Conditions were forecasted to be NE, 5-10 mph all day. However, Sat. morning was a little breezy. We were scheduled for both aero tow and winch tow training. Bruce Mauzy came up from Houston for the winch tow clinic and HG pilots Somer and Ted Hughes along with PG pilots Michael Jennings and Chuck Holden came out for the clinic. Bruce conducted a towing ground school in the morning.

Martin Mitter, Dan Bereczki, Mick Peters, Richard Bodine, Sam Kellner, Bob Bain, Paul and Steve Johnson (brothers), Ian Barclay, Dave Hayner, Darrin Kulche and Riss Estes were all out over the weekend as well. Gregg Ludwig provided tandem instruction for Paul and Bob. He also took Steve Johnson for a discovery flight. Mick Peters wrote the following about his flight:

I was able to get out to Hearne on Saturday. Arrived aroun 1pm to be greeted by 15-20mph winds from the North. Darn! We sat around and comiserated for a while, and then Dan B. arrived, and right on cue, the winds dropped. Well, a bit... So we set up, and Dan was first in the air - I'm guessing at around 2.30. He radioed that it was a rough tow, especially the first 600ft. I was next in line for John "no longer the bomb". Well, for me the first 600ft were the smoothest part of the whole tow - just goes to show how cycles can make all the difference! Anyway, John drops me in a thermal, of course, at the NW corner of the airport. There's some dark ploughed fields there that seemed to work pretty much all day. This got me to about 3400ft before getting too ratty to stay in. Drift was not too bad, maybe 10mph. So I headed upwind and found another thermal coming off those same fields. This gave me about a 45 minute flight, which I rounded off with too much flare, too soon and a "firm" landing. I'd had my vario and GPS attached too loosely and they spent the whole flight with a case of the "floppies" - most annoying. Then John flew my Eagle and had a nice flight - I'm guessing about 45 mins getting high over the S part of the field. We lost sight of him for a while and I said to Dan "Now, John wouldn't go XC on my glider would he?" Just then he appeared on a b line for the LZ! Finally another tow, this time from Steve. He took me over those same fields and waved me off at 2600ft. I floundered for a while down to 1800 but then found the thermal and stayed in that one thermal all the way down the W side of the airport. Got to 3750ft. I eventually headed upwind again, thinking I'd catch yet another thermal off those fields, but no such luck! Landing was better this time, and I was amazed to learn that it was now 6pm! About a 50 minute flight. By this time the wind was still blowing around 10mph, but was smooth, so tandems were underway, along with some other solo pilots. Sunday looked even better, with lighter winds, but I had other business unfortunately. So, a good day was had and as always, the tows were awesome, and Gaye was there to ensure the "full service" was given with a smile. Just make sure you give her your required dolly tire pressures before each tow. I'm curious to hear about Sunday!

Dan Bereczki wrote the following:

Sunday started out L&V just as forecasted. That gave us a good opportunity to work with the truck tow students and we even managed to get a few HGs and PGs off the ground. Around 10:30 cummies started to pop and I was glad my glider was still setup. The cummies didn't stay and by noon we had a blue sky again. At 2 PM the air was getting rowdy enough to stop the PG tow instruction, so I got my stuff together and got out on the launch line, once again launching first. Martin, Richard Bodine, Dave Hayner, and Ian Barclay, quickly lined up behind me. Sunday's tow was much smoother than the turbulent tows of the day before and after releasing in what felt like up, I proceded to lose 1000' looking for my first thermal. Just as I was thinking that I shouldn't have launched first, I got a little chirp. The birds were the most helpful - no clouds to rely on, I left the ratty little thermal I was barely gaining in when two buzzards zoomed in and started circling just a little NW of me. As soon as I was under them, I was going up in a pretty smooth thermal at about 200 fpm. I was able to get to 2300 from that thermal before it fell apart. Before taking off, Martin and I talked about heading to Calvert, but with top of lift just over 2K we were doing all we could to just stay in the air. A hawk helped me find my next thermal after getting low - big sink around light lift was the order of the day - not exactly fair. As I was climbing up I watch Richard and Martin getting lower and lower. Richard lands and it looked like Martin was setting up an approach. I take another couple of 360 and see Martin still circling low. I reached the top of my thermal and Martin's still working low - he worked up from ~250 ft to about 350 until getting kicked out of a thermal and banked up. He wisely decided to bring it in with the air being that rowdy that close to the ground. At the top of my thermal I get drilled by sink again and lose most of my gain in about 3 minutes. David was maintaining better than me, so after floundering around under him, I finally find a bit of a core to work and I was able to squeeze another 15 minutes out of the flight It was a great weekend - good Spring flying, lots of new faces. Steve, Gaye and Greg did a great job with so many people and all the different activities of the weekend, HGs, PGs, trucks, DFs and trikes - oh my! Thanks also to Bruce and Sam for all the truck tow support.

The tow clinic provided ratings for Somer and Ted and some valuable training for Michael and Chuck. Riss and Darrin both took a tow in their para gliders. Sunday's weather was light all day long and allowed for some excellent aero tow training. Effie Kellner got to take a ride in a beautifully restored Stearman with our good friend Stephen Pearce...she loved it! It was a very productive weekend.