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?

August 11 report from Springfield

 Andy Kozak writes:

As you all know, it has been difficult to find good flying days this season. My logbook shows a couple of wave flights early in May. Then two good flights at the end of May and one in June, all around 400 km. It has been a long wet spell since then.

The weekend of August 2-3 was smoke impacted but I still managed two good flights. This past weekend I again had two good flights, both just over 350 km, with a bonus day on Monday of 275 km making for 1500 km over five days, in August, in New England!

Monday August 11th, 6 pilots flew from Springfield: Greg, Bill Detrich, Alasdair, Lee, myself and Tim Chow from Post Mills. Bill Batesole was kind enough to tow. Tim and I have flown together in the past and we decided to do so again. Tim flies an HpH 304CZ. My ASW 27 and Tim’s 304 were both manufactured about 25 years ago but the HPH design goes back to the 80’s so his airfoil is an older design. However, Tim’s 17.43 m wingspan results in a slightly better climb rate. My 15 m wing has a more modern, thinner airfoil, resulting in better performance at higher speeds.

Tim’s OLC link to his flight is here: BU. You can overlay my flight (2R) on Tim’s by scrolling down and clicking on “Meeting Points”. (You have to log in to your OLC account to do the overlay.)

Tim climbed up to me at the north end of Hawks ridge and we decided to head south to Mount Greylock in northwest Massachusetts. Tim had mentioned a low stress flight before we took off and I seconded that. Heading south, the clouds were nicely spaced, and we could be selective in picking thermals, typically only stopping for 4+ knot climbs. Leaving the Springfield airfield area we came into glide range of Mount Snow airfield. Unfortunately, after Mount Snow itself, there were no more clouds to the south. The clouds to the east looked good so we turned in that direction. Further east into the Connecticut river valley the clouds began to thin but we always had a cloud to mark the way. In that part of southeastern Vermont there is a grass strip, Santas airfield, in Putney. After that is the Keene airfield in New Hampshire.

On many days we see a distinct line of clouds over the Green Mountains, with another line of  clouds over the central spine of southern New Hampshire.  GBSC glider pilots typically fly north/south up that central spine from Mount Monadnock, to Mount Sunapee, Mount Kearsarge, on up to the Whites. It was still a bit hazy up high so it took some time before we could faintly see Mount Monadnock. It took even longer until we could evaluate the clouds in that area. They were not as closely spaced as on our run south, so prior to reaching Mount Mondanock, we turned north.

It is always a welcome sight to see the glider ahead of you bank sharply and climb, allowing you to follow directly into the core. There was little wind and we were staying above 5000 feet so the thermal cores were easy to find. On only one occasion did one of us turn back when the trailing pilot located a strong core. My flight computer shows my flight path as a color coded line, with red indicating lift, so it is fairly easy to find a core should I turn in the wrong direction or choose to turn back for lift I flew through. When in a thermal, my flight computer screen displays a circle of dots on my screen showing the strength of lift throughout my previous 360 degrees of turn. This allows me to extend my circle toward what I hope is the strongest lift. I focus on making these adjustments as smoothly as possible. When centered in a thermal core I will try to relax and basically not touch my controls. I believe this allows the glider to fly itself the most efficiently possible. Doing that will also show you the correct position of your yaw string for that bank angle and speed.

As we flew north, the Connecticut River valley to our west was almost all blue, to the Green Mountains. Ahead, the clouds were now spaced further apart so we maximized our climbs to stretch our glides. Our lowest altitude, approximately 4400 feet, was just before Sunapee, but we were by then within glide of Parlin/Newport New Hampshire. We could have chanced an earlier crossing, west toward Springfield, but any significant stretch of sink, with no clouds to mark thermals, would have been risky. We flew north past Mount Sunapee turning northwest toward a wispy cloud near Grantham. It grew as we climbed under it. We had kept our eyes on a large cloud over the Croyden range but I was concerned it may be late in its life cycle. Spreading out under it we both found lift but Tim had the stronger core. I joined Tim and we climbed to over 7000 feet. This allowed us to leave on a long glide, crossing over the top of Lebanon’s Class D airspace (3100 feet). The clouds there were slightly overdeveloped offering no strong lift, so we turned south toward Springfield still within a long glide. Shortly after that it became relaxed sight seeing time. Clouds and lift were plentiful, and the airfield was easily reached.

