rottydaddy
En-Route
Finally tried out the 1-26 yesterday, as the 2-33 was busy giving rides(the club has started putting banners by the road and distributing flyers, and it's paying off; we may have a couple of new members soon, including a 777 captain who lives nearby).
The wind was very light until I was ready to go- at which time, of course, it became a pretty stiff direct xwind.
Out of the south, too... unusual here, and always a bit trickier, too, for whatever reason.
Everybody'd been warning me "easy on the pitch inputs, watch that elevator, etc"... I did fine with that, grabbed the stick low and braced my wrist on my leg... but on the first launch I did not get that foot in quickly enough, yikes! Needed a touch more aileron, too, during those critical first seconds. Drifted way downwind, but fixed it before it got too bad.
Even on tow, I could see right away that the key difference is that unlike the trainer, with the 1-26, when you move the stick, it's not so much that more happens, it's more that something happens immediately. And even at tow speeds, the forces are light... the 2-33's stick is much harder to move on tow. Other than that, the short coupling makes it easier to get into PIO, but I got the hang of that right away. It's also just less solid in turbulence, but not overly so. Definitely the lightest ship I've flown so far, though, and the seating position is still a bit awkward for me... I had a blast, but it will take a few flights to get really comfy with it.
Got off in some good lift, but didn't feel confident yankin' and bankin' yet, so I just farted around a bit and wound up falling out quickly. I was also warned about locking the brake at touchdown, and I released some spoilers as I touched down on a bump, and up she went, about four feet. Came down softly enough, but I made a note to try harder on the next one...
Second launch went very well, and I banged off at 2300 in some killer lift. Andy had loaned me his portable audible vario- I don't know if it was that, or the 1-26, or just better conditions, but I think I thermalled better on that flight than ever before. As predicted, the beeping was not a nuisance at all... it seems to free up about 50% of my brain for just flying and thinking about what's next, and when that tone goes higher and faster, it's like a drug, LOL. Don't recall what make and model, but it's intended for hang-gliding; quite sensitive, with little lag time, unlike the fairly old mounted vario. The 2-33 can be flown at the same descent rate at min. sink speed, but the 1-26 sure seemed to do better in thermals, maybe because it turns tighter more easily.
There were numerous thermals, fairly wide for the most part, but it was a bit gusty up there, with increasing wind strength near cloud base, making for rough riding in some of these thermals. I was trying to be conservative at first, because I did not quite have a feel for keeping it well-coordinated in steep turns. Every time I got jostled I'd chicken out and nearly fly out of the lift. But the lift was strong, so it didn't matter much.
Got up to 5200 very quickly, lost some of it "test-flying" the 1-26 through some stalls, etc., got back up to 4500... Andy had launched in the 2-33, giving a ride... I turned towards them as they started coming up, made machine-gun noises while diving towards them (at a very safe distance), circled above them for a while, got back up past 4000 again, got clobbered by shear or something at one point (I'd swear the 1-26 got stood on its nose briefly!), then went and flew one of the "mini tasks" that Herb had outlined for us new PPs in the club (probably only 8-9 miles total). But I was looking out towards Princeton at one point... straight upwind, and there were more promising clouds along the way... hmmm... maybe next time. With these conditions, this glider, and the better vario, I felt like I could go anywhere.
After an hour aloft, I noticed my legs felt cramped (need to adjust the seat a bit differently next time), and remembered that I'd promised to give a young lady a ride in the 2-33, so I figured I'd come back down. That took some doing, LOL- it was booming out there. Second landing was very nice, if a bit long.
The 2-33 flight went OK, except again, with a stronger xwind this time and because I'm still not 100% adept at flying with someone's noggin right in front of me, I got downwind and a bit high on the launch again, argh. Sloppy, sloppy.
And the sky had shut down by then- it was a pleasant sleigh ride, but nothing exciting. The near-overcast continued after that ride; we wrapped up pretty early.
I felt bad- she is a relative of our youngest member Jeremy, and is returning to China this week after spending some time here flying, skydiving, etc. She might have enjoyed some thermaling. But I brought her back in one piece- that's what counts, eh?
