A good day for some gliding

[beaky]

Fled the office early today to get to the airport for the regular tuesday afternoon meet-up... man, it was perfect soaring weather. The downside was that when I got there, Herb had Greg up in the trainer on what turned out to be an epic 1 hr 10-min. flight... after a release at only 3,000 ft!

     


Pat was flying the 1-26, and with Mike in the tow plane I became the ground crew until the 2-33 got back. Been a while since I got on a quad, but I managed to do my duty as tug driver without mishap... kinda fun, too.


     




I helped Pat with two tows while we were waiting for the others to come down... he hadn't flown it in months so he kept his flights short, just enjoying "sitting in it again" as he put it.
Here we see Mike trying to get him positioned to catch a good thermal...






Finally they returned, and Herb took a breather while we stood around gabbing and watching the flight school ops.

           



This gorgeous Beech Travel Air was visiting from Minnesota...
                 


And this equally-excellent C-310 had arrived Sunday and was still on display.


     


A local favorite... this superb C-150 was making circuits, with some very fine landings, I must say.

     



Soon enough it was my turn to strap into the front of the 33 for some fun...





Herb handled the controls for the first of two takeoffs and about halfway through the first tow, so I was able to get a few snaps from the cockpit. It was a very peculiar lesson, especially flying the glider while in tow. The beautiful sky and the sight of the Citabria jerking around on the other end of a 200-ft rope were serious distractions!!

It's very serene, especially after the "bang!" of the release, and the view is magnificent. The 2-33 is not sporty by any stretch, but it has some grace that I may learn to coax out of it as well as Herb does.

     


"The one that got away"... Mike started out towards this mountain of lift during the second tow, but it was moving NE pretty quickly, so Herb had me release before we got to it, lest we get drawn too far from home (and too close to the Class Bravo!).  But it went well- I got two 0.4-hr hops under my belt, and H. seemed to think I did well overall.,including controlling it through the takeoff and most of the tow on the second run.   I couldn't say- I still have no idea what the hell I'm doing in that thing.


     



It's still very odd to me, and I'm rusty as hell in general, but it looks like I have another addictive challenge to keep me busy for a while.

[Hagar]

Excellent. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

The downside was that when I got there, Herb had Greg up in the trainer on what turned out to be an epic 1 hr 10-min. flight... after a release at only 3,000 ft!

One of the problems with gliding. You need plenty of time to spare.

[EGNX]

Shame you haven't got a winch too... They really do speed up operations, and on a good windy day you can usually manage 2,500' off the top of the launch!  :) (Well.... depending on how big your airfield is!  :P)

Remember the sayings... The blacker the cloud! The the more the lift! And.... Where there be sink.... There must be lift! We just can't bloody find it!

You might start to notice that thermals appear exactly where you don't want them!... Such as turning base leg and coming onto finals and gaining 100 feet! With your air brakes out! It can really cock up your landing!

[beaky]

Shame you haven't got a winch too... They really do speed up operations, and on a good windy day you can usually manage 2,500' off the top of the launch!  :) (Well.... depending on how big your airfield is!  :P)

Remember the sayings... The blacker the cloud! The the more the lift! And.... Where there be sink.... There must be lift! We just can't bloody find it!

You might start to notice that thermals appear exactly where you don't want them!... Such as turning base leg and coming onto finals and gaining 100 feet! With your air brakes out! It can really cock up your landing!

I don't know how much a winch would help- most of the "wasted" time is spent retrieving the gliders and bringing them back to the launch prep area.
I guess the winch gets you to altitude quicker, but I actually enjoy flying in tow to some extent, and a savvy tow pilot can put you in the right place to start with.

And I certainly don't care if I miss out on a little glider time because we use the slower aero-tow method: I'm itching to get in the back of that Citabria and log a little stick time in it. Had I not been needed to help Pat with his launch, I'd have probably gotten my chance right away.

Tuesday worked out pretty well overall for me: there were three glider pilots, one of whom was soloing the 26, so there was always someone available to help with ground ops so the tow pilot was always ready to start up and go.

That doggone Citabria almost wouldn't start for me again, though- it doesn't seem to like taking a break after several runs on a hot day.

[Hagar]

I don't know how much a winch would help- most of the "wasted" time is spent retrieving the gliders and bringing them back to the launch prep area.
I guess the winch gets you to altitude quicker, but I actually enjoy flying in tow to some extent, and a savvy tow pilot can put you in the right place to start with.

