Thursday anyone

I’ll be out as well if we can get a tow pilot Thursday.
Today, (Wednesday) is looking like a very good day as well.  Lift over 6000 and very light winds out of the south. Any tow pilots available this afternoon?

Don

We have a tow pilot for today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday) 1pm.  Lift today is showing over 6000 ft.  If there is interest in flying today I would like to bring my glider out.
Don

I can be there either or both days around noon.

John Scott

Wednesday turned out to be a great xcountry soaring day.  A lot of Chicago Glider and Windy City glider pilots were in the air.  I flew over 330km with an average speed of 85km. Lift was to just above 8000 feet.  Today will be a near repeat with lift to 7000ft, light winds out of the south. We have a tow pilot lined up for today.

Don

Wed’s inversion layer was predicted at 9K on skew-t, nice!

Thur’s inversion layer predict even higher!, & less sharp

We had another great soaring day on Thursday, lift to just above 7000ft. A number of private gliders launched along with a few club ships.

Erik S. planned and flew the club PW-5 for his Silver Badge distance and altitude record.  He needed to fly a strait out 50km flight and reach an altitude gain of 3281ft.  He launched at 12:42 and took a 2000ft tow. He climbed to almost 7000ft before heading out to Beloit WI which meets the 50km distance. He reached the town of Beloit at 14:27 and 5800ft before heading back to Sky Soaring. The weather was starting to overdevelop around Poplar Grove and Erik decided to land out at the Poplar Grove airport.  The towplane was dispatched to retrieve Erik and aerotow him back to Sky Soaring.  No matter, he reached both goals of a 50km distance and an altitude gain of 3281ft.  Final determination of his flight will be made by the SSA.  But it looks goods to me.  Congratulations Erik!!!

Good job. Congratulations!

It’s official!!! Erik Schnaubelt has been awarded his SSA Silver Badge.  As you may recall, last week, Erik flew the club PW-5 the required distance of  a 50km leg, gained more than 3281 feet in altitude from a low point and conducted a flight of over 5 hours.

Over the weekend, Frank Smith soloed and earned his SSA A Badge.  Lawrence Nicolae earned his SSA B Badge and John Scott earned his SSA A and B badges. Their names will appear in the SSA magazine in the coming months.

Congratulations to all these fine soaring pilots.

CFI-G Steve Snyder congratulates Frank Smith on his solo flight with towpilot Aaron Scicluna in the background.

It was shortly followed by the traditional soaking.