Ready for Kowbell

Well I spent most evenings this week working on the trailer to get it ready for Kowbell. Neal was very helpful for a few evenings using a variety of steel beams, rachet straps, and really big C clamps to try to straighten the front frame.  We did a decent job of getting the verticals parallel but there was still some twist, so the front frame was more of a rhombus than a rectangle.  Harry lended a hand with a grinder and welder.  We made a little progress but eventually conceded that the trailer was twisted and wasn't going to be straight without pretty serious rebuilding.  Today Leah and I riveted the front piece back on and loaded 373Y on the trailer.  The glider is ready to roll.

So far the forecast has gone from pretty decent to impossible junk to possible again.  We shall see what the morning brings but right now it is looking like 2 or 3 knot climbs to about 2500 AGL in the area around Sunflower.  The wind will be out of the south at something like 20 knots.  Working a little to the west will be rewarded with higher cloudbases and stronger lift.  Of course the forecast will change about 3 times before the morning and then there will be the RUC to further confuse the situation.  I guess we'll just pull out to Sunflower in the morning and then see what happens.

Yesterday club member Keith Smith flew his PW-5 291 kilometers after launching at 2:30 PM!  This was pretty much his first real cross country flight.  Hopefully we get some of the same weather tomorrow.

I"ll have my spot tracker running for the flight.  Here is the link:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xSWzZKb2GVSEASvOr6Tx08EyO4mMDphc