Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Weekend report May 12 - 13

The forecast for Saturday was "first half cloudy, second half drizzly." In reality it was "first half clear, second half cloudy."

A good collection of members showed up, including Thomas (yay, Thomas, come back soon!). But it turned out that most them came to drop off their parachutes for repacking. The only person serious about flying was David, who was able to get four lessons, including one of most of an hour in duration.

David returned on Sunday, to better weather, and had another soaring flight. The tow was "interesting" (he might tell you the story if you ask), but the rest of the flight was quite enjoyable. He is making terrific progress, due to his enthusiasm and willingness to show up at every opportunity.

Also on Sunday, Skip (JS), Don, and Henry made local flights while Mark (HG), Tim (BU), Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), and Evan (T8) all headed for Mount Washington. At the end of the day we had only two retrieves to do.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

RIP 3J, you kept the pilot safe to the end. It was nice knowing you.

So I guess we need a new metal ship for pre PPL training. 1-34? 1-26? L-33? Full acro Pilatus? All of the above available for pretty decent money on wingsandwheels.

Moshe said...

I'm still mourning 3J, despite having never actually flown it. (Lost my chance.) But my first reaction regarding replacement is a 1-26. Back in the day I loved flying the "bluebird" we used to have (before the yellow bird). Pretty cheap to get one. L33 (solo blanik) has much better performance but a reputation for easily damaging the tailcone in a groundloop. 1-34 also has decent performance if you can find one. Somehow the 1-34 they had at Harris Hill when I was a member there never seemed attractive enough to draw me to fly it - was is just the looks?

Moshe said...

It was a blue day with some strong thermals but they were hard to find and hard to work - rather turbulent. Evan says the winds at low altitudes were higher than higher up, an unusual condition. Also unusual was that there was not much lift over the higher mountains. There were also large areas (or at least long invisible lines) of heavy sink. My progress was rather slow, and then I got stuck at Gorham where the thermals were iffy. By the time I finally climbed out of there, I only made it to Franconia before the lift pretty much died out and the headwind increased. Thanks Evan for the aeroretrieve. (The local tow pilot there already left by the time I landed.)

Gregg Ballou said...

Sorry to see 3Js demise glad there were no injuries. I haven't flown GBSC's L-33 yet, but our single seat progression goes 1-26 -> 1-34 -> B-4 -> L-33. A L-33 might not be the best first single seater. If anyone is really interested in one I'll take it for a flight and let you know what I think first hand. My biased opinion is to scour the registration for likely hangar queen E model 1-26s and make offers. E models because they have significantly higher max pilot limits. 1-26 association website has an updated list of owners.

giovanniconte said...

Hi, hallo from Bonn, Germany!
My son Delano took this picture..., what happened to the glider?

Johannesgraf7@gmail.com

Best wishes
Johannes

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