Memorable Day

 Wow.  Evan (T8) flew 750 OLC kilometers today.

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.

Ridge winds

 On April 25, the wind forecast for two days later looked like this:

Recognizing that it doesn't get better than this, Evan dropped everything, planned an out-and-return record flight, and spent the next day driving to Eagle Field in Pennsylvania.

On April 27, he took an auto-pulley tow at 07:30 and proceeded northeast to his start/finish point at Lock Haven.  From there he flew about 400 miles to his turnaround point at Gate City, Virginia.  He then flew back to Lock Haven to complete the task.  He landed back at Eagle Field, after 11 hours in the air.

His total OLC distance was 1436 km, which was the longest flight in the world on that day.  The flight should qualify as a new National O&R Distance record.

Congratulations, Evan!

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.

No circling needed

Here is Evan's account of his July 18 flight, grabbed from the PMSC Forum without his permission:

I took a swing at a 300 km O&R yesterday, Start/Finish at Dartmouth Skiway, turning at Elephant Mountain, which is up in the Mahoosic range. The advantage of this course is that it runs about as straight along the high ground as you can find in our area. The tricky bit is that you really need to be high at the far end. Berlin airport is a useful bailout, but if you can't keep that in range, the other options are generally east of the high ground, in the coastal plain, and if you have to divert, you have a reasonably high likelihood of getting stuck, then subjecting one of your buds to an O&R of a different sort. IIRC it was about 3:20 each way to Thomas airport in Roxbury (2016 or 2017. Thanks Tim).

It was clear pretty much immediately that this wasn't going to be the day. But I thought I'd take a stab at it and see how it went. I had to hang around until nearly 2pm to let the day heat up to make it even semi feasible.

Here's the first glide

The stats are fun, especially the 108:1 glide ratio (I got some orographic help at Moosilauke and Kinsman).

Here are the stats up to the point I abandoned the attempt due to 6000 foot bases nearing Old Speck. I'd already decided I wasn't going past Old Speck unless I had 6500 minimum... and except in really perfect conditions it's hard to see how I could be fast beyond Old Speck unless I had closer to 7500.

If I took the time to fiddle the settings in SeeYou, that "0.01s" thermal would go away, making it three glides with average distance 42.2 km. The reason for all the left turns is that I habitually start my turns upwind when on a cross wind leg. 67mph was a pretty good speed for Saturday, but it was clear it wasn't going to last. I'll try again some other day. Here's the whole flight.

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.

T8 goes for a thousand

Congratulations to Evan on a spectacular 1015 km flight on Sunday down at Mifflin!

His first leg took him down to Snowy Mountain on the Virginia/West Virginia border, 280 km from home.  Then he turned around and flew to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 360 km.  Then back down to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border.  He made his final turn at 4:45pm, 145 km from home.

The flight took a little over 7 hours, and you can see from the barogram that he didn't waste too much time in thermals.

According to OLC, this was the second longest flight in the world on May 31, 2020.

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).

PMSC at the races

They've been running the ridges at the Region 2 contest in central Pennsylvania.

Our guys (Dan and Evan) are having a great time and are doing well, for a couple of ASW-20 drivers.  They are competing in the combined Standard/15m class, so their high wingloading, combined with their handicap keeps them competitive.

On Wednesday, Evan won the day, flying 212 miles at 83 mph.  Dan flew a bit too fast and fell off the ridge, going from 100 mph to a landing in just 4 minutes.

Yesterday, they assigned a "Long MAT," which is intended to be too long to complete.  You're supposed to collect as many turnpoints as possible in (at least) 4 hours before dashing for the finish line.  It also requires you to program about a dozen points into your glide computer before takeoff.

Dan must have programmed it right, because the preliminary results show that he won the day!  He averaged 90 mph over 5 hours.

Evan decided to maximize his distance, rather than his speed, and was actually able to claim all the turnpoints before coming home 15 minutes before sunset.  His total was 622 miles (1001 km), having spent about 8 hours in the air, and he got OLC credit for 856 km - the 4th best flight in the world that day.

