Dropping in on the Rutland Airshow

My goal for the summer of ‘96 was to fly more than last year and farther. The high ground at Sugarbush was the place to be. It's cooler, dryer, has great thermals and gets me out of Boston.

Sunday August 25 was not a thermal day. The winds were out of the west at 27 knots at 3,000 feet and got stronger with altitude. It was a wave day, like it or not. In the past, that meant a high ride over the ski area.

I took a 3,000 foot tow over Scragg and encountered weak wave which got me to 7 or 8,000 feet. From there I flew west and entered the primary wave that was producing spotty two knot lift; not a whole lot of fun. After much searching for lift, the altimeter read about 10,500 feet. The question was what to do with all this altitude. I refused to sit there looking at the ski areas for the rest of the day. I headed west to Bristol and then south toward Middlebury to see if the lower ridges to the west were producing any wave.

Halfway back from Middlebury, I found some real weak lift at 8,500 feet. It was too weak to center in so I decided to return to Sugarbush and get back in the primary wave. About this time the radio came alive with other Sugarbush pilots reporting climbing in the primary wave anywhere from 10 to 14,000 feet. Harvey Howell in Romeo Charlie had climbed to 10,000 plus in the primary and was heading south, reporting wave at Rochester. Back in the Sugarbush primary, I climbed to 10,000 feet and headed south to Rochester where 1.5 knot lift got me back above 9,000 feet. At this time Romeo Charlie reported two knot lift at Killington.

With 9,000 plus feet at Rochester once again I had the question what do I do with all this altitude? From this point I had final glide to Sugarbush or could head south. I headed south to Killington, to explore new territory, with the intent of then returning to Sugarbush.

I headed south and unfortunately down. Sink to this point was minimal but the closer I got to Killington the stronger the sink got. I flew right over the parking lot and out the south side without encountering any lift. Flying south was probably a big mistake, with winds out of the west, lift was most likely in the direction of Pico to the west. Turning back at this point to search for lift didn't make much sense. With 6,000 feet I could make one pass but if that failed an off-field landing would have been imminent. To the west was the Rutland airport; a safe place to land if necessary.

I felt good in soaring between Killington and Rutland. If I found lift I could soar back to Sugarbush, if I didn't I could get a retrieve from the Rutland airport. I could maintain 2,000 feet AGL in weak lift three miles to the northeast of the airport. I punched in the Rutland frequency and gave them a call to find out what there active was. Knowing what the active runway was, I could then set out searching for lift and stay within final glide of the runway. The tower came back with the worst possible response "Glider, the airport is closed for the airshow. There are cars on the main runway. Do not land. What is your altitude?" I came back with I'm a glider getting low about two or three miles to your northeast working weak lift at 2,000 feet AGL. The tower came right back with "We have a break in the show that will allow you to land ,how long will it take you get on the ground? About 4 or 5 minutes I told him. I really didn't want to land at this time. I could have hung out in the lift coming up the west slop of Killington but I didn't want to blow the opportunity to land.

I was high so with full spoiler and 50 knots I started a base leg to the east-west runway where traffic was landing to the west. The tower called me as I turned long final that there are runway lights at the side of the runway and I should stay in the center to avoid them and that two wing walkers were positioned at the taxi way to help me off. (Sugarbush line boys read the last half of that sentence.) The FAA tower was great. They opened the airport for me, warned me of the runway lights and sent out two wing walkers. Rutland is a great glider port. I don't know why more glider pilot don't use it.

Once on the ground and glider parked, I found out that the airshow organizer was Sugarbush's own Jim Parker. I arranged for a tow back to Sugarbush behind Jim's Decathlon at the end of the show. With transportation home taken care of, I had two and a half hours to enjoy the show.

The show was great. Jim had sky divers, a flying farmer, stunt planes and a bomber came in from the midwest to do a fly by. Besides running the show Jim did two acts. The first was in the Salto glider (it was hard to stand there and see a tow plane take off with out me) and the second was in his Yak.

Once the transformation from glider pilot to spectator was completed, I joined the rest of the land lovers for a day in the sun. A hot dog and Coke got me back to earth. Walking around taking in the exhibits, I ran into Mike who is now flying for Fedex out of Rutland. He had his Fedex plane on display, a Cessna Caravan with only 150 hours on it.

Shortly after 4:00 pm, I got together with Don Majercik, the Decathlon pilot who would pull me back to Sugarbush, to coordinate my retrieve. With all arrangements made, I started pulling the glider back to the runway for departure.

At the end of an airshow everyone heads for the exit, spectators and visiting planes as well. I was part of the great exit and thought I would be sitting on the ground until everyone had taken off. That is when the tower shocked the hell out of me for the second time today. They announced on the radio that they wanted to get the glider off the ground as soon as possible. Take off Number One was me for the trip back to Sugarbush. The tow back to Sugarbush was bumpy, thermals were still working in the Rutland area and some wave was encountered enroute.

Thanks again to the FAA, Jim Parker and Don Majercik for a great day of soaring.

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