This isn’t a complete wrap of Thursday, just an add on. The excavation for the hangar was completed. The gravel is scheduled for delivery on Tuesday. The building should start about two weeks after that.
Now flying. It was fairly good. Cloud base was between 4000 and 5000 feet AGL. Don Grillo and I flew together for a trip to Dacy, Downers Grove and back to SSI. I lost Don then and wanted to see some new ground so I headed NE to Crystal Lake, then to Pine Hill at the state line and then back to Downers Grove. After that it was on to DeKalb, got stuck on the way though and had to work my way out of the hole I crossed. From DeKalb it was back up to Dacy, ride the cloud street back to SSI, turn around and run back to Dacy a final time and back to SSI and landing. I measured 221 mile for all the legs but a somewhat slow speed of 39 mph. Thanks to Greg Tomczyk for sticking around till I landed and helping me derig.
A final observation. There was one thermal just south of SSI that had, at one point, at least 6 of the seven gliders flying yesterday. Don mentioned that ALL should be turning the same way. I mentioned that with that many ships in the same thermal and at nearly the same altitude everyone needs to keep their eyes out of the cockpit, head on a swivel. It was very much like flying in a contest. I hope all heard Don and me about thermaling direction and watching out, it’s very important.
Congrats to all who had good flights yesterday, it was a fun day. Hope today, Friday is just as good.
John Lincoln