Even the Buzzards Were Walking

I really needed to get away for a day, but it was still a tough decision to go flying this morning. The winds were forecasted to be totally calm, the lift was forecasted to be exceptionally weak to non-existent, and the first satellite image of the day showed cirrus covering most of New England. Did I really want to drive 5 hours for a sled ride? I guess so.

I was driving into Keene when I noticed that even the buzzards were walking. Not a good sign! Pete posted earlier that he was planning to be at the base of Mount Ascutney at 11, so I stopped by to say hello. I wasn’t going to hike into Ascutney for a sled ride so after waiting 20 minutes with no sign of pilots I headed to Morningside. The training hills at Morningside were covered with Falcons. I forgot how light wind days are desirable for training.

I was about to leave when Scott decided to drag his glider across the road for a quick tow. There were a couple wispy cummies around, but nothing that indicated it would be soarable. Rhett gave Scott the first-rate tour of the area and finally dropped him off across the river towards Springfield. Scott started turning and soon reported a 400 fpm climb. That was enough to get Dave D and I enthused for a flight. Meanwhile Pete showed up after hiking out to the launch at Ascutney without his glider and deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. Pete caught the contagion and also setup his glider.

Scott topped out the climb and headed back towards Morningside. He spent some time in a weak climb but soon was landing in light and variable winds. Meanwhile Dave launched into a tailwind and about belly landed shortly after launch. Dave got off after a high tow and was about to land when I launched.

Rhett and I ran into some light but widespread lift over the factories, so I pinned off and started a slow climb. After some snooping around I found a good 350fpm climb to over 5000 feet. Instead of moving on to something else, I tried to stay on the top of the thermal. Since there were no clouds, I could climb to the very top where the air slides off to all sides. It was fun playing around and trying to “balance on the top of the ball”.

I eventually tired of that game and tried to see what else might be working. The hottest looking spot, besides the metal roofs of the factories, was the Claremont airport. I went on a long smooth glide to the airport. I began to wonder if I made a bad choice, but I finally started hitting some turbulence and then another good climb back to 5800 feet. I continued moving around looking for “hot spots”. A couple of large parking lots provided some more climbs before I headed back towards Morningside to fly with Pete.

Pete had found a diffuse thermal that wandered all over the place. We climbed together for awhile before the little thermal died of exhaustion. I made a long glide over towards the river and the quarry, but I didn’t find anything this time. I did find a few reasonable bumps back of Morningside, but finally was forced to land. Pete landed just a minute after I did.
It wasn’t an epic flight by any measure, but it was fun to be in the air and somehow satisfying to squeeze 1.5 hours of flight from a stable day.

I had my first instruction flight with Rhett on the Dragonfly this evening. It became immediately apparent that it will take some time for me to get the feet and hands working together so I can coordinate my turns. I am really looking forward to my next lesson.