Glider season begins!

rottydaddy

rottydaddy

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Well, ours started today, at any rate...a challenging day for it , but it was great just to get some stick time and hang out in the sun all day.

X-wind gusting to better than 15, lots of strong, tight thermals with brutal sink in between.

Did two hops with the instructor; he was very pleased and I was not too disappointed in myself... after almost 6 months! Crikey- has it been that long?! :eek:

I seem to have a stupid new habit of winding up way in the inside low corner when turning to the right on tow (bad deal even with unstable air as an "excuse"), but I should be able to fix that in a couple more flights.

Everything else was good- some pretty fruitless thermaling attempts, but my pattern entries and landings were very acceptable, given the amount of rust. Ol' 94H seems to have held up very nicely despite a hard winter outdoors... it was great to fly her again.

I also finally got in the back of the Citabria during a tow, and it was fun and educational, even though I didn't get the stick for that one.

I feel like I should be able to ramp up for the check ride pretty quickly, and that's a good feeling.

To all of you other glider-folk out there who are just starting again this year: be safe, learn stuff, and ENJOY!! :thumbsup:
 
Yes it is officially here I did my 1st Soaring flight of the Season on Tuesday.
I had winds aloft of up to 19kts so making progress upwind was challenging.

The winds died down after a while and I was able to move around some.
Managed to put in 3.6 hrs and 148km on the OLC. We had 7500ft (agl) cloud bases later in the day.

Brian
 
Ours started yesterday, too.

Everybody was too busy on Saturday, but Sunday turned out nicer than expected. The t-storms never showed up, but the thermals did.

I didn't get any flying in, I'm still pre-solo and the only 2-place glider we have is down for maintenance for a little longer. So I showed up to be the ground crew.

We launched the Libelle first. We always do, because once he takes off we never see him again. He reached pattern altitude, felt some lift, released, and came back 3 hours later. I think he got in 50+ miles, too. Not bad for a 1,000' tow.

The other two guys took turns flying tows and flying the 1-26.

A great day, finished off with a cold one in the shade of the hangar.
 
sounds nice matt. ernst must not've been trying too hard or the lift was weak if he only made it 50 miles in 3 hrs in the libelle.

i did my first thermalling of the year weekend before last. but next weekend we head for Marfa! wooohooo!
 
tonycondon said:
sounds nice matt. ernst must not've been trying too hard or the lift was weak if he only made it 50 miles in 3 hrs in the libelle.

i did my first thermalling of the year weekend before last. but next weekend we head for Marfa! wooohooo!
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Don't know how far he really got - I know he made it down to Miami Co and back, but don't know where else he went. He would have stayed up longer, but he needed to get home.

It really felt good to be back out with the gliders again!

Enjoy Marfa - didn't you make a road trip down there last year too?
 
Oh, yeah - the new prop on the tow plane rocks! I could tell immediately when I was running the wings. I used to be able to keep up for a good number of yards, but now it's only two or three steps. Once the Blanik gets back on line (and all the mouse turds and are cleaned up from the winter layoff - mice got in and made a mess this winter!), we'll really be able to test the climb prop.
 
yea we spent the last week of 2008 and beginning of 2009 down there. this will be my 3rd trip to Marfa but the first time I'm going down there with soaring as a prime objective. previously it was training. first my commercial add on and then a training camp that we put together with several friends.
 
We've been flying all winter.. and last weekend was ridge, thermal and wave conditions.
 
BillTIZ said:
We've been flying all winter.. and last weekend was ridge, thermal and wave conditions.
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Last weekend was our "Spring Safari" to the local dry lake bed for Ground Launch training and endorsements. Saturday, 30+ Auto Tows, and we had the Pawnee there also for aero tows (about 16). Some thermaled out from the ground launch.

Camped out, big bon fire on the lake, Shrimp Boil and steaks.. More flying on Sunday. About 1/2 the launch activity before picking up and returning everything back to home plate. Aero Tows back for those that could not thermal out. It's only 6 nm air miles back home.
 
Went again yesterday- it was a perfect day around here- really cookin'. Very wide dew/temp spread, light winds aloft. Streets galore. There were strong thermals boiling off the airport, messing with the windsock. Almost every tow went through a real cannon-like thermal right off the end of the runway- I almost got tossed out of the harness on my first tow; it was like hitting a wall. Got way out of position but managed to recover quickly.

Andy had the 1-26 out for about 4 hours, made it to Blairstown and back (that's over 60 nm round trip!). I got from 2500 to 3700 on my first, spent 1/2 hour up there and had to fight my way down so someone else could fly the trainer. Full spoilers, 60 mph and I was still getting 400 up.
Greg showed up,made it to about 6000, stayed up for almost an hour (that's what I get for being a nice guy, LOL). JP also did well, to about 5000.
I did two more- got suckered into banging off at 1700 when we flew into some 1000 fpm lift, but quickly lost it and couldn't stay up for more than 15 minutes on that one. Oh well, at least i learned a valuable lesson, and didn't compound my mistake by flying in "zero" too far from the field looking for thermals.
Tried again, from 2500 this time, but it was already calming down- couldn't find the thermals that were there before, and came down after about 20 minutes.
 
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