Another wave flight

Moshe writes about April 23:

Wild spring day. Thermals were higher than expected, so I headed out cross-country to the northeast, across the wind. But I found rather poor thermals from near Moosilauke to the Franconia area.  I chose not to go to the mountains which were even farther downwind.

Instead I headed upwind (northwest) to try to get within range of Dean - and stumbled into wave!

I climbed to 13000 feet, but with a 50-knot wind across my course line, the 32 miles glide back home was still a challenge - and the arrival altitude promised by the glide computer was completely meaningless.

I tried to make way crabbing sideways within the up-wave.  But that was very slow, and it also wasn't leading in quite the right direction.  So I plunged upwind through wave sink to the next wave cycle.  In my low-performance glider that cost a lot of altitude!

Back in the Post Mills area, it was very turbulent below 3000 feet, so the landing was "interesting" too. 

Visibility was great, The Whites were "right there," and I could see Lake Champlain through the Waterbury gap in the Greens.

In retrospect, I think the Franconia area was in down-wave, thus the bad thermals. Had I gone downwind closer to the mountains then maybe I could have found up-wave - or not, as the wind would interact with the mountains.  The few clouds I saw in the area with bad thermals looked curly, so they must have been roll clouds. The thermal that threw me into the wave increased to 10 knots up high near the upwind edge. The wave lift was about 4 knots, weaker at 13000 feet, but I was reluctant to go higher without oxygen.

Flight log here.

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.

Weekend report April 30 - May 1

There was good flying on both days of the weekend, but Sunday was better.

We welcomed new member David Schafer on Saturday, and he got two lessons in the Blanik, the second of which lasted over an hour.  Dennis (DC) finally got in the air for his first flight of the season, and Greg (JR) and Evan (T8) flew together on a 400 km zigzag flight that took them to both the White Mountains and the Green Mountains.

Sunday was the day we have all been waiting for.  Excellent lift in blue conditions.  It was very good in the high ground, and Greg (JR), Dan (EA), David (JD), Rick (LEL), and Kari (2C) all made it up to Mount Washington.  Moshe (RU) explored central Vermont, with turns at Montpelier and Lebanon, where he was happy not to land.

When David got back from the mountains, he made several O&R excursions and finally landed after everyone else had gone home.

This was David's first serious cross country flight, with a credited distance of 312 km.  He flew for over 7 hours, which may be a duration record for a flight out of Post Mills.

Back in Post Mills, Pete D (3BA) and Paul (S1) made local flights, and Sonny made the mistake of flying his airplane on an outstanding soaring day.

Thanks to Don and Andy for towing, and to Darrek for improving the 1-26 trailer.

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.

Weekend report May 25 - 27

After a disappointing three weekends, the month of May finally produced some decent weather for the Memorial Day long weekend.

In a reversal of what normally happens around here, the weather was much better than forecast.  Unfortunately, the pessimists who believed the forecasts missed out on Sunday, the best flying day of the year so far.

Saturday was a training day, mostly.  Henry and Michael each had two flights, and we met Rick Walters, who has joined the club, and who will be bringing his ASW-24 to the field soon.  Skip did his field check and did a nice job with a non-standard landing pattern.  Kari (2C) practiced some more.  Tim towed all day, and we were able to put everything away before the rain showers started around dinnertime.

There was no instructor scheduled for Sunday, and there were only four flights!  Pete (3BA) flew all over the place and came home after a little more than 3 hours.

Both Don (JM) and Skip (JS) had good flights, but they both had flight recorder failures, so we won't be able to see their flight logs.  At the end of the day, Moshe (RU) showed up and was able to get 1.5 hours in the Russia.

Finally, on Monday, we had a normal turnout.  Moshe flew in the 2-33 with two students - Fred and Henry - and everyone else flew solo.  There were good climbs to 7000 feet once the day got going, and Paul (S1), Greg (JD), Tim (BU), and Evan (T8) all managed to stay in the air most of the day.  It took Dennis (DC) and Karl (HK) two tries, but they managed good flights as well.  Karl claims he got to 9300 feet in wave, but he doesn't have a flight recorder, so we don't know whether to believe him.  Pete (3BA) had another long flight in the Blanik, and just as the overcast moved in at the end of the day, Peter showed up and flew 505, just to prove that the lift had died.

