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.

Weekend report May 7 - 9

It's not easy being a newsletter editor when you're out of town on a spectacular soaring day and nobody writes their story.  All of the following is scraped from the OLC, a few emails, and the forum.

On Friday, technically a Slacker Day, there were eight flights posted, for a total of 2979 kilometers.  Everybody ran up to Mount Washington (probably together), and either came home directly (NT, DC, 2C) or via an excursion over to the Green Mountains JR, T8, AG).  Tim (BU) did the run twice, for 516 kilometers.  David (505) racked up 69 kilometers in the local area in the 1-26.

That was a lot of good flying, and congratulations to everyone.

But if you think that was special, consider this:  Tim (BU), Evan (T8), and Greg (JR) flew all the way across the Champlain valley into New York on Sunday.  This has never been done before.

The next day Evan wrote:

Yesterday, Tim, Greg and I kicked over the left side of the Post Mills sandbox, crossed the Lake Champlain valley and flew to the highest point in New York State.

One of the reasons for trying this on Sunday was that the weather forecast seemed to indicate less likelihood of overdevelopment on the Adirondacks.  Another is that the wind direction (SW) would keep us out of the wind shadow of the big part of Lake Champlain.
 
The second bit worked as designed. The first not so much. It OD’d on us hard, but we managed to find the climbs we needed to make it back. Patience and teamwork were required. Glider performance helps too!
 
Last night I emailed Adirondack Soaring to tell them we’d planted our flag on Mount Marcy and claimed it for the republic of Post Mills.
 
I added “next time we’ll try to bring better weather.”

I don't know what's more amazing, the flight or the fact that Evan wrote about it.

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!

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.

Weekend report May 25 - 27

After a disappointing three weekends, the month of May finally produced some decent weather for the Memorial Day long weekend.

In a reversal of what normally happens around here, the weather was much better than forecast.  Unfortunately, the pessimists who believed the forecasts missed out on Sunday, the best flying day of the year so far.

Saturday was a training day, mostly.  Henry and Michael each had two flights, and we met Rick Walters, who has joined the club, and who will be bringing his ASW-24 to the field soon.  Skip did his field check and did a nice job with a non-standard landing pattern.  Kari (2C) practiced some more.  Tim towed all day, and we were able to put everything away before the rain showers started around dinnertime.

There was no instructor scheduled for Sunday, and there were only four flights!  Pete (3BA) flew all over the place and came home after a little more than 3 hours.

Both Don (JM) and Skip (JS) had good flights, but they both had flight recorder failures, so we won't be able to see their flight logs.  At the end of the day, Moshe (RU) showed up and was able to get 1.5 hours in the Russia.

Finally, on Monday, we had a normal turnout.  Moshe flew in the 2-33 with two students - Fred and Henry - and everyone else flew solo.  There were good climbs to 7000 feet once the day got going, and Paul (S1), Greg (JD), Tim (BU), and Evan (T8) all managed to stay in the air most of the day.  It took Dennis (DC) and Karl (HK) two tries, but they managed good flights as well.  Karl claims he got to 9300 feet in wave, but he doesn't have a flight recorder, so we don't know whether to believe him.  Pete (3BA) had another long flight in the Blanik, and just as the overcast moved in at the end of the day, Peter showed up and flew 505, just to prove that the lift had died.

Dan (EA) had an opportunity to land out at his home field, but he managed to get back to Sterling.

Outside of flying, we had a terrific weekend of volunteerism.  Thanks a million to Fred, Henry, Don, Pete, and new member Sam Strohl, who manned the golf carts, ran ropes, moved a trampoline, mowed grass, and pumped gas.  Pete, who had to go back home today, de-greased the towplane, washed, waxed and repaired the 304 trailer - and organized the clubhouse, which included putting up some nice pictures.

Slacker report May 6

It's hard to tell from far away, but it seems the Slackers had a good day on Monday.

Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), Don (JM), Tim (BU), and Dennis (DC) all posted their flights.

Weekend report June 2 - 3

We didn't fly on Saturday due to wind and projects.  Dennis spent the day compounding the 304, and Rick worked on the golf cart trailer.  Belated congratulations to Dennis for getting his Gold Distance/Diamond Goal flight approved by SSA!

