It must be satisfying to beat the locals on their own ridge. Evan smokes 'em at 90 mph! Congratulations T8!
Update: He's the Day 2 winner as well! Go Evan!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Add "Flight Recorder On" to your checklist
Mark and Greg were able to slip out of the same building yesterday to go flying.
Mark took the 2-33 around the area and up to 8000 feet on a two hour flight. He took a flight recorder but forgot to turn it on.
Greg (JD) flew a nice triangle with turnpoints at Twin Mountain and Knox Mountain. He took three flight recorders and remembered to turn one of them on. His flight log shows a final glide of approximately Silver Distance!
Mark took the 2-33 around the area and up to 8000 feet on a two hour flight. He took a flight recorder but forgot to turn it on.
Greg (JD) flew a nice triangle with turnpoints at Twin Mountain and Knox Mountain. He took three flight recorders and remembered to turn one of them on. His flight log shows a final glide of approximately Silver Distance!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Weekend report April 27 - 28
The season got off to a roaring start this weekend. (Actually, last season never ended; our club members flew during every month since last April. This must be some kind of record!)
We had two excellent weather days, with a few clouds on Saturday and even fewer on Sunday. Light south winds and good lift to 7000 feet, with some climbs to 9000. Just as an indication of how good the weather was, on both days Skip came home after several hours of flying and found a 10-knot climb to 7000 feet right over the end of the runway.
On Saturday Paul (S1), Skip (JS), Tom (TH), Dan (3J), Greg (JD), and Moshe (RU) flew cross-country flights or "extended local" flights, but only four of them were recorded.
The rest of us did annual field checks and ground school, the latter performed while we were waiting for Sam to come back with the 2-33. We also had time to swap stories and learn something about the life of an air traffic controller from our newest member, Toby Bucsescu.
Our cookout Saturday night was well attended, and as is usual this time of year, we ran out of food, but not beer.
Sunday was a banner day. We were fairly efficient, having learned from all the operational mistakes we made the day before. We wore out four towpilots. The golf cart died a couple of times, but we dealt with it. The hotshots flew a total of eleven hundred miles, including Evan's record setting flight of 575 km, and Tim's 137 km flight which began at 5pm.
For the weekend: 19 glider pilots, 4 towpilots, 35 flights.
We had two excellent weather days, with a few clouds on Saturday and even fewer on Sunday. Light south winds and good lift to 7000 feet, with some climbs to 9000. Just as an indication of how good the weather was, on both days Skip came home after several hours of flying and found a 10-knot climb to 7000 feet right over the end of the runway.
On Saturday Paul (S1), Skip (JS), Tom (TH), Dan (3J), Greg (JD), and Moshe (RU) flew cross-country flights or "extended local" flights, but only four of them were recorded.
The rest of us did annual field checks and ground school, the latter performed while we were waiting for Sam to come back with the 2-33. We also had time to swap stories and learn something about the life of an air traffic controller from our newest member, Toby Bucsescu.
Our cookout Saturday night was well attended, and as is usual this time of year, we ran out of food, but not beer.
Sunday was a banner day. We were fairly efficient, having learned from all the operational mistakes we made the day before. We wore out four towpilots. The golf cart died a couple of times, but we dealt with it. The hotshots flew a total of eleven hundred miles, including Evan's record setting flight of 575 km, and Tim's 137 km flight which began at 5pm.
For the weekend: 19 glider pilots, 4 towpilots, 35 flights.
Record keeping
We haven't caught up with all the documentation of our outstanding flying day on Sunday, but we have a good excuse.
Evan declared a 532 km triangle and completed it at 66.8 mph. This outstanding flight blew away the previous Vermont state speed record of 62 mph and earned him 13 other state records for speed and distance. Without waterballast. Congratulations to Evan on his planning and execution! We expect him to write his story any day now.
The Vermont record keeper was busy yesterday. With luck, the weekend report will appear later today.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
When you lose your draft
What do you do when you lose your draft?