Don't forget waiting for the glider to come down when some rotten devil is hogging it.

I don't think a winch would speed things up in your case but it would definitely be cheaper. For example, a winch launch at my local club is

[pepper_airborne]

Some nice photo's there, i wish i could go gliding, must be very serene without an engine, offcourse you can also go up compared to parachute jumping.

[flyboy 28]

Hurrah! Glad you finally made it up.

That snap of the 310 is gorgeous!

[beaky]

Probably in that in-between period between hot & cold. It makes me cringe to watch the way some pilots punish those poor little starter motors.* They might treat them a little better if they had to swing the props. Whenever we had a warm engine that refused to start we used to "leave it to sulk" while we went for a cuppa. When we returned it would usually start on the first pull. I expect this remedy would work just as well on coffee.

*Not accusing you of this.

The main problem is that this plane is fuel-injected... possible carb ice is a small price to pay for being free of vapor-lock and flooded hot starts (and dead batteries); I really am not a fan of fuel-injected aircraft engines.

But I've certainly flown my share of carbureted planes with starters that were difficult to start at those odd times... best thing, as you say, is to turn your back on it for a few minutes, then sneak up on it when it's not looking and have another try.


The thing I've found with hand-propped engines is that when they are cranky, it does help to back off for a while, but of course it will titillate you with some promising noises after each of the dozen or so prior swings of the prop.

[Hagar]

The main problem is that this plane is fuel-injected... possible carb ice is a small price to pay for being free of vapor-lock and flooded hot starts (and dead batteries); I really am not a fan of fuel-injected aircraft engines.

Ah, I have no experience with that particular breed. Strangely enough most modern car engines are fuel-injected & they don't seem to suffer from similar starting problems. Perhaps it's an air-cooled thing.

[EGNX]

I suppose for your kind of operations a winch wouldn't really be of much good use. But it is one hell of a fun ride! Especially if the passenger you're taking up has never flown before and is shaking with fear!  :evil  :P

All we do is land the glider next to the caravan, hook up another cable and go up again, so you can be airborne again within 2 minutes. So it is a lot speedier for us than an aerotow!

[Mobius]

Gliding sounds like loads of fun.  I'm jealous. 8-)

[Brett_Henderson]

Wow.. this is fascinating

[Willit Run]

Good to see you made it up!!  

When you get your Glider license I'll go up with you and I'll pay for the glider's fuel!!  :D

Great shots!!

[beaky]

Good to see you made it up!!  

When you get your Glider license I'll go up with you and I'll pay for the glider's fuel!!  :D

Great shots!!

Pshaw- you will be paying for tows to 8,000!

[beaky]

Wow.. this is fascinating  :)   I feel like I've intentionally avoided looking into soaring (not even sure why, myself).. probably because my late-in-life return to flying fast-tracked me into stereo-typical, "what good is a pilot's license if you don't go places with it and take people along". My instrument rating was almost shoved down my throat as a needed tool for actually using airplanes for travel. I still look back at our Ohio lunch flight, Rotty, as one of the few, "just for fun" flights I've taken.

I think I'm gonna investigate soaring.  

I am still a little leery of letting my powered PIC privileges (and skills) slip, but I think this willl work out fine for a while. The last "3 to be legal" I logged was back in January anyway,and if I were to want to rent a Cessna or whatever I'd have to take some dual for a checkout.

Then there's the Citabria... and the RV-4, although H. is thinking about selling that and getting another Citabria (he misses the one he used to own)... that would be OK by me, as it's unlikely he'd teach me to land the RV-4, even with him aboard.  And the other planes... this is probably part of any decent soaring club: there will be members who own powered aircraft, and you will likely be standing right there when they decide to go for a hop.

But I'll keep looking for a 140 meanwhile, maybe a partnership... and I'll keep rubbing that raffle ticket for good luck. Chances are good that by the end of this season I'll be hankering to fly behind a prop again; maybe I'll do some more skiplane stuff at Andover this winter.

At any rate, I have no plans to make any real trips anytime soon, y'know? So why pay big bucks to keep up my Skyhawk-driving skills? Flying for these work trips is only a very remote possibility, as it turns out- the scheduling is usually too tight.

And I'm enjoying the whole glider-club experience; it's a team sport.

Each plane has its own technique for how to set the mixture/throttle for a hot start. It's very unsettling to hot start one at a remote airport, alone :-/

Oddly enough, whenever I hot-started that 172S away from 47N it was fine, only at home would she freak out on me.