I do not recall flying into any strong lift when not indicated by some degree of cloud development. I think we made the correct call in not taking a chance on a very long crossing in the blue. Flying together served us well. You can relax somewhat when following another glider and it is a lot of fun to climb closely together in a thermal. There are not many more beautiful sights than another glider just off your wing! The ideal position to join another glider in a thermal is on the opposite side of the circle, which allows both pilots to see each other. It also puts you out of harm’s way, should a glider stall and spin. For the most part we maintained that discipline but there were a few instances where one of us ended up on the others tail. Then it was just a matter of slowing up and widening your circle.

I also post my flights on WeGlide. The free version also has an additional statistics page which shows averages for L/D, climb rate, bank angle, speed in the thermal. It also shows % of time circling. I use these to evaluate my performance and decision making. My average bank angle was a little lower and circle diameter larger for this flight which is to be expected. You are not as free to steepen your bank angle or slow down when near another glider.

Lee Blair had the longest flight of the day by heading north to Montpelier.

Together, then apart

 The soaring weather has been so crummy so far that we've begun grasping at straws.  Perhaps we should do that more often.

Last night the forecast for today was "mostly cloudy," which sounds a whole lot better than "rain all day."  Indeed, the sky was grey all morning.  But that didn't prevent the four desperados from showing up and rigging their gliders.

Here's a nice view of a completely unpromising sky:

Tim (BU), Greg (JR), Peter (HG), and DaveB (NT) launched in rapid succession (4 takeoffs in 21 minutes), and even though there were no shadows on the ground, they were able to stay up!

It is interesting to compare the flights of JR (red) and BU (cyan):

For the first half of the flight, they flew together, advising each other of climb rates and trying to stay out of each other's way in the haze.  They wandered across the river and found their first good climb over Mount Cube.  Then they split up and went their separate ways.

Tim eventually went back to Vermont and found a good thermal to 6000 feet.  He landed just after it started to get sunny on the ground.  A three hour flight, not bad!

Three in the Wave

Another cool, clear and windy day on Tuesday.

It was Andy's last day of availability as a tow pilot for a while, and three members took advantage. All three had good wave flights.

Greg (JR) worked his way upwind in thermals until he contacted the wave a few miles east of Breadloaf Mountain. That took him all the way up to 17000 feet. Then he worked the wave crosswind to Mount Mansfield. From there he made a long glide back to Post Mills.

Tim (BU) made a similar flight to the northwest.  He didn't get as high as Greg, but he made three separate climbs to 13000 feet as he made his way upwind to Sugarbush.

Finally, AndyK (2R) headed west at first and got relatively low near Tunbridge, but was able to find the best climb of the day (5 knots) and reached 14000 feet over Carrier.

So far this season it's been all about wave.

Andy headed to the flight line

Wave Flight

 Tim writes about April 17:

Actually, it was a rotor/wave flight.

It was a tough start.  There were few clouds to start and those quickly evaporated.  I took a high tow (5K) to the west because if I didn't connect off tow I would have a second chance downwind of the airport.  Sure enough, I couldn't find wave lift near Miller Pond so I headed downwind before I got too low.  I was able to work rotor while drifting downwind.  I guess the wind was about 30 knots.  The lift was sometimes 14 knots in half a turn and minus 14 knots in the other half.  I was able to climb to about 8500 feet as I drifted almost to Mt. Cube.  Was able to work scraps of wave to about 9500 feet but was never well established.  Wind was now about 45 knots.

Moosilauke, Franconia Ridge and Mt. Washington from 9,500 feet

After 2.5 hours I had enough and was going to "declare victory" and land.  Pushing upwind northwest of the airport I found a spot of well-organized rotor lift that turned into wave and went up to 11,000 feet.  This was real wave lift - smooth, consistent and spread over a large area.  Even though there were no cloud markers you could fly carefully and stay in lift (the sink wasn't bad either).  I was able to explore a little and got up to 14,000 feet in the 60 knot wind.  The high winds made it slow to get around but the view was spectacular.  There wasn't a cloud from Canada to Massachusetts.

