International Vintage Sailplane Meet

I need to check on a few things, but it looks like I'll probably hop on the motorcycle Sunday morning and ride up to join y'all for the day, and head home after dinner or whenever.
 
Just got back from spending the day up in Elmira. Got to see Tony, Pete, and Adam. Had a great time! Even got a ride with Burt - most enjoyable. Maybe one of these days I'll have to get that rating. :)
 
Starting to look like I won't make it... very busy now wrapping up the 2-33 "makeover" (it may be flying next weekend!), and even if I can find the time, I probably shouldn't spend the money on getting there and back (a little behind on bills, etc. right now).
 
ahh! no indication of any attachments (pics) on this thread!
maybe a link I missed?
 
I haven't taken many pictures yet. I'll promise to take some today and post them in the evening.
 
I'm BOOKED to fly in to ELM late Wed night and fly out Fri afternoon. Hoping Adam or Pete can pick me up at the airport wed night. If they have a shuttle that will do fine though. God knows you two need your beauty sleep.
 
matt there is no shuttle. if the weather keeps up like it was today pete and adam will need a DD to come get you from the airport :)

I finally got home today. had a great time at IVSM. I flew Burt's ASK-13 on Saturday and we had a good hour or so flight, max altitude 3300' above Harris Hill. Lots of gaggling going on with some real droolworthy gliders grouped together. We decided to "show them the belly" as Burt says and stayed on top. Always fun to outclimb the other guys.

Yesterday I flew in the Slingsby T-49B "Capstan" (for sale here: http://www.wingsandwheels.com/want-ads2.htm). This behemoth is a side by side glider which was new for me, and the cockpit is large and comfortable. as the add says it has the worlds largest Cobra trailer. Cobra is a company that builds glider trailers, and very nice ones at that. its a monster. As large as the glider is, it flies very nice. In fact, in some ways it thermalled a lot like my little 400 lb glider. We got in an hour and 45 minutes. mostly in weak lift although we thermalled with some hotshot fiberglass glider in the strongest lift around, 4-500 fpm up. At one point we were in a gaggle of 8 vintage sailplanes. Many were the only flying examples of that type in the country (or the world). I've got several pictures that I need to upload and will post a link here when I do that.

There was a beautiful cherokee II there. words can't describe. pictures will do a little better.
 
Looking forward to seeing your pictures.
 
Great post Tony! Gave me goosebumps. I'm excited to be there and really really glad you were! Hard to describe to most aviation types but it's an incredible, historic, experience. I'm looking forward to experiencing it!

MM
 
Beautiful, Tony. Just beautiful.
 
So will anyone be around Friday or Saturday? I was thinking of comming up.
 
Missa said:
I'm sure there will be "Peope" there... will there be any POAers to look for and which day is better to catch them?
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Matt Michael leaves sometime on friday. Adam "Danger" Kite and Count VonSegelGoober are leaving Saturday. I think that Bill Coughley will be there until Saturday at least, not sure. So i suppose the best day to go would be friday!
 
tonycondon said:
Matt Michael leaves sometime on friday. Adam "Danger" Kite and Count VonSegelGoober are leaving Saturday. I think that Bill Coughley will be there until Saturday at least, not sure. So i suppose the best day to go would be friday!
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Thanks Tony, guess they are all out gliding and not checking in on POA. :D
 
Yeah we meet up with Missa on Fiday, and I think we may have gotten her hooked on flying sailplanes. She ended up going up in one of the ASK-21s and came back down with a giant grin on her face.

As usual I brought my camera, but failed to take enough pictures. Here's a link to the few that I took.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vontresc/IVSM
 
Yes.... and it was much fun.

After Gastons and going for a sailplane ride, I've found the fun in flying agian. The Archer and Cessna are just BOREING after a while. Being able to get someplace is cool, but it's just not fun.

We didn't get much lift on Saturday but after talking with the "kid" who took me in the glider about being a power pilot looking at possibely doing a glider add on he talked through what he was doing answered all my questions, let me pull the release and after the tow plane broke away let me take the controls for the first 10 or so minutes until we got down where the main gaggle of gliders were at.

