rottydaddy
En-Route
And first solo flight in anything in almost two years! It felt great to pull the release and finally be truly on my own again today. 
Wx forecast was gloomy/doomy this morning, gray and drizzly when I arrived at the airport, but the club rallied anyway, and we were rewarded with several hours of workable conditions. Even when the anticipated t-storms blossomed later, they seemed to give 47N a wide berth.
I did one dual pattern hop, not too shabby... Gus spoke afterwards of doing an open canopy drill with me at some point, so I was puzzling over that on the next dual takeoff: will there be any warning? I know I will just stay cool and stay on the stick, but... hmmm... next thing I know, we're at 400 and I forgot to call 200 (and of course think about why we do that), so he pulls the release on me!! Wups, forget the canopy- gotta turn and land downwind! Definitely got me back into focus!!
And of course I got another reminder that if the rope really breaks or comes off at the towplane, there will be no "bang"... gotta get that nose down at the slightest hint, and decide where you're going- quickly.
Next dual flight was a longer tow, with some wake-boxing and out-of-position drills... did OK, and was "rewarded" after release with the novelty of unlatching the canopy while doing the flying... lifting it first an inch, then a few more... then laying it wide open and letting go of it.
While refurbishing this canopy and mounting it, I'd wondered how the glider might fly with it open. Turns out it's a pretty "aerodynamically neutral" arrangement, even opening to the side as it does. Stays put, too, even though there's plenty of air smashing into everything at 50 mph. This was nice in the muggy weather, BTW.
No problem flying like that, even tho' I'd forgotten my sunglasses... and very good to experience it before the thing bangs open sometime right after takeoff because I forgot that checklist item! A very useful drill.
I have a good glider instructor, even though I finally realized today just how heavy and noisy he is.
Solo flight was off a 3000-foot tow: mild wind aligned with the runway mostly, but some decent lift here and there (down low)... one bubble got me pretty high on tow for a moment (hit me worse than the tow plane). Fixed that quick, just focused on turning neatly, etc., banged off at 3000 and just farted around for a while in zero sink, doing stalls and steep turns. I was a very good boy: head on a swivel, no drifting downwind, reciting the checklists aloud. It seemed much easier to trim for my target airspeeds, but maybe that was just my perception. Went over to one of my reliable lift-generating spots but it was not reliable at the moment...thing weren't really cooking in general at that point... so, a few more turns near the field, then big slips with and without spoilers to dump altitude and drop into the pattern right where I wanted. I could've milked it more, I guess, but it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Flew a decent pattern, and made one of my better landings. Didn't get another chance today, but I have the whole rest of the season to keep making solo flights!! :smile:
Wx forecast was gloomy/doomy this morning, gray and drizzly when I arrived at the airport, but the club rallied anyway, and we were rewarded with several hours of workable conditions. Even when the anticipated t-storms blossomed later, they seemed to give 47N a wide berth.
I did one dual pattern hop, not too shabby... Gus spoke afterwards of doing an open canopy drill with me at some point, so I was puzzling over that on the next dual takeoff: will there be any warning? I know I will just stay cool and stay on the stick, but... hmmm... next thing I know, we're at 400 and I forgot to call 200 (and of course think about why we do that), so he pulls the release on me!! Wups, forget the canopy- gotta turn and land downwind! Definitely got me back into focus!!
And of course I got another reminder that if the rope really breaks or comes off at the towplane, there will be no "bang"... gotta get that nose down at the slightest hint, and decide where you're going- quickly.
Next dual flight was a longer tow, with some wake-boxing and out-of-position drills... did OK, and was "rewarded" after release with the novelty of unlatching the canopy while doing the flying... lifting it first an inch, then a few more... then laying it wide open and letting go of it.
While refurbishing this canopy and mounting it, I'd wondered how the glider might fly with it open. Turns out it's a pretty "aerodynamically neutral" arrangement, even opening to the side as it does. Stays put, too, even though there's plenty of air smashing into everything at 50 mph. This was nice in the muggy weather, BTW.
No problem flying like that, even tho' I'd forgotten my sunglasses... and very good to experience it before the thing bangs open sometime right after takeoff because I forgot that checklist item! A very useful drill.
I have a good glider instructor, even though I finally realized today just how heavy and noisy he is.
Solo flight was off a 3000-foot tow: mild wind aligned with the runway mostly, but some decent lift here and there (down low)... one bubble got me pretty high on tow for a moment (hit me worse than the tow plane). Fixed that quick, just focused on turning neatly, etc., banged off at 3000 and just farted around for a while in zero sink, doing stalls and steep turns. I was a very good boy: head on a swivel, no drifting downwind, reciting the checklists aloud. It seemed much easier to trim for my target airspeeds, but maybe that was just my perception. Went over to one of my reliable lift-generating spots but it was not reliable at the moment...thing weren't really cooking in general at that point... so, a few more turns near the field, then big slips with and without spoilers to dump altitude and drop into the pattern right where I wanted. I could've milked it more, I guess, but it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Flew a decent pattern, and made one of my better landings. Didn't get another chance today, but I have the whole rest of the season to keep making solo flights!! :smile:
