Pilot for hire

The next time you go flying with Tim Chow, ask him how much he charges before you get in the glider. As of today, he is a certificated Commercial Glider pilot, and he can now fly for hire.

Our examiner, Bill Stinson, traveled from Sugarbush to give Tim his flight test. Moral support was provided by Jason, Christopher, Matt, Bob, Sam, Mike, Creighton, and the recommending instructor/towpilot.

Bill spent about an hour confirming that Tim knew his stuff and then made three flights with him. The third flight was a simulated rope break at low altitude. Tim handled it like the professional pilot he now is, and the test was complete.

Congratulations, Tim, and here's some advice from one Commercial Pilot to another: don't give up your day job.

Franconia Encampment July 1 - 6

This year's 4th of July Franconia encampment was as hectic as ever. We had a great time, despite some wet weather. I counted 42 participants, including spouses, parents, kids, and dogs. We brought eight gliders, ten trailers, six bicycles and one towplane to the Franconia airport. The expedition actually began on the previous Sunday when Andy and his crew put 3J on the trailer after flying at Post Mills. In the early part of the week Rick, Mary, and Charlie transported PM, S2, the golf cart and the fuel tank. WEDNESDAY We cancelled our original plan to aerotow the Blanik on Thursday, due to the uncertain forecast. Instead, Kevin and Matt wrestled the glider onto its trailer on Wednesday and Andy and Andrew delivered the L-19 that afternoon. Rick towed the trailer to Franconia and brought Andy and Andrew home. THURSDAY Tim showed up with the 1-23 and we assembled it and the Blanik. A few of us checked into the Westwind and met the new owners. They have a new approach to keeping the bears out of the dumpster. The Ludemans arrived at the Horse and Hound. I don't actually remember if anybody flew on Thursday. We don't have a logsheet for that day, so if you did fly, please let Sonny know. Judy and Andy organized a takeout Thai dinner, the first of three consecutive fine dining experiences at Arethusa. FRIDAY The weather on Friday was pretty good, right up until the end of the day. The wind was southerly, so the ridge wasn't much help. The thermals were reliable in the sunny areas, but we were overrun by cloud shadows several times throughout the day. Andy towed and instructed, and several members got their introduction to mountain flying. There was only one landout. In the late afternoon the sky to the west turned very dark, and we rushed to get everything put away before the rains came. We were not very successful, and Paul got the wettest. We dried ourselves out and reconvened for a spaghetti dinner at the LumRuss compound. It rained for much of the night. SATURDAY Saturday, the actual 4th of July, dawned drizzly and foggy, so we didn't rush out to the airport. A few of us, having failed to get into Polly's Pancake Parlor, had a leisurely breakfast at Wendle's Café in downtown Franconia. At the first sign of blue sky, we dashed to the airport and stood around, waiting for the ceiling to go up a bit.

Finally, Jason, Christopher, and Rick took off but were quickly flushed out of the sky by another rain shower. We stood down for a few hours until the sky cleared again. During the break, Skip, Sonny, Mike, Sue, Mary, Diane, Tony, Carol, Paul D, Ellie, and Maia all showed up to visit. At the end of the day, we were able to squeeze in a couple of more flights before getting rained out again. Andy and Tim got on the ground just before the downpour: After the landing, Andy decided to stay dry by remaining in the cockpit while the glider was towed back to its tiedown. I guess you can do that if you're the club President. Fortunately, the rain stopped in time for the annual Saturday cookout. As usual, it was quite a feast, and this year it was almost entirely the work of one person, Judy. This was at her request, and her reasons are completely beyond this reporter. SUNDAY This was the day we deserved. It started a bit late, but once the sky cleared, we were able to enjoy ridge, thermal, and wave conditions until late in the afternoon. It was the first day of the encampment that we didn't get wet. We made 17 flights, with Bob and Andy sharing the towing. Thomas (ZP), having recently received the Babs Nutt Award for the highest flight of 2008, put in his claim for this year's award by soaring to 10000 feet in a thermal wave. Paul (S1) and Evan (T8) racked up a bunch of miles on "local cross-country" flights that featured some nice cloudstreet runs. Christopher, Tim, Pete, and Jason chased each other on both the Cannon and Lafayette ridges, missing a bunch of great photo opportunities. We'll bring more cameras next year. Paul, Skip, and Thomas trailered home Sunday evening, and Charlie fetched the golf cart back to Post Mills. Most of the rest also went home, despite the promising forecast for Monday. A few stragglers remained. MONDAY The stragglers were rewarded with some good thermal soaring on Monday, a day on which the ridge was dead again. Tony had the best flight, with 3.5 hours in PM. After landing, Tony hopped in the Blanik for an aerotow back to Post Mills, hitched a ride in a Champ back to Franconia to pick up his car and the 304, delivered the glider back here, and made it home in time for dinner. Charlie made yet another round trip to pick up the fuel tank. On Tuesday, Tim and Rick retrieved the last two trailers, and that was it. Another Franconia adventure in the PMSC record books. Thanks to everyone for all the volunteer labor.

Awards

Traditionally, our club has two general meetings per year, one in January and one in July. Very little business is conducted at the July meeting, which is reserved for the presentation of club awards.

We have two formal awards. The first one is for the most enthusiastic new member. Several people joined the club at the beginning of this season, and all have been regular participants. One stands out however. This year's award goes to Paul Dixon, who has been an active pilot and volunteer, putting in several hours of work on the 2-33, helping others to fly, taking pictures and generally contributing to the fun we've been having so far this season. Thanks, Paul.

