Halloween present

Andy reports that the newly-repaired (not sure if it's the same one) cylinder is in his possession, and that there is a plan to install it on Saturday.

Friday update

1. Wave camp follow up
Thomas and Steve will claim their altitude Diamonds, and Steve will get a 1-lennie pin. According to the SSA records, only 1842 people have received this award (note that #1729 came way before #1782). Sonny made a Gold climb, but his flight recorder installation wasn't very good, and he can't make the claim for technical reasons. Next year we'll have a barograph or flight recorder installed on every flight.

2. Towplane
The L-19 is still languishing at Gorham. Andy will notify us when we receive news on the replacement cylinder. Peter B has volunteered to drive the mechanic shuttle (Thanks, Peter).

3. This weekend's flight activities
Motorgliders and power planes only. If you're looking for something to do, you could uninstall the oxygen systems from the the three gliders that went to wave camp.

4. Club photographer
Most of the photos on this blog were taken by Pete D, and I have not done a good job of giving him credit. I have no plan to change this.

Quiz

Congratulations to Tom H on his first flight in 3J.


Here's the quiz: what's wrong in this photo? Put your guess in the Comments section.

RR Report

Rick Roelke sent this report to the MWSA mailing list today:

Talk about ending on a "high" note, we could not have had a better day to finish off camp.

High man for the day, and the entire encampment was Jim David, topping out at the limit of our airspace at 28k!!! The fact that the lift had improved, and he was still climbing at a solid 2 kts begs the question of just how high could we have gone that day.

Yours truly flew just shy of 400k (horizontally) after a quick diamond climb (40min). Later in the day I saw 12kts of lift down low, and it was pretty much a 5kt climb near 18k.

There were many diamonds, a few lennies, and much gold. It was a bit windy 60+kts at altitude. We were commenting early during the encampment that we had not seen a really high day with clear weather, well this one was truly clear. In the morning we had a well developed cap cloud, just to add some scenery to the dawn launches. Later in the day it was completely clear and it hit 75 deg on the ground. Last year at the same time we were dealing with snow.

Very special thanks goes to Roy Bourgeois who flew up the GBSC Pawnee on Saturday to arrive for Saturday tows, then with reports of 80kts on the summit, bravely started towing at first light on Sunday. He towed all day then returned home late Sunday via Post Mills to drop off the PMSC Blanik. Yeoman service indeed.

BTW the reason for the Pawnee coming up was to cover for the Post Mills Birddog that was out of service for mechanical problems. So additional thanks to the GBSC board who approved the "rescue" effort, and willingly donated the equipment. Members of GBSC, PMSC, and FSA all benefited from the efforts…

All in all, it was a great encampment. Somewhat time skewed by a batch of bad weather during the scheduled weekday operations, but with some flexibility Post Mills swapped weekends and it provided a great extension to camp.

Till next year…

RR

Rick correctly points out that our success on the final two days was made posssible by some creative thinking on the part of the GBSC Board of Directors and some heroic volunteering on the part of one of their towpilots. We definitely owe them.

Saving the best for last - October 21

The last day of wave camp was, by far, the best. Sonny and I thought we were the earliest risers as we met for pre-dawn coffee in Gorham. The sky was clear, Venus was high above the eastern horizon, and it was windy on the ground. The wind report from the summit was 280 at 80 knots! A bit breezy even for glider pilots. We were happy to learn that the winds were forecast to diminish to a mere 50 knots by noon.

At the field we were met by several enthusiastic members, including Thomas, who had left home at 0430 in order to join our dawn patrol. We dragged our feet a little, discussing the concept of "too much wind for wave," but eventually Tom C and I took off and headed for the Crescent wave at 0800. That flight turned out to be an hour long technical lesson. We made several transitions among ridge, rotor, and wave lift, but we did not reach a braggable altitude, alas.

Tows were made to the secondary (near Mount Carter) for the rest of the day. The wave was stretched out to an unusal wavelength, due to the high wind speed, and there was a lot of rotor to make the tows interesting. The following altitudes were achieved by PMSC members:

Thomas 22500
Bob D 20000
Pete D 22000
Sonny 19800
Steve 25500
Jason 19700
Tom H 20200

Jim David of GBSC got the highest, 28000 feet - the limit of our air traffic control clearance. He was still climbing at that height!

Everyone was impressed at how easy it is to move backwards in the wave, Steve most of all. While Steve was enjoying the view in PM, he blew all the way into Maine. Imagine his surprise when he realized that he would not be able to make it home 25 miles from 17000 feet. He landed at the Bethel airport.

