Aerotowing in Massachusetts

Aerotowing has been a rare thing in Massachusetts, but now there is an operation in New Braintree, MA at Tanner-Hiller Airport.  It's only been up and running since yesterday but a few of us decided to try it out today.  Rhett and Louie weren't going to arrive till after 2pm so I was in no rush to get over there.  After seeing Ascutney's forecast go bust, I went back to bed and then made a good breakfast and relaxed for an hour or two before leaving to fly.

Beckley, who decided to try Ascutney anyway, sent me a text around noon asking - "have you finished breakfast you lazy bastard?".  I replied with - "This tow park bunny thing is quite the life...sleep in, make a nice breakfast, relax a few hours, then head to the field to get towed up." "How's that 1/2 mile hike to launch?"  :-)

I arrived around 1:30pm and after getting a sandwich from the local store, I set up my glider.  Rhett and Louie arrived around 2:30pm and pulled out all the equipment.  After my pre-flight, I started fishing around for a piece of wood to use on the cart so my tail wouldn't get stuck on take-off.  I found some scrap in a wood pile and pulled into the launch line.

After watching our NE winds turn to a tail wind on the runway, and seeing Matt take-off and then Peter, and going for LONGish rides in the cart before being able to get airborne, I decided to hike my glider to the opposite end of the runway and launch in the other direction.  It turned out to be a good call as there was a fairly strong breeze coming in.

I launched at 3:50pm and I had a good tow out of the field; nothing drastic happened, which was good.  Rhett towed me up expertly as usual and I was soon at 3000' in a thermal.  I was a bit nervous as this was my 5th time towing the Combat and 1st time in thermic conditions. Rhett left and headed back to the runway to get the next pilot.

Shot of Kip in his sweet LZ.

I climbed out to cloudbase and tried to raise Kip or Peter on the radio.  Kip fired back after I called 'cloudbase' and said he was 2 miles to the west and coming toward me.  We were under a sweet cloud that had air going up everywhere.  The thermals were fairly large and smooth although I went weightless once and later in the flight I went over the falls twice.  There were some hidden dragons inside some fairly mellow but strong thermals.

Tanner-Hiller Airport

Once Kip and I met up we started heading upwind toward Worcester.  The clouds kept building over our heads and we just followed the streets.  Most of the flight was spent dodging clouds and losing altitude off to the sides to go back in and climb up.  I thought of trying to go somewhere but I'm feeling so new in this wing that I was quite content with a short out and back and just soaring around this new terrain while getting a lay of the land.

Quabbin Reservoir

Kip did good in his Sport 2 and stayed right along with me.  We came within 8 miles of the Worcester Airport and the cloud street came to an end.  Kip asked where too and I decided to head back toward the Quabbin and see about exploring that direction.  On the return trek things started to go soft and you could feel the day winding down.  Kip started getting lower and lower as we retraced our steps but fought hard to stay up and get within 1.5 miles of the runway before succumbing to gravity.

As we came back to North of the runway by a couple miles, I noticed Matt back in the air and Peter had relit as well.  Rhett pulled Peter into the thermal I was using as I ascended to cloudbase again.  I saw him circle around and below me and then peel off about 200 yards to my south before waving off Peter.  I headed over there thinking the lift was better.  Rhett later told me he was watching me head toward the clouds and was trying to keep them out of it.  :-)  Oops on my part, should have stayed where I was at.

Peter

I fussed around at base for a while realizing I wasn't going much further and decided to get some pictures before it was too late.  As I haphazardly handled my glider with one hand and decided to skate all over the sky, I finally retrieved my camera from it's pocket and began clicking away.  I lost about 1500' during this whole process but was able to at least get some stills for tonight's post.

Here's me, looking at me.

I flew around for a bit longer and saw Peter go in and land.  I headed toward the runway and found a small thermal down low right near Kip in his LZ.  I circled for a bit and then headed in behind Matt.

After Matt landed, I hit the downwind leg around the field and then went to base.  I was still a bit high so I boxed around the far end of the runway one more time.  As I made my turn I cut too steep in front of a tree line and ended up with some adverse yaw as I went on final (thanks for the tips Tom).  I started over correcting and finally leveled the glider out abotu 25-30' off the deck.  As I rocked up about 15' off the deck, the nose popped and the bar flew out.  I reached in to pull speed and recover the glider.  I was able to get enough airspeed back in for a good flare and runout but was disappointed in my approach.

Days end.  Back at base.

Tom and Amy headed out while I started to break down.  There was an ultralight pilot preparing for take-off on what I later found out was his first solo.

Taxiing out for his 1st solo.

I broke down my glider and then met up with the other pilots to talk about the day.  Rhett and Marilyn came by to see how things went at the new park.  This is a great little field and it is FULL of lift, very different than towing out of MSFP aka 'The big blue hole'.  I had a great afternoon with some awesome flying with friends.  Looking forward to future flights and laying some new XC routes out of there.

Great way to end the day.

Max Altitude: 4700' MSL
Distance: 14 miles out and back.
Airtime: 1.55 hours.