Cold Gray Gift

The bare brown ground provides evidence that the weather is unusual this winter.  Temperatures just above freezing, light winds, and the promise of a snowless climb to the mountain top was enough to entice me and 4 other pilots to Mount Tom.  The prediction of full cloud cover and temperatures just above freezing keep many others away.  Karim and Terry were in the parking lot when I arrived at 11am.  They were waiting for John and Pete to arrive since they needed those mentors to fly.  After a bit of covid-19 distanced conversation, we agreed to meet John and Pete on top.

Aside from a few ice slicks from weeping springs, the hike up was dry and surprisingly comfortable.  I wondered what we would find on top.  Launch was frosted with snow, but ice free.  The wind was wafting in but not really enough for a restricted rocky cliff launch.  We started debating if we could pull up our gliders in the puffs coming in and would it get better later.  The winds were predicted to subside during the day and there wasn't enough sun to heat the rock wall to produce thermals.  Fidgeting ensued.

A couple short windows with a light breeze, enticed me to try launching.  I had no expectation of soaring; I was just hoping to play a bit in the stable air and avoid a walk down.  As I laid out, the breeze increased a bit more and I mentioned it might even be soarable.  It took me 3 attempts to get airborne.  The first was a typical Mount Tom "avoid getting plucked" timid pull-up that never got the glider off the ground.  I should have gone with the 2nd, but the 70 degrees crosswind caught me off guard and I didn't want to dance around and possibly lay the glider in the shrubs surrounding the narrow launch.  I was ready the 3rd time.

I picked a nice cycle, pulled up, and flew off into climbing air.  I flew south and yelled out to Peter who was trying to launch from the west launch.  The pilots on the main launch were now ready to fly!

Climbing was no problem, but the bumpy texture was surprising.  Maybe I stumbled into a weak thermal.  However, the climb and bumps consistently continued as I flew along and then out from the ridge.  Um.  I continued flying out and up until the lift became buttery smooth and the wind speed increased to 22 - 25 kph.  Ah, weak wave!  Once I figured that out, I mapped out the wave and floated to 600m without working.

Karim and Terry eventually got airborne and took in the frosty winter-but-not-winter views.  Terry was losing feeling in his fingers about the time Pete launched.  The wave had collapsed by that time and we found weak thermals to circle up in.  John, left on launch by himself, had to get creative to get off the rock.  I stayed airborne until he was safely in the air and then I landed to thaw my hands and say hello to Pat.

It is rewarding to escape the ground in winter and a bonus to launch into soarable conditions for a couple hours when expecting much less.

I posted the flight on Leonardo.

Here is a gray video from the flight.