Below is the SkySight wave prediction and a satellite image from early morning.  And check out this flight to Mt. Washington in a motor glider.

First Slacker Day

 The weather pattern so far this season has been disappointing.  We seem to get a beautiful day about once per week.  The six intervening days are usually quite horrible, with grey skies and every possible mix of precipitation.  Here's hoping the pattern ends soon.

Yesterday was the one beautiful day.  A Slacker Day was hastily arranged the day before, and Andy agreed to be the towpilot.  The day began with no clouds at all and very little wind.  The forecast was for moderate lift to 4500 feet.  They got the altitude right, but not the lift strength.  It was a struggle to stay in the air, giving us some good early season practice.

Tim (BU), who is the only pilot logging his flights on OLC so far this year managed 75 kilometers.  Greg (JR) headed out to Dean but got low most of the way there, nearly landing in a field.  He got back up and came home.

Local flights were made by Paul and Moshe in the Blanik and by Rick and Shawn in the 2-33.  Shawn then had a short flight in the 1-26.

A modest but definite start to the soaring season.  It is fair to say that we haven't missed a good day yet.

Weekend report April 24 - 25

Saturday was a spectacular soaring day, and we might have accomplished more if the wind had not been a factor.  In deference to the blustery conditions and overall conservatism of a bunch of rusty pilots, we weren't as eager as usual to fly at first.

The air was unstable, which gave us good thermals initially and overdevelopment in the late afternoon.  The rainshowers were widely scattered and fairly easy to avoid.  Some of them were snowshowers. 

Greg (JR), and Tim (BU) were first to launch, and they promptly disappeared for the rest of the day.  They flew together up to Mount Washington, then Colebrook and Newport, and over to the Green Mountains, where Tim got a bit low.  Greg took the opportunity to dash up to Jay Peak and back.  They made it home in good shape with long final glides from the northwest.

Here's a picture Tim took of Greg over the Presidential Range.

And this was Greg's view at the time.

Here is Newport and Lake Memphremagog:

Back at Post Mills, Peter K (3BA), Dennis (DC), Henry (67), Darrek (67) and Matt (3BA) dodged rainshowers in the local area and enjoyed some good climbs to 9000 feet.

And, for the first time ever, Sonny (LT) flew his airplane and his glider on the same day.  He took a quick morning trip to Gorham in the L-16, then worked all day helping other people fly (as usual), and finally had a nice flight in the ASW-19 after the sun came back out in the late afternoon.

We also received this report from Greg H (YZ), who flew at Springfield:

I too had a special flight on Saturday in my Std Cirrus. Released at 2,800ft at 12:15 pm, climbed to 9,500 within 25 minutes. Headed upstream and left cloudbase at 10,200 and immediately flew into wave (5 miles west of KVSF) at 1 pm. Pretty constant at 300 to 500 ft/min lift. I wiggled and waggled @ 41 mph to find the edges and best lift but never could hit it perfectly. Left wave at 13,200 feet still producing 350 ft/min due to some concern I had about being so high for too long a time (I was above 12,500 ft for just 3 minutes at the time), but I heard a Citation was in the area and got chicken. At least 1000 feet above the highest Cu.
 
Wish I had my O2 tank filled and bought a mask.

We didn't fly on Sunday, but Saturday was enough to call it a successful weekend.

Oh, and the Perry contest ended.  Be sure to congratulate Evan, who was the winner in the 15m/Std class!

Wave day at Springfield

Tuesday was blustery and cold, but it was the day NESA chose to check out a new towpilot.  That's all the excuse Tim (BU) needed.

After struggling in the rotor for a good while, he connected with the Okemo wave for a nice climb to 9800 feet.

Weekend report April 17 - 18

The best news from the weekend is that we had a ground school session inside the clubhouse with five fully vaccinated attendees!  It has been a long time since something so normal has seemed normal.

Both days were cold.  Saturday was a bust due to drizzly conditions, and Sunday got off to a slow start with the overcast, wind, and ground school session.  Finally, Greg and Rick went up in the Blanik for a review of spins, and Henry and Rick flew the 2-33 which really needs some sealing work.

