The Cure for Winter Blues

Our Schweizer 1-34 awaits its Winter flight at the hill

Regularly scheduled flying takes a break over the winter at Harris Hill, but that doesn't always mean that NO flying takes place.  Today was one of those rare "Let's go flying!" days.

Thanks to Ron Ogden, the email went out to the mailing list and several member responded enthusiastically that "Yes!" we want to to fly on Saturday!

December has been a bit cold this year with day time highs in the low 20's but we've been spared that lake effect snow that Buffalo to the West and Syracuse to the Northeast have gotten.  We've had a number of light snow showers in December but they usually drop 1/2 inch or so at most.

Jeff Shingleton in his Lambada motor glider showed up,
paid a visit, and flew in formation with me at 3,000 feet.

In any case, several club members showed up at the appointed hour and Dana Smith also showed up for tow pilot duty and we all got a few flights in.  At first, I didn't think I would fly but would just help out, but as we rolled the aircraft out and positioned them, I caught flight fever and decided to take a couple of flights.

The weather was quite beautiful with clear blue and a few lower level dark but thin clouds that hinted at wave effect.  While we didn't encounter any wave, there was rather sparse and spotty weak lift that would help stretch your flight even if it didn't take you upwards.

I strapped into the Schweizer 1-34 for my two flights.  I love the 1-34.  It is easy to fly, performs fairly well and has dive brakes that can stop an out of control 18 wheeler.  I headed up to 2,000 feet above the field and let the tow rope go as I circled looking for lift.  I found a teeny tiny bit over the rock cliffs near route 352 and managed to arrest my descent.  16 minutes later I was on final for landing and a bit high.  I popped open those giant dive brakes and although I knew I would lose speed, had forgotten how powerful they were -even though I was expecting them to slow me quickly.  I stowed them again, picked up speed and landed pretty close to where I had intended to.

Bryan Reigal on final for Harris Hill in the ASK-21

The second flight was much like the first although I found a small burble of a thermal that I managed to circle in for several turns before giving up and heading back to the field.  This time I clocked in 17 minutes before landing.

It was great to get out in the middle of winter and get some flights in!  It is usually a long stretch to April and I'm glad I got to sneak some flights in before it was bitter cold.

If you want to see more, there are a few more pics in my soaring album here.  They'll be the ones at the end of the album.

Gallo Grijalva took the 1-34 for several flights

The weather was quite good - blue skies and not too windy/cold
with temps right at 32, making for good flying