Sunday April 27th

A quiet day for club activities today. When I arrived Phil and Brett were readying the 1-26. Jack Hosp was met by another CAP pilot for some tow training. Kevin was out also and helped with ground operations. Phil flew the 1-26

I launched and found weak lift right off tow south of Hamilton. Venturing out to the west I worked up to cloud base which at the time was about 4,600. I started north towards a cloud over Morrisville but by the time I got there it was dissipating and only scattered weak lift and areas of sink remained. Flying back towards clouds to the south I received a call from a friend. I kept it brief explaining that I was out of gliding range of the airport, but no problem there was lift everywhere....

That jinxed it.

Now I couldn't find anything. The airport was disappearing behind the high ground to the west of the field. Along the way back a few minor diversions towards possible lift only teased me then let me down. Down to 1800 feet (700AGL) as crossed the hill I had enough energy for an abbreviated pattern. Just before entering a right base leg I felt a burble which built into 400 fpm and carried me to over 4,000. Eventually I was back up at cloud base which had risen to 5,200.

By now I could see our 1-26 and the tow plane headed for the tie-downs. I lower the nose and accelerate to 80 kts for descent. Everywhere I fly there is lift and I'm climbing. (I won't open the spoilers) I finally found some sink and circled in that. It took almost 20 minutes to loose 2,000 feet.

Total flight time 2hr 5min
George

Phil and the 1-26


At 5,000 feet


Looking west