All he has to do to complete his Diamond Badge is to make a climb of 16404 feet.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Diamond Distance
Congratulations to PMSC blogger Greg Hanlon, whose Diamond Distance (500 km) flight was approved by SSA today!
All he has to do to complete his Diamond Badge is to make a climb of 16404 feet.
All he has to do to complete his Diamond Badge is to make a climb of 16404 feet.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
The Franconia Dive
Here's an illustration of why Franconia is such a useful place.
Yesterday, Tim (AT) and Greg (JD) departed Post Mills a bit late, around 2pm. They soared up to Black Mountain and then made a beeline for South Kinsman mountain, which wasn't working. They followed the Kinsman ridge to Cannon Mountain, where they got back up.
This enabled them to get very high and stay in contact with the clouds for the rest of the flight, until final glide.
Plunging into the Franconia region is usually a good bet, especially with a westerly wind. On the rare occasions when you can't stay in the air, there is a very nice gliderport at the bottom of the ridge.
The next time you see one of the FSA club members, be sure to tell him or her how much we appreciate their airfield, even when we don't land there. You'll get a chance to do this in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday, Tim (AT) and Greg (JD) departed Post Mills a bit late, around 2pm. They soared up to Black Mountain and then made a beeline for South Kinsman mountain, which wasn't working. They followed the Kinsman ridge to Cannon Mountain, where they got back up.
This enabled them to get very high and stay in contact with the clouds for the rest of the flight, until final glide.
Plunging into the Franconia region is usually a good bet, especially with a westerly wind. On the rare occasions when you can't stay in the air, there is a very nice gliderport at the bottom of the ridge.
The next time you see one of the FSA club members, be sure to tell him or her how much we appreciate their airfield, even when we don't land there. You'll get a chance to do this in a couple of weeks.
 |
| The Franconia Dive |
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Update from Tony
Tony Moehrke checked in this morning and sends his greetings to his Club-of-Origin.
Tony is taking a break from flying at Air Sailing Gliderport in Nevada, where they have apparently recently run out of towplanes. His latest flight was a spectacular tour of western Nevada, taking in the Carson Range, Lake Tahoe, and Minden.
You'd think that with all that scenery, he would send us a picture once in a while.
Tony is taking a break from flying at Air Sailing Gliderport in Nevada, where they have apparently recently run out of towplanes. His latest flight was a spectacular tour of western Nevada, taking in the Carson Range, Lake Tahoe, and Minden.
You'd think that with all that scenery, he would send us a picture once in a while.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Weekend report June 14 - 15
It was a pretty quiet week at old Post Mills, my home town.
The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday cookout, attended by
Earlier that day, Dennis took his Dad up for a Father's Day ride, and Tim took PM out across the river for the only two soaring flights of the day. On Sunday, it was too windy to fly, but Willy, Henry, Skip (JS) and Bill went up anyway, just to make sure.
And that's the news from old Post Mills, where the grass is long, the dogs are good looking, and all the thermals are above average.
The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday cookout, attended by
Andrew, Andy, Bob, Ella, Henry, Judy, Karl, Lane, Linda, Mary, Mike, Peter, Petey, Rich, Rick, Sam, Sueand Jeff and Tom, who arrived after the food ran out. The meal was followed by a pleasant evening stroll down to the lake for some fishing.
Earlier that day, Dennis took his Dad up for a Father's Day ride, and Tim took PM out across the river for the only two soaring flights of the day. On Sunday, it was too windy to fly, but Willy, Henry, Skip (JS) and Bill went up anyway, just to make sure.
And that's the news from old Post Mills, where the grass is long, the dogs are good looking, and all the thermals are above average.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Weekend report June 7 - 8
One of the advantages of having over fifteen hours of daylight is that you don't really have to hurry to squeeze in a good flight. If you do use the available time efficiently, however, you can accomplish some amazing things.
On Saturday, Evan was the first to take off, at 1130. Cloudbases eventually reached 6500 feet, but the thermals became strangely difficult to work below 4500. With a limited height band, Evan stopped often, averaging less than 10 km per glide. But if you do that for seven hours, you wind up with a remarkable 508 km! He flew to a spot just south of Alton Bay, then to Mount Equinox and Mount Mansfield before coming home.
In all, we had six cross-country flights (T8, JD, 2W, EA, JS, US), for a total of 28.5 hours and almost 1500 km. This had to be a club record. On the way by Springfield, Greg spotted Dennis (DC), who was enjoying a nice three hour flight in the Ventus.
