rottydaddy
En-Route
Had a chance to take a day off today, so I went to the airport to help JP with a sort of upgrade project on the 2-33 tailwheel (it's fine; just could stand some improvement). As far as I knew, the towplane was down for an oil change, and nobody else would be around until the weekend.
It was a gorgeous day, and the towplane had been serviced already...some club members were already there preparing to launch Andy in the 1-26, so JP and I decided to wait for a rainy day to work on the trainer, and hauled it out so JP could knock off his winter rust and I could do some solo hops.
Turned out to be a good idea.
The thermals were less fragmented than last weekend, but the wind aloft was still pretty strong; not easy for a novice to work with. Bit of a crosswind on 25 most of the day... in fact, when we began staging the 2-33, the power guys were still using 07.
Did three solo flights- first was off a bumpy tow to 2600 (planned for 3000, but got some boomin' lift and decided to get off)... gained 800 feet on that one, but chickened out when I realized the thermal was leaning way downwind of the field. Made a good approach and landing, and vowed to try a little harder on the next one. There was plenty of good 400-600 fpm lift out there; just had to work it better.
Andy stayed up for well over an hour- hit the inversion at 5000 and eventually gave up.
Meanwhile, I had another go at it- off at 2500, determined to work my way up even if it meant getting a bit more downwind than I would normally, but this time it was pretty weak over there... couldn't manage to get anything steady, and I was getting farther downwind than before. So I worked on tacking upwind and just milking the mild lift and fairly widespread zero sink west of the field. Stayed up a bit longer this time; about 30 minutes. I roamed around more than before, but in general the lift seemed weaker... tight, 200fpm stuff. I reached a point where was getting near 1500 NW of the field with traffic to worry about... I could either drop it in for a perfect crosswind entry, or risk sinking through TPA while searching for more lift, out where aircraft were entering and exiting (which happened to be where the hot stuff was). The smart move, for me, anyway, was to drop it in; I was right there, anyway. That turned out well, with another good approach and landing- if I didn't know better, I'd say I'm getting the hang of that stuff.
Greg showed up for his first of the season, then I had another turn. By then, a big mass of clouds had covered the sun, and everything shut down. Had a fun sleigh ride off a 3000-foot tow on that one... the towplane was on base when I entered the pattern. My base leg was a little too tight, but it worked out fine. A good day.
It was a gorgeous day, and the towplane had been serviced already...some club members were already there preparing to launch Andy in the 1-26, so JP and I decided to wait for a rainy day to work on the trainer, and hauled it out so JP could knock off his winter rust and I could do some solo hops.
Turned out to be a good idea.
The thermals were less fragmented than last weekend, but the wind aloft was still pretty strong; not easy for a novice to work with. Bit of a crosswind on 25 most of the day... in fact, when we began staging the 2-33, the power guys were still using 07.
Did three solo flights- first was off a bumpy tow to 2600 (planned for 3000, but got some boomin' lift and decided to get off)... gained 800 feet on that one, but chickened out when I realized the thermal was leaning way downwind of the field. Made a good approach and landing, and vowed to try a little harder on the next one. There was plenty of good 400-600 fpm lift out there; just had to work it better.
Andy stayed up for well over an hour- hit the inversion at 5000 and eventually gave up.
Meanwhile, I had another go at it- off at 2500, determined to work my way up even if it meant getting a bit more downwind than I would normally, but this time it was pretty weak over there... couldn't manage to get anything steady, and I was getting farther downwind than before. So I worked on tacking upwind and just milking the mild lift and fairly widespread zero sink west of the field. Stayed up a bit longer this time; about 30 minutes. I roamed around more than before, but in general the lift seemed weaker... tight, 200fpm stuff. I reached a point where was getting near 1500 NW of the field with traffic to worry about... I could either drop it in for a perfect crosswind entry, or risk sinking through TPA while searching for more lift, out where aircraft were entering and exiting (which happened to be where the hot stuff was). The smart move, for me, anyway, was to drop it in; I was right there, anyway. That turned out well, with another good approach and landing- if I didn't know better, I'd say I'm getting the hang of that stuff.
Greg showed up for his first of the season, then I had another turn. By then, a big mass of clouds had covered the sun, and everything shut down. Had a fun sleigh ride off a 3000-foot tow on that one... the towplane was on base when I entered the pattern. My base leg was a little too tight, but it worked out fine. A good day.
