HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. You may recall that two weeks ago Chris came out to Avenal from Lemoore NAS for the first time and took a demo ride. He liked it, and decided to join the club and work for his commercial add-on rating for gliders. So he came back today and we were able to get all the maneuvers done in three flights at which time I felt very comfortable allowing him to solo the 2-33. He is quite competent in the glider probably as a result of his training in the Hornet (very similar to the Orange Crush, of course) and the other ratings he's accomplished over the past few years. CONGRATULATIONS, CHRIS, AND AFTER A FEW IN THE 2-33 YOU'LL BE ELIGIBLE FOR FLIGHT IN THE 1-26.
 

2. As you can see from the photos, it was a wonderful soaring day and no less than nine high-performance sailplanes were in the air this afternoon. Include the three club ships, and we had all of them aloft all afternoon. It was a great sight to see so many of those beautiful gliders thermalling or just sailing by at great speed. Some came back early, others kept flying until late in the afternoon. Jerry Badal got low near Coalinga and made an excellent landout, choosing to pick his field before he desperately needed to and land perfectly safe, in a mostly smooth field and had his retrieve crew there in no time. Here is what Jerry told me in his email the next day:

"Harold,

Sorry I missed your call.  I've been in meetings all day.

In answer to your question, yes, I did landout on Saturday.

After a tough, and painfully long, climb from a 2,000 foot tow release altitude, I finally reached 6,400 feet right at cloud base and hooked up with David Pilati.  A few minutes later Mario, who launched after me, joined us and the three of us headed north, toward Coalinga.  We made it to Coalinga, stopping several times to climb along the way.  Most of the time I stayed between 6,400 and 4,500 feet as Mario drew farther away in the distance and higher above me.  On the last stretch to Coalinga, however, I dropped down to around 3,200 feet, trying to keep up with Mario and David, who were both flying more efficiently than I was.

Just south of Coalinga Mario and David stopped to climb in a thermal.  When I reached them, I couldn't connect with the same thermal.  I had passed good lift a few minutes earlier, so I turned back to the area where I had experienced the lift, but again, could not connect with anything.  I eventually did find lift, but it was broken and weak.  I would circle in 300-400 ft/min lift for a third of the circle and then be in sink the rest of the way around.  I gained 50 feet, then lost 100.  Over time, I was slowly losing altitude and getting lower.  I left the weak lift and flew a pattern over promising looking areas to try to find lift, but ended up losing more precious altitude.  I was eventually down around 2,800 feet and over rough foothills.

I decided it was time to start looking for a place to land and flew north toward some nice cultivated fields just south of Coalinga.  I reached the fields at 2,100 feet and flew over them for a few minutes to pick out the best one.  Ironically, I found some lift as soon as I committed to landing.  I took one turn in lift, but decided that at this point, I should stick to my plan and focus on a safe landing.  If I'd had more flying experience and it were later in the season (meaning I would have had more time in my Libelle), I would have tried for a save.  As it was, I decided to not take the chance.

I flew over the field a couple times to make sure there were no pipes or other debris on the field and landed.  The landing was totally uneventful and routine.  For my first land-out away from the home field, I chose a really big field.  I could have landed in any direction and been fine in such a big field.  As it was, I landed right where I wanted to land and rolled to a smooth stop with no drama.

David Pilati flew over me in his 1-35 and took my position off his GPS.  He called me on the radio and told me he'd head back to the field for my truck and glider trailer.  A couple hours later, David and Andy Reistetter showed up with the trailer and helped me put the glider away.

We went to dinner that evening at Harris Ranch.  I bought dinner for David and Andy.  Don Van Wyk and Mario joined us and we enjoyed a great evening together as Mario kept us all laughing at his glider stories.

Overall it was a good learning experience for me.  I now know not to follow better pilots to the point where I'm well below the lift band.  And I learned that landing in strange fields is manageable if you pick your field early and don't wait until things become desperate to begin planning your landing.

Oh, one more thing.  The truly ironic thing about my land-out was that not 20 minutes after climbing out of the glider there were birds circling all around me.  Within 30 minutes of landing I had a huge and beautiful cumulous cloud directly over my head.  I mean directly.  You could have dropped a plum-bob from the center of the cloud to the center of my glider.  Within 40 minutes there were nice clouds all around me and all I could do was sit on the ground and watch the birds thermalling higher and higher.  Oh well.  It was still fun."  [See the last photo on this page.]

3. Jeff Lowe also flew the 1-26 twice today and had two nice flights. He's getting close to working on his license and will have to be switching to the 2-33 soon because that's what he'll be taking his checkride in.

4. Joe Anastasio flew the Blanik, up as long as he wanted, enjoyed his return to Avenal for the first time in over a month. He was refueling the reactor at Diablo Canyon (well, not him exactly, but close enough) for the entire month and was glad to get back into soaring.

5. Bob Stroup was here today as well, learning more, getting better at controlling the glider on tow as well as off. We're going to work hard at seeing him solo on his next birthday if at all possible. Stay tuned.

6. After the CCSC Board meeting, the members headed out to their gliders as part of the group of twelve that were aloft all afternoon. It was a fun day for everyone, even for those on the ground who were content with watching gliders all over the sky, back and forth, north to south, and returning. I hope all of you around the world who watched the activity on the field video cameras enjoyed the day as well.

7. Michael Savaria provided his usual excellent assistance for all the glider pilots, hooking them up, running the wing, conveying messages to his Dad in the tow plane, and just being an awfully nice guy to have around.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP, MICHAEL, FROM ALL OF US.