Saturday, March 20, 2010
WEATHER
Visibility: Unlimited but high cloud cover early..
Wind: N at 6
Altitudes: 4800 msl tow height only.
Time
Aloft: 2+ hours
Max
Lift:
3
knots
Temperature: 86 deg, a warm, balmy,
summer day..
Comment: So much activity on the ground
and in the air.
Tow Pilots: Allen White, Harlow Voorhees
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. It turned out to be a very busy day, although the
on-line scheduler showed just a few flights reserved. By time I got there, the
Boy Scouts had already been there and were beginning to fly in the 2-33. They
were trying to do an auto launch but the rope broke on the first attempt of the
day and that closed out any chance to continue that way. They did keep on flying
most of the day in between scheduled flights shown on the on-line scheduler.
Alex Caldwell is the organizer of these Scout outings each year and does a huge
favor to the boys for not only flying each of them, but also for seeking ways to
keep the costs down for each tow.
2. Peter Sahlberg is nearing his checkride and
needed a review of his progress in preparing for the ride. We went up twice and
noted areas of improvement, none of which were ride busters. Peter worked harder
than anyone the rest of the day in charge of the launch line, chasing ropes,
hooking up gliders, directing traffic on a very busy day. Near the end of the
day, Peter got his well-deserved ride in the Duo Discus. After that he again
took the Orange Crush aloft for more practice. Thanks for all that launch line
work you performed, Peter. Everyone out there was grateful for your input.
3. It was a busy day overall with more than 30
people present on the field during the day. It was great to see such a nice
turnout of members and guests. And we had a goodly number of guests. Just ask
Morgan who flew and flew and flew what must have seemed like everyone in the
Central Valley that showed up for a demo ride in the Duo Discus.
4. Darren Council flew three training flights and
gained skill on each flight. He took more of the tow each time and he will be a
solo pilot sooner than even he realizes. At 14 years young, he'll join the ranks
of others who soloed in their 14th year and go on to get their license and who
knows after that. Two of ours are currently at the Air Force Academy after
following a similar path. Keep up the good work, Darren. We're all proud of you.
5. Dad, Mel Council, flew two flights with Alex
Caldwell in the Orange Crush in order to begin his application as a CCSC tow
pilot. Alex reports that Mel did the entire tow unassisted and that was amazing
because so few people actually get the idea of the tow on the first flight. We
look forward to having Mel and son in our club. Mel is a very well rounded
individual, holding a Flight Instructor license in power, an A&P rating, and a
Teaching Certificate. He'll be most helpful as we grow our club and look to Mel
and others for direction and good input.
6. Dave Pilati, Andy Reistetter, and Steve Schery
all flew their fiberglass sailplanes today, keeping the tow planes busy.
7. Jeff Lowe is also nearing his checkride and flew
the 1-26 twice with tows up to 4800 msl. On the second flight he did find some
reasonable lift and had more fun than the first flight.
8. Joe Anastasio and Bart Klusek flew together in
the Blanik, twice, and managed to remain in weak lift for a nice duration
flight.
9. Julie Butler flew the 1-26 and continues to keep
sharp in anticipation of taking delivery of her DG100 sometime next month. That
should be fun for her. Maybe she'll paint the glider with flowers, or at the
least a few nice appliqués for effect.
10. Jerry Badal and Mario Crosina were on hand, just
helping everyone on the launch or assembly line, but neither flying their own
sailplanes.
11. Scott Naumann arrived in his Cessna 180, flew
with Morgan, then in the 1-26, and finally left for home in late afternoon.
12. By all accounts the day belonged to Morgan Hall.
I think he flew everyone he could in the Duo Discus, and encouraged others to
come out for demo rides. His friends from the Coast contributed to the nice
crowd at Avenal today. But Morgan earned applause with his continuing
performance in the Discus, hoping out only once for a Nature call.
Here is his report:
"If you've ever wondered what a day in the life of an Instructor
might be like, I hope I can add some insight. On Saturday March 20th, I
invited a number of friends out for a demo flight in the Duo Discus.
These were all "hot prospects" for joining us as members and I hoped a
chance to experience soaring in the Duo might set the hook.
As it turned out, only two of 5 prospects were able to make it for
the day. Not a problem since I had more people lined up to go for a
flight than I could deal with and took 6 people up for the experience
in the Duo. Sorry to everyone that I didn't get in the air, we'll
schedule another demo day.
Demo flights commenced at 12:45 or so and I got out of the plane
only one time to check the plants along the fence line before hopping
back in the plane to continue demos until around 5:30pm. Thankfully I
brought a few granola bars and a couple of containers of water that I
drank from during the day. Julie and Peter brought me a little
Frappuccino coffee drink around 3:30 which was nice boost of
sugar and caffeine.
