Weekend report August 29 - 30

The forecast for Saturday was good, but reality was even better.  They told us we would get 2 or 3 knots to 5000 feet, ending at 5pm, but in fact we enjoyed 4 knot climbs to over 6000 feet, and there was still lift at Post Mills after 6pm.  Nobody complained about the inaccurate forecast.

It was a combination of cross-country flying and test-prep flight instruction.

With most of the serious xc guys out of town, Evan (T8) was the only one who flew far.  He took off first, racked up 524 km (including a couple of motor runs) and landed last.  This is his seventh >500 km flight out of Post Mills this year.  Amazing.  His first and third turnpoints were at Jay Peak and Killington.  In between the two he flew to a spot near where New Hampshire, Maine, and Quebec come together, not near any known turnpoint.

He made a couple of kerosene-powered saves at Morrisville and Montpelier.  The towpilots thank him for not landing at either of those two places.

We tried our first lead-and-follow cross-country instruction with more than one student.  It sort of worked.  Five of us headed out on the standard 100 km training triangle (Post Mills, Harvey Lake, Brushwood Road).

Dean Memorial airport (just short of the Brushwood Road turnpoint) is the safe place to land for the entire task.

After an informal briefing, five gliders were launched between 12 noon and 1pm, and we left for Harvey Lake at about 1:30.  Three made it around the course, and only two managed to stay together the whole way.  We have a lot to learn about pre-flight planning, programming and using our glide computers, using our Flarms, and communicating efficiently.  But it was a good start.  More ground and flight instruction is needed!

Back at Post Mills, it was intensive test-prep for many of the potential candidates for flight tests next month.  Jeff, Erzo, Friedrich, and Kevin all flew (both solo and with instructors).  Don towed 18 flights in total, and Moshe and Mark instructed.  Mark didn't get a chance to fly his new glider (DG) until after 4pm.

Sunday was a rainy loss.  Zach drove all the way from Burlington to work on the 2-33.

Weekend report August 22 - 23

 The sky looked terrible on both days of the weekend.

We had 10 flights on Saturday under the overcast.  It was nice to see Mark using his new CFI rating to conduct some ground school at the beginning of the day.  He also flew with Jeff and Erzo in preparation for their flight tests.  Friedrich and Mathias had some solo practice, and Kevin got some instruction from Greg.  The sun finally broke out at the end of the day, enabling a couple of extended flights.

Sunday was a washout.

Friday Slackers

During the flight tests last weekend, it was noted that the oil consumption in the towplane was getting a bit excessive.  A hasty arrangement was made with our new mechanic, Noah, and the L19 was delivered to Dean Memorial airport for some maintenance on Sunday after flying.

We expected to get the towplane back on Wednesday, which would be in plenty of time for the forecast good soaring weather on Friday.  In the end, however, there were delays and more things to fix than originally anticipated.  As the forecast for Friday got better and better, we stood by nervously as Noah, Andy, Mark, and Don worked on the L19.  It was finally back at Post Mills and ready to go on Thursday evening, and eleven Slackers got the word that Friday was a go.

The day started early, and we had four gliders in the air by noon.  It was difficult at first, with light winds and an uninspiring ribbon of blue sky along the river.  It wasn't too difficult for the high performance guys to glide out to the clouds to the west, but conditions were difficult around home.  Despite this, Jeff (505) managed to stay in the air for 1.5 hours at the beginning of the day.  He wasn't done yet.

We had a surplus of towpilots, and both Mark (PM) and Tim (BU) were able to go flying after towing.  They flew together between Lebanon and Moosilauke, giving Mark his first real taste of cross-country flight in a glider.

Moshe (RU) and Peter (HG) flew west to the Green Mountains.  Moshe came home via Franconia, and Peter reached 7500 feet after getting low near Bailey.  It was Peter's first 250 km flight.

Meanwhile, the conditions back home improved, and Dave B (NT) and Jeff (505, again) flew for 4h35 and 3h11 respectively.

Leslie (H) flew for five hours and 162 km in the Libelle.  He spent 45 minutes stuck at Dean on the way home, eventually landing there.

The longest flights of the day were achieved by Greg (JR), Shawn (SB), and Evan (T8).  Greg and Shawn flew together for 450 km, with turnpoints at Jay Peak, Old Speck, and Mount Ascutney.  Evan had the longest flight of the day (549 km).  He flew along the Canadian border from Jay all the way to Rangeley, Maine before heading back to Post Mills.