I thought the landing was actually kinda fast.

Oh and I also learned that if I decide to get a glider rating I got to get me one of those funny hats... you can tell which ones are the glider pilots and which are the specators. All the glider pilots have the same hat on.
 
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Missa said:
Oh and I also learned that if I decide to get a glider rating I got to get me one of those funny hats... you can tell which ones are the glider pilots and which are the specators. All the glider pilots have the same hat on.
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Ive got a nice collection. I've even got a PoA floppy hat!
 
Happy little gliders...
 

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Missa said:
After Gastons and going for a sailplane ride, I've found the fun in flying agian. The Archer and Cessna are just BOREING after a while. Being able to get someplace is cool, but it's just not fun.
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I got that feeling after a while too, especially after flying Cubs, a Stearman, Chip's Extra, seaplanes, skiplanes, etc... But now I've kind of rediscovered the "fun" side of the 182, which is the fact that it's capable of doing damn near anything you ask it do. Since then, I've been attempting to bring my capabilities as a pilot up to the capabilities that the airplane has - I've taken it in and out of a 1000' grass strip, taken off and landed with crosswinds gusting over 30 knots, landed it (and taken back off) at Leadville when the DA was 12,200', climbed to 17,500 MSL, done a mountain flying course, flown it to the east coast, west coast, and gulf coast... I have yet to exceed or match the capabilities of the airplane, but I am continually able to push my boundaries as a pilot and get better and better at this flying thing. That in itself is a challenge, but that's part of what I like about flying is that you can never be perfect at it and it's always a challenge. That has made flying fun again for me, even when it is "just" an average Brand C airplane. :yes:

Unfortunately, I think your club's rules would prohibit a lot of the above! :frown2:
 
Finding the fun in flying is important, and it'd different for everyone.

So, it sounds like you'll be heading up to Elmira some more...
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Finding the fun in flying is important, and it'd different for everyone.

So, it sounds like you'll be heading up to Elmira some more...
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Or down near State Collage... :wink2:

Or buy a Citaberia...

Or maybe a KitFox.
 
Well what a blast! Let's do it again next week! I had alot of fun and got to fly 3 new types of gliders. As always it was fun to hang out with Tony, Pete, Burt, Matt, and Wil. I also had the added bonus of meeting BIll, Missa, and Ted. The gliders were spectacular and the people were amazing. I plan on going back in four years. I have completed my trek across the country, NY to UT and since it finaly quit raining here I suspect I should go fly the Blanik.
 
adam what were the other types that you flew, besides the Capstan?
 
I can't believe it -- the weather this entire week in Maryland has been absolutely perfect for soaring: warm but not hot, blue skies studded with puffy cumulous clouds. If we would have had this weather in Elmira last week, instead of the overcast, rain and poor lift, I'd have logged 20 hours in my K-8 instead of 2 (on four tows). Oh well, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Still, it was a great time. Enjoyed meeting Tony, Adam & The Count and many others.

I'm working on a web log of the IVSM, should have it done in a few days.
 
vontresc said:
Yeah the weather on the drive home was unbelievably nice. Once I got home I checked the OLC to see if any of our club members had posted any good flights. I only saw one, but what a flight!

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1305659846

Adam and I were thinking of assembling at a rest stop, and see if we could auto tow into lift at one point :D
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man on a quiet stretch of interstate you could get at least a couple thousand feet on an auto tow...
 
Geoffrey,

I thought about buying that one earlier this year. When my trailer blew over I was ready to call him, but my glider ended up OK. I've heard, from a guy who has sat in both, that that glider has a smaller cockpit than mine. It has a 1-26 canopy which doesnt stick up as high and allows for less head room. The guy who built it was a master builder but he was a small guy. It could be a good glider for Leah. As far as I know, mine, this one, and the one that was at IVSM are the only airworthy Cherokee II's out there right now. There are a few others being restored. Could be a good glider for Leah though...
 
bill - really enjoyed the pictures. makes me want to go back!
 
Wow cool photos! I'll have to go to the Wings of Eagles museum next time I'm there.
 
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