We made up for lost opportunities on Sunday, with thirteen eventful flights.  Skip (JS), Moshe (RU), Karl (HK), Peter (67), Doug (3BA), and Dennis (DC) flew locally in conditions that improved as the day went on.  Late in the day, Kari joined them, with his first flight in the 304.  David is getting the hang of the 2-33, climbing almost 3000 feet from pattern altitude.

Meanwhile, Evan (T8), Tim (BU), and Greg (JD) went up to Twin Mountain and back in a flight of three.  Greg reported that it isn't quite as easy to go to the White Mountains when the top of lift is only 4500 feet.  It isn't as easy getting back, either.  Here is Evan almost landing at Dean, after his high point at Mount Lafayette:

A couple of weak days

Sometimes weekday operations don't pan out as expected.  We gave it a shot Thursday and Friday this week.

On Thursday, we had a nice airmass, but the day started with a discouraging amount of altostratus.  Karl, Dennis, Peter, and Rick took their time waiting for heating to start.  Karl showed off his new ID (KH) which is now displayed on his fin and trailer.  Eventually, the sky cleared and trigger temperature was reached.  Karl took off first and stayed in the air for about an hour.  Dennis (DC) crawled up to 5700 feet once and spent the rest of his 90 minute flight practicing low saves. Peter, who is getting really good at unassisted takeoffs, flew the 2-33 while thinking about getting a flight recorder.

There was only one slacker on Friday, Tim.  He and his guest took a wave tow in the Blanik (3BA), but didn't connect.  They had a nice flight in thermals and were able to reach their tow height a couple of times.

Thanks, Karl for fixing the green golf cart again.  It's running like a switch watch.

Hammerwetter

The word is German, but it has become an internationally recognized term for the best possible thermal soaring conditions. I can remember about half a dozen such days in the 29 year history of our club. Yesterday was probably the second best day ever at Post Mills.

The day began with a royal blue sky and a light southerly breeze. Cumulus clouds were slow to develop and never got to be more than 3/8 of the sky. Every one of them marked a good thermal, and the old ones evaporated quickly, leaving no doubts about where to go. The best achieved climb was 9.8 knots to 10800 feet.

The usual suspects - Dan (EA), Greg (JD), Evan (T8), Dennis (DC), and Tim (BU) - were able to take full advantage of the day. The first three were towed aloft by Tim, beginning a few minutes before noon. The backup towpilot arrived just in time to launch Dennis and Tim.  After that, it was very quiet at Post Mills for a long time.

Dan, Evan, and Greg went over to Stockbridge and flew down the Green Mountains to Mount Greylock in Massachusetts.  Then they turned back north and flew the whole length of Vermont up to Camel's Hump. At some point, Dan fell behind and flew by himself for the rest of his flight.

While this was going on, Dennis and Tim had their own plans. Dennis declared a 314 km triangle with turnpoints at Gorham, New Hampshire and Springfield, Vermont. Tim went the same way at first, although he did not see Dennis. Tim continued on and turned at Old Speck in Maine and Pittsburgh, New Hampshire, which is well north of the Vermont/Quebec border. He made a long straight glide from there to Topsham, where he picked up another street and headed NNW to his final turn at Barton, on the way to Newport. When he got home after this W-shaped flight, he had flown 508 km.

Dennis, who did not have the luxury of following the streets on his declared task, made it to Gorham without too much trouble and retraced his steps back to Post Mills, and then on to Mount Ascutney and Springfield. He was high enough at his second turnpoint that he was able to make an 80 km final glide back home. His flight qualifies for the Gold Distance and Diamond Goal badge legs.  Congratulations Dennis!

So with Dennis, Tim, and Dan back home, it was apparent from the lowering sun and the freshening southerly wind that we might have some retrieves to do.  Sure enough, Evan phoned in from Dean at about 7:15pm. We called him back from the clubhouse phone (a first!) and while he was talking with us, we could hear him talking on the radio to Greg, who was still in the air. During Evan's 3-way conversation, Greg decided to turn back and land at Dean as well. He was actually closer to Post Mills than Dean, but with the wind, it was a prudent call, especially after 7h40 in the air.

In no time flat, Dan and Tim were on the road to fetch them.

The day's OLC results were nothing short of spectacular:

EA 640
T8 636
JD 622
BU 508
DC 345

Hammerwetter indeed.

Eight aloft

It was a great day for slacking on Tuesday, and we had eight flights.  The conditions were blue with good lift to 7500 feet, and you could get to 9000 if you were lucky or patient.