Tim stopped towing and took off in BU at 4pm, for a very interesting 2.5 hour flight.  At 6pm he reported that he was five miles out and would be landing shortly.  The cloudstreet that brought him back to Post Mills kept on going for 20 more miles.  He turned around somewhere around Canaan, New Hampshire and rode the street all the way back home.

Three members with perfectly good gliders (Sonny, Don, Dennis) stayed on the ground and worked as ground crew.  This was much appreciated, but they missed some good flying at the end of the day.

Assembly Day

 It is rare for us to go flying on Assembly Day.  It is even rarer for us to assemble and fly at Post Mills before April 15.  This year we did both, thanks to hard working members, an accommodating insurance agent, and climate change.

On Saturday, Darrek, Dennis, Don, Eric, Greg, Henry, John, Kari, Keith, Moshe, Rick, Sonny, and Tim all showed up early, and by midday, three club gliders were assembled and two of them flew!

The first flight of the year was accomplished by Tim towing Moshe solo in the 2-33.  One more just like that one, and Moshe became our first current instructor.  Here's a picture of him keeping his wings level on our sloped runway.

He wound up flying with Dennis, Sonny, Eric, and Henry.  Thanks, Moshe!

While this was going on, the overcast broke apart, and it turned into a decent soaring day.  Tim assembled BU and took off.

Greg stood next to his new glider and listened patiently while Rick told him things he already knew about it.  Then he had his first flight in the glider that will be known shortly as "JR."

Meanwhile, Darrek improved our tiedowns, Don improved the towplane tailwheel, and Eric organized the clubhouse.

Eric and Dennis bought the beer this time.

We are off to a good start!

Weekend report March 27 - 28

 Tim (BU) and Rick (LEL) had a couple of 4 hour flights out of Springfield on Saturday, in thermals and wave.  The conditions were mostly blue.  The clouds were of no help.

Tim made it to 8000 feet in the Okemo wave and measured 29 knots of wind up there.  Rick didn't get as high, but he managed to fly sideways up to Lebanon before falling out of the wave for good.

We had great support from NESA:  Alasdair and Larry on the ground and Jerry in the towplane.  Thanks, guys!

Meanwhile, the runways at Post Mills are still quite squooshy.

Isaias Wave

Hurricane Isaias blew through Tuesday and left enough wind on Thursday to generate wave behind Mt. Washington, I wanted to try a flight to Mt. Washington.  After a late start (2:15) because VW was extracting money from the tow pilot to fix his car, I started thermaling northwards.  Thermals were consistent but cloud base was only 5,500-6,000' which is on the low side of my comfort level for a trip to W (Mt. Washington).  I took my time and arrived at W around 4:00.  Ridge lift was good on the Presidentials and I ridge soared the face contemplating my next move.  There were no clouds between the summit of W and the Carters to indicate wave or any other kind of lift.   I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to being down wind of and lower than the Presidentials if I couldn't find wave this late in the day.  But I came this far...  I jumped the ridge into Huntington Ravine.  In less about 90 seconds I felt the first indication of lift at 5,900'.  A quick 180 to point into the wind and I was in zero sink and then climbing at 1 kt.  I was surprised how close the wave was to the summit.  1 kt soon turned into 2 kts then 3 kts by the time I got to 10,000' I was climbing at 8 kts.

Huntington Ravine climbing at 1 kt.

View of Carters - no wave clouds

10,000' climbing at 7.8 kts

After 45 minutes I was just shy of 18,000' and climbing at 1.5 kts.  It was almost 5:00 so it was time to head home.  I dialed Post Mills into the Oudie and was happy to see that even with a 35 kt headwind I had Post Mills with 6,000' to spare - my kind of final glide!

17,500' - Start of final glide

After flying carefully to Franconia to make sure the Oudie wasn't lying to me,  I finished the final glide into PM at 95-100 kts and still arrived with 4,000' to spare.

It was a great flight in thermal, ridge and wave lift and I made it home for dinner.  Thank you Rick for towing and crewing.

Breaking up the band

Thanks to everyone's least favorite microorganism, we've been forced to divide our efforts between Post Mills, Franconia, and Sterling recently.  It was more fun when we could all fly together.

On Monday, Evan (T8) made a great flight out of Franconia, shuttling back and forth between Moosilauke and Berlin, making a couple of wave climbs along the way.  It was too windy to fly at Post Mills.

