August 11 report from Springfield

 Andy Kozak writes:

As you all know, it has been difficult to find good flying days this season. My logbook shows a couple of wave flights early in May. Then two good flights at the end of May and one in June, all around 400 km. It has been a long wet spell since then.

The weekend of August 2-3 was smoke impacted but I still managed two good flights. This past weekend I again had two good flights, both just over 350 km, with a bonus day on Monday of 275 km making for 1500 km over five days, in August, in New England!

Monday August 11th, 6 pilots flew from Springfield: Greg, Bill Detrich, Alasdair, Lee, myself and Tim Chow from Post Mills. Bill Batesole was kind enough to tow. Tim and I have flown together in the past and we decided to do so again. Tim flies an HpH 304CZ. My ASW 27 and Tim’s 304 were both manufactured about 25 years ago but the HPH design goes back to the 80’s so his airfoil is an older design. However, Tim’s 17.43 m wingspan results in a slightly better climb rate. My 15 m wing has a more modern, thinner airfoil, resulting in better performance at higher speeds.

Tim’s OLC link to his flight is here: BU. You can overlay my flight (2R) on Tim’s by scrolling down and clicking on “Meeting Points”. (You have to log in to your OLC account to do the overlay.)

Tim climbed up to me at the north end of Hawks ridge and we decided to head south to Mount Greylock in northwest Massachusetts. Tim had mentioned a low stress flight before we took off and I seconded that. Heading south, the clouds were nicely spaced, and we could be selective in picking thermals, typically only stopping for 4+ knot climbs. Leaving the Springfield airfield area we came into glide range of Mount Snow airfield. Unfortunately, after Mount Snow itself, there were no more clouds to the south. The clouds to the east looked good so we turned in that direction. Further east into the Connecticut river valley the clouds began to thin but we always had a cloud to mark the way. In that part of southeastern Vermont there is a grass strip, Santas airfield, in Putney. After that is the Keene airfield in New Hampshire.

On many days we see a distinct line of clouds over the Green Mountains, with another line of  clouds over the central spine of southern New Hampshire.  GBSC glider pilots typically fly north/south up that central spine from Mount Monadnock, to Mount Sunapee, Mount Kearsarge, on up to the Whites. It was still a bit hazy up high so it took some time before we could faintly see Mount Monadnock. It took even longer until we could evaluate the clouds in that area. They were not as closely spaced as on our run south, so prior to reaching Mount Mondanock, we turned north.

It is always a welcome sight to see the glider ahead of you bank sharply and climb, allowing you to follow directly into the core. There was little wind and we were staying above 5000 feet so the thermal cores were easy to find. On only one occasion did one of us turn back when the trailing pilot located a strong core. My flight computer shows my flight path as a color coded line, with red indicating lift, so it is fairly easy to find a core should I turn in the wrong direction or choose to turn back for lift I flew through. When in a thermal, my flight computer screen displays a circle of dots on my screen showing the strength of lift throughout my previous 360 degrees of turn. This allows me to extend my circle toward what I hope is the strongest lift. I focus on making these adjustments as smoothly as possible. When centered in a thermal core I will try to relax and basically not touch my controls. I believe this allows the glider to fly itself the most efficiently possible. Doing that will also show you the correct position of your yaw string for that bank angle and speed.

As we flew north, the Connecticut River valley to our west was almost all blue, to the Green Mountains. Ahead, the clouds were now spaced further apart so we maximized our climbs to stretch our glides. Our lowest altitude, approximately 4400 feet, was just before Sunapee, but we were by then within glide of Parlin/Newport New Hampshire. We could have chanced an earlier crossing, west toward Springfield, but any significant stretch of sink, with no clouds to mark thermals, would have been risky. We flew north past Mount Sunapee turning northwest toward a wispy cloud near Grantham. It grew as we climbed under it. We had kept our eyes on a large cloud over the Croyden range but I was concerned it may be late in its life cycle. Spreading out under it we both found lift but Tim had the stronger core. I joined Tim and we climbed to over 7000 feet. This allowed us to leave on a long glide, crossing over the top of Lebanon’s Class D airspace (3100 feet). The clouds there were slightly overdeveloped offering no strong lift, so we turned south toward Springfield still within a long glide. Shortly after that it became relaxed sight seeing time. Clouds and lift were plentiful, and the airfield was easily reached.

I do not recall flying into any strong lift when not indicated by some degree of cloud development. I think we made the correct call in not taking a chance on a very long crossing in the blue. Flying together served us well. You can relax somewhat when following another glider and it is a lot of fun to climb closely together in a thermal. There are not many more beautiful sights than another glider just off your wing! The ideal position to join another glider in a thermal is on the opposite side of the circle, which allows both pilots to see each other. It also puts you out of harm’s way, should a glider stall and spin. For the most part we maintained that discipline but there were a few instances where one of us ended up on the others tail. Then it was just a matter of slowing up and widening your circle.

I also post my flights on WeGlide. The free version also has an additional statistics page which shows averages for L/D, climb rate, bank angle, speed in the thermal. It also shows % of time circling. I use these to evaluate my performance and decision making. My average bank angle was a little lower and circle diameter larger for this flight which is to be expected. You are not as free to steepen your bank angle or slow down when near another glider.

Lee Blair had the longest flight of the day by heading north to Montpelier.