Weekend report April 24 - 25

Saturday was a spectacular soaring day, and we might have accomplished more if the wind had not been a factor.  In deference to the blustery conditions and overall conservatism of a bunch of rusty pilots, we weren't as eager as usual to fly at first.

The air was unstable, which gave us good thermals initially and overdevelopment in the late afternoon.  The rainshowers were widely scattered and fairly easy to avoid.  Some of them were snowshowers. 

Greg (JR), and Tim (BU) were first to launch, and they promptly disappeared for the rest of the day.  They flew together up to Mount Washington, then Colebrook and Newport, and over to the Green Mountains, where Tim got a bit low.  Greg took the opportunity to dash up to Jay Peak and back.  They made it home in good shape with long final glides from the northwest.

Here's a picture Tim took of Greg over the Presidential Range.

And this was Greg's view at the time.

Here is Newport and Lake Memphremagog:

Back at Post Mills, Peter K (3BA), Dennis (DC), Henry (67), Darrek (67) and Matt (3BA) dodged rainshowers in the local area and enjoyed some good climbs to 9000 feet.

And, for the first time ever, Sonny (LT) flew his airplane and his glider on the same day.  He took a quick morning trip to Gorham in the L-16, then worked all day helping other people fly (as usual), and finally had a nice flight in the ASW-19 after the sun came back out in the late afternoon.

We also received this report from Greg H (YZ), who flew at Springfield:

I too had a special flight on Saturday in my Std Cirrus. Released at 2,800ft at 12:15 pm, climbed to 9,500 within 25 minutes. Headed upstream and left cloudbase at 10,200 and immediately flew into wave (5 miles west of KVSF) at 1 pm. Pretty constant at 300 to 500 ft/min lift. I wiggled and waggled @ 41 mph to find the edges and best lift but never could hit it perfectly. Left wave at 13,200 feet still producing 350 ft/min due to some concern I had about being so high for too long a time (I was above 12,500 ft for just 3 minutes at the time), but I heard a Citation was in the area and got chicken. At least 1000 feet above the highest Cu.
 
Wish I had my O2 tank filled and bought a mask.

We didn't fly on Sunday, but Saturday was enough to call it a successful weekend.

Oh, and the Perry contest ended.  Be sure to congratulate Evan, who was the winner in the 15m/Std class!

Wave day at Springfield

Tuesday was blustery and cold, but it was the day NESA chose to check out a new towpilot.  That's all the excuse Tim (BU) needed.

After struggling in the rotor for a good while, he connected with the Okemo wave for a nice climb to 9800 feet.

PMSC at the races

 Keith (AG) and Evan (T8) are participating in the Region 5N competition in South Carolina this week.

Yesterday was the second day of the contest, and Evan blew everybody away with a decisive win (more than 100 points margin over 2nd place).  This puts him in first place overall.

The contest runs through April 24.

Weekend report April 17 - 18

The best news from the weekend is that we had a ground school session inside the clubhouse with five fully vaccinated attendees!  It has been a long time since something so normal has seemed normal.

Both days were cold.  Saturday was a bust due to drizzly conditions, and Sunday got off to a slow start with the overcast, wind, and ground school session.  Finally, Greg and Rick went up in the Blanik for a review of spins, and Henry and Rick flew the 2-33 which really needs some sealing work.

Tim stopped towing and took off in BU at 4pm, for a very interesting 2.5 hour flight.  At 6pm he reported that he was five miles out and would be landing shortly.  The cloudstreet that brought him back to Post Mills kept on going for 20 more miles.  He turned around somewhere around Canaan, New Hampshire and rode the street all the way back home.

Three members with perfectly good gliders (Sonny, Don, Dennis) stayed on the ground and worked as ground crew.  This was much appreciated, but they missed some good flying at the end of the day.

Std. Cirrus flies

 Congratulations to Greg Hunter on flying his new Standard Cirrus yesterday at Springfield!

Assembly Day

 It is rare for us to go flying on Assembly Day.  It is even rarer for us to assemble and fly at Post Mills before April 15.  This year we did both, thanks to hard working members, an accommodating insurance agent, and climate change.

On Saturday, Darrek, Dennis, Don, Eric, Greg, Henry, John, Kari, Keith, Moshe, Rick, Sonny, and Tim all showed up early, and by midday, three club gliders were assembled and two of them flew!

The first flight of the year was accomplished by Tim towing Moshe solo in the 2-33.  One more just like that one, and Moshe became our first current instructor.  Here's a picture of him keeping his wings level on our sloped runway.

He wound up flying with Dennis, Sonny, Eric, and Henry.  Thanks, Moshe!

While this was going on, the overcast broke apart, and it turned into a decent soaring day.  Tim assembled BU and took off.

Greg stood next to his new glider and listened patiently while Rick told him things he already knew about it.  Then he had his first flight in the glider that will be known shortly as "JR."

Meanwhile, Darrek improved our tiedowns, Don improved the towplane tailwheel, and Eric organized the clubhouse.

Eric and Dennis bought the beer this time.

We are off to a good start!

Juliet Romeo

 Congratulations to Greg Hanlon on the acquisition and first flight of Juliet Romeo, a beautiful JS1B, seen here over Post Mills on Saturday.

A sure sign of Spring

 

COVID update IV

 This is the first COVID update of the 2021 season.

Our new 2021 operational rules were distributed to the membership today.

Vaccination helps, but we're not out of the woods yet.  Wash your hands, wear a mask, stay socially distanced, and watch this space for further updates.

Weekend report April 3 - 4

 Moshe (RU) disentombed his glider on Saturday and took his first flight of the year on Sunday.  Here's his report:

The forecast changed completely, but the winds were still light when I took off at noon.  It turns out I should have taken off even earlier (I was ready at least 30 minutes earlier). 

I concentrated on trying to reach the potential wave, as there were wavy looking clouds here and there.  To my surprise, winds aloft (within the thermal layer) were weaker than forecast, 8-11 knots according to Tophat.  Most good thermals got strongest (5 knots) above 5000 MSL but died before 6000, probably hitting the forecast inversion.  Some may have been wave-enhanced.

In one area I managed to climb to 7000 in wider lift patches that may have been wave, but I couldn't seem to stay in that lift, nor get any higher.  By then the wind reported on the ground was up to 15G20, luckily from the WNW rather than the forecast NNW.  And the thermals got difficult to find and work.

I hit some turbulence in the lee of Hawks Mountain, enough that my head hit the canopy pretty hard, so I decided maybe it's time to land, even though I've only flown a bit more than 2 hours.  Remembering the sink on the approach to runway 29, I came in close and high, planning to land halfway down that runway.  Once on final I pulled full spoilers - and in a few seconds I was staring at "the numbers" at the approach end.  Wow.  Kept the nose down and closed spoilers and all was well.