Skiflying

Speaking of slow starts, the ski flying season is also behind schedule. Andy has done a good job of getting out whenever he can; Tim is flying, finally, after some carburetor troubles; and Rick and Rich are... well... lazy.

Come out and fly with us. Shoveling snow is lots of fun, kinda like whitewashing fences.

Breakfasts

The PMSC Winter Breakfast season has got off to a rather torpid start. Two weeks ago, thanks to Thomas' initiative, nine of us assembled at EBA's in Hanover.  Last week the planned gathering at Lake Morey was a bit disorganized. Some of us thought that the breakfast was at the Lake Morey Inn at one end of the lake, while those who actually read the schedule went to the Hulbert Center at the other end of the lake.

And last weekend, the scheduled breakfast at Mickey's was snowed out (please correct me if I'm wrong; I decided not to go when the visibility dropped to one driveway length at 9am).

Here's hoping that we have a nice turnout at Crossroads Café in WRJ at 10am on Sunday.

Peter Betts

Peter Betts has died.

Peter joined the club in 2006, and when I first met him, I was not quite sure how to deal with a student pilot who was sick all the time. He immediately put me at ease by pointing out that he would be the the only student I wouldn't have to worry about making airsick. His chemotherapy took care of that in advance.

Peter eventually did learn how to fly, but more importantly, his learning taught us about optimism, and reminded us that the reason we fly has more to do with sharing our lives than with developing a special skill.


Peter's blog is here.

Name that Sailplane

From the shameless self promotion department: There is a photo of a glider at the top of page 12 in the January, 2009 issue of the Atlantic Flyer. Can you name the aircraft? Bonus question; where is it based? Not sure what the winner will receive but I can assure you it will not be expensive or coveted by others. Then again, it might be beer. In the case of a tie, the winning answer is based solely on my discretion which is questionable at best. Bribes considered.

End of year wishes

Happy New Year to all of us, and may all your soaring experiences be more pleasant than this one.

1968 Wave Flight

In the previous post's comments, a discussion developed about an article from Soaring Magazine. Now, thanks to Tim's Wayback Machine, you can read it again (or for the first time if you missed it 40 years ago).

Mt Rainer Wave

I swiped this picture from:

http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html

More pictures can be found there.

Tim

Milestones

Three of them.

1. Tom traveled to BHSS, where he finished off his training and passed his Private Pilot flight test (Congratulations, Tom, but this doesn't get you out of the job of reassembling our 2-33.) Next time you see Tom, ask him to recite the standard tow signals, and get his opinion on the use of radios.

2. Tony traveled to TBSS, where he will fly this winter. It was his first long-distance drive with 7H. Ask him what he thinks of high-speed tractor trailers on I-81. Here's hoping he'll send us some flying stories.

3. This is the 100th edition of PMSC News for 2008. I'm so proud.

Bloemfontein

You may remember that Roy from GBSC takes a flying vacation in South Africa each Spring. His writeup appeared in PMSC News last year. Well, he's at it again. You can read his story here for the next week or so. I expect that he will have some good pictures, too.

"Bloemfontein" means fountain of flowers. It's a nice name for a dusty place in the veldt.

Hibernation season begins

On a frosty November afternoon, Andy, Evan, Andy, Sonny, Tim, Tom, and David (not pictured) assembled to disassemble the Blanik for the winter cold season.


We succeeded in transporting the Blanik and 1-23 to a secret location where they will spend the winter season of short flying days. The 304 is parked at Andy's house. The only aircraft in evidence on the field now is the towplane, which will be put in winter storage a hangar at the end of the month.

Thanks to all who came out to work today, and special thanks to Bob for once again providing storage space at the secret location.

I'll continue blogging, if anything happens during the winter seasonal break from flying.

Last flight of the year

Andy and Pete headed off into the sunset on the last flying day of 2008:


Don't forget Disassembly Day next Saturday. It's always a lot of fun.

Weekend Report November 1 - 2

We are definitely winding down. A very small number of flights this weekend, but they were all interesting. The weather was clear and beautiful both days. On Saturday, Sonny and Steve shared two flights in the Blanik and found some wave. Pete showed them up in 3J with a 1.5 hour flight in thermals. Pete then repeated his performance on Sunday, this time in the Blanik. There were instructors on duty both days, but no students showed up. Doug drove all the way to Post Mills to make one tow (Thanks, Doug!)

The 1-35 and 1-26 both packed up and left the field this weekend. Oxygen systems were removed from club gliders and trailers were checked out for winter storage duty.

We are definitely winding down.