Today is the last day of the contest.  The final results will be published here.

Weekend report May 11 - 12

On Saturday Tim (BU), Dan (EA), and Greg (JD) launched early and zoomed up to the White Mountains.  Evan instructed for as long as he could stand it, and then he jumped into T8 and joined them.  When he got to the wave at Mount Washington, he made that fantastic climb that was previously misreported.

On Sunday, Evan was back on the field, and this time he made more instructional flights than anyone can stand (7).  The beneficiaries were Chris, and Michael.  While that was going on, Paul and Dennis shared two flights in the Blanik.

25 mph UP

The speed limit in the village of Post Mills is 25 mph.  Evan (T8) exceeded that, vertically, at Mount Washington on Saturday.

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:

Weekend report May 12 - 13

The forecast for Saturday was "first half cloudy, second half drizzly." In reality it was "first half clear, second half cloudy."

A good collection of members showed up, including Thomas (yay, Thomas, come back soon!). But it turned out that most them came to drop off their parachutes for repacking. The only person serious about flying was David, who was able to get four lessons, including one of most of an hour in duration.

David returned on Sunday, to better weather, and had another soaring flight. The tow was "interesting" (he might tell you the story if you ask), but the rest of the flight was quite enjoyable. He is making terrific progress, due to his enthusiasm and willingness to show up at every opportunity.

Also on Sunday, Skip (JS), Don, and Henry made local flights while Mark (HG), Tim (BU), Moshe (RU), Greg (JD), and Evan (T8) all headed for Mount Washington. At the end of the day we had only two retrieves to do.

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.

Two long flights

This just in...

Evan (T8) and Dan (EA) both had terrific ridge flights today at Mifflin.

Evan flew 1091 km and made it all the way to Hot Springs, Virginia (near Ingalls), and back in just 8 hours.

Dan ran all three ridges (Tussey, Bald Eagle, and Jacks) for a total of 805 km.

Congratulations, guys, and we can't wait to hear your stories!

Contest in progress

New Castle, Virginia is a special place for glider pilots.

Today is the second-to-last day of the annual competition known as "New Castle," and whose official title is "Region 4 South."

Evan Ludeman (T8), Dan MacMonagle (EA), and John Good (X) are all competing. This year, as usual, the partying at this contest is better than the weather - and the weather has been very good!

Yesterday John, Evan, and Dan were 2nd, 3rd, and 5th - not bad!

Going Long

I've been shopping for record weather on the Appalachian ridges.

The forecast surface charts for May 8 had the look of a classic ridge day, with one or two wrinkles to keep me guessing. The low and high pressure centers were forecast to be well positioned & strong enough but very slow moving (not necessarily a bad thing).  The jet stream was forecast to track roughly over Tazewell (that is, well South) with 500 mB winds at around a hundred NW.  6000' wind forecast was perfect from Lock Haven, PA to Gate City, VA.  Lower level wind forecasts were a little soft and too Westerly.  Stability was low, air was dry, forecasting a great thermal day but all blue at the South end.  So not necessarily a record day, but definitely a long strong soaring day covering a lot of real estate.  I made the decision to go on Friday evening. Saturday I drove to Mifflin Co airport in the rain.

The front blew through Sunday afternoon.  A bunch of other New England glider pilots are at Mifflin Co. for a club encampment  and we all go fly.  I had a nice little rip around Jack's, Shade & Tuscarora, got too aggressive on the upwind transition to Shade at 6pm and landed at Mifflintown airport, 13 air miles from Mifflin Co.  That really annoyed me, as the plan was to leave the ship together and watered overnight, and get some real sleep.  John Good came and fetched me by trailer, and accomplished the task so speedily that we got back & rigged again in daylight.  Watering was put off until after dinner.  I hoped that maybe the extra work would make for sound sleep.  No dice.  I might have slept an hour.  I was pretty wired.

