![[nailed]](dezi_prank.jpg)
Dezi's prank up in Franconia last weekend
Dezi's prank up in Franconia last weekend
- Grant Rice
Since Saturday was my Duo day, it would normally rain. Peter Dandridge came up to Franconia, and we managed to float around for a bit over an hour under the overcast. No lift in the little hole over Cannon, but some in the black. Tried to get up in some weak wave, but it closed in above us so no dice. Came down and Gerry tried to give Heidi a ride, but the rain came - HARD! We got really wet putting it away and had to pull it out to dry Sunday. Took a couple of sled rides on Sunday (my wife, and a club-member's girlfriend). What lousy weather!
Hopefully better the next weekends...
- Dave Nadler
On Monday around 4:30pm, shortly after I found myself wondering, "Why am I still here at Franconia? I should just go home," Bob Boyd appeared in the living room of the Kinsman where the remaining few of us were all hanging out and warming up next to a fire. Bob exclaimed excitedly, "Have any of you people looked out to the West?!" We all turned around and to our surprise, we saw a beautiful blue sky.
We descended upon the airport in a frenzy, and I soon began to think that the blue sky was some kind of sucker hole because there was still a lot of clouds around, and they appeared very low. The ridge was still partially obscured. Even so, it was flyable, which was more than it appeared to be earlier in the day, so I agreed to accompany Bob in the L-23. After a long discussion and review of the winds (which appeared to be out of the North/Northeast), we decided Cannon mountain was our best bet. Fortunately for us, Shawn wasn't aware of this discussion and pulled us up towards Kinsman, where we were happy to find the other gliders he had towed soaring the ridge at a higher altitude than us.
We ended up with quite a pleasant flight up and down the ridge as the sun was getting lower. At times, the sky was clearer than others, and we eventually cruised around at 4,500 or so AGL. We could see our shadow at times in the scud along the ridge, surrounded by a rainbow. It was lack of heat and light that eventually brought us down after about 1.5 hrs. What a nice surprise for a cloudy cold September day!!!
- Renee
I arrived at the field 3 pm Monday afternoon, to be told the operation had shut down. The forecast was for clearing late afternoon, and lo and behold, the overcast blew away to the south, replaced a few minutes later by cumulus at 4000, which had risen to 6000 feet by 4:30 pm. Bob Boyd hopped in his car and brought back Shawn. I and 4 others launched starting at 5 pm. I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes over Cannon and Lafayette.
Tuesday's conditions were essentially a full day of Monday's, with flights starting at before 10 am easily able to stay up on the ridge in the 15-knot north wind. I personally found thermals usually 7-8 knots (one 10-knot boomer) all day, and spent 5 and a half hours enjoying the ridge between Twin Mountain and Mount Moosilauke. I believe there were about a dozen launches.
- Gary Helmstetter
It will certainly please many of you to hear that the soaring weather in Arizona wasn't very good, either! This 3-day weekend saw the final days of the 2000 ASA race series coupled with 3 out of 5 days of the second annual "Southwest Soaring Championships" which are not SSA-sanctioned [we were too cheap to pay the sanction fee]. Saturday had over 20 of us lined up on the grid at Estrella Sailport and the high strato-cirrus layer put a lid on convection; at 13:30 the CD called the day but almost everybody launched anyway. I decided to head home and by the time I got halfway back to Phoenix I was seeing dust-devils move across the valley and found out that the day had gotten better and everybody had headed off XC in 3 knot thermals to 7000'msl (about 5500'agl). This was the first cancelled day for the whole season, not a bad statistical average.
Day 2 looked more promising and the task was called as a 180 mile quadrilateral south towards Tucson and the Mexican border. Lift over the valley topped out at 5000'agl and wasn't too strong, the hills generated better lift but topped out at 8000'msl or 5000'agl but it was enough to get us past the unlandable terrain to the southernmost turnpoints. On the way back I joined up with Alan Reeter in his LS-8 and Andy Durbin in his ASW-19 and flew with them in the waning thermals of the late afternoon. I left their weak thermal to find my own and found only sink, by the time I rejoined them I was about 1000' below them and below the lift band, so I headed for landable terrain and a fortuitous thermal saved me from a landing on a desert road. I was on the upwind leg for a landing at a private airstrip when I caught the edge of a 1/2 knot thermal which gave me enough altitude to head for home and I barely made it back to Estrella - unfortunately I couldn't make the last turnpoint and that killed my score for the day.
Day 3, Monday looked quite good and I was first in line (i.e. sacrificial lamb/sniffer) at 12:30. I released into a good thermal over the foothills and quickly got up to 8000' while the rest of the grid launched. I flew 30 miles up the Estrellas and back in good lift and was looking forward to a great day. I made it back just in time for the gate to open and joined "KC" in an LS-8 through the gate at 7000'msl. Since we didn't know what the valley would bring us we used just a bit over best L/D and flew in extremely still air about 30 miles. By this time we were below pattern altitude and not thinking nice thoughts about our CD... The first hint of unstable air and both of us cranked into tight turns in a 1/2 knot over a dirt (i.e. landable) field; we circled for about 15 minutes and were joined by "1X" (a Ventus). After gaining 1000 feet I decided to look for better air and headed off on course, finally finding a 2 knot thermal a couple of miles away. I heard the other two on the radio discussing landing direction and order so I knew I'd made the right decision. They landed safely and called in for retrieves, then I heard another glider call in a landing at the first turnpoint and another landing at a private strip over the flatlands; and I saw the Genesis circling low a mile or so away. By this time I realized that the task was impossible and headed back towards Estrella. The whole trip back was touch-and-go; my flight computer never read more than 200 feet below a 0 knot final glide and a small thermal towards the end of the flight got me to pattern altitude. I don't have the final tally but I do think that about half of the 20 ships landed out and I doubt that anybody made it around.
- Arnd.