Your NESA Board of Directors met last night and set Saturday, November 20 as the official end of the season and gliders-into-storage day.

There are two more weekends before the 20th, so there should be some soaring still to be had. Get your name on the scheduling calendar and come out and fly!

While the official start to the WSPA seminar week is Monday morning, many event participants began arriving as early as Friday. Saturday weather had been forecast to be pretty darn good, and by noon, one of the gliders had been assembled and i1 was hooked up to the golf cart, when a line of storms heading towards the airport showed up on radar. It turned out that the front that was forecast to move through Friday night had slowed and was about to move through.

It was a good two and a half hours before the rain stopped and the skies began to clear, so Saturday was a washout.

Today made up for it. At 0900 skies were clear and it was warming towards the mid 70’s from an overnight low of 50F.

Bill and Alasdair’s hangars were already open, four tents and two RV campers had arrived overnight, along with more gliders in trailers. Civil Air Patrol was starting operations with two tow planes, three gliders and a dozen cadets for the first day of Glider Academy.

Before any NESA gliders launched, Loretta, Leslie, Philip and Felicity Sparks bicycled by the hangar and stopped to visit. The Sparks are previous NESA members, Philip and Felicity both soloing under Bill B’s tutelage. Felicity continues in her military career, first as an Army helicopter pilot, now flying A-10 Warthogs, and is based in Michigan…so many aviation stars in NESA history.

The first NESA launch was for Bill B to test fly the newly refurbished 2-33, N2041T. Bill has done his usual amazing restoration. It made several flights over the course of the day, and it seems the unanimous agreement is “It’s sooo quiet!” … and 20# lighter than N2042S !

The “nut behind the stick” (by his own admission) towing today was Bob I, CFI-G’s today were Bill B and Jerry, who flew with both club members and WSPA attendees wanting both orientation flights of the area and checkout flights to fly the NESA 1-26 or 1-34.

For most of the day, between CAP, NESA and WSPA attendees, it seemed a glider was launched about every ten minutes. I remember the airport busier only during the aerobatic contests. The weather couldn’t have been better and the winds were light except for an a half hour or so when a few gusts came up.

Ben Berg sent this PIREP:

“The NESA crew was all hands on deck today getting WSPA check flights done and continually launching gliders while merging with CAP traffic. And as a bonus, a lot of us got to fly! From above, in the club’s trusty 1-26, it brought a smile to my face looking down on both NESA 2-33’s and seeing them flying. Not the most booming soaring day, but many of us had hour+ flights, surely one to remember.”

All in all, a glorious day to spend with the community of soaring pilots. NESA is the host club for the WSPA event this week, so please volunteer if you’re able to lend a hand.

Still a newbie at this, I looked at the weather and thought to myself, “It’s gonna be a really nice day, but there’s hardly any wind forecast and the cloud bases are expected to be 4500′-5000′ ” OK, but not a “great” soaring day. Was I ever wrong…

Clear skies at 7 am with zero wind, arrived at the airport at 9:40 and met junior member Calvin. Alasdair (tow pilot) and Bill (instructor pilot) had already arrived, so flying got off to an early start. Calvin’s first few flights were expected to be a tow to pattern altitude for a quick release and landing…not much thermal activity expected that early in the morning. Surprisingly, they stayed aloft for nearly a half hour the first two flights, and an hour or more on their third.

By then, four club members had arrived and were in various stages of preflight prep, Andy was taking the club 1-34 off its tiedown, and Brian, Greg and Erik were pulling their gliders out of their trailers. Bill and Jerry were pulling i1 out of the hangar.

In all, there were twelve launches. Erik was aloft more than five hours, Greg and Brian a close 2nd and 3rd. Andy was 4th only because he had a delayed start. Bill reported climbing to 6900′ and Eric to 7,900′

Lots happening at the airport in the next several weeks…beginning next Saturday and for the following week, Civil Air Patrol is conducting a Glider Flight Academy. Prior Academies have drawn kids from across the US to fly at Springfield. This is a link to an excellent video from the Glider Academy a few years ago.

There’s a second CAP Glider Academy at Springfield the 16th to 20th of August that corresponds to NESA’s hosting the Women Pilot’s Soaring Association at Springfield on the same dates. It ought to be a busy week.

https://womensoaring.org/home/women-soaring-pilots-association-seminar-2021/

NESA will be operating normally throughout all the activities, and we’re looking for volunteers to help out the week of the WSPA seminar.

