Al Gold
During early January, Walter Sakowicz and Al Gold sent condition reports out via email. In particular, Al Gold reported the following. Thank goodness things look better now. -Ed
On Sunday, Steve Glow and I, with assistance from Paul Lynch and Bill Brine, cleared the snow off the wings, horizontal tails and canopies of all of the gliders tied out at Sterling. The gliders most exposed to sunlight had the smallest accumulations, but those that were shaded had well over a foot on the wings, despite having been cleaned off just a week earlier. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to estimate the weight of that amount of compacted snow. By the way, the most effective removal tool turned out to be the push broom that Steve brought.
We were literally up to our hips in snow, and moving about, though possible, was at the rate of about 10 feet per minute. Unless the thaw that started this morning reduces the accumulation substantially, it will be impossible to get to the gliders without snowshoes or similar equipment after the next storm.
Based only on what I saw Sunday, I think we should plan for a grand opening of the MITSA soaring season on Labor Day weekend.