Karl (HK) finally recorded a flight, and here it is:

You can see that he flew around for a whilc, and then went up to North Haverhill.  Good flight, Karl!

Peter (67), who doesn't need any instruction on thermalling, flew for a couple of hours, and Henry (3J) was up for almost as long.

Meanwhile, Dennis (DC), Mark (HG), Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), and Dan (EA) combined for a grand total of about 2000 kilometers! Dennis and Mark went to the White Mountains and got sort of stuck there for a while. Moshe went his own way (south, mostly). The others went west to the Greens and had a great time running up and down the ridge over there.

Eight flights on a Tuesday, more than either of the previous weekend days. Perhaps we should rename ourselves the Post Mills Slacker Club.

Our crack weatherman, Moshe, predicts that tomorrow will be even better.

Weekend report May 5 - 6

Saturday was blue all day, with enough wind to make us shy about instructional flights.

Toward the end of the day, David Lysy had a nice flight in the Blanik with Evan for an hour and a half, and Moshe showed Rick a few thermalling tricks over the copper mine.

Dennis (DC) and Mark (HG) flew around the neighborhood, while Greg (JD) and Tim (BU) stretched it out a bit with modest cross-country flights.  They worked three wavelengths upwind to some nice altitudes (Tim reached the legal limit). The OLC machine didn't give Greg credit for the second half of his flight for some reason. Perhaps it thought he started his engine, or something. [Update: Moshe speculates that his groundspeed got too low, and the algorithm gave him a virtual outlanding. That sound right].

At the end of the day Karl (HK) got his first flight in his new glider and did a great job. He is still sorting out his flight recorder, so there is no flight log for this flight,

On Sunday, it was overcast and not raining for the first half of the day, and overcast and raining for the second half.  Henry and Peter took a bunch of instructional flights, Peter went solo, and Keith Merrick, who claims to be back into it, got back into it.

Weekend report April 28 - 29

The club got off to a great start, with the long-delayed first official weekend of operations.

We had fourteen flights at Post Mills and at least one in Pennsylvania.

Dennis took the first flight of the year on Saturday in the Blanik, followed by Kari, Eric, Pete, Mark, Sonny, Henry and Doug.  Then Eric (NT), Dennis (DC), and Mark (HG) took off in their own gliders, as did Greg (JD) and Tim (BU).  Greg and Tim found their way up to Mount Washington, and had nice flights that included a wave climb.  Everyone got home, which was nice, since we weren't all that organized back at Post Mills, and retrieves would have added some complication.

We're having the usual startup difficulties (trouble with the towplane, golf carts, mud, etc.), but none of these problems seem insurmountable.

It rained all day Sunday, but in Pennsylvania, Dan (EA) spent a nice afternoon running up and down the ridges between Nittany Mountain and Bedford for 365 km.  Evan is there also, but he hasn't posted anything on OLC yet.

Weekend Report May 28 - 30 and then some

The longest stretch of flying we've ever had at Post Mills. Seven days in a row and still counting.

It went something like this:

THURSDAY
Dennis (DC), Moshe (RU), Tony (N4), Greg (JD), and Dan (EA) showed up and had flights totaling 746 km. Tim gets extra credit for towing (but not flying) on a Slacker Day.

FRIDAY
Tim and Don repaired a dribbly fuel drain valve on the towplane and decided to do a test flight.  Tim flew 24W, and Don flew 3J.

SATURDAY
We had 19 flights, and Doug towed all of them, including an aeroretrieve from Dean (thanks Doug). Eric took a couple of rides in the Blanik, then made his first FAA-approved flight as Pilot in Command in the USA.  It seems strange to congratulate an accomplished glider pilot on his first solo, so we won't do that. Instead, we'll say Congratulations to Eric on smiling while complying!

(We really need to get an official PMSC hat.  That's probably the only way to keep Evan from advertising other clubs in our News.  Or maybe photoshop).

Tim (AT), Greg (JD), Dennis (DC), Dan (EA) and Moshe (RU) had cross-country flights. Tim and Greg declared an ambitious 500 km task, two round trips to Old Speck Mountain, which is way up north in Maine, 15 miles past Gorham. Greg actually made it, landing at Post Mills a little after 6:30 pm.  Tim fell to earth at Dean Memorial airport on his second trip north. Meanwhile, Dennis flew up to Mt. Moosilauke, and Dan took a crazy trip around Lake Winnepesaukee. Nobody does that in a glider. Moshe made it up to Franconia and took the long way back.

