This is how the Great Pyramid was built

 

(Ramps and child labor)

All flights 2021

 

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.

Ridge winds

 On April 25, the wind forecast for two days later looked like this:

Recognizing that it doesn't get better than this, Evan dropped everything, planned an out-and-return record flight, and spent the next day driving to Eagle Field in Pennsylvania.

On April 27, he took an auto-pulley tow at 07:30 and proceeded northeast to his start/finish point at Lock Haven.  From there he flew about 400 miles to his turnaround point at Gate City, Virginia.  He then flew back to Lock Haven to complete the task.  He landed back at Eagle Field, after 11 hours in the air.

His total OLC distance was 1436 km, which was the longest flight in the world on that day.  The flight should qualify as a new National O&R Distance record.

Congratulations, Evan!

Opening Day

A lot happened on April 18, our first day of operations at Post Mills.

First of all, the weather was beautiful.

Andy and Don traveled up to Franklin County airport to pick up our freshly-painted towplane.  While they were gone, our new roller (donated by St. Johnsbury Academy = arranged by Andy L and Bob D) arrived on a really big boom truck.

At the end of the day we had two preseason checkrides and four current towpilots.

Region One Contest

Our friends at NESA have announced that they have applied for a sanction to organize the 2022 Region One contest at Springfield.

It will be in the Sports Class and "Bus" (2-seat trainer) classes, and the dates are July 2 - 9, 2022.

Check the contest webpage for more information.

All it takes to enter is a Silver Badge, and all it takes to become a volunteer is to volunteer.  It's a great learning experience if you haven't seen an official contest before.

Name that club member

 

Ballooning records are goofy

 A new altitude record for standing on top of a balloon.

This is probably why we don't hear about flagpole sitting any more.

Wave Camp 2021

Don the Ironman Towpilot writes:

Peter emailed and asked what wave week was like. Here is a short summary.

From the first Saturday through the next Saturday, it was all high-pressure warm stable air. Wind was calm on the ground, temperatures in the 70s made for short pants and T-shirt weather, the only flights were soaring or minor ridge lift on the Carters and Moriah.

Karl drove up with his RV and held a campfire the first several nights with supper and stories. About 10 or more pilots assembled for the evenings events.

After Saturday’s cold front blew through,the wind picked up to about 30 on the summit, and was blowing a steady 10 to 15 with higher gusts on the ground. Wind was mostly down the runway, but still had its squirrelly moments. One take off, I started the tow with a head wind, a third of the way on the roll had a bunch of left aileron in correcting for air spilling off of Pine Mountain, a couple hundred feet later the wind sock was standing out straight with a cross wind from the right, and by the time I was off the ground and climbing it was a straight on head wind again.

 Cloud cover on Sunday kept anyone from launching until about 1 PM. Six guys launched and were in week wave up to about 14 K. They were finding it mostly between the horn and Carter Dome. I heard once that Dan found some wave on the east end of the golf course.

All said we probably had about 40 tows for the whole week. I have not looked up the exact number.

Gorham/Mount Washington is a great place to fly even if you’re not looking for wave. It was really enjoyable for me in the tow plane to be able to learn the area without having to fly through the turbulence machine each time. I did get some tighten my seat belt moments (after it was already tightened) on Sunday.

My impression is most of the pilots participating were from GBSC and FSA.

A big thanks to Sonny and David for making two each 4 hour round trips to bring trailers to Gorham, to Dan for fueling the tow plane and trailer without being asked, to Tim and Dennis for coordinating logistics and planning, to Andy for towing on the first Saturday and helping deliver myself on the last Sunday.  It takes a lot of effort from PMSC and the other cubs to make this happen.

Sometimes you get away with it

Source

Last few hours of Spring

 

Feel free to go in any direction

Sometimes we have to be reminded how lucky we are to be able to romp around without any significant airspace restrictions.

Here's a graphic showing a whole season of flying on New Zealand's North Island.  The two gliding centers, Taupo and Matamata, are easily identifiable.

Source