Pull over, according to Sgt. McGonigle:
Pull over, according to Sgt. McGonigle:
Claudio Abreu, 68, of Nutley made an emergency landing in his single-passenger glider last Thursday.It beats bailing out, I guess.
He took off from Blairstown before making an unexpected afternoon landing in Northhampton County, Pa., Lehigh Police Sgt. Michael McGonigle told the Sun.
"When [Abreu] got up to Pennsylvania, the cold front came in and he lost his draft," McGonigle said. "He pushed past the situation in a large corn field and pulled over."
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Assembly
A hardy band of glider pilots assembled at Post Mills today.
Braving raw conditions, they moved all the pieces of the 2-33 and the 1-23 to the north end of the runway and spent a few hours washing, talking, and rigging. By 2pm, Dennis, John, Mark, Mike, Paul, Rick, Sonya, Skip, Steve, Tom, and our new friend and potential member Dakai Zhu were tying down the gliders.
Post Mills looks like an airport again. Happy Spring!
Braving raw conditions, they moved all the pieces of the 2-33 and the 1-23 to the north end of the runway and spent a few hours washing, talking, and rigging. By 2pm, Dennis, John, Mark, Mike, Paul, Rick, Sonya, Skip, Steve, Tom, and our new friend and potential member Dakai Zhu were tying down the gliders.
Post Mills looks like an airport again. Happy Spring!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Another First
Congratulations to Mark Hopkins on his first solo yesterday! Mark went south a few weeks ago and joined the accelerated training program with our friends at BHSS. He also cleverly avoided mud season and Assembly Day.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Juliet Delta takes to the skies
Updated: more info on the PMSC website
After thinking about it for five months, Greg finally got his chance to go flying in his new sailplane. He and Tim went down to Springfield on Saturday and were able to enjoy the first really good cross-country day of the year. It's possible that Evan was there too, but unlike JD and PM, there is no trace of T8 on the OLC website.
After thinking about it for five months, Greg finally got his chance to go flying in his new sailplane. He and Tim went down to Springfield on Saturday and were able to enjoy the first really good cross-country day of the year. It's possible that Evan was there too, but unlike JD and PM, there is no trace of T8 on the OLC website.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Be careful what you wish for
I just got home from the Netherlands and the annual meeting of the International Gliding Commission (IGC). Delegates representing 35 countries made a bunch of decisions before adjourning to the local gliding club for dinner.
One of our decisions was to elect Eric Mozer as President, the first American to be elected since Bill Ivans in 1976. Here's a picture of Eric (on the right) talking with one of our Dutch hosts.
It's a big clubhouse, as you can tell by the 16.4 meter span glider mounted on the ceiling. It's a "Sohaj," the Czech-built version of the one-design glider that was scheduled to be used in the 1940 Olympics. The Olympics were cancelled that year, alas.
The glider on the ceiling is completely intact, which meant that it had to be mounted upside down to make room for the tail. But that made the whole thing more interesting.
The only person in the room who had ever flown one was Jiří Cihlář, the Delegate from the Czech Republic. Jiří told us about the nice handling characteristics of the Sohaj and how much he wished he could fly one again.
After a few more rounds of beer, he got his wish.
One of our decisions was to elect Eric Mozer as President, the first American to be elected since Bill Ivans in 1976. Here's a picture of Eric (on the right) talking with one of our Dutch hosts.
It's a big clubhouse, as you can tell by the 16.4 meter span glider mounted on the ceiling. It's a "Sohaj," the Czech-built version of the one-design glider that was scheduled to be used in the 1940 Olympics. The Olympics were cancelled that year, alas.
The glider on the ceiling is completely intact, which meant that it had to be mounted upside down to make room for the tail. But that made the whole thing more interesting.
The only person in the room who had ever flown one was Jiří Cihlář, the Delegate from the Czech Republic. Jiří told us about the nice handling characteristics of the Sohaj and how much he wished he could fly one again.
After a few more rounds of beer, he got his wish.
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