Down Along the River

Sunday was the best day in the surrounding five, so it was easy gathering pilots for a flight from Morningside Flight Park.  John Beckley and Jeff Curtis met at my place where we loaded up for the drive north.  Peter Judge was already at Morningside and arranged to have Marilyn Nichols drive for us.  Randy Brown followed later in his own car since he needed to get home early.  (Doug Brown and Todd Kellog also showed up).

The clouds were towering at 9am when we left eastern Massachusetts but the sky slowly dried out and was totally blue by Keene.  We interpreted the blue sky as a good thing since there was a chance of showers, and possibly hail, back home.

We rigged across the road since the ground, aside from the runway, was saturated.  After walking our gliders to the runway, we broke out our gloves, coats, and heats packs for a day of spring flying.  (The predicted freezing level was around 6500 feet (1980m), and the temperature at cloud base was 22F (-6C)).  Although I originally intended to fly east in a predicted northwest wind, the northerly drift of the clouds convinced me to cave to Peter and John's desire to go south along the Connecticut River.  Jeff launched first, then Peter, followed by me, and then John.

There were only a few anemic clouds overhead as we launched.  Not surprisingly, Jeff reported an initial climb rate of 82 fpm (0.4 m/s).  Oh joy.  I had a busy tow behind Eric but he dropped me into a solid 120 fpm climb so I was relatively happy.

I quickly drifted away, but flew back upwind to join Jeff and Peter in a climb at Morningside.  We again slowly climbed out and hoped to hookup with John.  Repeated calls to John went unanswered so we assumed he was either on the ground, busy, or had a broken radio.  (We found out later he could hear but couldn't transmit).

There was an obvious shear and transition layer around 4100 feet (1250m).  The wind changed direction to the northwest and the temperature was noticeably colder.  As expected it was cold at 8700 feet (2650m); the hose to my water pack froze solid.

Peter

I let Marilyn know Jeff, Peter, and I were leaving the area.

Jeff (lower right), Peter (lower center)

I flew crosswind to a forming cloud and was rewarded with a rowdy 1000 fpm (5m/s) climb.  While Jeff was also able to snag it, Peter missed it and was soon far below us.

Jeff

I took a long glide to a slow climb southeast of Fall Mountain and Bellows Falls.  I chuckled as Jeff, far to the north, tried to "center" me in a climb below him until he realized the lower glider was Peter.  I appreciated the gesture, though!

Jeff and Peter flew down the river valley as I stayed over the higher terrain to the east.  It became more and more tempting to scrap the "down the river" plan and fly into the lovely cloud field over the ocean of trees to the southeast as the wind aloft became more northwest and nothing but blue blanketed the river.

Walpole / Bellows Falls

Not wanting to deal with either the trees or a convoluted retrieve, I decided to stick with the original plan and kept flying directly crosswind into the blue to keep over the river.  I found a good climb in the notch where the river flows west before continuing south to Brattleboro.  I lost the climb while trying to locate Jeff and Peter and instead of taking the short-cut over the high ground, I continued pressing upwind to follow the river searching for a climb that would safely lift me over the congested area around Brattleboro.

Looking southwest towards Brattleboro

Unfortunately, I ended up trapped north of town hunting for what should have been an easy-to-find climb along the river. Finding lots of disturbed air but no lift I finally had to give up and retreat to a large field where, surprise, I found the thermal during my landing approach.

The air was nasty.  Although flying fast, the glider stalled and radically dropped towards the ground.  The field was big enough that I was able to continue directly onto final once the glider was flying again.  However, I was racing across the field at dangerous speeds in spite of heading into the prevalent wind direction.  I was bracing for a serious crash when my ground speed suddenly slowed and I started drifting to the right without changing my flight direction.  Airspeed evaporated and I flared with one hand still on the base bar.  Between the partially effective flare and the deep recently tilled soil I landed without injury.  (I later discovered a slight bow in my right upright.)

After some reflection I think I landed to the left a clear dust devil.  That would explain the frightening high-speed downwind final and the sudden switch in wind direction that carried me to the right.  In hindsight, it was kind-of cool flying forward but moving sideways.  At least until it was time to flare.  (I would not be able to run out a sideways landing in a plowed field.)

Both Jeff and Peter were on the ground by the time I called Marilyn.  She picked me up first since she was in Brattleboro and arrived before I finished packing.  Thanks!  After loading, we crossed the river to continue back north on the New Hampshire side.  We picked up Jeff near the bend in the river and Peter just north of the Route 12 and 63 intersection.  The driver insisted, with zero opposition from the pilots, that we stop for ice cream at the Walpole Scoop Shop.

What happened to John?  Well, I got a text message saying "Just landed at Tanner Hiller".  We thought he might be joking.  However, a few minutes later a phone conversation confirmed he landed 67 miles (108km) away at Tanner-Hiller Airport, where we tow up with Hang Glide New England.  Well done John!

After offloading Jeff and Peter's gliders at Morningside, I took off on the long drive to pick up John.  The glow of the setting sun was fading away when I arrived.  We talked with the airport manager, Bob, before leaving and then John regaled me with the details of his flight on our drive home.

Here is video from the flight.  (The camera stopped recording mid-way through the flight due to the cold).

Flights: 1, Duration: 1:45, Distance: 30 miles