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.
2 comments:
Thx Rick, for dragging me around your course. Fun day.
My pleasure, Peter. Thanks for finding that thermal near Dean. I needed that one!
Post a Comment