After towing the XC fleet, our towpilot Andy retreated to his hangar to work on the Champ. Henry, Moshe and Dakai coaxed him out to do three more tows of the Blanik and 2-33.
The only glider that stayed in the air later than T8 was the Blanik, with Moshe and Annie, who enjoyed a 1.6 hour flight. Annie was the only person smart enough to send her photos to the editor.
Later, Evan broke into PMSC News to add this photo taken while tanking up at the Hungries (near Morrisville) for the ride home. View of the sky is roughly down the course line to Post Mills, a little over 40 miles away.
If we set a cross-country record on Saturday, we broke it on Sunday!
At first the lift was weak, and after Tim (PM) fell down at noon, nobody was in a hurry to go next. Finally, at 1230, Dan (EA) took off and reported that the day had finally started. Suddenly there was a rush, and five more took to the air (T8, JD, PM, RU, S1), and they were joined later by JS. The seven of them flew 1845 km. Paul and Moshe flew up to Catamount, and Skip made it to Black Mountain and back, despite a late start.
The other four headed north together, initially:
Identification of the 4 tracklogs above are left as an exercise for the reader.
While all this was going on, Karl got his Blanik checkout, fixed a golf cart, and then flew the Blanik for an hour. Bill Swartz, who will have his CFI any day now, flew with Willy and Dakai and helped them get their logbooks up to date. Rich, who never seems to get rusty, showed up and gave Rick a ride in the Blanik for about an hour. Lane, who never seems to fly, put his 1-26 together and took it apart again. Henry, who never downloads the flights recorded on his iPhone, reinstalled the variometers in 3J and took it for a test flight. Dennis (DC), who is welcome to come back to Post Mills any time, flew with NESA again. Doug, who finally got to fly PM last weekend, was trapped in the towplane all day and made 16 tows.
On Saturday, Evan was the first to take off, at 1130. Cloudbases eventually reached 6500 feet, but the thermals became strangely difficult to work below 4500. With a limited height band, Evan stopped often, averaging less than 10 km per glide. But if you do that for seven hours, you wind up with a remarkable 508 km! He flew to a spot just south of Alton Bay, then to Mount Equinox and Mount Mansfield before coming home.
In all, we had six cross-country flights (T8, JD, 2W, EA, JS, US), for a total of 28.5 hours and almost 1500 km. This had to be a club record. On the way by Springfield, Greg spotted Dennis (DC), who was enjoying a nice three hour flight in the Ventus.
After towing the XC fleet, our towpilot Andy retreated to his hangar to work on the Champ. Henry, Moshe and Dakai coaxed him out to do three more tows of the Blanik and 2-33.
The only glider that stayed in the air later than T8 was the Blanik, with Moshe and Annie, who enjoyed a 1.6 hour flight. Annie was the only person smart enough to send her photos to the editor.
Later, Evan broke into PMSC News to add this photo taken while tanking up at the Hungries (near Morrisville) for the ride home. View of the sky is roughly down the course line to Post Mills, a little over 40 miles away.
If we set a cross-country record on Saturday, we broke it on Sunday!
At first the lift was weak, and after Tim (PM) fell down at noon, nobody was in a hurry to go next. Finally, at 1230, Dan (EA) took off and reported that the day had finally started. Suddenly there was a rush, and five more took to the air (T8, JD, PM, RU, S1), and they were joined later by JS. The seven of them flew 1845 km. Paul and Moshe flew up to Catamount, and Skip made it to Black Mountain and back, despite a late start.
The other four headed north together, initially:
Identification of the 4 tracklogs above are left as an exercise for the reader.
While all this was going on, Karl got his Blanik checkout, fixed a golf cart, and then flew the Blanik for an hour. Bill Swartz, who will have his CFI any day now, flew with Willy and Dakai and helped them get their logbooks up to date. Rich, who never seems to get rusty, showed up and gave Rick a ride in the Blanik for about an hour. Lane, who never seems to fly, put his 1-26 together and took it apart again. Henry, who never downloads the flights recorded on his iPhone, reinstalled the variometers in 3J and took it for a test flight. Dennis (DC), who is welcome to come back to Post Mills any time, flew with NESA again. Doug, who finally got to fly PM last weekend, was trapped in the towplane all day and made 16 tows.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Weekend report May 31 - June 1
Saturday started out as forecast, which probably explains the low turnout. The first to arrive on the field was Sonny, who figured it would take an hour or two to replace the 1-23 skid. He got to work right away and was later joined by Lane. The project took all day!
