Breakfast in the woods

Twenty of us enjoyed a homemade breakfast in a homemade home today. Thank you, Mike and Sue, and we'll be back, now that we know how to find the place.

Note that next week's breakfast will be on Saturday, February 13, at Andy and Judy's house, to be followed by our annual meeting. Don't miss it if you can.

Safari news

Friend-of-the-club Roy B is back in Bloemfontein. He reports that the season is winding down and the foreigners are packing up to go home. He sends this picture as an illustration of how tough the conditions are getting. His email address is in his blog, in case you want to send him a note of sympathy.

Technology transfer

Did you know that our seemingly frivolous avocation has spun off some fantastic commercial applications?

First, there was the Gravity Plane, a concept so obvious, I'm surprised it took this long to make it to the almost-practical stage. The video tells the whole story.

Now, we have the Air Trailer, a brilliant application of one of the most straightforward and easy phases of flight, the aerotow. Their website needs work, but the video is just as convincing as the one on the Gravity Plane.

Both projects probably need investors. I hope I'm not too late.

We're still dining

The PMSC breakfast season is underway. The first breakfast, at EBA's, was well attended. The second one less so, probably because there wasn't a maintenance project going on at the time.

The PMSC Calendar of Events, accessible from our web site, includes the breakfast schedule. You can also print out a version that will fit on your refrigerator door.

Boredom Fighter

OK, it's winter, and you need something to do. Today's trivia challenge is to identify both aircraft in this photograph, and the location where it was taken. A fabulous prize awaits you.

Don't let this happen to you - VII

World Sailplane Grand Prix

Today was the first contest day of the World Sailplane Grand Prix, an event that is held every two years. The Grand Prix format is intended to bring spectator appeal to our sport. We wish them luck with that.

The contest is in Chile, and you can watch it live on the internet. The races start at about 1300 EST. The last day of the contest is January 9. One of the contestants is blogging.

We're still fixing

This past weekend Andy, Andy and Tim began clearing out the hangar we'll be using to work on gliders this winter. They're optimistic about getting the heating system working soon, and then they'll be expecting a lot of volunteers to show up.

We're still flying

After a few mechanical missteps, we now have three airplanes on skis, ready to fly. Andy, Tim, and Rick are standing by for suitable flying weather and volunteer shoveler-pusher-passengers.

Solstice

On the darkest day of the year, 39 of us slid down the LumRuss driveway to arrive at an island of warmth, light, and hospitality. We gathered for the perennially outstanding feast known as Julbord – Swedish for “I dream of July.” And what a feast! While it is a cliché to assert once again that Judy outdid herself, and despite the logical certainty that at some point it becomes impossible to make that assertion, Judy outdid herself. The meal featured sculpted delicacies ranging from spherical to orthogonal, with origami in between. We enjoyed melon balls, meatballs, poached potatoes, spiral cut ham, folded smoked salmon, herring, various cheeses and flat breads, all of which have exotic-sounding Swedish names that Hans can pronounce, but have been forgotten by this writer. I do remember that Hans pronounced the entire presentation flawlessly authentic. Just when we thought we could eat no more, our indefatigable hostess unveiled a fancy tablefull of cakes, cheesecakes and coffees. If you made the mistake of not attending, you have my condolences. The way I see it, the only acceptable excuse for missing the LumRuss Julbord is to be out flying somewhere in New Zealand. Today our hemisphere turns back toward the sun. That thought goes a long way toward fending off cabin fever, but not as far as the sight of so many friends gathered to celebrate the season.

Wave at Post Mills

The best wave day of the year may have been last Sunday. Too bad the gliders were put away. Paul and I flew in my Champ and Andy in his. Paul and I went to 11,000’ between PM and Montpelier. At times the rate-of-climb indicator showed over 1600 fpm (with the engine throttled back to produce zero sink). We probably could have gone higher, we weren't even trying. Wave windows and some lenticulars marked the wave over many oscillations. The winds were not that strong so it probably would have been easy to transition to the next crest upwind in a high performance glider. The picture (Paul’s) above shows a wave window and the backside of a lenticular. You can see the rest of Paul’s pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/postmillsrc/2009126Paul

Here is the Skew-T for the day (sorry about the units). Wind was due west at 28 kts (14 m/s) at 9,500’ (2908 m).



Tim

Best glide

How calm would you be if you had to fly a 17:1 glider toward an unknown destination...at night?

Watch this presentation - from AOPA.