All day towing

2026 has been a great season for PMSC.  We have had 432 flights so far, with roughly three months to go.

In a normal year, we get only one day with more than 20 flights.  And, usually, it takes more than one towpilot to do that many tows in a day.

This year we have had:

• July 11    21 flights towed by Tim
• July 25    24 flights towed by Tim
• Aug 15    24 flights towed by Andy

Honorable mention goes to Don, who has had two 14-tow days this year.

Of course much of this is attributable to our enthusiastic members and the good weather we've been having.

But you've got admire these three guys for doing the hard work of getting the rest of us into the air all season long, and especially on those three days.

Be sure to thank them.

Weekend report August 15 - 16

 In addition to the successful flight tests over the weekend, we had a few more noteworthy flights.

On Saturday, Greg and Moshe (our notable test-prep instructors) wisely concluded that their work with applicants was done, and they went flying.  Greg (JR) flew a 514 km quadrilateral, with the first leg going southwest to Mount Snow, where he reached his high point (6800 feet) at 2:11pm.  He landed back home at 7pm.

Moshe (PM) showed up not planning to fly, but he was able to spend a couple of hours getting refamiliarized with the 304.  That makes 8 different glider types for him this year, all flying out of Post Mills.

Tim (BU) flew 226 km, including an out-and-return to Twin Mountain, and Evan (T8) took a late start and flew a South Carolina-shaped flight all over Vermont and New Hampshire (384 km).

Shawn (SB) flew with Greg for 300 km but was unable to make the last leg from Plymouth to Post Mills.  He arrived at Plymouth at 3000 feet, struggled there for a bit and eventually landed.

Kevin went to get him.  Shawn and Kevin were the only ones who missed the party and the beautiful sunset at Post Mills.

By comparison, Sunday was a quiet day.  Toby took his flight test in the morning, before anyone else arrived at the field.  Newly-soloed Mathias disappeared in the 2-33 for a couple of hours, and new member Phil Gerding flew PM for the first time.

Then the towplane went to Dean for maintenance, and we're hoping to get it back for some more flying before next weekend!

Certificates

We had a very special weekend on August 15 and 16, with four new certificates or ratings.

Throughout the summer, and thanks to the prodding and prompting of the flight instructors, led by our cheerleader-in-chief, Greg, an unusual number of glider pilots have been preparing for their flight tests.

When you look at it closely, this requires a significant effort from all concerned.  Ground school, knowledge tests, more ground school, flight test prep, IACRA, scheduling the examiner, getting the paperwork in order, organizing volunteers for the big day, etc.

This year we have had an unusually large number of pilots, towpilots, and instructors willing to put in the work to get the job done.

Mark Brisson took the first flight test on Saturday.  Mark holds the most FAA ratings of anyone in the club, 13.  He extended this to 14 by adding a Glider rating to his flight instructor certificate.  Congratulations to Mark for becoming our newest CFI-G!

Next up was Zach LaRochelle.  Zach took a few practice solo flights on Thursday, and he was obviously overprepared for his flight test in the 2-33.  Congratulations to Zach on his new Private Pilot Certificate!  When asked who his first passenger would be, he didn't have a clue.

Finally, on Saturday, Dave Baxter took his practical test to add Glider privileges to his Private Pilot certificate.  Congratulations to Dave for his additional rating in gliders!  It isn't widely known that Dave has the PMSC record for the greatest number of students instructed.  He has taught 2000 hang glider pilots how to fly!  It is possible that the new rating means that he has officially retired from hang gliding.

On Sunday Toby Schine had an early appointment with the examiner, and by noon he was finished with his flight test in the Blanik.  Congratulations to Toby for adding a glider rating to his Commercial Pilot Certificate!

Obviously, none of this would have been possible without Ed Winchester, our new Designated Pilot Examiner.  Ed traveled from his base (Adirondack Soaring in Saratoga County, New York) to spend both days of the weekend with us.  Ed worked tirelessly all weekend and we do appreciate his willingness to come to Post Mills.  Ed is an experienced glider pilot and a glider-only DPE (the best kind).  He told us that there are only seven of them in the United States.  Nobody knows why they are so scarce.  The average distance between glider-only DPEs is about 700 miles.