Here is a picture of the two of them taking a break to pray toward Mecca.
Meanwhile, we were able to accomplish some instructional flights under the low ceiling, with Andy towing. A passing rain shower shut down the operation for a bit, but we resumed and were able to finish Moshe's flight review and Dennis's Blanik checkout. Late in the day, the sky opened up and Dennis was able to stay up for a while, on the only soaring flight of the day.
Sunday started off great. Evan (T8), Greg (JD), Tom (2W), Dan (EA), Tim (PM) took off early. Evan headed north to Stowe where he spent an hour communing with the trees when high cirrus clouds moved in (a good lesson in not giving up). He still managed to put in 499 km by the end of the day. The Flock (JD, 2W, EA, PM) made a quick trip to Killington via a cloud street with bases to 7K'. At Killington Tim turned around to give Doug (PM) a chance with PM and the rest of the Flock continued south of Jamaica (that's VT) while avoiding the worst of the high clouds. Their round trip was about 240 km. Moshe (RU) put in a nice flight "tip-toeing around areas shaded by thick cirrus" and visited Peacham and Williamstown. Nice local flights were had by Henry in 3J, Dakai and Andy Lawrence in BA, Ben and Tim in BA, Andy Lawrence (PM), and Skip (JS). Thanks for towing Doug!
Also on Sunday, Rick and Dennis visited NESA at Springfield where we hung out with Phil Stoddard, Alasdair Crawford, Lee Blair, Larry Perry, and Walter Striedieck, all of whom had opinions about how to fly a Ventus B. After waiting for the advice and the wind to die down, Dennis hopped into his glider, gave the thumbs up, and took off.
After twenty minutes of flying around with his gear down (intentionally), he made a smooth touchdown on runway 23 and rolled to a stop. His towpilot and instructor had the pleasure of being the first to congratulate our newest high-performance sailplane pilot!
Here is a picture of the two of them taking a break to pray toward Mecca.
Meanwhile, we were able to accomplish some instructional flights under the low ceiling, with Andy towing. A passing rain shower shut down the operation for a bit, but we resumed and were able to finish Moshe's flight review and Dennis's Blanik checkout. Late in the day, the sky opened up and Dennis was able to stay up for a while, on the only soaring flight of the day.
Sunday started off great. Evan (T8), Greg (JD), Tom (2W), Dan (EA), Tim (PM) took off early. Evan headed north to Stowe where he spent an hour communing with the trees when high cirrus clouds moved in (a good lesson in not giving up). He still managed to put in 499 km by the end of the day. The Flock (JD, 2W, EA, PM) made a quick trip to Killington via a cloud street with bases to 7K'. At Killington Tim turned around to give Doug (PM) a chance with PM and the rest of the Flock continued south of Jamaica (that's VT) while avoiding the worst of the high clouds. Their round trip was about 240 km. Moshe (RU) put in a nice flight "tip-toeing around areas shaded by thick cirrus" and visited Peacham and Williamstown. Nice local flights were had by Henry in 3J, Dakai and Andy Lawrence in BA, Ben and Tim in BA, Andy Lawrence (PM), and Skip (JS). Thanks for towing Doug!
Also on Sunday, Rick and Dennis visited NESA at Springfield where we hung out with Phil Stoddard, Alasdair Crawford, Lee Blair, Larry Perry, and Walter Striedieck, all of whom had opinions about how to fly a Ventus B. After waiting for the advice and the wind to die down, Dennis hopped into his glider, gave the thumbs up, and took off.
After twenty minutes of flying around with his gear down (intentionally), he made a smooth touchdown on runway 23 and rolled to a stop. His towpilot and instructor had the pleasure of being the first to congratulate our newest high-performance sailplane pilot!
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Weekend report May 24 - 26
Our long weekend started off rather slowly with a cool, cloudy Saturday. Paul and Sonny showed up to work on their gliders, and Evan made the long drive to Post Mills to tow. In the end, there was no flying. Dan and Greg made a fuel run, and Dennis spent the day getting more familiar with his glider and trailer. At the end of the day (just before we got the Ventus back into the trailer) we were soaked by a passing storm.
