PMSC Members,

Four Post Mills pilots (Me, Tim, Mark, and Karl) decided to take advantage of the last day of this incredible air mass and call a slacker day on Tuesday.  Andy agreed to tow on an extended lunch break, so we assembled at the airport and had four gliders ready to go just after noon.  The forecast looked very good, but at launch time the sky was blue and there was little sign of lift.  Since you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take we all took off and struggled in weak broken lift.  Everyone soared and Tim (after a very wise reflight) and I eventually scratched high enough at the rt. 244 gap to make the jump to good clouds over Smarts Mt.  And that’s where the fun began.  Strong climbs to great clouds, with cloud base eventually over 11,000 feet.  No that is not a typo, 11,000 feet.  We got a late start due to our early struggles, but were able to make up time and flew North East over Cannon, Twin, Washington, Carter, and eventually outran the good clouds over the Mahoosuc Range.  We turned at our intended turn point at Old Spec, and began the trip home.  This is where it got interesting again.  Heading back to the Presidential range we both lost considerable altitude, and I ended up lowish downwind of the Presis on the Carter range, unable to get to the sunny upwind side of Washington.  At this point landing at Gorham seemed likely.  Tim was doing much better, but we both eventually caught back up with good clouds and had a high easy time flying back to just past the Lebanon airport, our second intended turnpoint, then on to PM.  The original goal was to go back to Gorham, for a 500k, but it was way too late.  Landing just before 7 pm, this was obviously a great day, that was even better for me because of team flying with PM.  It’s always smart to tag along with the experienced locals.

JD:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2956434

PM:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2956332

Sky Out,

Greg (JD)

The wind finally died down and conditions were actually quite good. Tim flew for well over 2 hours while I towed with the Pawnee and then we switched aircraft.  Both Tim and I found weak wave after topping out a strong thermal @ ~ 6000′ and I made it to 7K, Tim maybe a bit higher. Visibility was clear right to Mt. Washington, really spectacular day.

Reminder that the L-19 should be ready to go on the 20th, that’s our hope anyway.
-Andy

Greg flew his new (to him) 304CZ (JD) for the first time.  He went for a 3 hour joy ride to Mt. Sunapee and Killington.  Sonny took a warm-up ride with Walter and then flew LT for a couple of hours.  Walter and Bob Morehardt took a flight in I1, and then Dan and Walter took I1 for a spin.  Evan (T8) had a nice flight.  And I (PM) went for a loop around the airport that included Killington, Hartford, Charlestown, Chester and Okemo.  I landed just before 6:00 and the thermals were still going strong.

To top it off the airport was having a fly-in and there was lots of free food (the excellent home made type).

Tim

Posted by Andy for Tim

It’s exit 3 off 89.

Please comment if you plan to go.

Andy

Andy

Tim took the first tow but didn’t make out so good. I try to teach these kids but you know what’s it like….

Thank you Walter for the tows and the rest of you clowns need to do more flying this winter, it’s a blast (of cold air on your face!) and well worth the effort.

-Andy