Junior member Ben Berg, who soloed last year at 14, snapped this photo from his solo afternoon flight today. Piloting the NESA 1-26 and releasing from tow about 3000′ MSL, Ben thermalled up to 8,700′ MSL and flew for 2-1/2 hours “…only cause I had to land. Took me a while to get down once I pulled full airbrakes at 6,000′ over the airport.”

Bill D and Colby v K flew today, as well.

Thanks to Alasdair for CFI-G’ing, and Bob Iuliano for towing.

If you haven’t already, logon to the club scheduling calendar and get back in the air!

Larry

Andy Kozak reports “Bob Iuliano, Greg Hunter and Andy Kozak flew up into wave lift over the airport. Picture is from approximately 9,000′. They then flew toward Okemo and the upwind wave. There Bob and Greg reached 11,000′.”

Clear skies, warming temperatures with a light to moderate winds greeted NESA members arriving at the airport Saturday morning. With the first instructional slot of the day not spoken for, things began a bit slower than normal, with the first flight not anticipated until around noon. CAP had arrived early with about two dozen cadets and senior members, and had already launched a couple of flights.

Bob Iuliano arrived, after surviving a blowout on his glider trailer enroute from Lake George. By late morning, Bill Detrich, Bill Batesole, Alasdair, Mark Farley, Phil Stoddard, Brian Xander, Colby von Kennewurff, and Andy Kozak had arrived, and the club 1-34 and several private ships had been towed to the staging area for RWY 23. CAP was already launching from RWY 23, so the cutout area was a busy place with all the CAP members, shade canopies, golf carts, and gliders. Brian Xander had parked the NESA Callair tow plane on the grass just south of the cutout, with the CAP tow plane parked just south of the Callair.

The CAP tow plane started up to take the runway and taxied into a runway edge light, striking it with the propeller. The debris from the strike sent shrapnel into the Callair, punching holes in the fabric on the right flap, the right empennage, and through the vertical stabilizer. Thankfully, considering how many people were nearby, there were no injuries.

NESA member, A&P, and fabric guru Bill Batesole looked the Callair over and said “Let’s get it over to my hangar, we can have it flying in an hour.”

With a group effort, the Callair fabric was patched, the winter cowl flaps got exchanged for the summer flaps, and gliders were launched by mid afternoon. A thunderstorm that was forecast to stay north of Springfield pushed south, and those in the air landed around 5 pm.

More NESA members and their families arrived during the afternoon, and the grills were fired up as we moved under the cover of the hangar door as a storm moved in over Hawks Mountain. The storm blew through in ten minutes or so, followed by a beautiful rainbow to the east.

Alasdair did a masterful job as chief chef and grillmeister, and there were plenty of burgers, dogs, brats, veggie/turkey burgers, salads, chips, dips, you-name-it, for everyone.

Summer is here. Life is returning to pre-pandemic “normal.” Come out and FLY!

“5:30 aloft 9,000 ft. Mostly Very smooth lift. Flew as far as New London to the East and Okemo to W. Close to LEB. And S near Bellows Falls.”

The weather looks good for the weekend, so login and reserve your flying slot, and join us for the DIY BBQ this Saturday, June 5 at 5:00 pm.

Thanks to all who volunteered their time the last several days to get the NESA fleet on the flight line, and tow and instructor pilots current. Ben Berg flew with Mark Farley and was signed off and flew his first solo of the season. Andy Kozak accomplished his Flight Review with Mark and is good to go.

We’ve had a dozen inquiries from folks interested in soaring and becoming members, but have explained club members getting check outs and flight reviews are the club priority.

If you are in need of check flight(s) or a flight review, please contact one of the club CFI-G’s via email (available under the Member Resources” tab) to arrange a date and time.

We’re masking and distancing, but the last few days have seemed the most close to “normal” since 13 months ago.

Time to go fly!

In order to comply with the NESA Constitution requirement of a minimum 30 days notice for club elections, our annual meeting will be conducted online on Saturday, January 30th, at 9:30 am.

Watch for an additional email with more details and nominees for club officers and directors.