Then yesterday, in winds that were only slightly more reasonable, a couple of big counterclockwise flights out of Post Mills were made by Tim (BU) and Greg (JD)

Finally, today, Dan (EA) and Evan (T8) took off at Sterling and flew west and north for 420 and 352 kilometers, respectively.

We're thinking about getting the band back together.

August weather

The Wednesday afternoon slackers showed their respect for our chief towpilot and were ready to go right on time at noon.  Andy towed everybody and went back home to finish his workday.  Other than a brief pause when we thought we had lost the towrope (false alarm), Andy made nine tows without shutting down.

It was indeed the best weather of the week, as Tim predicted.  However, it wasn't all that straightforward.  And it was hot and humid. There were clouds over the mountains, with a westerly wind aloft.  Some of the clouds got out of hand, causing rainshowers and blowoff.  The wind down low was from the south, which put us square in the middle of weak valley conditions, with the cloudfields to the east and west, just out of reach.

The trick was to leave town early, and Greg (JD), Tom (2W) and Tim (BU) did just that.  They made it to the clouds on the Vermont side and followed them all the way to Island Pond, returning via the clouds on the New Hampshire side.  You could not have done any better than that.

Evan (T8) and Rick (LEL) struggled to get away, with Evan making at least three desperate returns to Post Mills before climbing back up.  At least he didn't land.  Rick needed a relight.  They both headed for home when the lightning started.

The day ended early with a ten mile diameter shadow due to blowoff.  Luckily everyone saw it coming and we made long smooth glides into the darkness to land by about 1600.  Evan managed to stay up the longest of all.  After that the sun came back out.  Typical.

Keith (BA), Dennis (DC), and David (505) were all trapped at Post Mills by the big shadow.  Dennis set a record for circling, and David got his first flight of the season in the 1-26.

Weekend report May 22 - 25

PMSC finally got underway at Post Mills this weekend, thanks to all the work on the towplane performed by our chief towpilot and chief mechanic.  It's never obvious how much work the two Andys do in order to keep us flying.  It's a lot.

We did a pretty good job of observing our amended COVID operational rules.

Under our new (hopefully temporary) rules, every day is a Slacker Day.  This isn't great for our primary students, but it makes it easier for our instructors and towpilots to fly on the weekends.  Don't let them tell you that they aren't enjoying this.

Another consequence is that our first weekend of the season was also our first 4-day weekend.

Friday
The conditions were blue with light west winds.  The day started with thermals to 5000 feet, rising to 7000 feet by late afternoon.  Evan, Tim, Dennis, and Eric flew out of Post Mills, and Rick launched at Franconia.  Tim and Evan flew nice round trips to the White Mountains.  Eric did that as well, but was a bit more ambitious.  He wound up landing at Claremont after rounding his final turnpoint at Springfield.  Rick also landed out, conveniently, at Post Mills.

Dennis was the hero of the day, driving down to Claremont to pick up NT, bringing Eric back to Post Mills, then turning around again and driving home (not that far from Claremont).  He walked into his house at about midnight - and was back in Post Mills the next morning.

Saturday
Technically, Saturday can be called Assembly Day, since the 2-33 and 1-26 went together, thanks to the efforts of David, Peter, Karl, Andy, Don, and Karl's buddy Dave from Florida. That leaves the Blanik, which suffers from lack of pilots so far this season.

The weather was strange.  It wasn't blue, but it might as well have been.  High bands of stratus and a few altocu didn't help at all.  Thermals were sparse and difficult to center, but with patience, they could be worked up to 6000 feet.  The wind was southeasterly, which was disorienting.

All flights were local.  Kari probably had the longest flight, with Evan and Peter not far behind.  Dennis had a short one, and Rick couldn't even stay up.  David flew the 2-33 twice and is back on track to get his license early this year.

Sunday
The day dawned clear, but a thin overcast moved in just before launch time and hung around for the rest of the day.  From the appearance of the sky, you wouldn't have thought there was any lift at all.

But this is May.  The airmass is so good that it doesn't take all that much sunshine to get things going.  Tim (BU), Peter (505), and Greg (JD) all had local flights.  Peter's total time in the 1-26 this season is 5 hours already.  He got to 4800 feet and was the last to land.

