Soaring Report 13 Sep 2014

The sounding for the day was pretty good up to 6000ft.  Arriving at the field, there was a cumulus filled sky so it looked good even with the winds having a significant cross wind component.  Whitt had the Pawnee out ready to fly and the L-23 was on its way to the northwest end of the runway.  I got the Russia out and Jay and I towed it to the end of the field.  Anders Backlund was the first launch in the L-23.  After landing he said the crosswind was significant (out of the south).  Dan Peterson took up an introductory flight in the L-23, flying for 35 minutes.  Jay Buchanan launched next in the Russia and had a relatively short flight since he was testing the ability to descend quickly with full spoilers – part of getting comfortable in the ship.  I launched next in the L-23 on an introductory flight ( the husband of the lady Dan took up).  We climbed to about 5300ft and he thoroughly enjoyed the flight.  Daryl Hickman and Jaime were next up for  a local field checkout in the L-23.  I launched next in the Russia.  Passing through about 3800ft on tow, everything pegged up so I released and continued climbing to 5500ft, 500 below cloud base.  Winds were fairly strong at 5000ft, 17kts out of the south, so I worked lift southwest of Bennington.  While up, Jaime went up with Tom Schaap and they performed several spins.  I pulled the plug after 58 minutes so Jay could fly the Russia in the strong conditions.  He launched next in the Russia, but as he was launching the cumulus clouds started to all go away (A later check of the sounding indicated warm air was moving over the area from the SW by later afternoon).  Steve Davis and Jaime went up next on an instructional flight.  I then went up with Carl Rump next for his safety flight and then ended the day with an introduction flight to a Bellevue East student (Nathan) who had been helping with glider retrieval all day.  We actually found some weak lift over the field so Nathan could get extended practice making thermal turns.  We were all put away by 630pm.  Thanks go to Whitt who spent the entire afternoon in the Pawnee.