Our second award is in memory of Babs Nutt, former owner of the Post Mills airport and a charter member of PMSC. One of her many accomplishments was a World Altitude Record, and the Babs Nutt Award is given annually to the member who has flown the highest in the past year. This year the award goes to Thomas Scheidegger, for a flight to 20000 feet last fall. Congratulations, Thomas.

Wave Basics

It's very easy to do a bad job of explaining mountain waves.

In the July 2009 issue of Skylines, George Hazelrigg makes the effort to do a good job. His hand-drawn sketch beats the daylights out of all the fancy illustrations you've seen published elsewhere.

I consider this article to be required reading for all wave-beginners, and a good review for the rest of us.

See you at Gorham in a hundred days.

Weekend Report June 27 - 28

The weather has turned summer-like. We seem to get some rain every day. In spite of this we had a good weekend of practice and training.

The highlights were the first test flight of the 2-33, Matt's Blanik solo, and Jason and Rich's refamiliarization flights in 3J.

Andy reports that the 2-33 flies well, and he attributes the improved roll rate and low stall speed to the new aileron seals. The glider still needs some minor work and has not yet been returned to service.

As a new Blanik pilot, Matt automatically becomes a member of the Weekday Slackers, effective as soon as someone teaches him the secret handshake.

We don't always recognize the effort it takes Bob and Doug to travel to Post Mills to tow. Thanks, guys.

Franconia is next!

JWGC

The 2009 Junior World Gliding Championships are underway. This is an interesting competition for several reasons. There are 46 entries in the Club Class and 36 in the Standard Class, representing a total of 21 countries.

All the competitors are under 26 years old. In addition to the usual makeup of the crews (wives and girlfriends), there are husbands, boyfriends, and parents. They are having a terrific time, apparently, with excellent weather and lots of daylight in which to party (at latitude 61° N).

The contest website is one of the best I've seen, with plenty of stories, pictures and video. Also some of the teams are blogging the event, most notably USA, Canada, and Australia. It's nice to read about a race from a mother's point of view.

The contest runs through July 3.

The standard tasks

We've been talking a lot recently about the routes we fly out of Post Mills, but not everyone knows what we're talking about. Recently, Sonny reminded me of this, so here are the standard 100, 200, and 300 kilometer tasks that Kevin devised several years ago. They are all FAI Triangles, which means that the shortest leg is at least 28% of the total distance. You don't have to fly an FAI Triangle to get an FAI badge, but if you do, you may also qualify for a state record.

Click to enlarge each image.

The PMSC turnpoint database is here.

Weekend Report June 20 - 21

On Saturday we had 15 hours and 26 minutes of daylight and we made three flights. Sunday was a few seconds longer and we didn't fly at all. We must be doing something wrong!

On the bright side, we got a new member, Christopher Ian, and we finally put the 2-33 together. Welcome, Christopher, and congratulations to the crew who worked on the glider. I don't know who you are, since the house across the street has become a house of pestilence, and we didn't get out at all. Don't visit unless you want the flu.

Playing the odds

So far this season, the good weather just hasn't been showing up on the weekends. The Weekday Slackers have figured out that it is two and a half times more likely to find good weather Monday through Friday than on the weekends. Slacking isn't very difficult; all you need is an understanding boss and a towpilot with a motorglider.

This week, Tony (7H) and Rick (S2) chased each other around Kevin's 100 km triangle in conditions that started out weak and improved throughout the afternoon. The last climb, at the second turnpoint (near Dean), went to nearly 6000 feet. That was yesterday. Today, Tim (89), Andy (PM), Paul N (S1), and Rick tried it again. The conditions were much weaker, and nobody ventured far afield. It wasn't too hard to stay up. (Tim may not agree with that. Perhaps he would have done better if his flight recorder hadn't failed.) The average climbs were less than 2 knots, and it was a struggle to get above 4500 feet. There were no clouds.

Meanwhile, The Lone Slacker (KG) put us all to shame with a terrific 226 km flight out of Morrisville. Moshe reported plenty of several nice cumulus clouds and a maximum altitude of 8000 feet.

The depressingly familiar stratus clouds returned as we were putting planes away. The weekend forecast is grim, and the Slackers have returned to standby status.

Weekend Report June 13 - 14

There was some good flying on Saturday, despite the overcast skies. We made about half a dozen flights, the most noteworthy being Bill's first flight in 3J and the best being Bill's subsequent solo flight in the Blanik. Cloudbase was over 5000 feet, and there were good climbs under the dark spots.

Andy, Paul, Tony, Skip, and Thomas worked on the 2-33 (probably others, I wasn't actually there). That plane should be ready very soon.

It rained early on Sunday and we made the mistake of calling it off in the morning. We probably missed half a day of flying when the front moved out of town ahead of schedule.

Don't let this happen to you - VI

Silents Rule

While Evan was tearing up the skies at the Mifflin contest and Bill and Thomas were setting altitude records at home, I was relaxing at another contest, the Region 5 East Championships, in Jefferson, South Carolina.

One nice thing about being an official at a contest is that you can get other people to do the writeups. The contest lasted a week and generated a story each day: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

The winners were George Green in the Std/15m Class, and Sarah Kelly, flying a Silent, in the Sports Class.

It's nice to be home in time for all this bad weather.