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.
