It was a full year of activities for the Pittsburgh Soaring Association at Bandel Field. All the photos in this post are clickable for higher resolution.
The club Pawnee received new wing and fuselage fabric over the winter.
The club flew every Saturday and Sunday for six months beginning in May and continuing through the end of October.
Current club ships are an L23 Super Blanik…
an AC-4C Russia (above) and a G102 Astir.
Here they are all in a row one hot morning 🙂
Regular instruction was provided by club CFIG’s Al Bennett, seen here at left,
and Joel Hough, seen here at right.
The club welcomed new tow pilots Noam Eisen…
And Merrick Cohn.
When the weather smiled, you could count on finding members’ private Schleichers and Schemp-Hirths cruising the local thermals.
The grass field was in good condition all year, ensuring the softest of landings!
Some typical thermal soaring over Bandel Field in the G102. Note the high cloud base!
The only land-out witnessed by this correspondent was Lyle Chamberlain who was retrieved from Washington County airport late one Sunday in early September.
Visitors included noted soarer Kempten Izuno, from Williams Soaring in CA, who brought a photo of his lovely ship, but alas not the real thing.
First solo landing in the Blanik by new club member David Hart.
Merrick gets the keys to the Blanik from Al Bennett.
Ken Strack imagining the possibilities.