Flying Friday 26 Aug

Nick Carter organized a flying day on Friday, and flew the club ASW-24 for an hour and a half; a group of private owners flew (OR - ASW-20; 2D - SZD-55; 64 - Std Libelle; 02 - PIK-20D; 55 - SZD-55) for nice late summer flights. There was a strongish North-West wind, and most tried to stay upwind.  There were nice cloudstreets that ran from the airport up past Thurso on the Quebec side of the Outaouais towards Lac Blanche. I ran the street past Thurso with 55 and 64.

This is a pic of 64, fighting the headwind with Lac Blanche in the top.

Andre, in 64, Std Libelle, pushing NW against the wind

It was a very nice day to fly, though it was easier if you could stay above 4,000' (we estimate cloudbase was about 6,500' north of the river), since the wind was chopping up the thermals lower, and there was a little mechanical turbulence down low too.  I eventually jumped to an adjacent cloudstreet, which ran from Saint-Andre-Avellin back to Alfred - it didn't take long to get there with a 25 kt tailwind!  After 2.5 hours of fun, I landed, and disassembled my glider to temporarily install an oxygen system for our upcoming mountain soaring camp at Lake Placid, NY, USA.   Thanks to Ryan MacNeil, our newly minted tow pilot, for the tows, the help of the other pilots in launching, and Jarek for the help putting 2D in its box.

We had a visitor from Montreal Soaring Council - DB in his very nice LAK17 - pass over on his way north, taking advantage of the lift from the Nations Golf Course. We could hear others (including Emmanuel in PE, just back from the Sailplane Grand Prix at Ionia MI, and the Canadian National Soaring Championship at Arthur, Ontario) enjoying the day.  

Those with trailers can appreciate this; then, Jarek and I worked at changing the trailer wiring for our used Junior trailer from Euro 7-wire round connector to the North American standard flat four; lots of fun. I didn't take pictures of that.  It works now - sorta!