I had my first flight in New England yesterday and it was everything I was afraid it would be! I was spoiled by my month in Florida; waking up in the morning, climbing out of my tent in shorts, checking out my glider, and then launching a few hours later from the same spot. That sure doesn't describe flying at home. The closest flying sites are 2-3 hours away, implying I'll be in the truck at least 4-6 hours whether I fly or not. The temperatures have been in the 50s F, below freezing at cloud base; no shorts here. Our primary site includes a 1/3 mile hike over rocks and around trees; no parking the glider next to my tent.
I left the house yesterday morning about the time I normally arrive at the mountain so I could share the ride with Dan. Company helps pass the time in the truck covering roads I know like the back of my hand. We meet Mark and Greg at the base of the mountain. Since the state park is not yet open to the public we have to use our keys and follow the negotiated procedures. We are lucky to meet some guys clearing power lines on the mountain and we get them to drive Mark's truck back down later in the afternoon. Meanwhile, we are waiting on PK to show up. The day is slipping by, but we don't want to leave a fellow pilot at the bottom with no way up. We spend 15 minutes talking with the power line crew and PK finally shows up with flames blazing from his truck as he slows to sub-light speed.
The trail into launch is still very soft and there is still snow scattered around in places. A few trees have fallen across the trail but it is in reasonably good shape. We however, are not. With the exception of Greg, each one of us was moaning, groaning, and using an occasional foul word as we got reacquainted with the joy of that hike.
The forecasted winds were very light NW going SW. We were pleased to feel a slight trickle into launch when we arrived. We were also pleased to find out the black flies have not yet hatched. Yippee!
Mark started the chain of equipment problems for the day when a zipper on his glider wouldn't work. We finally got that fixed. Greg announced that his cell phone was not working properly because some pears got into the connector. I didn't ask how.
We made our usual "Sled ride one-for-all all-for-one pack". Everyone would launch as soon as possible, even if the first pilots were sinking out. Dan went first and managed to maintain altitude to the south of launch. Greg was soon airborne. I discovered on the way to launch that the radio frequency we picked was the one frequency that I get noise from my vario. Oh well, I'll just turn the radio on when I need it. I dove off in no wind, followed by PK and then Mark. We soon climbed out to 8000 feet and realized it was going to be a very cold day. (The water in our camel back lines froze.) My full face helmet immediately steamed up and then froze over.
We decided to head north up the river. The first glide was kind to everyone but PK. He turned around and was 1700 over the LZ before snagging a ride back up. He ended up being one climb behind us for the rest of the day. The first couple of climbs were much weaker than our climb at the mountain. The clouds were formed from multiple cores instead of a large single core. This meant that our group was soon fractured and spread across the sky at various positions and altitudes. I kept slowing up, but was forced to move on when my fingers would get so cold I couldn't feel them anymore. I also kept moving to the high ground west of the river. That made it easy to clear the airspace around Lebanon and the clouds looked more promising. Speaking of clouds, they were drying almost as soon as they formed. I finally discovered the only way to make use of them was to run to a wisp the instant it formed. That strategy, although a little chaotic, worked most of the day. It also dawned on me that I could stay warmer if I didn't climb all the way to the top. Duh. I spent the remainder of the day between 4ooo and 7000 feet giving up the nice climbs between 7000 and 8500.
Meanwhile Greg's radio died, Mark was getting lost over new terrain, my hands were freezing, and Dan wanted to know were everyone was. It was comical; nothing like a fine tuned machine blazing through the sky! Although we were not coordinated and it was cold, the view of a snow covered Mount Washington was awesome. Also the air was clear so everything below was popping in sharp detail. I have flown this direction a couple of times before but on warm southerly days when the air is hazy and humid. It was cool to see everything so clearly.
I noticed cirrus moving in behind us and realized I hadn't seen anyone in awhile so I turned on my radio. Mark had landed next to what he thought was Greg landing at his house. It turned out it was PK. Dan managed to snap a picture of Greg's house before floating down the river valley and then landed. Since we didn't have a driver, I started heading towards the river valley which was at least two glides away. I thought everyone was on the ground and was starting to spiral down next to an intersection when I saw a glider dropping into the valley. Cool. It was Greg converting his altitude over the high ground into forward distance. I decided to follow and watch the show from above. I was amazed at how far he traveled before turning to land. I continued on to check out the dam at Moore Lake and then turned around and flew south about 3 miles to land in a big field in Barnet VT, about 62 miles from the mountain.
I immediately had visitors. A guy on a bike with his son stopped by to check things out. He then went and got his daughter so she could see this flying machine. John, a boy living in the neighborhood stopped by and wanted to know everything about everything I had. He was interested in my radio, my GPS, and of course my glider. John even helped me break down. Since I didn't have any radio or phone coverage in the valley, I hike with my glider up the hill to the center of town.
I became concerned when I couldn't reach anyone. I knew Greg's phone was broken. I couldn't leave a message for Mark and Dan. I left a message for PK, but knew he probably wouldn't check his messages. I only saw 3 cars pass in the 20 minutes before sunset and they were not interested in giving me a ride, so I started to work on plan B, C, and D. I finally reached Sue, Greg's wife, and discovered that Dan got a ride from a women named Katie to their house. Dan was on the way to pick up Greg. Sue offered to call the people that owned the land where Greg landed and have them relay a message to Greg. I reluctantly accepted the offer. Thanks Sue. I went inside the general store, got some ice cream, and waited for Dan and Greg to show up.
Greg did get the message and arrived with Sue's car. Um. Sue's car only had a single ladder so we double stacked the gliders, with Greg's on top of mine. That seemed to work ok, but what about the other 3 gliders to the south? Meanwhile, Mark and PK started walking to Greg's place when they got stopped by a police officer. After some quick background checks the officer gave them a ride to a local restaurant. They were having a quick meal when we arrived. After some discussion we decided to use our clothing as pads and load all the gliders onto the car and head to Greg's place. What a sight that was! Greg then took one for the team by driving us south to Ascutney in Sue's car and leaving his truck at the base overnight. Thanks Greg.
I got home around 1:30am. As always, flying around here is an adventure.
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