Floating Across the Countryside

I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive another 5 hours to go flying at Ascutney after driving all over New England so I could fly at Burke Mountain yesterday. However, the forecast looked good and it’s hard for me to turn down a good day. I assumed it would soarable for most of the day, so my goal was to stay in the air as long as I could. I needed a good flying workout in preparation for the upcoming competition in Big Spring TX so I wasn’t going to race or push too hard … I wanted airtime today.

John and Toni gave me a ride to the top of the mountain. After setting up, I spent some time giving Jeff pointers on his shiny new Litespeed and helping Jake determine how to fix his broken VG cord. I launched early and quickly found a climb. Since I wasn’t going to race off downwind today, I started flying upwind while I waited for everyone else to launch and climb out. I was a couple thermals upwind when it sounded like a good group of pilots were climbing at the mountain and making XC plans. I turned around and raced back to join them. It was nice to see so many local pilots climbing together. After most of the pilots topped out, we headed SE towards Claremont. Greg H and I worked a weak climb as I tried to figure out the drift and where the best lift was forming. Meanwhile Dan, Dave in his Litespeed, and Greg C climbed to our height.

Since there were only a few clouds downwind and the climbs were slow, Jake and a few other pilots headed towards Morningside. Jake thought it would be better to repair his VG cord than to dribble a few miles downwind. The rest of us headed east stopping briefly in a couple measly climbs. By the time we got to Kellyville NH, Greg C, Dan, and Dave were getting low. Dave and Dan moved on towards the Newport golf course while Greg C turned around and landed at Kellyville. Greg and I had plenty of altitude to move on but decided to wait on Dan and Dave. Dave found a weak elusive thermal very low at the golf course and Dan soon joined him. Meanwhile I was a cloud base and decided to move on to Mount Sunapee. I was past Sunapee when I decided to turn around and fly back to Newport to join the rest of the gang. I arrive at Greg’s height and at about the same time Dan and Dave were finally climbing with some authority at the golf course. Moments later Greg spotted Jeff in a good climb upwind. Unfortunately, Dave headed upwind to Jeff’s climb and lost a lot of altitude in the process. We left Dave behind as Jeff soon joined us in a weak climb near NW of Mount Sunapee.

I lead out and found a good climb SE of the mountain. Dave was thinking about landing at the forbidden fields, but I convinced him to keep moving. I ensured him that if he could come over Sunapee with 1000 feet he could easily make some nice LZs on the other side. I got cold floating around at cloud base so I moved on to another climb near Bradford. Since Dan, Jeff, and Greg didn’t leave the mountain, I flew back to join them and immediately left once it was clear there were not climbing. This time they followed me to a good climb at Bradford. Again I topped out and flew to another cloud SE of Bradford. Around this time Dave flew over Sunapee and headed to Bradford. He was much more comfortable now that he saw the fields I told him about earlier. Once the group (without Dave) was ready to go, we headed into the blue. We had a long glide towards Henniker. I lead with Jeff and Dan fading more to the north and Greg to the west. Greg stopped for a weak climb while I pressed on. Jeff and Dan were not doing as well and were losing relative to Greg and me. I finally found a weak climb downwind of some quarries and settled in for a long climb. Dave was now starting his glide towards Henniker, Jeff was somewhere low approaching Henniker and Dan and Greg joined me in my measly climb. Dave eventually landed at the airfield at Henniker and reported seeing Jeff in the area.

Then Greg, Dan, and I waffled around for a long time before taking another long glide towards the river near Concord. Greg and I were higher, but Dan finally found a weak climb that I went back for. I couldn’t find it and was soon down to his level. I pushed on towards better landing fields just as I spotted Jeff coming in to join us. Jeff found a nice climb just west of the river that made it easy for us to cross to the other side. Once across the river Greg and I surveyed the trees downwind while Jeff and Dan struggled to find a climb. Greg assured me there were LZs “out there”, but I wasn’t convinced! As we slowly drifted down wind I finally saw a couple fields that would “do in a pinch”.

Greg and I headed out with Dan still low near the river and Jeff following us low. I found a nice climb that Greg, just 300 feet below me, couldn’t find. I climbed to around 5000 feet and essentially went on final glide. I was stopping and turning in anything, but the day was dying. I heard that Greg had found a climb and was also gliding through “very smooth air”. I circled around my LZ in Fremont NH looking for any sign of lift. I did find a few bumps that let me hang out at 900 feet for 10 minutes before I floated into a large un-mowed hayfield full of milkweed plants. I made sure I had a good flare since there was no wind and very high weeds below.

After a hot hike out, I was greeted by a family that stopped to watch me land. I answered the usual flurry of questions and then started breaking down. A few minutes later another couple pulled off the road to talk. They had watched me circling overhead while picking blueberries in the blueberry patch I was maintaining over.

Dave, Julie, Dan, Greg C, and Christy showed up to give me a ride back. Dan had managed another climb at the river before landing. Greg was waiting in a large field near the prison a few miles NE of me. We all stopped for Japanese food in Concord before heading back to the mountain. Dan and I then kept each other awake as we then drove south towards home … right over the roads we flew over and then drove back to the mountain on. Um, maybe there is a smarter way to do this!