Tuesday was a slacker day, here’s Gregs report. – Andy
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)