Dan (EA) had an opportunity to land out at his home field, but he managed to get back to Sterling.

Outside of flying, we had a terrific weekend of volunteerism.  Thanks a million to Fred, Henry, Don, Pete, and new member Sam Strohl, who manned the golf carts, ran ropes, moved a trampoline, mowed grass, and pumped gas.  Pete, who had to go back home today, de-greased the towplane, washed, waxed and repaired the 304 trailer - and organized the clubhouse, which included putting up some nice pictures.

Slacker day

After the crummy weekend, everybody was looking for a good day to go flying.  Wednesday was nominated, and when the day came, the usual suspects bolted from their day jobs.  One of them didn't even bother to change into his flying clothes as he went out the door.

In all, 8 pilots made 10 flights.  The weather wasn't quite as good as we wanted.

Don wrote:

The day started out breezy and improved as the afternoon progressed. Thermals were around but all chopped to pieces by the wind. During my brief flight, indications were northerly in the 20s-30. At 3000-5000’. 

Flights that started later in the day tended to stay up. Tim (BU) and Moshe (RU) made two flights, so had twice the fun. I had to leave before Tim/Dennis/Moshe returned so don’t know their stories. Eric (NT) started early and made it to Mt Washington and back. Kari (2C) made an hour plus flight in his Jantar.

Don took this picture of Moshe on his first flight.  Note the scummy sky and lack of cumulus.

Peter and Dennis (DC) made long local flights later in the day, both over 2.5 hours.

Slacker report May 6

It's hard to tell from far away, but it seems the Slackers had a good day on Monday.

Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), Don (JM), Tim (BU), and Dennis (DC) all posted their flights.

Weekend report June 2 - 3

We didn't fly on Saturday due to wind and projects.  Dennis spent the day compounding the 304, and Rick worked on the golf cart trailer.  Belated congratulations to Dennis for getting his Gold Distance/Diamond Goal flight approved by SSA!

We made up for lost opportunities on Sunday, with thirteen eventful flights.  Skip (JS), Moshe (RU), Karl (HK), Peter (67), Doug (3BA), and Dennis (DC) flew locally in conditions that improved as the day went on.  Late in the day, Kari joined them, with his first flight in the 304.  David is getting the hang of the 2-33, climbing almost 3000 feet from pattern altitude.

Meanwhile, Evan (T8), Tim (BU), and Greg (JD) went up to Twin Mountain and back in a flight of three.  Greg reported that it isn't quite as easy to go to the White Mountains when the top of lift is only 4500 feet.  It isn't as easy getting back, either.  Here is Evan almost landing at Dean, after his high point at Mount Lafayette:

Weekend report May 12 - 13

The forecast for Saturday was "first half cloudy, second half drizzly." In reality it was "first half clear, second half cloudy."

A good collection of members showed up, including Thomas (yay, Thomas, come back soon!). But it turned out that most them came to drop off their parachutes for repacking. The only person serious about flying was David, who was able to get four lessons, including one of most of an hour in duration.

David returned on Sunday, to better weather, and had another soaring flight. The tow was "interesting" (he might tell you the story if you ask), but the rest of the flight was quite enjoyable. He is making terrific progress, due to his enthusiasm and willingness to show up at every opportunity.

Also on Sunday, Skip (JS), Don, and Henry made local flights while Mark (HG), Tim (BU), Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), and Evan (T8) all headed for Mount Washington. At the end of the day we had only two retrieves to do.

Eight aloft

It was a great day for slacking on Tuesday, and we had eight flights.  The conditions were blue with good lift to 7500 feet, and you could get to 9000 if you were lucky or patient.

Karl (HK) finally recorded a flight, and here it is:

You can see that he flew around for a whilc, and then went up to North Haverhill.  Good flight, Karl!

Peter (67), who doesn't need any instruction on thermalling, flew for a couple of hours, and Henry (3J) was up for almost as long.

Meanwhile, Dennis (DC), Mark (HG), Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), and Dan (EA) combined for a grand total of about 2000 kilometers! Dennis and Mark went to the White Mountains and got sort of stuck there for a while. Moshe went his own way (south, mostly). The others went west to the Greens and had a great time running up and down the ridge over there.

