Double retrieve

Trailer retrieves are usually pretty easy. Sometimes, when two gliders land in the same field, a double retrieve is necessary. This is somewhat harder, but not usually a big deal. It gets really interesting when nobody in the crew is familiar with disassembling the two aircraft.

At the end of Wave Camp this year, we were faced with trailering home PI (our borrowed Blanik L-23) and our towplane, having put neither one on a trailer before. It was a 2-day ordeal.

On Friday, Mike and Andy put our Blanik trailer back on the road, which involved building wing stands in order to liberate the trailer saddles, and the usual struggle to get the trailer lights working.

The next day, a hardy band of volunteers (Andy, Andy, Bob, Christopher, George, Karl, Tim, Sonny, Walter) traveled back to Gorham and pounced on the L-19. After a couple hours of work, the fuselage and wings were lashed onto trailers provided by Bob and Karl (thanks, guys).

The team then moved on to the L-23 which went onto our old trailer without too much fuss, once they figured out how to remove the horizontal stabilizer.

By 2pm, the convoy was on the road for Post Mills, with the Blanik in the lead, followed by the L-19 fuselage, the L-19 wings, and Andy bringing up the rear in his rolling toolbox.

Back home, they unloaded the wings so Karl could take his trailer home. In all, the double retrieve required 35 man-hours of work, and it isn't over yet. Winter is coming and we still have to move all the bits and pieces of our fleet into their final storage and work spaces. Don't forget to volunteer, especially if you weren't part of the fun last weekend.

Wave Camp

Great wave camp. There were wave flights on all weekend and holiday days (5). My three flights went to 12K, 26K and 18K msl. How did everyone else do?

Tim

T8's Wx Links for Mt Washington

I put all of these in a folder on my toolbar called "Mt Wash WX". Then all I need to do to get all the weather I need is click on the folder and select "Open All in Tabs".

There: I just saved you about three minutes a session and at least one case of carpal tunnel syndrome at the margin.

To use these, create a new bookmarks folder, then select the following list of bookmarks (as text) and copy into your new folder.

http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/ETA/NE/FCST/wfpm.curr.18z.png
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/ETA/NE/FCST/blwindkt_blwinddeg.curr.18z.png
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/ETA/NE/FCST/hft.curr.18z.png
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/ETA/NE/FCST/sfcsunwm2.curr.18z.png
http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/cam/ravines/index.php
http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/new-hampshire/gorham-2412336/
http://aviationweather.gov/adds/satellite/displaySat.php?region=ALB&isingle=multiple&itype=vis
http://aviationweather.gov/adds/progs/
http://aviationweather.gov/adds/winds/
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/plot_soundings.cgi?airport=bml&start=latest&n_hrs=16&data_source=MAPS

I don't have an opinion on which sounding model is "best", let alone for what reasons. In addition to forecasting possible wave, it's useful to get some idea of temps aloft and forecast possibility of extensive clouds (alt., depth, timing). Maybe someone can chime in here if they have researched this.

Additional useful links solicited.

-T8

Evolution

Our pile of lumber seems to be returning to its original configuration.

Name that Sailplane

A clue: Name that airport, then guess the date.

Another photo of this beautiful bird:



Here's the tow plane:

Name that Cover Girl

Source

Name that sailplane

Hint: This is the "short span" (23 meter) configuration. This one goes to 28.

No flying today

Click here for the big version.


Credit: NASA.

Timing is everything

Tim had an adventurous flight yesterday. He dashed up to Twin Mountain where he got low. He ridge soared back to Franconia where he got high. Then he took a cloudstreet over to Cabot where he got low again. Two hours later he was higher, but not high enough to make the crossing from the central Vermont plateau back to Post Mills. During his struggle, he talked with Moshe, who was nearing the end of his 87 km flight out of Morrisville.

Timing is everything. The day ended half an hour earlier than Tim was hoping, and he called it quits at Montpelier after a 205 km flight. He rolled up to the same spot on Runway 35 that he had visited five days earlier.

This time his crew was ready (and motivated by the prospect of a dinner on the town). Just over an hour after landing out, the 304 was back in the trailer at Post Mills, and the Slackers were off to get pizza.

We beat the crowd at Stella's by a slim margin. Timing is everything.

Montpelier Flytrap

Montpelier airport is very attractive, like the carnivorous plant in Little Shop of Horrors.

The role of the victim was played today by Tim.

Places to land

Also from Andy:

A project of mine is to map landable fields and little known airports on Google Maps so everyone can peruse them from the comfort of their favorite web surfing chair.

Check out PMSC Landpoints.

If you'd like to add ones you know about, log in with the same info as XCSkies (ask Andy how to do this -Ed.), hit the Edit button and enter a waypoint or address in the searchbar. Drop a marker, name it, and enter the appropriate comments.

I have Rick's landpoint database and will continue to add from that list, but again please feel free to help out.

Also there's a Google Earth plug-in for your browser. If you need it, click on the map icon in the upper right. You should see the Google Earth icon. Click that and you'll get a prompt to install the plug-in.

Weekend report August 13 - 14

From Andy:

Saturday turned out to be a very busy day and despite the overcast some flights managed to stay up for a while.

Andy Lawrence finally decided it was time to get back in the air so he got a check ride with Tim and then flew the 1-23 at least once, maybe twice. Alexander is back in the area for a few weeks and his last flight in the 1-23 was for one hour. Nice job Alexander!

Tim gave a ride to a friend from California and I gave 4 introductory rides to a family from Hartland VT and one of them is seriously interested in joining.

Thanks to Sonny for saving the day by making yet another gas run and no, there were no other volunteers for this job which is a serious problem for which we need a solution!

Sunday was a no-fly day.