Back at Post Mills, Tony (N4) and Sonny (LT) flew locally, and to top the day off, new member Heather Benson and her family got their first glider flights.

SUNDAY
This was an instructional day, much less hectic than Saturday. Dakai and Skip flew in the Blanik with Moshe, and Evan towed.  Dan and Greg took the opportunity to plan some much needed deforestation at the south end of the runway.

Sunday evening we enjoyed a pleasant cookout, with 20 attendees, and we didn't run out of anything. Thanks, contributors!

MONDAY
Despite a pessimistic email from our Director of Operations, Lane and Tim came out to the field, waited for the ceiling to lift, and then flew in the afternoon.

TUESDAY
Dan (EA) continues to celebrate his retirement, and the rest of us wonder why he hasn't moved to Vermont. The day was a bit windy, and he waited till just before noon to take off.  His first climb was to 15000 feet in wave (probably a Post Mills local altitude record, not sure).  He found another climb in the Sugarbush primary and wandered down to Killington, where he fell out of the wave.  On his way back to Post Mills, he took a selfie to send to all his flying buddies who were stuck at work yesterday. Unfortunately, the photo is not suitable for a family-oriented newsletter.

WEDNESDAY
Six slackers launched, and not all of them came back.  Tony (N4) landed at Dean. Greg (JD) and Dan (EA) fell to earth at Claremont. Tim (AT), Dennis (DC) and Jim (US) made it home. After an aeroretrieve, Tony joined Dennis for a roadtrip to Claremont to get Dan and Greg.

Thanks to Evan for most of the content of this report.

Weekend Report May 14

Since Rick is officiating at the 18 Meter Nationals, I am writing up the weekend summary.  It was a one-day weekend (Saturday) for flying and work.  On the work front Sonny and Lane put the metal roof back on the club house and it should be weather tight - Thanks, guys!

XC was limited because of the changing threat from high clouds.  Dennis and Greg had short cross country flights out of Post Mills and Dan flew out of Sterling.  This is the first time Greg and Dan have flown more than half a mile from each other.  As you can see from OLC, Greg flew 178 km while Dan flew 249 km.   So now when we look back at all of their amazing previous flights we don't have to wonder who was the real pilot and who was the leech.

We also had a first solo this weekend.  It was Evan.  He signed his first solo endorsement as a CFI-G and Don who has soloed before in the Blanik, soloed again in the Blanik as well as flying the 1-23 for the first time.  Congratulations Evan and Don.

Another first was former cabin owner and new club member Heather's first enthusiastic ride in the Blanik.  She promises to bring the whole Benson crew out soon.  The other Rick (Sayles), the other Gregg (Ballou) and the other Bill (O'Donnell) flew local or instructional flights.

Thank you Andy for towing and Evan for riding backseat.

Weekend Report April 30

We had another one-day weekend, as it rained all day Sunday.

The best part of an eventful day on Saturday was the cookout, a party that lasted until flying was called off on Sunday morning.  We had plenty of food and beverage, and 21 attendees:

Andy, Annie, Dan, Don, Dennis, Evan, Greg, Henry, Jeff, Judy, Karl, Lane, Laurie, Mary, Mike, Moshe, Rick, Skip, Tim, Tom, Trent

If you weren't there, you missed a very good party, thanks to all the chefs and contributors. Someone even brought flowers for the table!

The cookout was in full swing when Karl and Trent arrived in the Cub. Evan (T8) showed up overhead even later, having spent the entire day in pursuit of some New Hampshire state records. The other usual suspects, 2W, DC, EA, JD had good flights as well, but they were back well before Mary lit the grill.  Tom, Dan, and Greg went to southern Maine, nearly to the coast.  That's probably a first for PMSC.

Tim and Andy kept the towplane running, and Moshe spent his first full day as a CFI in the back seat of the Blanik.

NAM, RUC, GFS, HRRR, WYSIWYG

Analyzing the weather and coming up with a local soaring forecast is always interesting, and usually fun.  The hard part is choosing which computerized "weather model" to use.  The available weather models, identified by strange acronyms, are so numerous that at least one of them is usually right.

Not so yesterday.  All of the models were wrong, and we were fooled by the actual weather twice in one day.

