We met Bob's daughter and son-in-law driving his truck down at the switchback on the way up. She was kind enough to ride back up and then drive my truck back to the bottom. The only other pilot there was Peter Klien, who offered to drive after he flew. Um, things are falling into place! Oh, did I mention that the slightly overdeveloped sky was now breaking up into nicely spaced cummies? :-)
Peter launched first while I was finishing my packing. I walked over to launch fully expecting to see him above us, but everyone on the ramp was looking down. Uh oh. He searched all along the ridge but was soon on the ground. Bummer. Peter's descent dampened the excitement and Dennis encouraged me to wait but it just looked too good to waste time on launch. With Bob's help I waited until the right cross was minimal and launched into a good climb. I made a few passes in front of launch, then started circling in the bowl, and didn't stop until I reached cloud base. I just hung out until they were ready to go. Dennis launched next, then Greg, and then Bob.
However, everyone else launched into a blue hole. After my initial climb I was able to glide to a solid thermal under a cloud upwind, but the guys on the ridge were not so lucky. Can you find Waldo, um, I mean Greg, below?
Bob landed and then a while later Greg. Greg just missed the elevator ride out by 5 minutes. Dennis was soon high enough to leave and as we drifted back in a climb, I asked him where he wanted to go. I was assuming the question was about which cloud to the east or southeast to glide to, but Dennis answered north and took off. Uh? What? Wait for me! The original plan was to head east, but apparently Dennis thought a cloud base of 5500 feet (1600 m) was too low to cross the Green Mountains. I didn't want to fight a 13 mph (21 kph) cross wind that would be blowing us away from LZs into parts of the Green Mountains with nothing but trees and deep ravines. I assured him there were LZs all along Route 103 to the east, that I would hang with him, and besides that, we would go slow and stay high. Taking a play from his playbook I then took off to the southeast. Dennis followed and we climbed out together over the town of Rutland. He was a little reluctant to glide to a climb over the trees south of Kilington but once committed he was fine. (He said something that at least he would have the pleasure of seeing me splat before he went in!) We cut the corner north of the Rutland airport and stayed north of Route 103 and its LZs.
I never got below 4500 feet and spent most of the time between 5000 and 5500. Every young cloud produced a usable climb. We would glide to the southeast and drift in climbs to the east. We had one very sweet run near cloud base that deposited us just north of Mount Okemo in Ludlow. Here's Dennis climbing over some lakes. Greg, who relieved Peter of his driving duties, was following below and had us in his sights.
Bob landed and then a while later Greg. Greg just missed the elevator ride out by 5 minutes. Dennis was soon high enough to leave and as we drifted back in a climb, I asked him where he wanted to go. I was assuming the question was about which cloud to the east or southeast to glide to, but Dennis answered north and took off. Uh? What? Wait for me! The original plan was to head east, but apparently Dennis thought a cloud base of 5500 feet (1600 m) was too low to cross the Green Mountains. I didn't want to fight a 13 mph (21 kph) cross wind that would be blowing us away from LZs into parts of the Green Mountains with nothing but trees and deep ravines. I assured him there were LZs all along Route 103 to the east, that I would hang with him, and besides that, we would go slow and stay high. Taking a play from his playbook I then took off to the southeast. Dennis followed and we climbed out together over the town of Rutland. He was a little reluctant to glide to a climb over the trees south of Kilington but once committed he was fine. (He said something that at least he would have the pleasure of seeing me splat before he went in!) We cut the corner north of the Rutland airport and stayed north of Route 103 and its LZs.
I never got below 4500 feet and spent most of the time between 5000 and 5500. Every young cloud produced a usable climb. We would glide to the southeast and drift in climbs to the east. We had one very sweet run near cloud base that deposited us just north of Mount Okemo in Ludlow. Here's Dennis climbing over some lakes. Greg, who relieved Peter of his driving duties, was following below and had us in his sights.
We got a nice view of the Mount Okemo ski area as we were leaving.
Once past Mount Okemo we had plentiful LZs on our way to Mount Ascutney to the east. We were also gliding downwind instead of gliding crosswind.
We stopped for a developing thermal in the blue on the way to Mount Ascutney over familiar territory. I was down to 3500 feet but didn't want to leave the climb until I saw something better. Dennis took off to the south side of Ascutney to a cloud that was collapsing by the time he got there. Meanwhile my thermal was blooming into a 500 fpm climb that took me back to 6000 feet. I crossed over Ascutney at cloud base and started a long glide to the other side of Claremont to a line of flat bottom clouds that extended beyond Mount Kearsarge.
We stopped for a developing thermal in the blue on the way to Mount Ascutney over familiar territory. I was down to 3500 feet but didn't want to leave the climb until I saw something better. Dennis took off to the south side of Ascutney to a cloud that was collapsing by the time he got there. Meanwhile my thermal was blooming into a 500 fpm climb that took me back to 6000 feet. I crossed over Ascutney at cloud base and started a long glide to the other side of Claremont to a line of flat bottom clouds that extended beyond Mount Kearsarge.It was about 4:30 so I guessed we had a couple hours of flying left. Just then Dennis called on the radio "MAYDAY MAYDAY, I'm hurt!" I've never heard anyone use that term in real life and a shot of fear went right through me. I answered his call and asked his condition and location. He said he either broke his leg or ankle and couldn't move. I started getting location information and relayed between Dennis and Greg. I soon spotted Greg in my truck and gave him explicit directions to Dennis' location in a wheat field on the Vermont side of the river due east of Ascutney. Apparently Dennis landed in a mature wheat field, flared high over the tops of the grain as expected, but twisted his ankle when he landed. Once Greg was with Dennis I turned south and went to Morningside assuming I could bum a ride to the hospital and maybe get help breaking down Dennis' glider. Greg wanted to take Dennis directly to the hospital, but Dennis wasn't going to leave the field until his glider was broken down. At that point I knew the injury wasn't life threatening! Furthermore, I got a call on my cell phone saying they were driving 20 minutes in the wrong direction to pick me up before going to the hospital!
Once they picked me up we headed to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon New Hampshire. The building and staff were nice but we still had to wait in the emergency area for the usual collection of weekend warrior injuries and health ailments. We eventually discovered that Dennis broke two different bones in his ankle and he would need to have surgery to secure the breaks. Oh joy. Dennis would have to wait a few days for the swelling to go down before they could do the surgery so they would release him later that night. Dennis' wife Anne and his daughter arrived at 11:00 and around 11:30 Greg, Anne, and I headed towards Rutland to start retrieving vehicles. I dropped Greg off at Rutland, Anne at Ludlow, and then drove home. Thank goodness for rumble strips! I got home just before 4:00 am.
Time: 3:34, Distance: 41.2 miles
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