list.

Andy Lawrence (PM), Skip (JS), and Steve (PM) did record their flights, and all three reported having a good time in the local thermals.

Elsewhere:
Tom flew TH for a couple of hours at Franconia and has decided to keep the glider there, ready to go to Gorham next month. And Evan and John are racing in Virginia, again. No reports from Tony or Moshe.

And finally, this week's nag list:

1. Golf cart abuse: the rear end of the cart is not as strong as it looks. Recently we have put far too much junk, weights, and even people in back. Let's try not to do this.

2. Tail dolly ettiquette: we all have different ideas about where to put our tail dollies while we are out flying, and this is fine. Don't assume that the pilot wants his tail dolly repositioned while he is in the air. It's frustrating to have to look for it after landing.

3. Towpilots: please use the calendar. Andy enjoys towing, but we don't enjoy not knowing whether any other towpilot is planning to show up.

4. Flight recorders: please use them! It doesn't matter if your flights are short. OLC serves as an excellent club logbook.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Today, X and T8 are sitting in the "White House", waiting out the rain. The next three days offer decent wx forecasts for racing.

-T8