10 Days of Non-Stop Flying - 2008 Wave & Mountain Flying Camp

Too much of a good thing.....is never enough....

By all accounts, the 2008 edition of the Lake Placid mountain & wave flying camp was a stunning success. A mix of thermal, ridge and wave conditions prevailed throughout the camp. On some days, a combination of all three where used by pilots. Where else but in the mountains can you still find 2 kt lift at 5:30 PM in October or climb to 11,000 ft on a day with solid overcast! A short summary of each day follows.

Sat. Oct. 4th

The Puchacz and L33 were trailered to Lake Placid on Friday so rigging proceeded quickly on Saturday morning. Martin and Tommy (in the Stinson) and Paul (in the Pawnee) arrived around 10:00 AM and by noon the flight line was in full swing. Nick and Tim also arrived later with their able aircraft and were quickly airborne. A combination of thermal cloud streets and ridge lift over the Sentinel Mts. kept everyone airborne. The Puchacz and L33 were tied down beside Andrew’s campsite, a true glider pilot haven…

Sunday Oct. 5th

Flight operations were underway by 11:00 with similar calm wind conditions and slightly more cloud. Ridge and thermal lift (go figure) kept folks up for the day. The Sentinel Mts. looked to kicking up a wave over the Keene valley but no one connected, even though the wave window was quite evident (as shown in the photo).

Monday Oct. 6^th

The temperature dropped quite radically on Monday as the clouds cleared out Sunday evening. Andrew captured the frosty morning scene best with a picture. Ridge, thermal and weak wave (over Heart Lake) where the order of the day. As the wind died later in the day, thermal lift over the Sentinel Mts. kept working until almost 6:00 PM.

Tuesday Oct. 7th

Our first real wave day! Although the winds

were weak and variable, wave to 8000 ft. was present in the vicinity of Algonquin Mountain. Flying continued until 17:30.

Wednesday Oct. 8^th

Another wave day! The calm winds of the morning changed by 13:00 to a WSW flow. Carl and George (RVSS) launched in their Twin Astir with Andrew D. and Wolfgang in hot pursuit with the Puchacz. Carl and George connected first over Heart Lake and rode the wave to over 11,000 while Wolfgang and Andrew in the Puchacz capped out at 9300 ft. Later team A2 (Andrew D. and Andrew K.) launched in the Puchacz at 17:00 and also connected with wave to 8500 ft landing with the runway lights at 18:30. On landing, the grins on the faces of all the pilots were priceless! As the photo shows, life of a tow pilot when the wave is working can be quite relaxing after the gliders are launched!

Thursday Oct. 9^th

The day started and remained sunny but with much stronger winds (10 kts with gusts to 20 kts). The only disappointing part was that the wind direction of 240 degrees was good only for wave off the smaller peaks. That being said we still had three flights all over an hour in a mix of wave and thermal conditions.

Friday Oct. 10^th

The first of the big three days of the long weekend. Another sunny day with light NW winds. 11 flights with the longest over 4 hours. Strong thermals (2 - 4 kts avg.) choked off any wave activity below 6000 ft. Flights durations and XC flying through the high peaks region was the activity of the day. Andre Pepin (MSC) took off on a short XC flight to Elizabethtown and Saranac Lake airport. Sunny, upwind, rocky sides and peaks of mountains generated thermals through to 18:00 hrs.

Saturday Oct. 11^th

A sixteen flight wave and thermal day! A few pilots went off and explored the MacKenzie mountain range NE of Lake Placid and were rewarded with strong thermals and wave. Ian grant connected with wave directly over the Lake moved over the Whiteface mountain and climbed to 11,000 ft. As the wind died down later in the day, pilots migrated to the Sentinel Mts. to take advantage of the prevailing winds kicking off late day thermals. High level wave activity was visible in the cirrus clouds near the end of the day. A boisterous campfire party at Andrew & Brenda’s campsite finished the day off with a bang!

Sunday Oct. 12^th

Another sunny day with a more stable air mass. Weak winds would not allow for wave conditions so pilots once again resorted to thermal flying throughout the high peaks region. 15 flights with flight operations closing down at 18:00 hrs.