And the best news of all is that we will have another handful of applicants ready for their flight tests next month, and Ed is willing to come back and do it again!

First solo

Congratulations to Mathias Wahl on his first solo today (7/25/2026).  Also, congratulations to his two instructors, Moshe and Greg.  The three of them were dedicated to getting the job done, and Mathias was able to go solo after 15 instructional flights, probably a club record.

Mathias actually flew five times today, three of them solo.

And congratulations to Tim for doing all 24 tows, another likely club record for an individual towpilot.  It was a hot day, so Tim's effort included three refuelings (to keep the towplane relatively light).

 

Summer Wave

A couple of photos from Greg's 509 km flight on July 20 in JR.

He made two climbs to 17000 feet at Mount Washington. 

April 27 report

Another outstanding report from Andy Kozak: 

Gliding in New England usually starts with the Super Bowl. So far this year it has been true to form. Monday April 27^th started off with a very good omen. A bald eagle soaring over Post Mills airfield. His tail feathers were illuminated by the sun making them look brighter than any I had ever seen. I was third to be towed up after Greg Hanlon and Tim Chow. Rick Sheppe was the tow pilot. He fairly quickly found a thermal and turned tightly to bring me back into it. We entered the thermal a second time, so I released. Somehow, I felt that I immediately lost the thermal, but looking back at my flight trace I was in lift as I turned 180 degrees, had I just kept turning I would have likely still been in lift. Not sure what happened there.

I flew toward where Tim and Greg were climbing trying two circles on the way which gained me nothing, but I picked up enough altitude in between them to keep going. Finally the vario started to rise, as hoped for, and I could relax.

Greg (JR), Tim (BU), and I (2R) joined up across the Connecticut river in a thermal over Piermont Mountain. I was the lowest but at 6000 feet I decided to leave the weakening thermal because the clouds ahead looked very good. Prior to takeoff, Greg had suggested we make Sugarloaf in Maine our goal. I knew that was a long way and thought it might be difficult for me but that is the direction where I headed. Kinsman notch passed below us, then we flew over Cannon Mountain and Franconia notch. We skirted Mount Lafayette and passed over Twin Mountain. We skirted Mt Washington and flew over Mount Adams and Madison all the while searching for the darkest spots under the clouds.

Mount Lafayette

Mount Washington

We had not yet turned to gain altitude. Greg had pulled ahead and Tim had fallen behind. That is the pecking order of our gliders on glide with Greg’s JS1, my ASW 27 and Tim’s HpH 304CZ. Tim has 17.4m wings and he outclimbs me, but I have a better glide at higher speeds. Greg beats me at everything.

I focused on flying smoothly and at the correct speed to fly. We were at about 8000 feet as we approached a large blue hole over Gorham. Greg flew straight across and I followed. At 5500 feet. Near Berlin I found a strong thermal. The entire route to this point had airfields within easy reach. The first is Dean, then Twin, Mount Washington (Whitefield), Gorham and Berlin. Except for the blue hole over Gorham there was barely a break in the clouds. From here north, as far as I was concerned, the map said “Here be dragons.” To be fair, last fall I flew a bit past Old Speck Mountain (Maine) in wave, so I had a pretty good look toward Sugarloaf. I also would have Berlin airfield which was just toward the east and Bethel airfield just to the west behind me.

Greg had diverted a bit to stay over the Mahoosuc range. I took a straighter path. Somewhere before Grafton Notch, Greg had to take several thermals while I was able to continue straight. I passed him without knowing it. The area around Richardson Lakes seemed overdeveloped but still provided plenty of lift.

Richardson Lakes

I only needed to stop for one more thermal before reaching Sugarloaf Mountain. We had decided to try for Jay Peak next, so I turned and headed west.

We had been flying over the spine of the mountains, and Sugarloaf is essentially the end of those mountains. There is a short and very distinctive Bigelow range just to the north of Sugarloaf. But the nearly continuous cloud street was at an end.

Bigelow range in the distance

It took some time for me to find good lift but I was in range of the Rangeley airfield. Greg had continued further to Sugarloaf airfield. He seemed to find several 12 knot thermals, the best in his life. I was just trying to find a thermal. Tim was struggling a bit as well but we finally got going again.