Moshe or Greg (not sure which) called a Slacker Day earlier in the week, and both were optimistic that we would be able to get an early start on Friday.

The optimists showed up at 0900, and it was immediately apparent that the day would be a bust - solid overcast at 6000 feet. We resigned ourselves to doing errands and maintenance, and trying to figure out how we could be so wrong about the weather.

But we were wrong about being wrong. Around noon, the sky cover started to break up, and as the blue areas got bigger, the gliders began to line up at the end of the runway, competition style.  We launched ten gliders in 90 minutes: one flight each for 2W, 3BA, AT, DC, EA, HG, JD, PM, RU, S1, and most of them stayed in the air until the unpredictable overcast moved in again.  Paul reported a 9 knot climb toward the end of the day.

I've gone back to looking out the window for my weather forecasts.

Weekend Report April 23 - 24

Another brisk, blue and breezy April weekend with good participation and some great flying conditions. The air has been so clear that, from the ground, you can see the tow rope dangling behind the towplane shortly after release.

Saturday was a bit difficult, due to a moderate crosswind, but that didn't keep Eric from getting two hour-long flights in the Blanik, with climbs to 6000 feet. Henry, Don, and Dakai each gained experience taking off and  landing in wind, but we decided to call it quits after one flight each.

The early end to flying allowed us to get an early start on the cookout, which took place indoors and drew 11 hungry members.

Sunday surprised us a bit by starting out as windy as Saturday. This was initially discouraging for those of us planning to fly the trainers, but it didn't stop the hotshots from getting off the ground early.  Andy towed 9 single-seaters in a row (one of them twice) before the first instructional flight of the day.

Evan (T8), Greg (JD), Tom (2W) and Dan (EA) were in the air for over six hours and flew all over northern New England.  Moshe (RU), Tim (AT), Doug (PM), Dennis (DC), and Mark (HG) had shorter, but just as impressive flights.  Dennis missed his 5-hour Silver/Gold duration by 4 minutes!

Meanwhile, back at Post Mills, Andy Lawrence^*, Gregg, Henry, Dakai, Lane, Don, and Rick flew locally and discovered that the house thermal went to 7000 feet.

Iron man Andy towed, without relief, both days.

The 1-23 and the yellow golf cart are out of service, hopefully not for long.

^*Our duplicate name situation is getting out of hand. We have a Greg and a Gregg, 2 Bills, 3 Andys, 2 Ricks, 3 Annies, 2 Marks, 2 Sams, and innumerable Petes and Sues. Any suggestions about how to keep everyone straight on the logsheet and in PMSC News will be appreciated.

Weekend Report April 16 - 17

After two weekends of false starts, in which we tried valiantly to find the right combination of weather, surface conditions, and volunteers, we finally were able to get out of the hangars and onto the tiedowns on April 16.  The weather was great both days of the weekend.

Club members showed up early on Saturday and assembled the Blanik, the 2-33 and 1-23 in plenty of time to go flying.  Thanks to the Slackers, the towplane was already checked out for the season, and we were able to make 18 flights on the first official day of operations!

Most of the flying was comprised of annual check rides and introductory flights for new members, although Dan (EA) and Greg (JD) were able to go off and sample the early Spring conditions in the White Mountains.  Mark (HG), who still thinks that OLC is just a fad, had his first flight of the year in his glider.

In the meantime, Evan got a full dose of instructing as he accompanied both old (above) and new members.  Here he is signing the logbook of new member Eric Woudenberg.  You can tell he's new at this instructing gig, because he still has to look at his CFI certificate for the number. Eric is already a glider pilot, so he should fit right in.

We were also pleased to welcome new student pilots Sam Freihofer and Iver Hulleberg to the Club. They have already had a couple of flights each, and they seem to like it, so far.

Before the day was over, Dennis, Paul, Sonny, Willy, Lane, and Gregg Ballou were returned to flying status.  Gregg is active with the Club again, which is good news because we still need more CFIs.

Tim towed all day Saturday.

On Sunday it was more of the same. Sixteen flights, including Moshe's first flight in PM, and flights by DC, EA, AT, and JD, all of whom struggled to stay in the air earlier in the day. Willy had a couple of solos, and we gave introductory flights to Mark Sullivan and Rick Sayles, both of whom are power pilots looking for something more interesting to do. Andy towed all day.

All in all, it was a great kickoff weekend.  Special thanks to Tim and Greg who postponed their own flying to give rides.