Tom Preisser

Hazy smoky sky out the cockpit window

Hard to sight anything today in the air with the return of wildfire smoke, but there was still lift & we thermalled with a vulture at close range so we could keep eyes on each other

Rare sighting on the field today, another Diamond aircraft

01/8/2025 Happy birthday our wings are 43 years young today 🎂

😷👹

Caught a thermal when we needed it

Thick wildfire smoke, it was like hell

Lovely - let's have more photos 👍

She calls it the BlowMe 😏

The technical term for smashed bird is snarge 🫡

Side view of motor glider bubble canopy vent window

Hint

A lightweight insole taped to a vacuum cleaner hose with a pretty cotton grip

Sailplane pilots can you guess what this summer soaring innovation is

My co-pilot went through all the stages of thermal grief in the sea breeze chop but Mount Hope came through for us and we were on top of the world at 2700 feet msl🤗🤨

My co-pilot thinks it's loud 🤷

Not a blue thermal day but a gray one with wildfire smoke aloft. Kept the heat down and the thermals relaxed and we found a spot of lift.

Last year we were there when they tumbled out of the nest & picked one up off the grass

Hangar kestrel fledgling had its first day out of the vent tube nest today - the sole survivor as wicked crows got the other two eggs. Not sure what to do with those wings yet, but they work!

Late bloomer soaring day, long.flight 2 hours 22 minutes

Vultures agreed we picked a good time to launch - last good day before the Canadian smoke invasion

Couple days ago the seabreeze chased us well inland where the clouds looked good but it was all smoke and no fire (lift) seemingly 🤷

Shreddy but strong humid lift got us all the way to the coast today - Canadian wildfire smoke, no sea breeze.😁😁

🤗

With CAVU blue skies & no shady puffy cumulus clouds to mark thermals for us we didn't expect much today, but with light winds aloft the dry spring thermals we found were strong & coherent & we had one of our best days, multiple climbs to over 5000 feet, 1.25 hours motor off soaring. 🤗🤗

The atmosphere has so much energy on a good day - we were tossed up to nearly two miles high, and had to struggle to get back down - two hours of high intensity flying on half a gallon of fuel 🚀

Memorial Day skies crowded with joy flights, soaring raptors & escaped party balloons - but also cumulus, & my copilot redeemed her reputation with her best-centered thermal climb yet in 1000+ feet per minute lift. 🎈

My intrepid sink finder!
But even a bad day (overdeveloped, lots of virga and showers) is a good day to fly & try

"Those aren't thermals," I assured my baby before we took off late afternoon into the full overcast & raw North Atlantic wind & encountered the strangest strong stationary thermals over the airport ever - clouds don't lie.

Vultures thermaling overhead as we taxied out for takeoff a good omen.

Usually we're struggling to go up, but today's generously sized thermal was so strong she had to open the airbrakes to go down. Rapid overdevelopment, showers around, virga at 4000 foot cloudbase. In her element, I experience palpitations 🫨