The mental drain that making consecutive flights and the attention
required when allowing a friend or newbie fly your precious aircraft
was far greater than I expected over the duration of an afternoon. I
have such an incredible appreciation for the WORK that Harold
does week in week out at the club now. I had an absolute blast sharing
the air with six friends and will do it again in a heartbeat, but it's
clear to me just how much work and attention is required to provide
safe demo or instructional flights.
I flew three experienced pilots (Jerry Badal, Scott Naumann, Peter
Sahlberg (not licensed yet...)) and three students (Darren Council,
Chris Crescioli and Bob Osborn). The focus and attention
required to stay on top of the glider, provide guidance to your
passenger, talk them through the various controls (gear, trim, radio),
verbalizing my thought process on where the lift is, correcting minor
coordination issues, watching for traffic, monitoring and talking on
the radio, thermaling tightly with other gliders, taking pictures,
taking a little video, staying out of the way of other traffic (as
usual, the most consistent lift was right at the IP) and managing
energy to maximize the flight and landing was a lot of work. Yes,
that was a run-on sentence, but that is everything that Harold or
Alex is doing on
a daily basis when instructing. There is a lot going on. We had as
many as 5 gliders up in light conditions right near the field at times
plus two tow planes.
The radio was very nice to have (Got a handheld yet?) and
Harlow and Allen
are true professionals, calling their launches and landings and
patterns. Alerting each other to traffic, alerting gliders on tow to
traffic and managing the changes in approaches as required by traffic.
What an honor it is to share the air with these guys.
With the incredibly light conditions I did have to fly more than
I'd intended in order to help keep us in the air a bit longer. Given
a reasonable day, none of the experienced pilots would have had any
challenges settling in to the Duo and coring up in thermals and even
the students were able to coordinate moderate banked turns and work
the marginal lift. With minimal conditions, smooth precise flying and
speed control
combined with a willingness to wrap it up on a tip were necessary to
stay up and a bit much to expect for a first timer in a 20Meter
glider. Still, the slippery nature of the Duo gave everyone a taste
of how quickly it will build up speed with just a slight nose drop.
Sitting in the back seat it is amazing to feel the difference in G
forces from a 45knot turn to a 55 knot turn. As a "passenger" I found
I got a lot more physical feedback than I'm normally aware of when
controlling the glider.
Everyone did really well and had little trouble flying the Duo, she
is a very nice flying glider. A challenge with speed control was the
most commonly observed issue for everyone. A few degrees of nose
angle difference and you'll suddenly find yourself at 60knots or down
to 40knots. From the back seat, the sight line down the canopy rail
to the horizon seemingly magnifies the pitch variations, possibly
making flying in the back easier for speed control. Coordination on
the Duo is very good, but with long wings you need to remember about
your feet and I found myself helping out a bit here and there. Mostly
only if it looked like we were going to skid.
Overall it was a really fun day for me. Exhausting yes, far more
than a 4 or 5 hour single flight on your own. It showed me just how
much work and dedication is required to be an instructor and to
provide multiple training flights every day. It also hammered home
that I would like to continue to work towards my instructor rating.
We all got to experience the wonder of our first glider flight one
time. An instructor gets to experience that time and again when they
take someone up for the first time and I can see why people become
instructors for that buzz alone. It is a very different mode of
operation compared to going up solo and enjoying the day by yourself
and for yourself. I think the big risk of instructing is forgetting
to take those days to go out and enjoy the selfish side of the sport.
I definitely look forward to another Duo Demo Day.
Morgan
PS: One critical skill I've learned from sharing time in the Duo
with newbies and experienced pilots alike that will improve your
flying, especially in high performance gliders, is pitch and speed
control.
Speed control is a challenge for everyone at first in the Duo due
to how quickly it will pick up speed with just a slight reduction in
pitch. If you haven't flown in a glider with an effective trim, it
should be a prerequisite before making the jump into higher
performance ships. Trimming the glider allows for fingertip control
and pitch pressures and greatly increases the ability to "read" the
glider. Spend some time in the Blanik and really learn to leverage
the trim as that will really help when you get a chance to fly in
something higher performance and slippery. Get comfortable with the
trim and with maintaining a constant airspeed and smooth but
appropriately fast corrections to a low or
high pitch angle. In a sensitive high performance glider, if
you're fighting the stick in pitch, your speed will probably be all
over the place."
13. Buzz Graves, based out of Hollister, arrived in
his DG 800, a motor glider, after a long flight down the Temblor Range. After
refueling, Buzz took off and headed back to Hollister where he would likely land
in late afternoon.
14. Our tow pilots did a wonderful job keeping
gliders in the air. Between them, 32 tows is a busy day. Harlow had 13 and Allen
White had 19. We might have had another 3 or 4 except that some folks had to go
home before they were able to fly. That's how busy we were all day long.
15. THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR MAKING TODAY A RICH
EXPERIENCE AT AVENAL, ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR.
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