Five days in a row

We've had some really great weather recently. The slackers and the regulars combined for another "five day weekend," ending yesterday, with a total of 31 flights.

WEDNESDAY
Tim (PM) took a high tow on Wednesday, hoping for wave. The forecast said it was a possibility, but the wind had died down by the time he took off. He turned it into a nice 3.5 hour flight in thermals, visiting Goose Pond, Cookeville, and Strafford.

THURSDAY
Dennis made the trip to Post Mills to work on patterns and landings. After the last one, there was nobody left on the airport and no hurry to put the glider away. We stood around talking and enjoying the late afternoon sun. A perfect day to be outside in a beautiful setting.

FRIDAY
Dan and Greg showed up and Karl flew in. The weather was good, but the thermals were a bit widely spaced. Greg had his first extended flight in PM, and Dan flew 3J for about an hour - twice.

SATURDAY
It rained a bit on Friday evening, and the forecast for Saturday was pessimistic and completely wrong. The day turned out fine for flying, if not for soaring.  Tim towed early, and Andy took over for the rest of the day.

Kevin started things out by flying PI with a guest and then had to leave. Mike and Sonny showed up to help out but didn't fly. Greg and Andy Lawrence had short flights. Mark had a good day: 3 flights in two gliders with two instructors.

But the best time was had by Dennis Cavagnaro, who made his first solo in a sailplane!

It was a bit too cool for a water dunking, so we used leaves instead.

Dennis saw me coming with the bucket, and he didn't know it wasn't water.

SUNDAY
We had another frontal passage Saturday night, and Sunday was windy. We put student flying on hold, hoping that it would calm down toward the end of the day. In the meantime, we had a day of maintenance, standing around, and socializing, with a little bit of flying thrown in.

Tim, who started our five day weekend, finished it off with another 2 hour, 114km flight in PM. He heard Evan on the radio somewhere in New York (Evan, apparently, is slowly making his way home after finishing second in the Region 4 contest. Good job, Evan).

Karl made it to 7000 feet in 3J, and found so much lift in the pattern that we thought he was going to land somewhere else.

Then something strange happened. The wind and the lift both quit in the middle of the day. Late launchers Skip and Mike found nothing at all, and flight instruction suddenly became possible. John Lippman had a pair of flights with Thomas, and Bob flew with Rick. Dennis capped off the day with his second solo.

Five straight days of flying. Congratulations to all.  Anybody want to go for six?

Evan wins Day 1 at New Castle

Today was the first day of the Region 4 contest in New Castle, Virginia.

Evan was the winner!

The most widely read PMSC News item of all time was his story of his first New Castle contest.

Caption needed

Weekend report September 15 - 16

The seasons are changing. The weather is dynamic again. This was the last weekend in which the days were longer than the nights.

Technically, this was a three day weekend, since we flew on Friday (see previous post). A frontal passage Friday evening brought us cooler air and a brisk northwest wind for the next two days.

Saturday was unstable, with several cycles of clouds and blue sky. New members Mark Hopkins and John Lippman started their training and Sonia got checked out on the golf cart. Mark and John had a couple of good lessons each, despite the turbulent conditions. Our default towpilot, Andy, came out and towed because our scheduling system seems to have failed.

The wind died down for Sunday, and it was much drier aloft. We made a total of twelve flights, all local. Unusually, the lift was on the east side of the field all day, with no lift at the usual hotspots of Tug Mountain and the copper mine.

Karl showed up in the Cub and made two flights in 3J. His first might have been longer if he hadn't misread his altimeter on tow. The second one was of satisfying duration. In between the two flights, Greg disappeared in 3J for an hour or so. Neither one of them carried a flight recorder.

Rick and Thomas (and everybody else) ganged up on Christopher for his first Flight Review (has it been two years already?) Mark and Dennis were good sports about losing their spots on the waiting list.

Andy Lawrence (PM), Skip (JS), and Steve (PM) did record their flights, and all three reported having a good time in the local thermals.

Elsewhere:

Tom flew TH for a couple of hours at Franconia and has decided to keep the glider there, ready to go to Gorham next month. And Evan and John are racing in Virginia, again. No reports from Tony or Moshe.

And finally, this week's nag list:

1. Golf cart abuse: the rear end of the cart is not as strong as it looks. Recently we have put far too much junk, weights, and even people in back. Let's try not to do this.

2. Tail dolly ettiquette: we all have different ideas about where to put our tail dollies while we are out flying, and this is fine. Don't assume that the pilot wants his tail dolly repositioned while he is in the air. It's frustrating to have to look for it after landing.

3. Towpilots: please use the calendar. Andy enjoys towing, but we don't enjoy not knowing whether any other towpilot is planning to show up.

4. Flight recorders: please use them! It doesn't matter if your flights are short. OLC serves as an excellent club logbook.

Slacker report

We had a pretty good day of flying today, but it was never a sure thing.

The towplane was down for maintenance yesterday, and we knew that Andy, who was doing the oil change and the brake job, was out flying in the Champ. Our hopes for flying on Friday sank when Andy returned just at sunset on Thursday.

However, late that night, Andy reported that he had finished the work on the L19 after dark, and he said that it was ready to fly on Friday (thanks, Andy!)

The lightweights, Dan, Dennis, and Greg, took advantage of the opportunity to fly, and Tim was able to tow. Dan (3J) and Greg (PM) launched at around 1pm and were able to stay in the lift for an hour or so. Dennis and Rick took some pattern tows in the Blanik. Bob showed up at the end of the day to help launch Dan on his second flight of the day in 3J.