Eight flights on a Tuesday, more than either of the previous weekend days. Perhaps we should rename ourselves the Post Mills Slacker Club.

Our crack weatherman, Moshe, predicts that tomorrow will be even better.

Traps that can catch you

On some XC soaring days the areas with few clouds look iffy, and areas where there are plenty of obvious cumulus clouds look inviting.  That can be a trap, though, since the numerous clouds can fill in and become an overdeveloped layer with little lift.  It takes an hour or so for the layer to evaporate, then the sun reaches the ground again, and new thermals develop.  Or not.

Another trap that we are susceptible to when soaring XC is the concept of a landable spot that we keep within range.  Of course that's necessary, but not always sufficient.  If you get low and have to stay close to the one landable spot in the area, you can't reach lift that is just a bit too far away.  Moreover, not all the "landable" spots are desirable.  Some are hazardous, albeit better than nothing.

Both of these traps caught me Saturday as I ventured out XC, despite cloudbase being lower than forecast, not much above 5000 MSL - conditions that normally make me stay close to the home airport.  After traveling North to outside glide range of home, I met Greg and Dan who seemed to be heading SE.  I headed NW to near the Montpelier airport before realizing that that area was overdeveloping.  Turned back East too late, and as I got lower had to abandon the better looking clouds and head to the supposed safe spot, Carrier airstrip, South of the Barre stone quarries.

I've never seen that airstrip before, and as I got close to it got a little scare, since it's hard to spot.  There was a large flat farm field a bit further North, but I didn't know how tall was the crop that looked like corn.  The GPS got me to right over the airstrip though, at about 1000 feet above the runway which is fairly high at 1600 MSL.

Next problem was that this runway is about 50 feet narrow, with various hazards along the sides: rising banks, drop offs, fences, cows, trees, buildings, and vehicles.  It's also sloped: rising to the North.  As they say, if the slope is obvious from the air then it's significant, and one should land uphill.  With light wind, that was fine.  The Northernmost third of the runway is a bit wider and flatter, and does not have hazards along the edges, so that's the preferred landing zone.

Never give up though!  I found a small bump, and worked it carefully.  After some time, gained 100 feet, then more.  Eventually got to 4000 MSL (still only 2400 AGL) so explored a bit further, and lost the altitude.  Rinse and repeat.  That went on for more than an hour, with my mental state alternating between hope and resignation.  Never got high enough to reach a better landing spot.  Kept losing sight of the airstrip, so used VOR navigation to find it again and again.  No, I didn't use the VOR signal, it's just that the (MPV) VOR building is easy to spot visually, and then looking a couple of miles Northward from there helped me re-spot the airstrip.

Finally the clouds broke up and the ground started heating up again.  Alas I didn't have the few extra minutes it took for the thermals to restart.  But the skies to the NE looked good soon after I landed, of course.  Landing was OK, having short wings helps.  (And they also make landing out more likely.)

Mr. Carrier was there and friendly.  He knows Karl well - Karl flies there often from his home field a few miles West of there.  Mr. Carrier also has been to Post Mills, he flies an ultralight out of his field.  He's working on widening the runway a bit: bulldozing the embankment on the East edge and moving that material to the dropoff a bit further South on the same East edge.

Driving directions to Carrier's, in case you need it: North on 110 9 miles from Chelsea to "downtown" Washington, turn left by the store, about a mile to the farm (keep right at the forks).  Big house and barn.  The airstrip is not visible from the road.

Thanks Paul for the retrieve!

- Moshe

Weekend Report May 28 - 30 and then some

The longest stretch of flying we've ever had at Post Mills. Seven days in a row and still counting.

It went something like this:

THURSDAY
Dennis (DC), Moshe (RU), Tony (N4), Greg (JD), and Dan (EA) showed up and had flights totaling 746 km. Tim gets extra credit for towing (but not flying) on a Slacker Day.

FRIDAY
Tim and Don repaired a dribbly fuel drain valve on the towplane and decided to do a test flight.  Tim flew 24W, and Don flew 3J.

