Repair Day

I faced a tough decision today. Go fly at Ascutney on a promising XC day or spend some time at Morningside fixing things on my glider. I decided to go to Morningside. I quickly found out that Chris AND Marilyn were both available so I wasted no time removing the sail from my glider. Marilyn repaired a seam across the right tip that was coming undone and patched a tiny rip on the top surface. Meanwhile I took off my right leading edge that had a tiny dimple I got on a ride up the 4WD road to West Rutland a couple months ago. I was glad that Chris was drilling and popping the rivets off the old leading edge and also setting the new rivets on the new leading edge. What he did in an hour would have taken me all day and several trips to the hardware store for new tools. Within an hour were done and I was reinstalling the sail.

Once I had the sail installed I made the mistake of looking outside. The previously blue sky was now filled with cummies. Somehow I didn’t feel so bad missing the flying when inside the hanger! I headed into town to get a late lunch when I heard Greg, Jeff, and Mark on the radio. Mark had already landed, but Greg was at 6500 feet floating over Lake Sunapee. I wished them luck, made sure they had drivers, and then hurried back to Morningside so I could at least get a late afternoon flight.

I quickly set up my glider and waited for a ride to the “450” launch to make sure everything still worked. John Z launched but slowly sank out. I helped another pilot launch and then ran off for a few passes along the ridge before heading across the street to aero tow. Rhett was giving “tall tows” today, but I got off in some light lift at the usual 2500 feet. I played around awhile over the valley and on the ridge behind Morningside for about an hour before landing back at the runway. After helping several other pilots launch, I followed Rhett up and across the river into some light “end-of-the-soaring-day” lift. I climbed to cloud base and then decided put my glider through some tests to see if it still behaved when flown very fast. I did some 85 mph runs across the valley in smooth air and everything was “right on the money”. I buzzed over the hill at Morningside and then landed back at the runway

I later heard that Greg flew 78 miles and Jeff landed about 15 miles short of Greg. I missed the XC flying, but it is good to know that my glider is once again in top shape and ready to race in Big Spring.