rottydaddy
En-Route
... and it ain't over yet. 
I'm hoping to do the commercial check ride this year, but haven't taken the written yet, and meanwhile some decent soaring days have been popping up.
Couple weeks ago I did just over an hour solo in the 2-33, did some review dual after that (made some dumb mistakes but nothing I will repeat on the check ride, dagnabbit), and have flown a few times with student members in the front seat. I've been stuck working on a lot of magnificent soaring days this summer, but that's the breaks- even glider pilots need money to get airborne.
Today was a standout- a vigorous cold front just came through, leaving surprisingly calm air in its wake and lots of inviting flat-bottom Cus at about 4000. First hop for me was in the 2-33 with our youngest member up front (only other member there at that time was an instructor, but the only one of us three qual'd to tow). He's pre-solo but sharp, so I let him fly most of it, and he did well. Got off at about 2700 and got back to that alt. quickly. Thermals were still warming up and the light wind was shifty, so he didn't last very long. But we got a good sniff in, and things looked promising. Lots of those classic Cus, but plenty of sun warming the ground. All clouds showed moderate vertical development- enough to give lift, but no danger of over-developing. And the visibility was unusually good- above 2000, you could easily see Philadelphia. Plenty of traffic as the day progressed, but it was very easy to spot everything. Shortly after I gave him the controls on tow, a hawk buzzed the towplane, seeming to come very close to the rope, but it didn't come back up to challenge us again.
Two more students showed up and the other CFI and tow pilot, so it was time for me to drag out the single-seater, before Andy could come and take it out for over 4 hours like he did last time, LOL.
I got up around the peak time, banged off at 2700 again, went upwind just past Solberg, and before it was all over, I'd gone to 3900 and cruised down to Princeton and back to 47N. That was satisfying, especially arriving over Princeton at 3000, with a nice thermal waiting there for me. Put a couple hundred feet in the bank and decided to hard north again. The thermals were tricky below that altitude, though, and the best clouds were pretty far from the path home, so after conservatively making a beeline back to the home drome instead of sneaking west to try some of the clouds over there, I found myself struggling at around 1800, with the wind changing up and the thermals going all over the place. Hard work, especially for me in the 1-26... this is why they call soaring a sport, I guess.
Fell into the pattern after about an hour, and made a good landing. I should have been able to make more of that flight, but oh well, at least I was up in that thing long enough to not be nervous with it, LOL. After I landed and let go of the stick, I noticed my shoulder was a little sore and stiff (tore it up back in May, but it's been fine for over a month now)... so it was probably for the best that I gave up when I did.
Made another hop a couple hours later, with the sky starting to shut down, and made the mistake of getting off below 3000 again... scratched around a while and gave up after about 30 minutes.
All in all, a good day.
I'm hoping to do the commercial check ride this year, but haven't taken the written yet, and meanwhile some decent soaring days have been popping up.
Couple weeks ago I did just over an hour solo in the 2-33, did some review dual after that (made some dumb mistakes but nothing I will repeat on the check ride, dagnabbit), and have flown a few times with student members in the front seat. I've been stuck working on a lot of magnificent soaring days this summer, but that's the breaks- even glider pilots need money to get airborne.
Today was a standout- a vigorous cold front just came through, leaving surprisingly calm air in its wake and lots of inviting flat-bottom Cus at about 4000. First hop for me was in the 2-33 with our youngest member up front (only other member there at that time was an instructor, but the only one of us three qual'd to tow). He's pre-solo but sharp, so I let him fly most of it, and he did well. Got off at about 2700 and got back to that alt. quickly. Thermals were still warming up and the light wind was shifty, so he didn't last very long. But we got a good sniff in, and things looked promising. Lots of those classic Cus, but plenty of sun warming the ground. All clouds showed moderate vertical development- enough to give lift, but no danger of over-developing. And the visibility was unusually good- above 2000, you could easily see Philadelphia. Plenty of traffic as the day progressed, but it was very easy to spot everything. Shortly after I gave him the controls on tow, a hawk buzzed the towplane, seeming to come very close to the rope, but it didn't come back up to challenge us again.
Two more students showed up and the other CFI and tow pilot, so it was time for me to drag out the single-seater, before Andy could come and take it out for over 4 hours like he did last time, LOL.
I got up around the peak time, banged off at 2700 again, went upwind just past Solberg, and before it was all over, I'd gone to 3900 and cruised down to Princeton and back to 47N. That was satisfying, especially arriving over Princeton at 3000, with a nice thermal waiting there for me. Put a couple hundred feet in the bank and decided to hard north again. The thermals were tricky below that altitude, though, and the best clouds were pretty far from the path home, so after conservatively making a beeline back to the home drome instead of sneaking west to try some of the clouds over there, I found myself struggling at around 1800, with the wind changing up and the thermals going all over the place. Hard work, especially for me in the 1-26... this is why they call soaring a sport, I guess.
Fell into the pattern after about an hour, and made a good landing. I should have been able to make more of that flight, but oh well, at least I was up in that thing long enough to not be nervous with it, LOL. After I landed and let go of the stick, I noticed my shoulder was a little sore and stiff (tore it up back in May, but it's been fine for over a month now)... so it was probably for the best that I gave up when I did.
Made another hop a couple hours later, with the sky starting to shut down, and made the mistake of getting off below 3000 again... scratched around a while and gave up after about 30 minutes.
All in all, a good day.
