Slacker Day in the New Climate

Whatever we think we know about the new climate is probably wrong.

It used to be that we never got a cold front in July, and on the rare occasions that cool air from Canada arrived, we never got Spring-like windy conditions the next day.  Finally, we never used to think about wildfires a thousand miles away.

Yesterday, for the second Friday in a row we called a Slacker Day following a frontal passage the night before.  Most of us expected cool dry conditions with high cloud bases and a light NW breeze.  Moshe was the only one vigilant enough to check for wind and smoke.  He warned us, but we didn't listen.

He discovered, from the usual sources, that it would be atypically breezy, and from a newly discovered website, that a high pressure system would be bringing us a band of smoke from Saskatchewan.  We went flying anyway.

Seven gliders launched in gusty conditions, beginning about noon.  At first the sky was blue.  We found climbs to about 5000 feet, but kept blowing south while circling, making it a struggle just to stay local.  Greg (JR), Dan (EA), and Andy K (2R) took advantage of their high performance gliders and charged off to the northwest.  Moshe (RU), Peter (HG), and Dave (NT) fought the wind and sink to no avail and landed back home.  Rick (LEL) took the easy way out and dashed down to Lebanon, found a nice climb to 6000 feet right over the control tower and followed a street back to Post Mills.

By mid- afternoon the sky to the northwest was completely gray.  The combination of a relentless headwind and decreasing visibility made it difficult to be optimistic about getting anywhere that day.

Greg made a low save at Morrisville and finessed a return to Post Mills.  Andy turned around just past Catamount and nearly landed at Montpelier.  But he made it home.  Dan didn't get the memo and landed in a field near Morrisville.  Everyone was on the ground early, several hours before sunset.

Greg went off to retrieve Dan, so we'll probably get a story from them later.

All in all, it was a fun day for everyone - except the firefighters in Canada.

Wave flight

 Andy Kozak (2R) writes:

May 31, 2024 - My most spectacular flight! 

The Skysight forecast was for strong NNW winds with high cloud bases. I had left my glider in the trailer overnight at Post Mills Airfield and was once again going to fly with Tim Chow (BU) and Greg Hanlon (JR). The morning sky showed lenticular clouds, indicating the presence of wave, although Skysight had not predicted wave. We prepared our oxygen systems. My pulse oximeter system can be preset to automatically provide oxygen once I am over 10,000 feet. All I then have to do is put on a nasal cannula. 

The goal for the day was Sugarloaf mountain. in Maine, 250 miles round trip. 

Here are Tim and Greg over Lake Fairlee. Post Mills is just to the left of the lake.

I topped off first and set off hoping to spend at least some of the day leading. This would not last long. After a climb over Piermont Mountain, I was a bit higher so I probed the leading edge of the cloud, hoping to connect to wave. Tim and Greg continued on course and I was suddenly off course and behind. 

For any sustained longer term flight, being able to thermal in consistent, steeply banked (45+ deg.) circles is critical. The NESA 1-34 is great for this with relatively good performance and a good trim control to reduce your workload. It helps to have a relaxed, light touch on the controls. 

Finding myself behind I was anything but relaxed and my thermaling showed. Greg reported good lift over Mount Lafayette but by the time I got there it may have been too late, or I was just not flying well. 

The thermal seemed broken up; there was noticeable strong drift over the 5,000 foot peaks, and I did not have a lot of room to work with. I was forced to penetrate out toward the northern entrance to Franconia notch. I flew through what seemed the worst extended sink and strongest turbulence I have experienced. 

Then, as if by magic it all changed. I turned the corner past Mount Lafayette and flew over of the north facing Lafayette ridge. A two place ship from the Franconia club was thermaling further to the east along the ridge. It was bright and sunny, with smooth air. After gaining some altitude on the ridge I headed for the clouds in the valley. I was somewhat low but within an easy glide of either Franconia, Mount Washington or Twin Mountain airfields. 

After gaining altitude over Cherry Mountain, the clouds provided mostly straight line flight with minimal circling toward Mount Washington. At 9,000 feet. I put on the nasal cannula. I passed just to the south of the summit. To my surprise there was no sink. Lift seemed to come in surges that threatened to pull me up into the clouds. I blundered about over the Carter range until Tim suggested I fly back toward Mount Washington and over the “Horn”. This is the sharp, uphill, left turn under my wingtip:

It used to be customary that drivers on the Mount Washington auto road sounded their horn at this turn. The road was narrower at that time. It is a well known location for wave lift. 

I found smooth, steady 2-3 knot lift. Not very strong for wave. Greg and Tim had topped out at 13,000 feet and headed NE toward Old Speck Mountain, but I was too low to follow and very content to continue climbing.

In this photo you can see Huntington Ravine as the prominent rock bowl in the lower left third of the frame and at the bottom you can see snow in Tuckerman ravine, a mecca for extreme skiing.

And here I am  at 16,500 feet next to a lenticular cloud:

At that point I noticed a much higher lenticular cloud had formed just to my south. I lost some altitude getting to it but there was good lift along its leading edge:

At 17,800 feet I headed away from the lift so as not to violate Class A airspace. It looked like the cloud and likely the lift, extended another 10,000 feet higher.

The flight back was smooth and fast. Once at cumulus cloud level, turbulence restarted and continued down to the ground. 

We never reached our goal but found something special. The White Mountains are beautiful viewed from the air as well as from the ground. Add cumulus and lenticular clouds and their associated shadows and the views on this flight were spectacular. The OLC link is here. 

A real outlanding

We had a Slacker Day on Monday.  Greg (JR), Tim (BU), and David (JD) flew away, and our new member Shawn got a couple of lessons in the 2-33.

The XC guys had great flights, but only one of them made it back home.  At the end of the day, Andy hooked up Tim's trailer while Greg quickly disassembled and stowed his glider.  Then Andy flew the towplane to Dean to fetch David, and Greg hit the road to go get Tim in Bradford.

Congratulations to everyone for the teamwork - and to Tim for making the first real outlanding of the year.

Town Meeting January 22

The future of the airport was discussed by the Thetford Selectboard for the first time last night.

It was listed on the agenda as an "update," so we didn't expect any public discussion or debates.  And we were not disappointed in that.

There were six Selectboard members and nine members of the public (mostly airport supporters) at the meeting, and there were about fifteen others tuning in on Zoom.

The update consisted of a report from the Selectboard that the bequest from our former owner was still being discussed, out of public view, between lawyers representing the town and the estate.  So, no definitive proposals exist yet.

Reading between the lines, it seems that the town has three options:

1. Accept ownership of the airport and form a business plan to operate it.
2. Accept ownership, and then transfer it to a private entity.
3. Refuse ownership.

The Chair of the Selectboard expressed doubt that the Option 1 could be made to work (this is good news).  Then another member of the Selectboard said that Option 2 (which all parties seem to favor) is tricky, but possible.  He explained that there might have to be an appeal to the Probate Court to allow this.  Nobody mentioned Option 3.

The bottom line is that we are still at the very beginning of the discussion about the future of the airport.  We must continue to wait for the estate to be settled and for the lawyers to let us know what they think is possible.

The good news is that everyone in the room agreed that the continued operation of the airport is in the best interest of the town.  The Selectboard remarked about the level of interest shown by the community (both in person and online).  The Chair, noting the unusual turnout, thanked us for being there and took our picture to mark the occasion.