Memorable Day

 Wow.  Evan (T8) flew 750 OLC kilometers today.

Weekday report May 20

It was the best day in a long time:  low clouds, a crosswind breeze, and cold.  But at least it wasn't raining!

Tim and Greg, heroes both, decided to force the issue and put on a day of training, daring any student to show up for some pattern tows in the 2-33.  Two took the bait, new member Jeff Bernard and Erzo.  The two of them got some great flight and ground instruction from Greg, while Tim did the towing.

Here's a picture of Jeff getting ready for his third flight.  Note the winter hat and down jacket.

The forecast is for more of the same weather for several more days.

Together, then apart

 The soaring weather has been so crummy so far that we've begun grasping at straws.  Perhaps we should do that more often.

Last night the forecast for today was "mostly cloudy," which sounds a whole lot better than "rain all day."  Indeed, the sky was grey all morning.  But that didn't prevent the four desperados from showing up and rigging their gliders.

Here's a nice view of a completely unpromising sky:

Tim (BU), Greg (JR), Peter (HG), and DaveB (NT) launched in rapid succession (4 takeoffs in 21 minutes), and even though there were no shadows on the ground, they were able to stay up!

It is interesting to compare the flights of JR (red) and BU (cyan):

For the first half of the flight, they flew together, advising each other of climb rates and trying to stay out of each other's way in the haze.  They wandered across the river and found their first good climb over Mount Cube.  Then they split up and went their separate ways.

Tim eventually went back to Vermont and found a good thermal to 6000 feet.  He landed just after it started to get sunny on the ground.  A three hour flight, not bad!

Lightweight report

Peter K writes: 

This is for anyone who is interested in the Hang Gliding world. Maybe just Rick…. 

I just got home from the Bobby Bailey Hang Gliding Nationals in Groveland, Florida.

First thing to state is that I do hang gliding competitions for pure fun. Like-minded pilots, a formal task and a dedicated retrieve driver make it very fun. I try not to come in last, but often I am close.

I had three practice days to try to remember how to fly after not flying since last Spring down there. Just like in my Discus at Post Mills.

First Comp task was a 135 km box around the Green Swamp, finishing by flying over Seminole-Lake Gliderport and back to our takeoff. Very difficult in a hang glider. I made it to within 12 km of the goal. I flew 5 hrs 15 mins. In addition to not making it, I missed the first turnpoint due to my well-documented technology issues… Great day. Would've been 7th…. Near zero score. OOPS.

I won’t go into details about every day. On the second to last day, I was too slow and decided not to fly over the city of Groveland to get home. I flew 93 km.

The task on the last day was a 106 km bow tie. I had a very bad Start, behind everyone else. I flew the entire Task alone, which is hard. And that made me think a lot. It was a very good day with 7000 foot cloudbase and light wind. I made it home with 900 feet and 4 hrs15 mins. A great way to finish.

All in all, including short practice flights, I flew 20 hours and nine days in a row. That might be my record.

I hope I brought some better wx back with me…

Milestone

This is the 1000th PMSC News blog post.

Andy wrote the first one on June 18, 2007. I wished him luck and said that blogging would never catch on.

Here are some other posts I remember:

Five days in Franconia

Greg's Private Pilot checkride

Control disconnect at Bermuda High

Introduction to Mifflin

Introduction to New Castle

Introduction to Perry

Lafayette Noda

Charlie Spratt

Peter Betts

Eric's first trip to Mount Washington

Pete and Mike's aerobatic video

Wave flight out of Post Mills by Andy Kozak

Night flight

600 flights in 2014

Getting a motel room in Gorham

Two new CFIs

Don't let this happen to you

Sonny's outlanding

Moshe's outanding

Moshe's other outlanding

Late season flight by Lane

Tim's outlanding

The reddest tree in Vermont

Sam's first solo

Jason's first solo

Don's new glider

Dan showing off

L19 trailer retrieve

Seven days in a row

Best day ever

Coldest day of the year

Best dressed pilot

Tim's altitude record

Rick's introduction to hang glider pilots

Double outlanding

Henry's first solo

Karl's Private Pilot checkride

Two guys discussing the hazards of Post Mills

John Good's first water landing

Three handsome guys

Relentlessly bad

Today:

Tomorrow:

This week:

In spite of the weather

Even though the weather has not been cooperative so far this year (especially on the weekends!), members have been squeezing in their checkrides when they can.  Full credit to the members for taking this annual requirement seriously.

Here's a photo of Greg and DaveB inspecting the Blanik yesterday:

And here's a trivia question: What procedural mistake is illustrated by this photo? Leave your answer in the comments.