HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. Approaching Avenal from Fresno I was impressed by the sky and clouds in the distance. Beautiful white, puffy, cumulus clouds, deep blue sky, warm sun, and light wind. Seems like a recipe for great soaring. And indeed it was. Everyone who came out to Avenal had a great flight. Most of the high-performance sailplanes were aloft over 4 hours and some over 5 hours. It was hard to make oneself come down from that wonderful scene because in order to lose altitude you had to open the dive brakes and stick the nose down. Otherwise the lift kept you up almost wherever you flew. As you can see from the photos, it was a classic, picturesque day, one for the painters and their canvases.

2. Alex Caldwell was out early, knowing in advance the soaring would be great. He didn't know how beautiful the sky would be but that was just the icing on the cake. He assembled and was aloft in no time. I believe he was up over 5 hours and probably could have been there 6 or 7 hours.

3. Mike Savaria had a friend visit him, named Glen Cannon (Glen Canyon?) who lives in Eureka, CA. He had driven down for the weekend to visit with Mike and Loyal and was driving back on Sunday. He wanted a nice long flight, "no matter what the cost". So, up we went as the first sailplane aloft (sniffer). Indeed we found lift everywhere, with cloud bases at 5000 msl early in the afternoon, just past one o'clock. And up we stayed for about an hour and twenty minutes. He wanted to go again after my students so we set off the second flight for a few hours. Later on, the lift started going away as early as 4:15 pm and Glen decided to come back again another day, a good decision considering he already had a nice long flight to remember.

4. Jerry Smeltzer flew the 1-26 and was up for well over an hour, up over 5200 msl, and came down only because he thought someone else might want to use the glider.

5. Mario Crosina and Jerry Badal arrived together, assembled their gliders, and both launched within a few minutes of one another. Again, both pilots were aloft nearly five hours, and the only thing that brought Jerry back was a high speed dash for the gliderport, prompted only by the lack of any more bladder capacity. He made it, although he left his glider on the runway as he ran for the bathroom.

6. Doug Staudmeister took the Blanik and went aloft just about 1:00 pm. I left at about 4:40 pm and Doug was still in the air. Here's what Doug had to say:

"Great day as you mentioned.  Up for about 4 hrs, max alt 5200' MSL, spent most of the day between 3500 and 4500, max lift 400 fpm (most thermals were 100-200 fpm), ventured about a mile south of 41/33 along Reef Ridge before working my way back upwind along the western edge of the Kettleman Hills.  Shared a few thermals with the Glass Pack (Mario, Jerry and Alex); the Blanik held her own in the climb but was no match when they sped off to the next thermal.  Practiced entering/exiting thermals, speed to fly between the cumulus, straight/banked stalls, slow speed flight (worked the smaller thermals with 1/2 flap)".

7 Stephanie Southworth is a Kings County Deputy Sheriff who came out to the gliderport on her break. She talked to me about glider demo flights and after the conversation she called her Mom in Exeter and told her to come out to Avenal right now, for a demo ride. Not too much later, Mom-Cherri and Dad-Steve, arrived on their Harley's. Steve almost decided to take a flight but at the last moment thought Cherri should do it alone. So, up we went, and Cherri had a nice time aloft, not particularly interested in anything other than some sightseeing in a very quiet environment. After that, they rode together back home and who knows if we'll see them again any time soon. But perhaps they'll get the bug and come back for more. We hope so 'cause they seem like really nice people and excellent prospective club members.