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?

Seven by Five

Yesterday was a hot and hazy summer day with a maximum temperature of 90F, a dewpoint of 66F, and negligible wind.  The air was hot, but the ground was even hotter and thus we had a soaring day.  There were cumulus clouds, thankfully.

Five Slackers made seven remarkable flights yesterday in the heat.

With care, everyone took off safely out of Post Mills, despite the 3400 foot density altitude at the beginning of the launches.  Jeff was the first to go in the 2-33, and we joked about getting his 5 hours on his second solo.  He took off at 11:30 and found nothing but sink, the only short flight of the day.

Jeff getting ready to go

He was also the last to take off, at 12:21 (more about that later).

Greg (JR), Peter (HG), Dave (NT), and Kari (2C) took off in rapid succession.  One of these days Peter will learn how to record his flights.

Greg had the longest flight of the day, a tour of the White Mountain peaks (Moosilauke, Lafayette, Washington (twice), Speck, followed by an excursion out to Catamount airfield and a return via the Knox Mountains, for a total of 339 km.

Greg visits several peaks

And here's another picture of Greg's knees:

The other three had nice flights as well.  Peter tried to chase Greg into the Whites, but wound up making a perfect landing at Dean, his first sailplane landing away from Post Mills.

Dave had the longest flight of the day, over five and a half hours, with a high point of 6000 feet, where it must have been a little bit cooler.

Kari made a counterclockwise tour of our task area, visiting Dean, Montpelier, Sugarbush and Brandon before returning to Post Mills.  Then, at the end of the flight, he headed back out toward Wentworth and didn't find any climbs.  He turned around and made a slightly uncomfortable final glide home.

Meanwhile, Jeff vanished on his third solo.  Just when we were beginning to wonder where he might have gone, he showed up in the pattern and made a perfect landing shortly after 5pm, only 11 minutes short of his five hours!  If only he had stayed up on his first flight!

Andy did all the towing (thanks, Andy!)  Seven tows in total, including one at Dean.

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

Slacker Day in the New Climate

Whatever we think we know about the new climate is probably wrong.

It used to be that we never got a cold front in July, and on the rare occasions that cool air from Canada arrived, we never got Spring-like windy conditions the next day.  Finally, we never used to think about wildfires a thousand miles away.

Yesterday, for the second Friday in a row we called a Slacker Day following a frontal passage the night before.  Most of us expected cool dry conditions with high cloud bases and a light NW breeze.  Moshe was the only one vigilant enough to check for wind and smoke.  He warned us, but we didn't listen.

He discovered, from the usual sources, that it would be atypically breezy, and from a newly discovered website, that a high pressure system would be bringing us a band of smoke from Saskatchewan.  We went flying anyway.

Seven gliders launched in gusty conditions, beginning about noon.  At first the sky was blue.  We found climbs to about 5000 feet, but kept blowing south while circling, making it a struggle just to stay local.  Greg (JR), Dan (EA), and Andy K (2R) took advantage of their high performance gliders and charged off to the northwest.  Moshe (RU), Peter (HG), and Dave (NT) fought the wind and sink to no avail and landed back home.  Rick (LEL) took the easy way out and dashed down to Lebanon, found a nice climb to 6000 feet right over the control tower and followed a street back to Post Mills.

By mid- afternoon the sky to the northwest was completely gray.  The combination of a relentless headwind and decreasing visibility made it difficult to be optimistic about getting anywhere that day.

Greg made a low save at Morrisville and finessed a return to Post Mills.  Andy turned around just past Catamount and nearly landed at Montpelier.  But he made it home.  Dan didn't get the memo and landed in a field near Morrisville.  Everyone was on the ground early, several hours before sunset.

Greg went off to retrieve Dan, so we'll probably get a story from them later.

All in all, it was a fun day for everyone - except the firefighters in Canada.

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!

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!

Juliet Romeo

 Congratulations to Greg Hanlon on the acquisition and first flight of Juliet Romeo, a beautiful JS1B, seen here over Post Mills on Saturday.