Monday Oct. 13^th

The surprising last day. The day remained overcast (clouds at 13,000 ft) but the lack of thermal activity and calm but steady winds set up wave conditions at Whiteface Mt. Soon the skies over Whiteface were filled with gliders on what would be considered back at Pendleton a “sled ride” day. Martin (flying the L33) even managed to capture some beautiful video of the Puchacz in wave over Whiteface. After politely reminding everyone that the Puchacz and L33 needed to be derigged and the Pawnee flown home, flight operations ended at 14:00 and the glider trailers and Pawnee

So ended the 2008 Lake Placid wave/mountain flying camp. 10 straight days of thermal, ridge and wave flying.

By the last weekend there were 10 gliders on site along with the GGC Pawnee and MSC L-19 tow plane. The Pawnee helped out the L-19 with the launch backlog on Sat. and Sunday to get anyone who wanted to fly up in the air. The Puchacz and Twin Grob (RVSS) provided yeoman service in checking out new pilots and sharing learning experiences of flying in the mountains. At one point late in the week, a glider pilot was even heard to mutter one morning, “do we have to fly again”. The great weather provided little opportunity for hiking or playing ground based tourist activities for most pilots. That being said, Andrew D. still managed to hike to the top of Algonquin Mountain, Brendra and Andrew K. took a ride down the Olympic bobsled run at Mt. Van Hovenburg while Joan and Lucile climbed Cascade Mt.

Thanks to everyone who helped and participated in making this year’s camp such a success! Special thanks to the pilots and staff of Adirondack Flying Services at Lake Placid airport for their first rate hospitality.

Roger

A 3 Dimensional GGC Weekend!

Saturday 20 September was an eventful day at three different locations for GGC. Gatineau Airpark, Pendleton Aerodrome and Lake Placid, NY.



Vintage Wings Canada, Mike Potter's Flying Aviation Museum held its 'Battle of Britain', open house celebration day. The GGC Puchacz, flown by Paul and Doug was aerotowed over to Gatineau Airpark by Andrew in the Citabria. The day started an hour earlier than expected as Doug received a phone call late on Friday afternoon requesting that we arrive at Gatineau an hour earlier than planned due to the large contingent of visiting aircraft and Warbirds expected. This message arrived too late to contact the GGC participants who had already left their places of work or homes. However Doug, with the able help of new GGC member, Michael Friederick (MANY THANKS MIKE), who was having an early morning coffee on the Clubhouse verandah, opened the hangars, DI.ed the Puchacz, and got things setup on the flightline. We rudely awakened Andrew who was still asleep in his trailer, and took off enroute for Gatineau, only about 10 minutes behind schedule. We were told to orbit over the Ottawa river, about five kms short of Gatineau, for another 10 minutes, while a European Alphajet did a flyby and circuit and landing ahead of us. Then, not to be outdone, once cleared to land, we released over the airfield and did a high speed circuit and approach down the runway at about one metre height and turned onto the taxiway, clearing the active runway, so as not to hold operations, and were then pushed to our static display location. There was a lot of interest in the glider throughout the day, by several who were previous glider pilots and were contemplating the possibility of returning to the sport.


The high points of the flying displays were flybys of an assortment of WW II aircraft that included: two Spitfires, two Hurricanes, two Mustangs, a Corsair, and the Lancaster, four-engined bomber. The sounds of all those Rolls-Royce merlins were music to the ears. There were also, excellent aerobatics displays by a Pitts Special, a big 450 HP Stearman, and a three aircraft formation aerobatics team of Harvard trainers. Then the Puchacz was towed out from Gatineau at about 1500 hrs, just before the next NOTAM closed down the airfield, and was flown out by Paul and Daniel while Doug drove Dan's car back to Pendleton.


Meanwhile, south of the border, fall wave flying kicked off with an advance team from MSC, RVSS and GGC starting wave camp operations in Lake Placid. XS, AT and IAK were the first to taste Adirondack wave in 2008. Stay tuned for reports from our wave camp fly week (Oct.4th through 13th)





However, the real highlight of the day back at Pendleton, was the first solo flight in the ASK-13 by Emma Walker. Emma is only 14 and soloed after only 37 flights, a true accomplishment. CONGRATULATIONS EMMA. Emma's mother and father, Alex and Ron watched anxiously as Norm Fortin sent her off, and their pride and joy flew the nest and found that true freedom in the silent world aloft, now free from those pesky instructional comments from the back seat drivers ringing in her ears. After landing, Emma was chased around the airfield and doused with water, as is the custom, by a flock of young damsels from her Pony Club. This is only about the second time in the last decade that we have had a 14-yr. old go solo at our Club.