Monday
Nobody flew.  But before you deny that this was a 4-day weekend, thank Tim for standing by to be the towpilot all day Monday.  The overcast was solid, and the slackers gave up early, as they always do.

There are 12 trailers on the field now (including HK, which just arrived from Florida).

Weekend report May 16 - 17

The season got off to a modest start with three local flights by club members at Springfield.

Evan (T8) reported that it wasn't as good as forecast, but he got to 5500 feet in thermals and wave.  Tim (BU) and Dennis (DC) also had shakedown flights.

Our towplane is still hors de combat; Andy has stopped making predictions when it will be back.

Shear Wave

6,600' over Post Mills on Sunday

Sunday mark the beginning of wave season in New England.  It was kind of windy, thermals were generally weak, cloud base was low and the clouds sort formed streets (perpendicular to the wind).  The first 2 hours of my flight I tried to thermal to cloud base and then look for wave.  Most of the time was spent trying to get to cloud base in the weak thermals and avoiding the strong areas of sink.  Since the wind was out of the northwest, when I got to cloud base I would try to move toward the northeast (mistake) and generally found sink.

I found a strong thermal over Rich Starr's house (I guess there's a lot of hot air around there) that took me to cloudbase over the east ridge and from there I was able to transition to wave at about 5,000'.  When I looked around I noticed I was on the southwest side of the cloud street and the glide computer said the wind was 280 degrees at 20 kts.  Below 5,000' the wind was 320 degrees at 10 kts.

I think what was happening was there was cloud street that runs perpendicular to the wind (320 to 140 degrees).  The thermals push up into the inversion at 5,000' and forms a "ridge".  The inversion layer is moving at 20 kts from 280 degrees and hits the "ridge" at a 40 degree angle and has to go up and over the "ridge" forming the shear wave (see cloud street wave).

While the OLC points and the maximum altitude were unremarkable, it was a really fun flight.

SkySight Wave Forecast...Round 2

Sunday offered another chance to fly wave.  Strong NW wind in Summer is not normally considered prime wave weather but SkySight was showing areas of more than 7 kts and going to altitudes over 32,000'.

My flight started off with a tow to the northwest in a cloudless sky (at least in our area).  The tow was in sink from the time we past West Fairlee.  I held on to the tow until we got to 5,200' hoping that we would find some good air but we never did.  I continued in sink for a few more miles to the northwest.  Finally, I made a big left turn to the northeast.  It wasn't until I got over Middlebrook 4-5 miles north of the airport that I finally found my first traces of lift and slowly worked into wave and up to 12,000'.  SkySight had predicted the bad tow and the sink during the first part of the flight (the box showing -0.8 kts shows where I turned around and headed northeast).  SkySight also showed wave right where I found it (the blue dot), over Middlebrook and Lake Fairlee.

Thinking I would head to Mt. Washington I headed towards Franconia trying to use ragged clouds as wave markers.  Once I passed Dean Memorial I fell out of the wave and was never able to find it again.  I spent the rest of the flight in turbulent, broken, rotory, frustrating lift.  I made it as far as the Mount Washington Hotel but at 6,000' I again chickened out (see last posting) and did not make the transition to Mt. Washington.
 

For this flight SkySight got everything right.  I got sink off of tow where SkySight expected sink.  I found weak wave near PM right where SkySight said it would be.  And I spent the rest of the day in a futile effort to find wave where SkySight said there won't be any.

I had looked at the SkySight forecast the night before the flight and I saw the strong wave prediction but I really didn't pay attention to the exact location they were predicting wave.  The strong wave was predicted to be in the Pemigewasset wilderness to Jackson NH.   From the area from Franconia to Mt. Washington it would have been very difficult to safely access the wave through the sink (especially with only 6,000').  This picture shows the forecast wave cross section for a line drawn from the MW Hotel to Jackson, NH.  It shows - 5 kts where we normally expect wave and +7 kts over Jackson, much further downwind than normal.  I guess we'll never know if this forecast is correct.