In addition to showing Jason how to fly the wave, Andy skipped some flying opportunities and removed the bad cylinder from our towplane (click photo to enlarge):


Note that the cooling fins on the cylinder head are not parallel to the fins on the cylinder base. The junction between the two failed. Also note that latex gloves do not keep the grease off your forearm.

Because it was the last day, and the GBSC towplane had to get home, we started packing up in the early afternoon. All of our equipment, save the poor L19, made it back to Post Mills. (Steve was retrieved by a sleep deprived Thomas). Andy and Jason had the last tow in the Blanik, hitching a ride to Post Mills on the towplane's trip back to Sterling, Massachusetts.

Gorham Late Report October 20

Against all odds, we flew today at Gorham. Roy Bourgeois showed up in the GBSC towplane, all the way from Sterling, Massachussetts. He made eight tows (Thanks, Roy). The conditions were tricky. There was decent wave lift all day, but the clouds kept closing in on us. The best flights of the day were made by Jason (15000 feet) and Pete D, who spent over an hour in ridge lift on Mount Hayes. In the meantime, Andy removed the offending cylinder from our towplane and had enough time to take his first 2007 flight in PM.

After flying, we convened at the LumRuss suite at the Mt. Madison Motel for stories, pretzels, and fruit-flavored beer. The motel has extended us the same low rate that Tony negotiated two days ago. We then headed to an old fashioned two-club dinner at Crabby Jack's, all arranged by Judy (Thanks, Judy).

We are planning a dawn patrol tomorrow.

Gorham Early Report October 20

The GBSC towplane will arrive at Gorham at noon today.

Weather

The weather has gone from bad to weird to good. Yesterday's high temperature of the day occurred at midnight last night. Today will be overcast at first, clearing midday, and clear all day Sunday. The forecast summit winds are westerly at 50 knots.

Gorham Late Report October 18

A cylinder in the towplane has failed. The #6 cylinder head has partially separated from its base. We will try to borrow a towplane for our weekend, which at this point, looks like only half a weekend due to weather. Sunday might be a good wave day. Stay tuned for weather/towplane updates.

Gorham Early Report October 18

The towplane developed a vibration on the first tow today, so we have cancelled flying for the day while we figure out what's wrong. Andy is on his way with tools and expertise. We will work on getting a backup towplane, just in case.

In the meantime, the results of the golf cart slalom races were:

John G 1:05
Jason 1:08
Sonny 1:09
Rick 1:09

There is some dispute as to whether John hit a cone on his winning run.

Smooth Talker

As predicted, the supply of motel rooms in Gorham far exceeds the demand. It's a buyer's market. After flying on Tuesday, Tony and Carol sought motel advice from the more experienced club members. Carol was wise to ignore the advice from the bachelor-types whose only criterion was minimum cost. After some discussion, it was decided that if we joined forces, we might be able to negotiate a good price for a block of three rooms at the Mt. Madison Motel, which is actually a decent place to stay. The advertised rate for a non-smoking room with a queen-size bed was $109. We nominated Tony to do the talking with the Woman Behind the Desk. It went something like this:

TM: Good evening. I wonder if you could help me. I'm traveling with two other people, and I would appreciate it if you could quote us a rate on a block of three rooms.

WBD: We have some rooms available, yes.

TM: Yes, I thought so. I believe that we are all members of AAA and AARP. And one of us is Swiss, and you know how particular the Swiss are. We were hoping that he in particular would be impressed with the quality and economy of your motel. Do you think you could give us your best price?

WBD: Have you stayed here before?

TM: Well, we are part of a group of glider pilots, some of whom have stayed here before. We would be happy to recommend this motel to our other flying friends who will be here later this week.

WBD: Our normal rates are...

TM: Did I mention that we want three rooms? And I'm sure you'll understand that we're not really interested in your normal rates. I'm sure you can give us your best rate. Have you ever been up in a glider?

WBD: Are you trying to sweet-talk me?

TM: Well, I would, but my wife is out in the car...

WBD: (blushes) Umm... how much would you like to pay?

TM: Well, I noticed that the advertised rate across the street is 48 dollars.

WBD: I noticed that too.

TM: What would you say to $40 each, for three rooms?

WBD: That wouldn't include the tax...

TM: No, no, of course not.

WBD: OK.

I love Gorham in October.

Gorham Report October 17

Another day of weak wave. Tony, John G, Tom H, Thomas, and three GBSC friends took tows to the primary and were able to hang out at just over 8000 feet. Tom H celebrated his recent birthday by flying the 1-23 for the first time.

Tows will be available tomorrow, starting mid-morning. There will be cloudiness, but it is hard to tell if there will be wave windows. The winds will be westerly, but weak. I'm guessing that it will be a lot like today.