TOGA-2015

The Skydog Report

Tuesday November 3rd Maureen and I went to the TOGA field on a blue sky day that turned out to be close to 70 degrees F. James DeHart was our tow pilot and we had six pilots hoping to get into thermals. As it turned out the thermals were very few and not all that strong. Grazi had the longest flight of the day with forty two minutes from five grand and I took second place with forty one minutes from a mile high tow. My first flight was 22 minutes from a 2,500 foot tow. On my high flight I was down to 1,200 feet and bumped into a small one that kept me at that height for about five minutes but then it was down for a landing on the mammoth grass runway. We all were very happy to have such a nice warm day so late in the year. Thanks to Martin for keeping things running smoothly.

The Skydog Report

October 23rd, 2015 Patrick O'Donnell and I went to the TOGA field and had a good day of fun and flying. I had forgot my Vario so I borrowed one from Martin and it took a bit of getting used to. Hick Hines and I stumbled onto a thermal at 500 feet ato and we played in it for about twenty minutes. It was a blue sky day again and I took two flights of 30 minutes each. Tim DeChamps towed to five grand and lasted for 48 minutes. There were eight of us flying so check out the photos and the video.

The Video Here

Patrick

Reiner and James

Graziano

The Skydog Report

September 25th 2015 Patrick O'Donnell and I went to the TOGA field called Palmerston Airport where ten local pilots assembled for a day of promising good thermals. Martin McCloud operates the aerotow operation there and James DeHart was our tow pilot for the day. It turned out that the day had no cumulous clouds and some high overcast but James towed twenty three flights to various heights up to 5,000 feet. Grazi Meil and Tim had their Atos gliders set up and ready to fly by noon along with lots of flexi pilots. Most pilots took two or more tows and the lift was scattered but later on around three pm there was an area of lift to the southwest of the take-off that got some of us up to over four grand ato. Patrick and I got into some good stuff that took us to 4,200 feet. The strongest lift was around 600 feet per minute and an unbelievable stench was in the center of that big thermal. There must have been a farmer spreading pig manure below as it was almost chocking but the lift was really good. I think that Patrick said he got 45 minutes and I got 54 minutes trying to stay up for an hour but I did not want to get to far from home base for a landing. The Big Winner for the day was Mark Dowsett who came in late and took of shortly after my last take-off at 4 pm and Mark went down wind for a flight of forty miles and stayed aloft for two hours and ten minutes. Congrats to Mark. My first two flights were 26 and 30 minutes. It was great meeting some new pilots and flying with my old buddies.

Patrick Helps Grazi

Grazi Ready For Lift Off

And There Grazi Goes