rottydaddy
En-Route
Flew today for the first time since late October... I feel like myself again. 
Conditions looked promising on paper, but with fairly strong winds aloft in the area, the lift was tricky. The strongest stuff I found was below 1500 AGL, and I tend to think of 1500 as my "hard deck" for slow maneuvering. Very few clouds, and none of them really good thermal indicators. As my tow pilot (Turbo) noted, as if reading my mind, none of the usual thermal-generating areas were producing anything good, even just after noon on a hot, sunny day.
But I just wanted to get aloft and get "3 to be legal", so it didn't matter. Grabbed the 1-26 and got towed three times, releasing below 3000 each time. Did some steep turns, a couple stalls,etc. A little too bumpy to box the wake with so much rust on me, especially in the more pitch-sensitive 1-26... but I felt pretty comfy in it, overall, which surprised me a little.
Variable crosswind on the runway, gusting to over 15 at times... my launches were not bad, all things considered, but my first pattern and landing were abysmal by my standards. The wind gradient was low and tricky; wound up putting the tailwheel down first, dammit. I even rolled farther than I'd intended.
Second, as usual when I do three flights in anything after a hiatus, was not bad... corrected for the xwind properly in the pattern and landed clean, within my intended target area.
Third was typical too- not as bad as the first but not as good as the second. Got hammered pretty good entering the pattern, but resisted the temptation to do anything with that. My pattern was OK, but this time I came down pretty hard, but not fully stalled by any means. Oh well.
I might fly tomorrow; got a gig in the morning, but most of the club will probably be at the airport flying, so if the forecast T-storms leave us alone in the afternoon, I'll stop by the field on my way home. I need to do a few from the back seat of the 2-33 to get ready to exercise my shiny new commercial cert...
Conditions looked promising on paper, but with fairly strong winds aloft in the area, the lift was tricky. The strongest stuff I found was below 1500 AGL, and I tend to think of 1500 as my "hard deck" for slow maneuvering. Very few clouds, and none of them really good thermal indicators. As my tow pilot (Turbo) noted, as if reading my mind, none of the usual thermal-generating areas were producing anything good, even just after noon on a hot, sunny day.
But I just wanted to get aloft and get "3 to be legal", so it didn't matter. Grabbed the 1-26 and got towed three times, releasing below 3000 each time. Did some steep turns, a couple stalls,etc. A little too bumpy to box the wake with so much rust on me, especially in the more pitch-sensitive 1-26... but I felt pretty comfy in it, overall, which surprised me a little.
Variable crosswind on the runway, gusting to over 15 at times... my launches were not bad, all things considered, but my first pattern and landing were abysmal by my standards. The wind gradient was low and tricky; wound up putting the tailwheel down first, dammit. I even rolled farther than I'd intended.
Second, as usual when I do three flights in anything after a hiatus, was not bad... corrected for the xwind properly in the pattern and landed clean, within my intended target area.
Third was typical too- not as bad as the first but not as good as the second. Got hammered pretty good entering the pattern, but resisted the temptation to do anything with that. My pattern was OK, but this time I came down pretty hard, but not fully stalled by any means. Oh well.
I might fly tomorrow; got a gig in the morning, but most of the club will probably be at the airport flying, so if the forecast T-storms leave us alone in the afternoon, I'll stop by the field on my way home. I need to do a few from the back seat of the 2-33 to get ready to exercise my shiny new commercial cert...