After flying, Greg spent some time cleaning PM, and Dan siphoned gas into the airport tank. The two of them are planning another gas run tomorrow. Thanks, guys!

Weekend report September 1 - 3

Our Labor Day weekend was a complete success, with good weather and good flying.

The best day was Saturday. We had good lift to 6000 feet. The two heroes of the day were Andy, who towed all day, and Thomas, who cut short his own flying day to give flight instruction. Evan (T8) took a trip up to the White Mountains and did some exploring north of Gorham. The day ended abruptly when the towplane tailwheel went flat, but most of us had had enough flying by then.

Dan and Greg took the tailwheel home to repair it, but it turned out that it needed a new inner tube.

On Sunday, the day got off to a late start. We waited for Andy and Dan to return from Montpelier where they acquired a new tube for the tailwheel. Thankfully, Evan was able to tow until the very end of the day, so we were able to get everyone up, finally. There was even a little time left in the day for model flying before sunset.

Both Sam and Dan flew the 1-23 for the first time on Sunday. It was a little too late in the day for staying up, but they both made excellent landings.

At Morrisville, Moshe made a nice 100-mile flight in RU, venturing to the northwest, past the Green Mountains into the Champlain basin.

The good weather lasted through Monday, but the lift was decidedly weaker. Also, the Labor Day parade interfered a bit, as usual. I don't think that there were any cross-country flights on Monday, but I'm not sure. I did not have the best vantage point for observing.

On a serious note: after approximately a decade since the last one, we launched a glider with the tail dolly still attached. Although removal of the tail dolly is 100% the responsibility of the pilot, we should all be on the lookout for this hazardous and completely avoidable mistake. Here's hoping that this is the beginning of a very long epoch in which this mistake does not recur.

Slacker makes good

Congratulations to Greg Hanlon on his Private Pilot Certificate!

Greg took the day off from work, and Bill Stinson made the trip from Sugarbush to administer the test today. Christopher and Rick served as ground crew. It was a beautiful day for a flight test, and Greg made two perfect flights. That was enough for Bill, and Greg became our newest Private Pilot.

When asked who would be his first passenger, Greg was unsure. He was more interested in talking about the club rule that requires a Private Certificate before flying the 304.

The day was still young, so why not? During his cockpit checkout, Janet Frank showed up on her bike and agreed to run the wing. Greg took a high tow, found some wave, and kept PM in the air for about an hour. So congratulations again!

Weekend report August 25 - 26

After a brief holiday, PMSC News is back.

Both days of the weekend were summer-like (I guess that's to be expected in August), with haze and the threat of thunderstorms. As it turned out, the storms never came and there was lift to 5000 feet under the clouds both days.

On Saturday the turnout was relatively low, but that gave us a chance to celebrate Dan's first solo in sailplanes and to tune Greg up for his flight test. Skip and Thomas worked all day in the hot sun figuring out Skip's new one-man-rig device. We made about ten flights, with Bob doing all the towing (Thanks, Bob!)

At the end of the day, Mary, Sue, and Petey whipped up an impromptu cookout, and Thomas and Dennis provided the beverages.

Sunday was even hotter, and the lift started earlier. Dan and Greg conspired to be in the air at the same time, and we enjoyed listening on the radio as the two experienced pair-flyers chased each other from thermal to thermal. They reached the end of their allotted time aloft at about the same time their transmissions became weak. They dutifully returned. They aren't saying where they went.

Christopher, who gets full credit for working all weekend, finally got a chance to fly the Blanik. One of Christopher's projects is to install an oxygen system in that glider. It's not an easy job. Help him (or at least thank him) if you get a chance.

Probably the happiest pilot of the day was Kevin. He finally had an opportunity to go soaring on a good day in his glider. Nathan was a big help on the golf cart, and he was the photographer for Dan's solo flight.

Skip (JS) and Thomas both worked on their gliders, and Skip flew toward the end of the day. Andy Lawrence shared the 1-23 with Bill and Greg, and he shared the 304 with Doug, who stuck around to give Dennis and Rick a couple of tows at the very end.

Another second first solo

After waiting patiently both for his Student Pilot Certificate and for his instructor to return to Post Mills, Dan MacMonagle soloed the Blanik on Saturday. Congratulations, Dan!

His first solo in a sailplane lasted over an hour, and he did it again the next day. He's already talking about the 1-23.

Uvalde radio

Today is the last day of the World Gliding Championships in Uvalde, Texas.

You can listen to the action on the radio on LiveATC.

The interesting times to listen are takeoff (1400 EDT or so), and landings (1900 EDT). In between, we will be transmitting the US Team frequency which will be interesting only when the gliders are within range.

Postcard from Uvalde

Rick sent a couple of photos:

Tres Caballeros

Concordia on the Ramp

Butler placed 16th yesterday (9th place overall) at 143 km/h over 673 km.

World Gliding Championships - Day 3

Since Rick is busy, I thought I would blog for him.

Rick's pilot (Dick Butler) won Day 3 in the open class in the one-of-a-kind Concordia. Winning speed over the 715 km (444 miles) task was 154 km/hr (96 mph). Dick is currently in 9th place. He had a rough Day 1 and landed out (placing 23rd of 26). The competition goes on for another week. Way to go Rick (and Dick)!

In other PMSC news:

John Good is acting as Deputy Director and Task Director at the contest.

Andy L. (El Presidente) is sitting on his butt, by a lake with a cocktail.

Tim

Photograph: Pete Alexander