The sky looked very good from the ground and I found 3 to 4 knot lift immediately off tow to cloudbase at around 4700 feet above sea level. Headed for Orange and thought better of it 6 or 7 miles short when I could not see any sun on a very large area of ground ahead. Instead, I turned north toward a dam in Templeton that I have used for a turn-point. After rounding Birch Hill Dam, I found a thermal nearby with 5 knots to 5000 feet and headed south. There was a cloud street pointing toward Palmer (Metropolitan) and I followed that until it got very dark under over-development. I flew along a line of hills that had sun on them along the East Side of the Ware River, nothing workable there. Passing Ware Airport I was getting a good close look at the colorful foliage and I began paying close attention to height needed to get into Palmer. South of the airport over a sun-lit group of buildings I managed a low save with a weak thermal. I left when I had enough height to get around Palmer and back to Tanner-Hiller where there was less over-development. Again below 2000 feet above sea level at Tanner-Hiller I found another good thermal and thought about going north to Ft. Devens or maybe Pepperell. Things seemed generally to be going soft so I turned around at Shirley while I still had final glide made for home. A good flight for October, 102 miles, some challenges and great scenery.
Mark Koepper
ASW-20 MK
Saturday started off with clear skies with a few wisps here and there. As the morning wore on, CUs started developing in the area and by noon there were clear skies overhead and cloud streets north of the airport. Dave Z. suggested we go to 4000 feet and give it a try and I readily agreed despite disparaging remarks from everyone waiting in line behind me for the 2-33 (only Joao, actually).
We launched at 1238 and Dave immediately began working on my poor towing technique. He's been instructing me in the Tao of Tow - the tow plane shall remain motionless on the horizon (and the only forces imparted to the occupants of the glider shall be on a perpendicular to their butts). Fot the most part, it was working and we had a smooth ride to altitude.
We released at 4000 feet agl right under a cloud a couple of miles northwest of the airport. We went searching for lift along the edges of the clouds. We were consistently finding several hundred feet per minute up but having trouble maintaining it for more than a revolution. After 15 or 20 minutes, we were at 2600 feet.
Dave decided to get serious and pointed us to a farm with 20 or so acres of green pasture amongst the trees. Working between the pasture and the cloud edges with shallow turns, we got back up to 3000 feet. I'm not sure how he found the lift, but whenever I suggested a direction, Dave would say something like "try 20 degrees to the left." and he was always right.
At about 3000 feet, Dave took the controls. I had been maintaining an airspeed of 40 to 45 in the turns (most of the time, anyway). Dave dropped it to 35 to 40, requiring full motion of the stick, and quickly had us at 3500 feet. We decided to try to get back to release altitude, although we thought the lift might peter out before then.
I took over at 3500 feet, trying to emulate his slow flight. At one point, I mistook a stall shudder for a thermal bounce, losing a hundred feet in the process. Within a few minutes, Dave tapped me on the shoulder - we were at 4000. I straightened out, exulted in the ride, and prepared to return to the airport. Suddenly, we were at 4500 feet and nearing IFR conditions. I pushed the stick forward to 80 or 90 mph to no avail. Dave suggested sternly that full dive brakes were in order while the ground was still visible.
On the way down, we practiced slips, turning slips, slips and turns - what a luxury - and still altitude to burn. We entered the downwind pattern at 1000 feet, turned short on base to account for the headwind, slipped onto final, and headed straight down the runway, touching down at 1338 and stopping within five feet of the taxi way at the end of the T hangar. What a flight!
I get a 1:00 in my logbook tacked on to all those :12s and :18s. Dave Z., having had another 1 hour flight a few weeks ago with Frank Dimeo, gets to be known among the instructors as Zoarro.
John Fallon