Too Much of a Good Thing

A couple weeks ago, I tossed the camping gear into the Subaru for a weekend of flying in northern New England.  The first stop was Mount Ascutney.  The weather looked good, but not great.  You have to expect that in mid-August.  The regulars Jake, JJ, Peter, PK, Rodger, and Ryan were there as well as Greg, who wanted to check-out the launch on his way home from vacationing in Maine.

The wind was light and clouds anemic as we rigged.  I finally decided to go when the clouds starting filling in and birds started soaring a bit.  JJ decided to go at the same time and launched first despite recommendations from other pilots to "wait awhile".  He slowly floated above launch height much to everyone's surprise and delight.  Soon we were bobbing around enjoying the extremely smooth weak lift.

From right, Peter, Jake, and the next pilot to launch

Peter

Although the clouds continued to build and the air was buoyant, everyone except PK wondered at some point if their flight was ending.

Rodger pulled off a nice save while the rest of us continued circling like sharks around the top looking for our ride out.

Rodger is the little white dot in the lower left

I finally found the escape hatch behind launch.  I spun up in a tight little core that PK couldn't sink his teeth into, even though in came in over me.  I climbed to cloud base where I found smooth weak widespread lift.  I could fly just about anywhere I wanted.

I kept flying back upwind waiting for my buddies to climb up and join me before heading south along the Connecticut river.

My buddies are the dots near the lower center of the picture

After 3 or 4 return trips I started "pressuring" PK and others to take off even though they were not as high as me because it was quickly overdeveloping.  PK finally cut loose and we started heading south.

We had a buoyant glide south, but it was apparent that the clouds had overdeveloped and no sun was reaching the ground.  Although we were not sinking much, we couldn't find any climbs.

We both did our best to stay airborne hoping the clouds would dissipate allowing the sun to restart our thermal engine.  I found one pathetic climb south of Claremont NH, but despite our best efforts we very slowly settled onto the airstrip at Morningside.

PK banked up over the airstrip to the left

The rest of the pilots landed at the mountain roughly at the same time we did.  Although I didn't fly far or for very long I will remember this flight for the exceptionally smooth and gentle air.

We shared flying stories over dinner in town and later around the camp fire at Morningside.  I pitched my tent on a rock outcropping near the lower launch and watched the stars twinkle overhead as I wondered what tomorrow would bring.

Flights: 1, Duration: 1:40, Distance, 9.8 miles