SATURDAY
We had 19 flights, and Doug towed all of them, including an aeroretrieve from Dean (thanks Doug). Eric took a couple of rides in the Blanik, then made his first FAA-approved flight as Pilot in Command in the USA.  It seems strange to congratulate an accomplished glider pilot on his first solo, so we won't do that. Instead, we'll say Congratulations to Eric on smiling while complying!

(We really need to get an official PMSC hat.  That's probably the only way to keep Evan from advertising other clubs in our News.  Or maybe photoshop).

Tim (AT), Greg (JD), Dennis (DC), Dan (EA) and Moshe (RU) had cross-country flights. Tim and Greg declared an ambitious 500 km task, two round trips to Old Speck Mountain, which is way up north in Maine, 15 miles past Gorham. Greg actually made it, landing at Post Mills a little after 6:30 pm.  Tim fell to earth at Dean Memorial airport on his second trip north. Meanwhile, Dennis flew up to Mt. Moosilauke, and Dan took a crazy trip around Lake Winnepesaukee. Nobody does that in a glider. Moshe made it up to Franconia and took the long way back.

Back at Post Mills, Tony (N4) and Sonny (LT) flew locally, and to top the day off, new member Heather Benson and her family got their first glider flights.

SUNDAY
This was an instructional day, much less hectic than Saturday. Dakai and Skip flew in the Blanik with Moshe, and Evan towed.  Dan and Greg took the opportunity to plan some much needed deforestation at the south end of the runway.

Sunday evening we enjoyed a pleasant cookout, with 20 attendees, and we didn't run out of anything. Thanks, contributors!

MONDAY
Despite a pessimistic email from our Director of Operations, Lane and Tim came out to the field, waited for the ceiling to lift, and then flew in the afternoon.

TUESDAY
Dan (EA) continues to celebrate his retirement, and the rest of us wonder why he hasn't moved to Vermont. The day was a bit windy, and he waited till just before noon to take off.  His first climb was to 15000 feet in wave (probably a Post Mills local altitude record, not sure).  He found another climb in the Sugarbush primary and wandered down to Killington, where he fell out of the wave.  On his way back to Post Mills, he took a selfie to send to all his flying buddies who were stuck at work yesterday. Unfortunately, the photo is not suitable for a family-oriented newsletter.

WEDNESDAY
Six slackers launched, and not all of them came back.  Tony (N4) landed at Dean. Greg (JD) and Dan (EA) fell to earth at Claremont. Tim (AT), Dennis (DC) and Jim (US) made it home. After an aeroretrieve, Tony joined Dennis for a roadtrip to Claremont to get Dan and Greg.

Thanks to Evan for most of the content of this report.

NAM, RUC, GFS, HRRR, WYSIWYG

Analyzing the weather and coming up with a local soaring forecast is always interesting, and usually fun.  The hard part is choosing which computerized "weather model" to use.  The available weather models, identified by strange acronyms, are so numerous that at least one of them is usually right.

Not so yesterday.  All of the models were wrong, and we were fooled by the actual weather twice in one day.

Moshe or Greg (not sure which) called a Slacker Day earlier in the week, and both were optimistic that we would be able to get an early start on Friday.

The optimists showed up at 0900, and it was immediately apparent that the day would be a bust - solid overcast at 6000 feet. We resigned ourselves to doing errands and maintenance, and trying to figure out how we could be so wrong about the weather.

But we were wrong about being wrong. Around noon, the sky cover started to break up, and as the blue areas got bigger, the gliders began to line up at the end of the runway, competition style.  We launched ten gliders in 90 minutes: one flight each for 2W, 3BA, AT, DC, EA, HG, JD, PM, RU, S1, and most of them stayed in the air until the unpredictable overcast moved in again.  Paul reported a 9 knot climb toward the end of the day.

I've gone back to looking out the window for my weather forecasts.

Weekend Report April 23 - 24

Another brisk, blue and breezy April weekend with good participation and some great flying conditions. The air has been so clear that, from the ground, you can see the tow rope dangling behind the towplane shortly after release.