Greg and Tim suggested airfields and a course line - making my life easier. I had to stop to refuel every 5 or 10 miles but the clouds mostly worked well. Flying parallel and close to the Canadian border I could look almost straight down at the Derby Line crossing. Not much traffic in either direction. Greg caught up to me near Lake Memphremagog.

Lake Memphremagog

I led the way across and then we turned over Jay Peak. I could see skiers getting off one of the lifts near the peak. There was still quite a bit of snow on select trails.

Looking back over the lake we could see the area had turned significantly bluer. Tim was behind us and turned south at about that point. Greg and I shared a last thermal just past Morrisville airport. At Sugarloaf Greg had flown approximately 15 miles further to turn at the airport. In addition he had closed the original 10 mile gap. 25 miles gained, probably over the course of 160+/- miles. In the end Greg would fly 423 miles at an average of 67 mph.

After our last thermal together he flew down the crest of the Greens past Okemo and back to Post Mills. I chose to turn over Ascutney. We live on the slopes there. Normally I would call my wife when passing overhead and she comes out to try to spot me. She has gotten good at that.  At 7000 feet there was no cell reception.

On final glide, between Lebanon and Post Mills, I flew under a cloud where I gained 500 feet in about a minute of straight flight. The clouds were beginning to thin but there was still some strong lift. By then all of us were on final glide. Tim ended the day with 337 miles. I flew 374 miles at an average speed of 61 mph. This was my first 600 km flight. The previous day was my first 500 km flight also at an average of 61 mph. Consistent.

I had intentionally not maxed out my climbs, but left while lift was strong. The clouds looked so good and lift was plentiful so that seemed to work well. It was much easier to do with a high cloudbase. The first long leg of my flight from Piermont Mountain to Sugarloaf covered 110 miles at a glide ratio of 213:1! I spent only 5.2% of my time in two thermals at an average climb rate of 632 fpm.! For the entire flight I thermaled 18.2% of the time. All amazing metrics, clearly spectacular conditions for New England.

One of the things I had noticed with my flights was that my average bank angle was lower and my velocity higher than what I would have liked. The saving grace was that everyone else seemed to be about the same. We seldom fly directly into the strongest lift and center the core for an entire thermal. We level out to move our circle, sometimes repeatedly, and I know I tend to relax as I climb. I am looking for the next cloud, checking traffic and not necessarily only focused on staying centered.

The table below shows Region 1 flights of 250 miles+, which were posted on WeGlide from 4/21 through 5/1. Twelve flights, seven pilots, three airfields, various gliders.

Click to enlarge

The second table has bank angle and velocity for the same flights. This data is taken from WGlide. I think it is representative of our actual bank angles while in a thermal.

Click to enlarge

The Max. bank angle / velocity is for a single segment. For Evan and myself this was one thermal. For Kari it was a long segment.

To come up with an average of average bank angle over 10 flights I eliminated the high and low. The result is 32.6 degrees, and a velocity of 55.8 knots. Someone with more statistics knowledge may want to dive deeper into this and then tell us what it means.

Conclusions:

The King of bank angle is clearly Kari. Only Evan comes close to Kari’s average for a day, but Evan’s was in only one thermal. Kari had an average bank angle of 43 degrees at 56.5 knots. This is about same velocity as the rest of us but with 10 degree less bank angle! They do not build gliders like they used to. However, this still only resulted in a somewhat below average climb. Kari was far from anyone else making a true comparison impossible.

Evan is clearly the King of climb with those 21 m wings. He had an average climb rate of 497 fpm over 3 flights. The nearest was Greg on one day at 440 fpm. I am amazed that Evan has an advantage of roughly 100 fpm over everyone else? How is that possible?

I can claim second runner up for a bank angle of 39 degrees. It was my first thermal, and it was a highly focused climb from 1000 feet above the local terrain.

Tim gets an honorable mention for descending over Post Mills at -372 fpm in a 45° bank, at 88.7 knots and in a 702 ft radius circle.

At an average bank angle of 32 degrees, we flew in circles at best more than 100 feet larger in radius than what Kari flew and what is theoretically possible.

I also looked at a few recent long flights in Europe and Mifflin. We are all actually turning tighter than just about everyone!

Are we all close to the sweet spot for our equipment and Region 1 thermal characteristics? Is there room for us to improve? Should we just claim victory and enjoy the experience? What did I miss?

