Still a newbie at this, I looked at the weather and thought to myself, “It’s gonna be a really nice day, but there’s hardly any wind forecast and the cloud bases are expected to be 4500′-5000′ ” OK, but not a “great” soaring day. Was I ever wrong…
Clear skies at 7 am with zero wind, arrived at the airport at 9:40 and met junior member Calvin. Alasdair (tow pilot) and Bill (instructor pilot) had already arrived, so flying got off to an early start. Calvin’s first few flights were expected to be a tow to pattern altitude for a quick release and landing…not much thermal activity expected that early in the morning. Surprisingly, they stayed aloft for nearly a half hour the first two flights, and an hour or more on their third.
By then, four club members had arrived and were in various stages of preflight prep, Andy was taking the club 1-34 off its tiedown, and Brian, Greg and Erik were pulling their gliders out of their trailers. Bill and Jerry were pulling i1 out of the hangar.
In all, there were twelve launches. Erik was aloft more than five hours, Greg and Brian a close 2nd and 3rd. Andy was 4th only because he had a delayed start. Bill reported climbing to 6900′ and Eric to 7,900′
Lots happening at the airport in the next several weeks…beginning next Saturday and for the following week, Civil Air Patrol is conducting a Glider Flight Academy. Prior Academies have drawn kids from across the US to fly at Springfield. This is a link to an excellent video from the Glider Academy a few years ago.
There’s a second CAP Glider Academy at Springfield the 16th to 20th of August that corresponds to NESA’s hosting the Women Pilot’s Soaring Association at Springfield on the same dates. It ought to be a busy week.
NESA will be operating normally throughout all the activities, and we’re looking for volunteers to help out the week of the WSPA seminar.