Monday morning at 0630, the sock is limp.  Reports from Lock Haven, Altoona, Bedford and University Park report similarly light conditions.  Darn.  I tell (our tow pilot) Brian "no rush".  About 0930 I suggest: "Go get your airplane."  He laughs (he's convinced this is a dry run), says "I'll go check the ridge", which he does.  He returns, reporting that leaves are still.  I'm ready and my weather sense says the ridge ought to be waking up about now, so I saddle up and go, getting airborne at 09:58 and taking a 1000' tow to Jack's Mtn.  Initial conditions are about 12 - 15 kts WNW with very light convection starting.  Brian's right, those tiny new Spring leaves aren't moving at all and it's well short of record conditions.

Moments After the Start.  Southbound on Jack's Mtn

My declared course is 1400 km, give or take: Evitts Mtn (South end), Talladega Bowl (near Lock Haven) and Tazewell Gap (Southern VA, a little over 500 km straight line from Mifflin Co).  I hit my start on Jack's at 10:04, cruise down Jacks at 80 kts, jog over the Raystown, fly Raystown to within sight of the large open field at the South end, thermal up and make the transition to Tussey... just barely (my inner Flight Instructor is annoyed & says "see me after class, Evan"). Tussey and Evitts go well and nearing the end of Evitts at 11:10 I make the decision to fly the task in reverse order, heading towards Tazewell first.  

Anatomy of a Well Executed Upwind Transition.
Jack's to Raystown at Mill Creek PA.

The day strengthens.  It takes two thermals to cross Cumberland and Keyser to New Creek Mtn, home to 52 new and very imposing windmills.  Another thermal to Hopewell Gap, then a continuous run of 93 miles @ 104 mph to Mountain Grove.  Turbulence is the speed limiting factor here. Thermals are strong and the ride is getting brutal.  

Tilting at Windmills on New Creek Mountain.

A little South of Hopewell Gap.  Speed and Beauty.

Clouds end just North of Mountain Grove and it's time to test these blue conditions out, so I climb to 6500 (5.8 kts avg) and glide to Coles Mtn, looking for another climb in the blue to glide the direct route across Covington, high.  Ingalls airport (which is on top of a mountain) reports wind 290-ish at 11, which is a little on the soft side for this sort of mission.  I shift down a gear.  At Coles Mtn, I haven't hit another good climb, so I decide to divert to the Ingalls ridge.  I get the thermal I need at Big Knob, then I go back on the direct route (Lick Mtn) just South of Covington.  Not in a hurry here.  I'm doing a lot of looking at terrain and comparing to all my Google Earth-ing and other recon work.

On the Southern side of the Covington gap is Peters Mtn.  If you wanted to build a ridge for speedy and efficient soaring, you would do well to start by studying Peters.  Even in today's less than ideal conditions, head wind component and all, it's good for 115 mph ground speed.  All I have to do is hang on and keep cinching down my belts.  At Tazewell, VA I make the turn at 13:54.  It wasn't too hard to resist the temptation to head across the Tazewell gap.  I've already signed up for a 500K return flight starting at 2pm.  Do I really want to trade up to 650K at 3pm? Maybe not. North I go. On the Northbound trip I've got a tailwind component and I press to see what I can make my glider do.  I run out of nerve at 166 mph.  It was pretty rough in there! Nearing Covington, the wind slacks off again, but it never gets worrisome.

Seneca Rock (in shadow at center) on the Northbound leg.

Scherr WV Below.  New Creek Mtn in distance.

Thermal Soaring Preferred Here!

A 7 kt thermal at Covington, one more near the Hopewell gap and mostly porpoise flying in thermals to Cumberland. Back on the ridges until halfway up Nittany Mtn I throw in the towel, the wind is 270(!) and it's overcast.  So I bail on the task (1250 diplome another day...), head down Evitts to collect my last declared turn, jog over to Tussey at Bedback for variety and spend my return trip down Raystown taking in the view and just enjoying the ride.  Nearing Reedsville, I spin the numbers on the computer and realize I can probably run up my OLC score to 1500 km by dusk, and that becomes the final objective for the day.  It works, rolling over 1501 on my computer about 14 miles out of Mifflin Co. with the sun right on the ridge.  The airport beacon lights up as I cross the Reedsville gap, I click the mic to turn on the runway lights, strafe a couple of guys on the tarmac with water ballast and call it a day.  I won't be forgetting this one any time soon.