Saturday was a bit difficult, due to a moderate crosswind, but that didn't keep Eric from getting two hour-long flights in the Blanik, with climbs to 6000 feet. Henry, Don, and Dakai each gained experience taking off and  landing in wind, but we decided to call it quits after one flight each.

The early end to flying allowed us to get an early start on the cookout, which took place indoors and drew 11 hungry members.

Sunday surprised us a bit by starting out as windy as Saturday. This was initially discouraging for those of us planning to fly the trainers, but it didn't stop the hotshots from getting off the ground early.  Andy towed 9 single-seaters in a row (one of them twice) before the first instructional flight of the day.

Evan (T8), Greg (JD), Tom (2W) and Dan (EA) were in the air for over six hours and flew all over northern New England.  Moshe (RU), Tim (AT), Doug (PM), Dennis (DC), and Mark (HG) had shorter, but just as impressive flights.  Dennis missed his 5-hour Silver/Gold duration by 4 minutes!

Meanwhile, back at Post Mills, Andy Lawrence^*, Gregg, Henry, Dakai, Lane, Don, and Rick flew locally and discovered that the house thermal went to 7000 feet.

Iron man Andy towed, without relief, both days.

The 1-23 and the yellow golf cart are out of service, hopefully not for long.

^*Our duplicate name situation is getting out of hand. We have a Greg and a Gregg, 2 Bills, 3 Andys, 2 Ricks, 3 Annies, 2 Marks, 2 Sams, and innumerable Petes and Sues. Any suggestions about how to keep everyone straight on the logsheet and in PMSC News will be appreciated.

Quadrilateral

Dan (EA) and Greg (JD) avoided the entire Kancamagus wilderness yesterday by flying around it. Good call.

They turned at Chocorua, Lancaster and somewhere over the trees on the way to Morrisville, where they got separated for a while.  We look forward to the video.

Meanwhile, Tom (2W) got low early, recovered, and elected to go south instead, making it to Mount Okemo.  The tower controllers at Lebanon had two chances to spot him.

Just to be different, Moshe (RU) took off and flew clockwise.  He went to Barnet, then over to Mount Jefferson where he peeked into the Great Gulf before turning around.  

He was so high on the way back that he was able to thumb his nose at the wilderness and proceed directly home from Twin Mountain.

All in all, a great day to go flying, with 864 kilometers credited to PMSC.  It would have been 1144 if if it weren't for some misplaced loyalty.  Even more if Paul (S1) and Jim D (US) had recorded their flights.

Thanks to Tim for towing!

RU ambitious?

The latest fad in this club seems to be getting a glider to Old Speck Mountain and back.  Old Speck is about 80 miles away, in Maine.  Tim did it yesterday, a fine accomplishment in the PIK.

Today, for reasons unknown, Moshe tried it in the 12-meter Russia, and he came very close to making it! He landed on the way back in a farm in Fairlee, after a flight of 272 kilometers.

The farm is the one across the street from the Fairlee Drive-In.  His crew got there as the light was fading and the movie was just getting started.

Congratulations to Moshe for choosing such an ambitious task and for proving that you don't need a 17.4 meter wingspan to do the White Mountain run.

Weekend report May 2 - 3

We had two great days of flying this past weekend, the first one of the year in which the club turned out in full force.

On Saturday it looked like the launch grid of a competition at the north end of the runway.  Nine high-performance single seaters came out and kept Evan and Andy busy in the towplane starting at 11 am.

The first one to take off was Tim (AT), and the second one was Dan (EA).  If you measure by time instead of kilometers, they had the shortest and longest cross-country flights of the day.  Tim declared a long Task and made good time up to Mount Madison, where the rug got pulled out from under him, proving yet again that Gorham is a sinkhole in the thermal soaring season.  He landed in the mud at the still-closed airfield, and Rick retrieved him before anyone noticed.  In the meantime, Dan, Greg (JD), and Tom (2W) team-flew a terrific flight that went right over Tim and encompassed all of northern Vermont.

This is what team flying looks like:

JD in red, EA in blue, 2W in green

Dennis (DC) flew out toward Moosilauke a couple of times and made another nice landing at home base.

Moshe (RU) had a late start, but was able to fly a big quadrilateral around Post Mills for 200 kilometers.

