Monday, February 8, 2016

Wave Flight - February 6


Had another nice wave flight on Saturday.  I took a long tow to the primary but wasn't able to connect so I drop back to Little Ascutney.  From there I was able to thermal into the secondary.  Here is a picture from 8,500' over Little Ascutney looking toward Okemo:


This is the first flight this year where clouds did not obscure the primary around Killington.  This is the view from Plymouth looking toward Killington:


Climbing in the Killington wave to about 12,000':


I followed to the primary to Sugarbush where I climbed to 15,000':


This is the view from Sugarbush looking north.   There was more wave to follow but I was already shirking my tow pilot duties (sorry Walter) and I chickened out.  I turned around:


I got to Middlebury Ski Bowl but the primary hole was getting hazy and heading south with the lowering sun I couldn't tell where to fly to stay in the primary so I headed downwind into a secondary hole.  I got a little lost.  I knew I was 28 nm from VSF (15 nm from 2B9, 11 nm from LEB) and I could see I89 down through the hole but I couldn't tell if the secondary hole was going to lead me too far downwind (like to Sunapee).   I knew I could drop through the hole and land at 2B9 or LEB but I really wanted to get back to VSF.  So I tanked up with a little more altitude and carefully headed south.  At about 20 nm out I spotted the Mt. Ascutney ski runs and knew I was home free.  The hole led me straight back to the airport.  Its nice of the ski industry to create these giant land marks for us but I guess its time to get a moving map display.




- Tim

1 comment:

Moshe said...

Very cool flights, Tim! (Actually, probably downright cold...) And, you've managed to fly in December, January, and February. March should be easy, so you'll probably be able to say you flew every month of the year. (On which month should "the year" start? OLC starts in mid-October, of all times.)