Sunday was a different story altogether. The day showed every indication of overdeveloping, with low fat cumulus clouds in all directions at ten o'clock in the morning. For reasons we don't understand, the air dried out, the clouds rose, and we got an outstanding soaring day with very little wind. The four horsemen (EA, JD, 2W, S1) galloped off together on a 260 km triangle with turnpoints at Lake Willoughby and Mount Washington. They flew the whole course as a team and arrived back home together at the end of the day. Moshe (RU) and Skip (JS) went their separate ways.
Back home, Sam accomplished his field checkout and then flew the 2-33 for an hour, reaching 8300 feet in the process. Henry took the 1-23 for a short flight and vowed to fix the variometer. Yay for that!
Moshe took this picture of the scene at the end of the day:
Evan, who had volunteered the night before to tow again, brought his glider just in case he wasn't needed. That didn't work out for him at all. He spent the whole day in the L-19 and didn't complain once. I like this club.
At one point during the day we met one of our neighbors. This guy came out of the woods by the creek, marched diagonally across the runway, and accosted Dennis. The neighbor, whose name is Andy, was not happy. Apparently he has been listening to airplane noise for 15 years and has decided he's had enough. He chose this weekend to tell us about it. Dennis has a lot of experience with public relations. He listened to Andy's complaint and politely asked him where his house was. Andy's reply was classic: "Ask your towpilot. He knows exactly where it is!" And stomped off.
Andy, if you're reading this, please get back in touch and tell us who you are and where you live. We promise to try to work out a solution with you. We're sorry that nobody told you there was an airport here 15 years ago.
Once again, the weather changed dramatically overnight. Monday's leaden sky did not inspire any optimism. Nevertheless, Skip (JS) and Tim (PM) took off, struggled, and managed to connect with the elusive Post Mills Wave. They made it to a respectable height (around 6000 feet) right over the field. It was fun to watch them flying together, standing still.
Henry and Andy Lawrence combined to fly the 1-23 four times, and they are now both volunteering to improve the instruments in that glider. Yay, again!
Our towpilot on Monday was Doug, who, like Evan, drives a long way to enable the rest of us to fly. Doug wants to get back into the 304. Let's help him do that.
Altogether, a good weekend with good weather, good flying, good stories, and good volunteerism. The only thing NESA did better this weekend was dining. We'll do better in that category next weekend, I'm sure.
Sunday was a different story altogether. The day showed every indication of overdeveloping, with low fat cumulus clouds in all directions at ten o'clock in the morning. For reasons we don't understand, the air dried out, the clouds rose, and we got an outstanding soaring day with very little wind. The four horsemen (EA, JD, 2W, S1) galloped off together on a 260 km triangle with turnpoints at Lake Willoughby and Mount Washington. They flew the whole course as a team and arrived back home together at the end of the day. Moshe (RU) and Skip (JS) went their separate ways.
Back home, Sam accomplished his field checkout and then flew the 2-33 for an hour, reaching 8300 feet in the process. Henry took the 1-23 for a short flight and vowed to fix the variometer. Yay for that!
Moshe took this picture of the scene at the end of the day:
The only glider missing in this picture (besides the photographer's) is the Blanik. Dennis had a nice 2.5 hour flight, making a perfect landing at 6:15, thereby missing his chance to volunteer to help de-rig the other gliders. Clever guy.
At one point during the day we met one of our neighbors. This guy came out of the woods by the creek, marched diagonally across the runway, and accosted Dennis. The neighbor, whose name is Andy, was not happy. Apparently he has been listening to airplane noise for 15 years and has decided he's had enough. He chose this weekend to tell us about it. Dennis has a lot of experience with public relations. He listened to Andy's complaint and politely asked him where his house was. Andy's reply was classic: "Ask your towpilot. He knows exactly where it is!" And stomped off.
Andy, if you're reading this, please get back in touch and tell us who you are and where you live. We promise to try to work out a solution with you. We're sorry that nobody told you there was an airport here 15 years ago.
Once again, the weather changed dramatically overnight. Monday's leaden sky did not inspire any optimism. Nevertheless, Skip (JS) and Tim (PM) took off, struggled, and managed to connect with the elusive Post Mills Wave. They made it to a respectable height (around 6000 feet) right over the field. It was fun to watch them flying together, standing still.
Henry and Andy Lawrence combined to fly the 1-23 four times, and they are now both volunteering to improve the instruments in that glider. Yay, again!
Our towpilot on Monday was Doug, who, like Evan, drives a long way to enable the rest of us to fly. Doug wants to get back into the 304. Let's help him do that.