Doug & Roger

Photos: D. Duclos, S. Hildesheim, Doug L-L

GGC Welcomes Another Romeo!

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?…Look no further than right under your nose in the Lacasse hangar at GGC!
Welcome to the newest member of the GGC fleet. On August 16th, our newest L-33 solo (C-GGHC – contest letters “Tango Romeo”) arrived at Pendleton after a long journey that originated in Pemberton BC.

Rigging was straightforward and I think you will agree that the “TR” is in very nice condition. "TR" well equipped for cross country flying with a Borgelt B50 flight computer coupled with a PDA running Winpilot.

The paint scheme is certainly eye-catching! “TR” is now rigged, airworthy and ready to go along with our other L-33, "Echo Romeo". The first flight at GGC was flown by Martin, the picture says it all…

(photos: Martin Lacasse & Dan Duclos)

Cheers,

Roger

2008 Cadet Advanced Soaring Week

Flight training of young pilots and Pendleton Aerodrome. A tradition since 1942 when it all began as #10 Elementary Flight Training School (EFTS)! (check out the MayFly section of our website for an interesting historical photo).

The week of August 18-22 saw GGC host the 4^th annual Royal Canadian Air Cadet advanced soaring fly week for the top cadet from each of the 5 regional gliding schools across Canada. Two cadet 2-33s where also flown into Pendleton the previous week to allow the cadet to solo fly aircraft that they are familiar with between advanced soaring instructional flights with GGC members in GGC 2-seat aircraft.

On average, 20 to 40 flights where flown daily by the cadets and GGC instructors throughout the very hot and dry week. Cadets where given instructional/familiarization flights in thermalling, cross-country flying and glider aerobatics. Evening lectures covered FAI badge flying/requirements and introductions to effective thermalling techniques, speed to fly and a dose of cross country theory with plenty SeeYou flight file analysis.

The enthusiasm and skill of these young pilots combined with the leadership/professionalism of their DND officers coupled the volunteer efforts of GGC instructors, tow pilots and members help to make this event a marquee event of cadet/civilian gliding cooperation in Canada. GGC is proud to support this training event again in 2008 and extends a proud “Bravo Zulu” to this year’s 5 top cadet glider pilots.

Cheers,

Roger

2008 Eastern SAC Instructor Course

In spite of a very pessimistic weather forecast, GGC hosted the 2008 Soaring Association of Canada (SAC) eastern instructor course Aug. 4-8. Three candidates from three eastern Canadian clubs where put through their paces by course director (or was that “Oberfeldwabel”) Richard Sawyer. Flexibility was the key in timing the flying and classroom lectures and in the end all candidates managed to get the necessary flying exercise completed between the daily mid-afternoon “monsoons”. All candidates agreed that they had learned a lot about the art and technique of instructing and were very appreciative of Richard’s teaching style.

Well done Richard!

Cheers,
Roger

A Different Perspective

I took my 6 yr old for her first glider ride on Sunday. Here's the picture she drew later, showing the relative importance of things to her - the people are quite large and that little towplane thingie barely registers!

Cheers,

Mark E.
(editors note: Mark is an accomplished tow pilot and gliding instructor who is now torn as to what his daughter really thinks he flies best!)

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby!

It was the second day (July 2nd) of the cross-country seminar held by Ian Grant at the GGC. The Freedoms Wings Twin Astir had been flown to the Aviation Museum for Canada Day and the Puchacz was used as a replacement for Freedom Wings operations. To progress toward my bronze badge, Ian suggested I try to complete a two-hour flight in Echo Romeo, one of our L-33 Solos. On the next day, I would carry out the off-field landing exercises with him in the Puchacz.

Around 11 o’clock, the little Cu’s forming above Rockland looked pretty appealing, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, which in itself was a reason to celebrate given all the rain we had in June.

As I was being towed, my mind wandered and I imagined Rosie Vella and Jeff Lynne singing “Mr. Blue Sky”: “It’s stopped rainin’, ev’rybody’s in a play and don’t you know, it’s a beautiful new day hey, hey”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ncxw1xfck&feature=related

With Rosie’s voice in the back of my mind, I admired the scenery and did not pay attention to the distance covered on the ground and the large expanse of forest separating me from the field. More than seven kilometers away from the threshold of runway 26, as I reached cloud base, I decided to cut the umbilical cord at 2,000 feet, under an irresistible little puffy cloud.