If I had paid more attention to the forecast maybe I would have tried to pick up wave behind Smarts Mountain, using Plymouth and Wentworth as safety airports.  I can get SkySight downloaded to my Oudie but I have to signup for SeeYou Cloud $59/yr.  Maybe I shouldn't be so cheap.

I also looked at a flight by Nelson Howe from GBSC.  He did a nice job of following the wave upstream for 4 wave cycles.  In this case SkySight seems to have predicted the wavelength to be twice as long he found:

SkySight Wave Forecast....Not!

I was able to contact wave during last Monday's flight.  After the flight I went back to see what SkySight had forecast for the day.

The thermal forecast was pretty accurate:

 

When I got to Twin Mountain (the mountain not the airport), it was completely blue to the North and East.   I was below 5,000' and the lift was broken up.   I figured if Mt. Washington wasn't working and there was sink between Twin Mountain and the Presidentials that I would end up scratching at 1000' over Twin Mountain airport (been-there-and-done-that-before) and I wasn't in the mood.  So I chickened out and instead of heading towards Mt. Washington I turned around. 

When I got back to Franconia I was able to find weak wave and work it up to about 8,000' where SkySight predicted no wave lift:

 

Once I was in wave I could maintain 7,500-8,000' as I drift back towards Twin Mountain (In an area SkySight predicted no wave lift).  At 7,500' over Twin Mountain I felt I could make a run at Mt. Washington and if it didn't work, return to Twin Mountain without too much stress.  As it turned out I flew over the summit with 1000' to spare and contacted weak wave right over the horn.  At times the lift averaged over 3 kts and I topped out at 13,500'.  SkySight was predicting 0.4 kts of lift:

 Recently Matthew Scutter wrote in RAS:

I'm biased because I wrote it, but;
For wave flying, the wave forecasts are so useful you'll wonder how you did it without it. Don't believe me - ask Dennis Tito or Morgan Sandercock, an OLC comment from on one of their 2000km flights, using SkySight in the cockpit:
“The SkySight forecast is so precise that we did not need to look at clouds to find lift. When the clouds went one way and SkySight went another way we found it was better to follow the SkySight prediction. We literally do not need to look out the window to find lift.
I have flown blue wave personally multiple times with SkySight and it really opened possibilities that were not there before. Predicting wave is quite easy because mountains don't move very fast and mid-to-upper level winds change slowly. The same applies to orographic convergences (i.e. wind splitting and joining behind an obstacle) or along the edge of plateaus/ridges. Overlay some wave flights on the forecast with the IGC Upload to see for yourself.
In highly dynamic or unstable wave conditions (fronts passing through etc) though your mileage may vary as to the placement of the wave hour by hour.

While SkySight might be good at predicting wave with big mountains in places like the Owens Valley, Patagonia, the Pyrenees, etc.  I think it still pays for us in New England to look out the window.

One thing that SkySight might have gotten right is the convergence forecast.  Often the transition from Twin Mountain to Mt. Washington is stressful because you are flying downwind, into rising terrain and there is often sink, and if things don't work out, you have to turn around and go upwind through the same sink to make it to the safety of Twin Mountain Airport.  On Monday the transition was easy, there was lift in this area (or zero sink) and little altitude was lost during the transition.  SkySight had predicted 0.4 kts of convergence lift:

P.S. - Thanks for the tow Andy!

Slacker day

After the crummy weekend, everybody was looking for a good day to go flying.  Wednesday was nominated, and when the day came, the usual suspects bolted from their day jobs.  One of them didn't even bother to change into his flying clothes as he went out the door.

In all, 8 pilots made 10 flights.  The weather wasn't quite as good as we wanted.

Don wrote:

The day started out breezy and improved as the afternoon progressed. Thermals were around but all chopped to pieces by the wind. During my brief flight, indications were northerly in the 20s-30. At 3000-5000’. 

Flights that started later in the day tended to stay up. Tim (BU) and Moshe (RU) made two flights, so had twice the fun. I had to leave before Tim/Dennis/Moshe returned so don’t know their stories. Eric (NT) started early and made it to Mt Washington and back. Kari (2C) made an hour plus flight in his Jantar.

Don took this picture of Moshe on his first flight.  Note the scummy sky and lack of cumulus.

Peter and Dennis (DC) made long local flights later in the day, both over 2.5 hours.