HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. Hanna Marlette and Jack Wiegand flew the Cherokee to and from Avenal today. It was such a beautiful Saturday with the hills all green and the weeds not yet too obnoxious. While the lift wasn't great, the sky was clear, and air mostly smooth. A good day for training and we did get a bit of that done.

2. Frank and Luke Owen also arrived via power plane and it was Luke's chance to continue his flight training started just three weeks ago. Since he did so well last two times, I wanted to stretch his skills and we did the flight with as much control as Luke wanted to exercise. He began by flying the tow, then we did more elaborate maneuvers aloft. Pushing him to do more, he then flew the pattern and landing. It was not a walk in the park for him because I wanted him to take on a lot of early responsibility for the flight. I trust he won't be too discouraged later, because, on tow, he struggled, as most students do. Once past the tow, all is usually well with the student and flight moves on easily.

3. Jack bought a kite at some gas station we stopped at and although it didn't look substantial enough, it actually flew quite well. Jack, Hanna, and Luke had the kite as high as the string would allow and it stayed there with surprising stability. That was probably the most exciting flight all day.

4. Frank Owen put in a lot of work fixing the tires on all the bicycles that had flats, and most had them. Now we have a fleet of bicycles to use running out and back to the launch area and other important destinations.

5. Jack and Hanna were distracted early in the day with the local farmer harvesting carrots in the field to the northwest of the gliderport. So they just had to go and see for themselves whether the harvesters got all the carrots out of the ground. They reported back that there were many carrots still imbedded in the soil and they brought back a dozen or so as proof. They were delicious.

6. With time out for lunch at Debbie's the afternoon was taken up with Jack and I flying a refresher flight.

7. Durval Freitas flew in, stayed awhile, then left for home. There weren't too many members here today so the towing was spotty.

8. Alex Caldwell decided to video his Nimbus 3 flight just to see whether his technology was sufficient. He added the video to You Tube and here is the link to that flight:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N3vUNPfdAUU

He used a simple still camera with the video feature on it, strapped to the brim of his cap. It turned out pretty good. I think pilots would liked to have seen inside the cockpit more, showing the variometer and altimeter. But otherwise it should be enjoyable for most viewers.