This turned out to be a case of premature release but I was in the same frame of mind as Pepé Le Pew, not realizing that I was about to engage in a game where my ardor would only meet strong resistance. But as Pepé would say, getting there is half the fun and, besides, a true gentleman must be prepared for anything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLrF-IwF2hk

Well, anything but lift. It seemed that my presence in that sector had the effect of repelling every thermal I would try to sniff. My heart was sinking as quickly as Echo Romeo, with no Juliet in sight. As I circled for lift, I quickly glanced at the airfield and realized I was in trouble.

So, I headed south over the long series of farmers’ fields, pleading with Mother Nature for some lift and thinking about another Jeff Lynne’s famous song, used by NASA as the wake-up call song for space shuttle astronauts:

Don’t bring me down, Gruß!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_67S-IRgw

Well, Mother Nature was not receptive either. My trajectory resembled a lawn dart’s and like an astronaut, I was about to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. The only thing left to do was to choose the site of my retrieval. I selected the closest field to runway 08, landing parallel to the road hoping to stop close to a culvert as the ditch was deep and full of water.

The next song that came to my mind was: Hold on tight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLmpL2AzLs

The touch down happened very quickly and felt like Mother Nature had kicked me in the backside. However, as I opened the canopy, a gentle breeze caressed my face. As Pepé would say, stop resisting me! Ian still had me pass the off-field landind test the next day but why fake it when you can experience the real thing?

Once on my feet, I transmitted my position to Norm, my tow pilot, and was soon greeted by a retrieving crew “extraordinaire”, composed of nothing less than the wife and daughter of our President, as well as Wolfgang and Jimmy, the only other student attending the seminar. The most charming half of the crew was immediately sent on a diplomatic mission to the farmer’s house and everything went smoothly from that point on.

As soon as we returned to the Club, I learned that Karl had “discovered” yet another great landing field near Cassleman and I teamed up with Ron Smith for another retrieve.

On that memorable Canada Day, I not only experienced my first landing out but also acquired lots of experience derigging and rigging Club ships. As I left the field, looking at the sunset, I consoled myself thinking that even the sun lands out at the end of each day!

Your Reporterus Maximus,

J. Marc

GGC/Freedoms Wings Canada Fly Week

The week of July 1-7 saw GGC once again hosting the Freedoms Wings Canada (FWC) Twin Astir glider in conjunction with a club fly week. GGC even had a special guest on the first day of the week. Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau was on site to check out the FWC activities and even go for a glider flight himself (with Doug in back) using the hand controls of the FWC twin. (photo: D. Duclos).

Flight activity averaged approximately 28 flights daily. Mike Clarke, Canada's first paraplegic glider pilot, was also up to visit and take a couple flights at our airfield. Mike assists with the running of FWC at York Soaring (near Toronto) and is a very capable glider pilot using the hand controls. Those of us in the GGC that have tried flying with hand controls will attest to the mental skill required, and to the extreme value that is suddenly applied to "flying the yaw string", and hence the glider.

Kyle McKeown and his mother Colleen were also up visiting from York Soaring to help out throughout the week. 16 year old Kyle glides with York and they camped out in our recently cleaned carpenter shop for the duration of the week. THANKS KYLE and COLLEEN.

July 7 marked the end of the GGC/FWC Fly-Week with a hot, humid sunny day. Then in the heat of the afternoon, a stalwart group of GGC members laboured over the dis-assembling of the FWC Twin Astir, and putting it into the trailer for the return trip to York Soaring. GGC will be significantly expanding it’s role in the FWC flying program in 2009. Stay tuned for more news and details later this year.

IT WAS A GREAT FLY-WEEK and THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED.

Doug L-L

2008 Edition - GGC Lobster Party

Once again we hosted our annual lobster party. As you can see, the kids were getting right into the festivities while the "grown-ups" looked after the cooking and spraying the cooking fires to keep the pots from boiling over.

Well, and the "grown-ups" also found that spraying each other would also help keep themselves cool...even though glider pilots don't need water to be cool...

Cheers,

Roger

New Solo & Back to Basics

Saturday 14 June didn't look like a promising day with overcast leaden skies and haze and mist around the horizon but Denis, a Boeing 747 Flight Engineer, and owner of a Cessna 172, was 'put through the wringer' by Doug and set free for 25 minute solo flight.