Altogether, a good weekend with good weather, good flying, good stories, and good volunteerism. The only thing NESA did better this weekend was dining. We'll do better in that category next weekend, I'm sure.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
F.O.A.M.S
Sometimes F.O.A.M.S. (fear of missing something) is good.
Well I am not much of a writer, and I am definitely not a blogger, but yesterday definitely had some moments worth sharing. So here goes.
Epic days like last Sunday with great conditions and terrific flying for all can have two very different effects on me. They can scratch the itch and momentarily satisfy the need to get out, allowing me to settle into work and the other crap I have to do, or they can get me psyched to seize the next opportunity to get after it ASAP. Seeing Evan's ridiculous flight on Sunday put me in the latter mode, so I began to look for the best slacking opportunity the week had to offer. Tuesday and Wednesday had the most potential. Alas the need to work, high forecast winds, and Sawyer's lacrosse game (which was awesome) forced me to pass on Tuesday. That night, reading about the Lone Slacker and Tim's great flight, as well as the XC Skies forecast made F.O.A.M.S. kick in big time. I knew 2W and EA were also very susceptible to this disorder so we rallied Rick for a Wednesday Slacker Day.
And so the day began. The long drive from Sterling, Massachusetts and my need to work in the morning forced a lateish start, about 90 minutes after the sky looked great: AAARRRRGGGGHHHH! Since you miss 100% of the shots you do not take, and even though we were late, we decided to declare a 500 km task (Post Mills to Jeffersonville, Vermont to Mt Equinox to Mt Mansfield to Post Mills). A bold declaration for 2W in his second season flying and only his second ever XC flight. Again you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.
First launch was at 11:45 and we were all in the air by 12:15. (Thanks, Rick.) After a bit of trouble hooking up, we were able to team fly in nice conditions to the first turnpoint. From there it was 169 km south to Equinox. Overdevelopment forced us west into strong conditions, allowing long, fast glides (no comment Evan) to the south. We rounded the second turnpoint and headed east to lennie-capped clouds hoping for some wave to make finishing the task easy. No dice, so northward we went, thermaling in deteriorating conditions.
5:20 PM and 25 miles south of Mansfield with clouds coming fast from the west and home within gliding range. What is the smart decision? Of course, stay on task, round the TP under a crappy sky and try to race back southeast to the sunny area. Shocking, but this is where the game changed.
The lift completely shut down, 100% shade on the ground and 6:20 PM. Not looking good for the home team at this point. We decided to take what we had and glide back to Montpelier airport. On the way I found a scrap of texture, dug deep into my hang gliding days and remembered that you do not need lift to climb if you just will the glider higher; it had nothing to do with my landing flap setting and long wings. At this point 2W and EA were on the ground at Montpelier, and after a torturously slow, inconsistent barely working climb, I gained the 1000 feet I needed to comfortably (sort of) make it back to Post Mills. By now it was very shady, almost dark and the air was flat, so I was confident that the likelihood of big sink was low. I landed at 7:15, for what I think is a Diamond distance flight. I am sure some technicality will disqualify it, but who cares?
By this time EA had talked to Rick, and Rick and Henry had the trailers ready to go. By the way, Henry flew 3J yesterday, congrats Henry. Rick and I went to retrieve EA and 2W and had a great (not) Chinese dinner in Barre on the way home. We pulled into Post Mills at 11:30.
Days like that make me thankful I am a member of a club like the PMSC. This is a great sport, but it takes help and support. We have a special thing here.
Team flying rules!
JD
Greg
Well I am not much of a writer, and I am definitely not a blogger, but yesterday definitely had some moments worth sharing. So here goes.
Epic days like last Sunday with great conditions and terrific flying for all can have two very different effects on me. They can scratch the itch and momentarily satisfy the need to get out, allowing me to settle into work and the other crap I have to do, or they can get me psyched to seize the next opportunity to get after it ASAP. Seeing Evan's ridiculous flight on Sunday put me in the latter mode, so I began to look for the best slacking opportunity the week had to offer. Tuesday and Wednesday had the most potential. Alas the need to work, high forecast winds, and Sawyer's lacrosse game (which was awesome) forced me to pass on Tuesday. That night, reading about the Lone Slacker and Tim's great flight, as well as the XC Skies forecast made F.O.A.M.S. kick in big time. I knew 2W and EA were also very susceptible to this disorder so we rallied Rick for a Wednesday Slacker Day.
