tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
Well I gave a few glider rides this weekend that I had been looking forward to for a long time. Notably was my Grandma, who has been legally blind pretty much my whole life. She was one of my 3 first passengers after getting my PP-ASEL and had been hoping for a glider ride for over a year. In fact we nearly did one last year but the winds had another idea. Grandma was on the way to her annual month in Florida, chauffered by her Sister and Brother in Law. Grandmas Brother also lives in Ames. We all met out to the airport and Granny got the first ride. Had a blast with a tow to 2500 feet in smooth air. No thermals today with a high overcast. Some rain had moved through in the morning. As we climbed up I realized that the wind was kicking butt out of the south so I radioed the towpilot to just continue upwind. There was no way we would be able to get too far upwind today. released at 2500 and just kind of hovered (literally) while descending down at a fairly low rate. Grandma enjoyed the view and the silence, at least the relative silence. Schweizer 2-22 that the club has is not particularly quiet. as we came down we noticed at one point that we were moving backwards! I was indicating about 42 mph at the time. sped up to 45ish and we were holding position. I was certainly glad to be upwind of the airport then! Granny and I landed and she was very pleased. Next her BIL got in and we flew pretty much the same profile. As we were on tow we noticed a small rainshower about 4 or 5 miles to the west. it seemed to be tracking mostly northerly so we werent too concerned, and the vis was good enough that we could see through it. off again at 2500, doing the whole hovering backwards thing when all the sudden a flash of lightning a couple miles to the west and a big rumble of thunder. "I think we will be landing now" out with the airbrakes and down we came. the showers were heavy but skirted just to the west of the airport. I brushed the edge of it and we got some fairly heavy rain drops on base leg. Even though, he enjoyed his ride. Finally was Grannys brother with a flight profile the same as the others, sans lightning. All had a good time and it was nice to get some of the family up in a glider. All had a good time.