April 26 report

 Andy Kozak writes:

Sunday the 26th did not start off well for me. Alasdair showed me that the NESA 2-33 was missing a cotter pin on one of the bolts holding the tailplane. The nut was spinning freely but still attached. It had been assembled after our safety meeting and then flown a week ago. I then pre-flighted it Saturday for my Flight Review, with Alasdair. I try to touch everything I am checking to make sure I do not just give it a cursory look, but apparently I had not done so this time.

Bob Iuliano was already climbing out over Hawks Ridge when I released just below him. Usually we would fly together as long as possible but Bob had to get back earlier that day. When he headed toward the Green mountains, I took a northerly track up the middle of the state. The clouds looked good everywhere. A slight detour to the Greens along with the arc formed by the mountain range would result in a longer path versus heading due north. One of my goals has been to fly to the Canadian border, and this seemed like a good day to give it a shot.

The initial clouds worked well. I hit a relatively low point of 4800 feet near Chelsea, but the cloud I had been aiming for looked good and I was within range of Post Mills, so no worries. Near Montpelier I made a pointless diversion east toward what I thought was the best cloud in the area. It offered weak lift but at least afforded me a bit more altitude. It also gave me time to look around, and I noticed wisps of clouds starting to develop in the blue area just to the west. I backtracked west and headed toward the cloud street above Barre. All of this time I was within spitting/gliding distance of the Barre/Montpelier airport, so again, no worries. Turning west turned out better than expected and I was able to turn north while still in the blue. From there I flew without the need for any major climbs, just thermaling enough to top off my altitude.

One of the things that I think has helped my soaring is that I have learned to focus on being smooth and being more selective when slowing down. Not every patch of lift needs a sharp pullup. The glider gains energy in the small pockets of lift that we traverse and every control input or change in flap setting costs something in terms of drag and therefore altitude. I try to pay attention to what my flight computer’s MacCready speed-to-fly is telling me but I do not react instantly to every change. I try to avoid slowing down in anticipation of lift. Not every cloud works and slowing too much leaves me with little energy when I find sink instead.

There are several metrics available in WeGlide that I track. One is glide ratio over segments of flights. The leg from my initial climb to the border was 109 miles. On that leg I achieved a glide ratio of 63/1, significantly better than my theoretical 48/1.

There was a cloud growing just on the Canadian border and there was a light wind from the north. I could see the border on my flight computer but from 5,000 ft I could not actually see the 20 ft border break on the ground. Several roads in the area made it somewhat confusing. I turned, just barely touching Canadian airspace and gaining some altitude in the thermal while enjoying the view.

Heading back south the lowest point of the flight at 4600 feet came when I was near Morrisville airport. There had been a larger than normal gap between clouds but again the clouds ahead looked very good so I was never worried. I had also started to notice that the clouds over the Greens were at two levels, indicating a convergence.

Flying south I experimented with the optimum distance from the convergence line and found it to be well to the east versus closer to the convergence. However, I never did get extremely close so perhaps it would have been even better at that point.

Between Sugarbush and Killington I was able to fly without turning. Near Killington I gained nearly 1000 feet in a thermal and then an additional 2000 feet in straight flight. I did not turn again until well past Bennington. At that point the clouds seemed to be a bit more spread out and there was smoke from a rather large fire. Two years ago I had come this far and then tried to return under an overdevelopment only having to land at Bennington. Not wanting to repeat that, and with plenty of altitude, I turned back. Retracing my recent path I maintained altitude and decided to head east and add a bit of a triangle to the flight. This had the added benefit of allowing me to stay within final glide of Hartness, minimizing the potential need for a retrieve.

In retrospect, I should have continued south into Massachusetts. At that time, I did not know it but two pilots from Post Mills were in the same area with me, just returning from their flights to western Connecticut, near where the three states of Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut meet. Evan Ludeman eventually flew 370 miles and Greg Hanlon flew 304 miles. I could not have flown to Connecticut but I think I could have gone well into Massachusetts, which for me is unexplored territory.

The leg of my flight from the border south covered 139 miles at a glide ratio of 111!  Another WeGlide metric I look at is per cent of time circling. A very good number to aim for is 20%. For this flight it was 16.3%! Needless to say, my flight of 349 miles (560 km) was the longest of my life.

Clearly a great day to fly cross country in Vermont. Hopefully my skills and decision making have actually improved and it was not just the right time and the right place!