Playing in the Valley

The rains that smothered New England finally abated as summer faded.  Although thermals were as energetic as a college student on Monday morning, it has been possible to eek out soaring flights.  A week ago Tuesday Peter J and I went to Morningside to launch off "Mount Rhett".  April, Clifton, Jim C, John P, PK, Tony, and a few others joined in the fun.

Rhett, Fay, and April

Aside from the clouds out of reach to the west, the day looked very stable.  I pointed out a sailplane climbing under those quickly drying clouds to the west.  We were briefly excited until the sailplane began sinking out and the nearby hawks were flapping.  John launched first but he and his Aeros Phantom were quickly back on the ground.  After some more hand-wringing Peter suited up so he could "take his sledder like a man".  I was also suiting up when I noticed a hawk circling to the northwest of the field and actually going up!

John's Phantom

While Rhett towed Peter somewhere high upwind, I told Fay I was going to "hang on" for awhile instead of pinning off early like I usually do.  However, when Rhett and I found a climb where I spotted the hawk minutes before, I released and started climbing.  Rhett dropped PK off over me just as Peter came cruising in overhead from the northeast.  After topping out around 850m (2800 feet), I ventured towards Mount Ascutney only to be slapped down.  (It doesn't take much slapping to be dragging your knuckles when you start at that altitude).  I returned, climbed up, and joined the crew which now included Jim.  We took turns marking climbs and sitting on the top of the stack.

We played around the valley like that until I decided to plow upwind past the factories.  Jim followed and stuck with me as we got lower and lower.  I finally had to give up and turn back to the field.  I found a broken little climb on the knob to the west and started climbing.  I could only manage to climb for 1/3 to 1/2 of each turn, but at least I was going up.  Jim joined at my level, but couldn't hang on.  I eventually bubbled up to Peter and PK before even my little partial thermal disappeared.

Southeast of Morningside

I used my 600m (2000 feet) to make a pass over the river and quarry before finding some buoyant air with Clifton low over the downwind end of the field.  I grabbed ahold of another baby thermal that was quickly drifting away from the field.  Peter and then Clifton succumbed to gravity while PK and I drifted away about 200m (700 feet) off the deck.  PK finally gave up as the thermal drifted up a valley away from the flight park.  I stayed with the immature thermal until it bloomed into the best climb of the day; dropping me off at 1350m (4400 feet) a couple miles (3 km) downwind.  I flew upwind and found a weak climb to park in while watching John land after his second flight and April and Tony scrap for weak lift upwind of the field.

Airstrip at Morningside from the south

I made another fruitless sweep around the area looking for lift and decided to buzz the crew on the ground and land.  However, April was coming into the pattern at the same time I was, so I just burned off my altitude and settled for a nice no-wind no-step landing after skimming along the runway.

Flights: 1, Duration: 2:04