Not content with one major event for the day, Doug then had the pleasure of a couple of flights, as ballast and safety pilot, with our former GGC President, statesman, and general club maestro, Ray, who after his recent year's experience flying his Ultralight, hasn't forgotten a thing about flying without a motor.

Special thanks to Mark for the tows.

Cheers,

Doug L-L

GGC at Vintage Wings

Early on June 7th, an intrepid group of GGC pilots launched from Pendleton to participate in the 2008 edition of the Vintage Wings fun day at Gatineau airport. Andrew, Doug and Martin gave visitors the grand tour of the Puchacz and explained the virtues of our “environmentally friendly” sport.

After a long day in the sun (and +30 degree C temperatures), QIH (our trusty Citabria) pulled our aviators back to Pendleton for a well deserved refreshment (or two!). Thanks to everyone who helped make our display such a success!

Cheers,

Roger
(Photos J.M Gagnon)

Clubhouse Exterior TBO - 17 Years

The exterior of our clubhouse has been the focus of some intense TLC over the last few weeks as it was time to sand and re-stain the exterior wood after 17 years of Eastern Ontario winters. The first wave of sanding lead by Greg and Brenda got things ready two weeks ago.

After looking at a less than pleasant weekend weather forecast, Dan put the staining bug in everyone’s ear and by Saturday Martin had gathered the work materials and volunteers started showing up. By the end of the day Sunday, work was well underway with most of the front and back of the clubhouse being completed.

We are still a few weekends away from completing so stay tuned for pictures later this season of the finished product.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in.

Cheers,

Roger

(Photos: Dan Duclos)

There is no Shame in Landing Out - MayFly 2008

This was the phrase chanted by all pilots at every daily briefing of the GGC MayFly contest. 11 pilots from three local gliding clubs (and of course GGC) flew in the 10th anniversary edition of MayFly.

Three flying days out of a 4 day contest! Listening to the weather forecast on the Thursday before the May long weekend contest you would have thought that we would have been rained out. However, glider pilot enthusiasm and careful launch timing allowed us to fly for three days.

The top three pilots:
#1 Tim Forbes (RVSS)
#2 Team Jantar (GGC Remi & Karl)
#3 Udo Rumpf

Flights were reviewed every night and a do it yourself grill was the order of the day for Saturday evening.

The pictures say it all...

Mid-Week Flying Underway for 2008

Mid-week flying at GGC is back in full form for 2008.
Today saw three more GGC pilots receiving their annual check flights. By early afternoon, thermals were producing average climb rates of 6 kts.







Doug, Remi and Karl each managed 3 hour flights topping out at over 7000 ft. Smiles were the order of the day (pictures don’t lie). Spring flying at it’s best! We even managed to get the Jantar rigged and ready to go.

Quite an impressive flying day…and it’s only April!

Cheers,
Roger

2008 Flying Season is Underway!

The Boudrealt hangar was emptied on Saturday and tow pilot checkouts were started by Wolfgang. Both the Pawnee and Citabria ready to go.
The Puchacz and both L33s were also rigged and they are ready to go. Only the Jantar is left to rig as the ASK-13 stayed rigged during the winter.

Annual glider pilot checkouts started on Sunday using both the ASK-13 and Puchacz.

As you can see the weather was great (+25C) but it was a study of contrasts as much of the campground and steps to the clubhouse were still under a foot of snow. As you can see, the snow did not keep Doug from arriving at the hangar dressed for the summer.

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday for the unpacking and rigging.

Tow Anyone?

Although the snow pack has effectively grounded our fleet of wheeled gliders and tow planes, it hasn’t kept our intrepid tow pilots from outfitting their own aircraft for winter operations.
Martin, Glenn and Tommy were out to get the Stinson warmed up and over to annual winter fly-in at Chateau Montebello on January 26th. This event attracts a large number of mostly ultralight aircraft using the frozen Ottawa river as a runway. As you can see from the pictures, weather (and pilot) conditions were superb.

By the way, the folks at the Blanik factory had winter all figured out when they designed the L-13. Click on the link below to see what a few glider pilots at the Post Mills Soaring Club (Vermont) did to fight the winter blues…

http://www.flypmsc.org/Goose_pond.htm

Cheers,

Roger