Raystown.

1501 km achieved.

More cool stuff:

Windmills in Motion.  

Tearing it up on Peters Mtn., Northbound.

How sweet it is.  A half hour segment showing Tussey, Raystown,

Jacks Mtn ridges in (relatively) smooth late afternoon conditions.

OLC Flight Log

Even longer flights by others:

Brian Milner,  2100 km

Helmut Bauer, 1800 km

Dale Kramer, 1600 km

Adam Zieba, 1600 km

Brian Collins, 1600 km

And of course, there are the guys who figured it out first:

O&Rographic (1972)

(Check back later -- I'll add more refs as I dig them out)


-Evan Ludeman

Long day in the cockpit

Congratulations to Evan on an outstanding 1500 kilometer flight!

He took off from Mifflin County Airport in central Pennsylvania at 9:58 am yesterday and landed back there over ten hours later.

In the meantime, he'd been to Tazewell, Virginia, 340 miles from home.  The flight was huge:

The winds that day were slightly south of the ideal direction, which allowed him to make the return trip at an average speed of just over a hundred miles per hour.  He spent just 6% of his time circling.

It was the longest glider flight in the world yesterday.

We hope he's spending today resting up and writing the story for us.

Franconia Encapment - Ridge, Thermal, Wave

The weather could not have been better for this year's 4th of July encampment.  We had hot days, cool nights and not a drop of rain.  Soaring wise we had strong ridge, thermal and wave lift all happening at the same time.  There was so much flying and other activities that I am sure I will miss a lot of highlights.  Please feel free to add the this report in the comment section.

Lane and Don on the Franconia Ridge

The weekend started off right with Lane and Don ferrying the Blanik from Post Mills.  Andy acted as tow pilot as he did for the entire weekend.  They release over Kinsman and Lane gave Don an introduction to ridge soaring in the 25 kt wind.  Don later put the knowledge he gained to solo 3J in the ridge lift for a couple of hours.  Next it was Tim's turn to take Ann for an introduction to sailplanes.  Ann is a hang gliding friend of our former hang gliding members but had never been in a sailplane.  They were able to ridge soar/thermal right off tow into wave only stopping at 14,000' for lack of oxygen.  Karl (PM), Evan (T8), Dan (EA), Tom (2W), Andy Lawrence (PM), Tony (in the Blanik with Tim) and maybe others, were able to connect with wave.  Evan (T8) flew over to the Mount Washington primary and reported he had 18 kts of wave lift at times.  He had to stop at 18,000' for class A airspace.  Tom (2W) had a really cool flight.  He was able to hop wave crests up wind towards the Green Mountains to Hardwick but was finally stopped by the undercast.

Evan at 18,000' on Saturday

The annual BBQ at the Kinsman lived up to its reputation as being fantastic.  Thank you Judy, Ann C. and Marsha for doing the heavy lifting and to Karl for grilling.


I was not at the airport Sunday but I heard Dan (EA), Tom (2W) and Evan (T8) all broke off climbs at 18,000' in the Mt. Washington primary.  Back at Franconia the ridge and thermals were also working well all day.  There were many good flights.

Evan at 18,000' on Sunday

Dan Mac at 18,000' in wave, upside-down, and wearing shorts - doesn't get much better.

Dan crossing Franconia Notch

That evening the club was invited to Phil's house on Sugar Hill for fireworks and more BBQ.  Phil puts on an amazing fireworks display.

The wind died down on Monday and so did the ridge, wave and thermal lift.  People stayed closer to the airport for a more relaxed day.
  

Tim and Michael rock polishing Mt. Lafayette

A friend of a friend took this picture of Evan over Mt. Washington

And while we were all in Franconia, Moshe (RU) was representing PMSC at the Region 1 Contest in Springfield Vt.  Please give us your impression of your first contest, Moshe.

Chris tells Moshe how to get to Starbucks - the girls are not impressed.