I've finally tracked down the cover page of an issue of the SAC's "free flight" magazine, which I vividly remembered when reading this thread:
The caption reads:
In 1992, the Cowley Summer Camp was marked by very unstable weather conditions
which caused cu nims to grow rapidly over the mountains and drop a lot of hail over the prairies as they
drifted east. They were spectacular to watch, as were the evening lightshows. Thankfully all of them missed the airfield.
The glider in the foreground - an ASW-12 - was the last launched, and the pilot spent a long time flying in rough lift on the edges of the storm, before landing at Pincher Creek airfield, south of Cowley. The pilot's name was Richard, which inspired this piece of doggerel, paraphrased from memory:
"See Dick get into his glider,
see Dick launch,
see Dick release from tow,
see Dick fly into a thunderstorm,
what a Dick!"
To be fair, he did NOT fly into the Cb.
Here's another picture of (I think) the same storm:
The reason I remembered this so vividly was I was next in line to fly the 1-26 with the Sport Canopy. That would have been an interesting flight, sitting in an open cockpit.
However, the Field Manager wisely decided to shut down the operation, so we were reduced to listening to Dick giving a running commentary on his progress.
Back issues of "free flight" can be found here:
http://www.sac.ca/website/index.php/...ght-magazine-2