And so the day began. The long drive from Sterling, Massachusetts and my need to work in the morning forced a lateish start, about 90 minutes after the sky looked great: AAARRRRGGGGHHHH! Since you miss 100% of the shots you do not take, and even though we were late, we decided to declare a 500 km task (Post Mills to Jeffersonville, Vermont to Mt Equinox to Mt Mansfield to Post Mills). A bold declaration for 2W in his second season flying and only his second ever XC flight. Again you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.
First launch was at 11:45 and we were all in the air by 12:15. (Thanks, Rick.) After a bit of trouble hooking up, we were able to team fly in nice conditions to the first turnpoint. From there it was 169 km south to Equinox. Overdevelopment forced us west into strong conditions, allowing long, fast glides (no comment Evan) to the south. We rounded the second turnpoint and headed east to lennie-capped clouds hoping for some wave to make finishing the task easy. No dice, so northward we went, thermaling in deteriorating conditions.
5:20 PM and 25 miles south of Mansfield with clouds coming fast from the west and home within gliding range. What is the smart decision? Of course, stay on task, round the TP under a crappy sky and try to race back southeast to the sunny area. Shocking, but this is where the game changed.
The lift completely shut down, 100% shade on the ground and 6:20 PM. Not looking good for the home team at this point. We decided to take what we had and glide back to Montpelier airport. On the way I found a scrap of texture, dug deep into my hang gliding days and remembered that you do not need lift to climb if you just will the glider higher; it had nothing to do with my landing flap setting and long wings. At this point 2W and EA were on the ground at Montpelier, and after a torturously slow, inconsistent barely working climb, I gained the 1000 feet I needed to comfortably (sort of) make it back to Post Mills. By now it was very shady, almost dark and the air was flat, so I was confident that the likelihood of big sink was low. I landed at 7:15, for what I think is a Diamond distance flight. I am sure some technicality will disqualify it, but who cares?
By this time EA had talked to Rick, and Rick and Henry had the trailers ready to go. By the way, Henry flew 3J yesterday, congrats Henry. Rick and I went to retrieve EA and 2W and had a great (not) Chinese dinner in Barre on the way home. We pulled into Post Mills at 11:30.
Days like that make me thankful I am a member of a club like the PMSC. This is a great sport, but it takes help and support. We have a special thing here.
Team flying rules!
JD
Greg
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
The Lone Slacker rides again
Tim (PM) had a nice flight today, a day that featured both strong lift and strong wind. He rode the choppy thermals up to Franconia, then over to East Barre, where he decided he'd had enough turbulence for one day. He glided all the way home from there (44 km).
Monday, May 19, 2014
Weekend report May 17 - 18
After a dozen years or so, the Experimental Balloon Association springtime festival came back to Post Mills this weekend, and our club wasn't completely sure how to handle it. The optimists predicted that we might be able to squeeze in a few flights on Sunday (after the event was officially over). The pessimists, remembering the pandemonium of years past, were pessimistic.
The optimists were right! The balloonists and spectators were well-behaved, and, for the most part, the runway was kept clear of parades, sunbathers, and fire trucks Sunday afternoon. Some say that this was attributable to the air traffic control services provided by Charlie Zue on Unicom (Thanks, Charlie!). Others say that the fact that the revelers have aged 12 years since the last one had something to do with it.
The flying on Sunday was spectacular, with climbs above 8000 feet with pegged varios being reported. So far, Greg (JD), Evan (T8), Sonny (LT), Skip (JS), and Dan (EA) have posted flights on OLC. Evan, who wrote about the day (Thanks, Evan!), may claim yet another Vermont distance record.
Thanks to Andy for towing and to Bill Swartz for instructing on Sunday.
The optimists were right! The balloonists and spectators were well-behaved, and, for the most part, the runway was kept clear of parades, sunbathers, and fire trucks Sunday afternoon. Some say that this was attributable to the air traffic control services provided by Charlie Zue on Unicom (Thanks, Charlie!). Others say that the fact that the revelers have aged 12 years since the last one had something to do with it.
The flying on Sunday was spectacular, with climbs above 8000 feet with pegged varios being reported. So far, Greg (JD), Evan (T8), Sonny (LT), Skip (JS), and Dan (EA) have posted flights on OLC. Evan, who wrote about the day (Thanks, Evan!), may claim yet another Vermont distance record.
Thanks to Andy for towing and to Bill Swartz for instructing on Sunday.
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