Paul (S1), Mark (HG), and Jim (US) probably had a good time on Saturday, but they weren't brave enough to post their flights on OLC, so we'll never know.

When they weren't towing, Andy and Evan joined Lane to give some flight instruction.  They flew with Nancy, Sonny, Henry, and a new prospective member, Tommy.  All of them took the opportunity to shake off the rust on this beautiful day.  Tommy is already a glider pilot. We hope he joins.

Sunday was interesting, with only seven flights, as compared with the nineteen the day before.

It was mostly overcast the entire day at Post Mills, with very little lift. Occasionally, the sun would break through, and as soon as it did, a thermal formed immediately.  Nancy figured this out and timed her flight to coincide with a patch of sun, getting an hour in the Blanik.

Meanwhile, the Three Musketeers followed the good weather south to Mount Greylock, then followed it back north and made it home with plenty to spare (JD, EA, 2W). Those of us who were standing around in the shade all day long were very impressed.

The best news of all is that the green golf cart is back in service and running like a Swiss watch.

Weekend report July 11 - 13

It was a 3 day weekend for PMSC.  On Friday Moshe (RU) had a nice 206 km (304 OLC points) flight to Franconia, Peacham, Knox Mt. and Hanover.  Andy Lumley. took the towplane up to Franconia and brought back FSA’s SGS 2-33 and Blanik L-23.  They will be based at Post Mills until they get their towplane fixed.

Saturday was a marginal local soaring day but between FSA and PMSC operations there were 14 flights.

Sunday was a marginal training day.  Bill braved the weather to fly over from Portland to fly a couple of patterns with Henry.

Andy towed all three days.  Thanks Andy!

While FSA is with us we will be logging all their flights on our sheets too.  For glider IDs we will us the following:

For the 2-33s – “67” us.  “68” them.
For the Blaniks – “BA” us.  “BB” them.
Private glider – “US” is them.

(their 2-33 is N33968, their Blanik is N118BB and Jim David’s ASW-20 has competition ID “US”)

Moshe sent along some pictures from the weekend.

- Tim

Weekend report June 30 - July 6

It was a long weekend, especially if you count the preparation phase.

The preparation phase

MONDAY
Pete and Rick drove to Franconia and delivered 3J and RU.

TUESDAY
Pete and Rick drove to Franconia and delivered PM and the golf cart, and drove back home.  Then they went back to Franconia by air with the Blanik in tow, and returned to Post Mills by air.

WEDNESDAY
Pete and Rick took the day off.

THURSDAY
Evan drove from home to Franconia and dropped off his car and trailer. Andy flew to Franconia in the Champ, picked up Evan, and brought him back to Post Mills. Evan then flew the towplane back to Franconia, towing nothing. Karl towed the fuel trailer from Post Mills to Franconia. Pete drove his truck back to Franconia, towing nothing, and checked in at the establishment across the street from the airfield. This completed the preparation phase. Rick took another day off.

The flying phase

FRIDAY, the Fourth of July
The first day of our encampment was cold and fairly miserable. Henry took a couple of practice flights, which involved towing up to the ceiling of 1500 feet AGL and gliding back down.  Andy towed. The Franconia towplane was having some engine troubles, and their club asked ours to provide some tows.  This is a Fourth of July tradition.

SATURDAY
Saturday started out overcast, cool, and quite windy.  We initially thought it would be a loser of a day. Fortunately, the wind was on the ridge, and everyone who wanted to get in the air did so, with the exception of Henry, who spent the day helping everyone else fly.

The sun broke out in the middle of the afternoon, and several pilots made it into the wave. Tim (AT), Skip (JS), Dan, (EA), and Paul (S1) posted good flights, but the best one was by Andy Lawrence (PM), who reached 13000 feet. The Blanik flew several times, with Bill instructing. Rick and Dakai made it to 8100 feet on the last flight of the day, and landed at 7pm.

In all, we had 21 flights on Saturday (including a few tows for FSA, whose towplane engine was still not yielding to the ministrations of their mechanic). Andy did all the tows, allowing the other three PMSC towpilots time to enjoy their day.

