The Silvercreek Glider Club returned to the battlefield on the Saturday after Halloween to make another attack on a target in the middle of a farm field. The weapon of choice: pumpkins!
You have to hear it to believe the noise a pumpkin makes when it hits the ground after falling 1,000 feet. Twenty-two intrepid bombardiers let fly a veritable hailstorm of gourds (“pumpkin sized” hail?) on the inanimate target, alliteratively quaking in its boots, though it lacked boots, feet, and even legs. For three hours the skies echoed the silent swish of the Schweizer 2-33A glider, making attack run after attack run on the drop zone.
When all was said and done, when the terrible destructive forces had run their courses (which would all be downward, since none of the pumpkins had been equipped with either engines or guidance fins), when the tow plane’s engine sputtered anthropomorphically into relieved quietude, it turned out that, again this year as in most years past, the safest place to stand would have been directly on top of the target.
That’s me in the 2-33 taking my “best shot.” Click the picture to see more photos of the grand event, including an exquisite shot of our custom ordnance.
On a more serious note, I also took “Kermit” up for a flight. Kermit is a Schweizer 1-26 single seat glider and much more responsive and fun to fly that the 2-33. I realized as I was strapping in for my first take-off that this was the first time I had ever flown a single seat airplane.
See how serious that was? Did you ever think you would see a lime green airplane?