Anyway, it was very cool to finally fly something with only one seat, and I'm looking forward to getting better-acquainted with the 1-26.
The wind was very light until I was ready to go- at which time, of course, it became a pretty stiff direct xwind.
Out of the south, too... unusual here, and always a bit trickier, too, for whatever reason.Everybody'd been warning me "easy on the pitch inputs, watch that elevator, etc"... I did fine with that, grabbed the stick low and braced my wrist on my leg... but on the first launch I did not get that foot in quickly enough, yikes! Needed a touch more aileron, too, during those critical first seconds. Drifted way downwind, but fixed it before it got too bad.
Even on tow, I could see right away that the key difference is that unlike the trainer, with the 1-26, when you move the stick, it's not so much that more happens, it's more that something happens immediately. And even at tow speeds, the forces are light... the 2-33's stick is much harder to move on tow. Other than that, the short coupling makes it easier to get into PIO, but I got the hang of that right away. It's also just less solid in turbulence, but not overly so. Definitely the lightest ship I've flown so far, though, and the seating position is still a bit awkward for me... I had a blast, but it will take a few flights to get really comfy with it.
Got off in some good lift, but didn't feel confident yankin' and bankin' yet, so I just farted around a bit and wound up falling out quickly. I was also warned about locking the brake at touchdown, and I released some spoilers as I touched down on a bump, and up she went, about four feet. Came down softly enough, but I made a note to try harder on the next one...
Second launch went very well, and I banged off at 2300 in some killer lift. Andy had loaned me his portable audible vario- I don't know if it was that, or the 1-26, or just better conditions, but I think I thermalled better on that flight than ever before. As predicted, the beeping was not a nuisance at all... it seems to free up about 50% of my brain for just flying and thinking about what's next, and when that tone goes higher and faster, it's like a drug, LOL. Don't recall what make and model, but it's intended for hang-gliding; quite sensitive, with little lag time, unlike the fairly old mounted vario. The 2-33 can be flown at the same descent rate at min. sink speed, but the 1-26 sure seemed to do better in thermals, maybe because it turns tighter more easily.
There were numerous thermals, fairly wide for the most part, but it was a bit gusty up there, with increasing wind strength near cloud base, making for rough riding in some of these thermals. I was trying to be conservative at first, because I did not quite have a feel for keeping it well-coordinated in steep turns. Every time I got jostled I'd chicken out and nearly fly out of the lift. But the lift was strong, so it didn't matter much.
Got up to 5200 very quickly, lost some of it "test-flying" the 1-26 through some stalls, etc., got back up to 4500... Andy had launched in the 2-33, giving a ride... I turned towards them as they started coming up, made machine-gun noises while diving towards them (at a very safe distance), circled above them for a while, got back up past 4000 again, got clobbered by shear or something at one point (I'd swear the 1-26 got stood on its nose briefly!), then went and flew one of the "mini tasks" that Herb had outlined for us new PPs in the club (probably only 8-9 miles total). But I was looking out towards Princeton at one point... straight upwind, and there were more promising clouds along the way... hmmm... maybe next time. With these conditions, this glider, and the better vario, I felt like I could go anywhere.
After an hour aloft, I noticed my legs felt cramped (need to adjust the seat a bit differently next time), and remembered that I'd promised to give a young lady a ride in the 2-33, so I figured I'd come back down. That took some doing, LOL- it was booming out there. Second landing was very nice, if a bit long.
The 2-33 flight went OK, except again, with a stronger xwind this time and because I'm still not 100% adept at flying with someone's noggin right in front of me, I got downwind and a bit high on the launch again, argh. Sloppy, sloppy.
And the sky had shut down by then- it was a pleasant sleigh ride, but nothing exciting. The near-overcast continued after that ride; we wrapped up pretty early.
I felt bad- she is a relative of our youngest member Jeremy, and is returning to China this week after spending some time here flying, skydiving, etc. She might have enjoyed some thermaling. But I brought her back in one piece- that's what counts, eh?
Anyway, it was very cool to finally fly something with only one seat, and I'm looking forward to getting better-acquainted with the 1-26.