Thanks to Judy's last-minute organizing, we had a traditional cookout in the back yard of the Kinsman Lodge, where a few of us were staying and a few more were camping out. A lot of people contributed, and a few probably still owe Judy a small amount for groceries. The evening ended with some low quality fireworks and some high quality stargazing.

SUNDAY
Sunday was a beautiful day from end to end. Tim (AT) took off first and was one of the last to land. He went up north and made it up to 13000 feet. Evan (T8) and Dan (EA) made it to similar heights. Moshe (RU) spent several hours practicing low saves in the vicinity of the airport, and Skip (JS), Dennis (DC), Pete (3J), and Andy Lawrence (PM) chased each other back and forth on the ridge. The Franconia club again benefited from our visiting towplane, as the consensus on the status of their engine converged on "ruined." For the third day in a row, Andy did all the tows, for a total of 46 for the weekend.

Greg organized the retrieval of all the equipment. Thanks to the hard work of Pete, Karl, Angelica, Annie, Andy Lawrence, and Andy Lumley, everything got packed up and brought back home by the end of the day.

Monday it rained. A perfect weekend. 

The only thing left to do was the laundry.

Weekend report June 21 - 22

Another terrific weekend for the club!

We expanded our operational footprint to three airports in two states, accomplished some good flight instruction, welcomed back an old member, and racked up over 3000 OLC kilometers.

Saturday started out with a quick trip in the Cub to Springfield by Kevin and Rick to help Dennis assemble his glider. When we left him, he was still looking for a towpilot. Fortunately, he found one later in the day and had a short practice flight. Afterwards, he was able to hangar the glider in preparation for further flying on Sunday.

Back at Post Mills, the conditions were good enough to get up and get away for one long (T8) and several medium sized (ZP, BA, EA, JS, S1, RU, PM) cross-country flights.

Two of those flights did not quite make it back to Post Mills. Greg and his guest Mike flogged the Blanik up to Franconia and landed at Dean on the way home. Andy Lawrence must have decided they needed company, and he landed there, too. In an uncharacteristic display of efficiency, the club leapt into action and executed two simultaneous retrieves, getting everyone home in time for the cookout (it didn't hurt that this was the longest day of the year).

The cookout was well attended:

Andy, Andy, Bill, Dan, Ella, Evan, Karl, Keith, Greg, Mary, Mike, Mike, Moshe, Paul, Peter, Petey, Rich, Rick, Sue, Sue, and Sue

and the only complaint was that we ran out of food again. Perhaps we should be better organized, who knows?

The flying on Sunday was even better. Iron Man (T8) was the first to take off, and the last to land. In seven and a half hours, Evan flew 600 kilometers, which is an all-time distance record for flights out of our humble airfield. Congratulations, Evan!

A 600 kilometer bow tie

Moshe (RU) took a 300 km trip that included the far side of the Green Mountains, an area gliders don't normally visit. Thomas (ZP), Greg (JD) and Dan (EA) chased each other around a quadrilateral with vertices at Mount Hunger, Burke Mountain, Mount Washington, and Post Mills.

Sonny (LT) flew our stock 100 km FAI Triangle (Post Mills, Harvey's Lake, Dean) and was happy to get home after a low save over Mallory Farm, a place with which he is familiar.

Skip (JS), who took off exactly 3 hours after Evan, flew a somewhat smaller bow tie course which included a low save at Dean. Andy (PM), and Doug (PM) combined to put another 200 km on the 304's odometer.

The local guys had a good time too. Henry explored the area in 3J for 2 hours. Dakai made his first flight as sole manipulator of the controls and kept the 2-33 in the air for an hour. Karl flew the Blanik three times, including an introductory ride for Matt Hausler, and an end-of-day flight with Lane that went to 7300 feet. Tim and Christina went for a short flight and took that great picture of Lake Morey and the river.

We were very happy to see Carl Hausler on the field again after a long absence. Although he didn't actually get in the air this weekend, he has told us that he wants to become active again. Welcome back, Carl!

The weekend ended the way it began, with a trip to Springfield (this time in the Champ) to see Dennis (DC), who had another nice flight in the Ventus.

That's it.  A very successful weekend with lots of happy pilots. Thanks to Doug and Andy for towing, and to Bill for instructing both days.