Oh, a trip report is what you want, is it? OK, OK. Ritts Howard, Peter Stauble, Bob Boyd, and myself left Nashua airport in a Skylane around 9:45 this morning. The forcast said ceilings of 4100 feet but what we had was 2200 with occasional breaks. Ceiling gradially lifted to around 2500 by the time we got to Concord. The question of the moment was, on top of the clouds or under - I decided for under. As we approached Franconia Notch, the ceiling went up to 3000 MSL - not high enuf to skoot to the west and around Kinsman, so we went through the notch. As soon as we cleared the Cannon (Canon?) ski area we were in clear, air. No clouds. Hind sight being what it is, on top would have been better... oh, well.
The original plan was to tow one 2-33 at a time to Dean Memorial airport and then launch a double tow from there. However, a nice 10-12 knot wind was out of the south and a decision was made to launch the double tow directly from Franconia - and it was so... err, done. Fifteen minutes after the double tow departure, Jeff Orchard, Jim David, and Dave Zlotek arrived via ground transportation. Jim and Jeff started to take the 1-26 apart while Dave and I went dowtown to bring back some sandwiches. Upon return, I stuffed all of our tiedowns, radio gear, and battery chargers in the Skylane and departed in somewhat deteriorating weather - not bad weather, to be sure, but I've seen it nicer :-). The trip back required some detours to avoid rain showers and I arrived at Sterling a few minutes ahead of the double tow.
The double tow, incidentally, chose the up and over route.
- Tony Verhulst
End of the Soaring Report