HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. Chris Karapostoles brought a dathúil Irish Lad and a álainn Lassie out to Avenal for their first glider rides. Ken O'Leary and his sister, Jane, born in Ireland, brought here to brighten our land with their Irish smiles, had fun aloft. Ken is an FA-18 pilot at Lemoore (as is Chris), and Jane, who now lives in Orlando, was here just for a visit. Sorry, but I'm a pushover for that wonderful Irish accent. I could listen to it forever. I am a bit prejudiced, however, since my grandparents were born in Ireland. Back there in the auld sod, it was O'Gallagher without pronouncing the "g". Anyway, it sure was nice having them around and hope to see both of them back here again "before the devil knows they're here". It's an old Irish sayin', modified somewhat. :- ))

2. Chris had one launch, and even with the good lift, came back too soon. After we all pounced on him, he took off again and wasn't seen on the ground for a very long time, having himself one great flight. Good going, Chris. Ken O'Leary flew for about one hour off tow, did very well on tow, and familiarized himself with the in-flight maneuvers quickly. He promised to come back again soon, join the club, and earn his glider add-on rating. We'll hold him to it and expect him back again very soon. Jane also flew the glider, wasn't nervous at all, had fun, laughed a lot, and overall enjoyed the time aloft.

3. We had two other guests early this fine day. Jim Mellick and Dave Baxter drove in on their motorcycles, beautiful machines they were indeed, and went for their first glider rides. The lift wasn't too strong at that time of day but they enjoyed the experience anyway. It is possible they may be back to join the club and  work on a glider pilot's license.

4. The lift in the middle of the day was so turbulent that we had to stop all student flying for awhile. It was so rough that Yutaka had a rope break on his tow just about 200 ft. agl, and was able to return to the runway with no difficulty. Seems that the tow plane went through a very strong thermal and when Yutaka hit the same thermal it drove the glider so high so quickly he had no chance to release before the rope broke. That was the incident that prompted us to close off student flying. Later in the day, the rough air calmed a bit and we could resume student flying.

5. After most of the rough air had subsided, Julie Butler and I went up in the Orange Crush. She released in a very strong thermal and in no time we were hitting 6000 msl. After that we just roamed around the area looking for new thermals, every now and then returning to the "elevator" to resume  the heights she had achieved earlier. Her thermaling skills are really improving rapidly.

6. After Mario and Morgan had exhausted their searches for consistent thermals, enough to go cross country, Morgan returned to the area and thermalled with Julie and I for awhile, long enough for some good air-to-air shots (not the FA-18 kind) that turned out nice enough to show here. Morgan reported  reaching 9000 msl over the mountains, a nice height for the day, and Mario remained aloft longer than most.

7. Jerry Badal flew his Libelle in the mountains, up near Castle Peak and around the Black Mountain area, reached 8000 msl, and roamed freely in the area. He returned to earth, then he and brother David took the Blanik and headed aloft. They seemed to have been up all day but he says only about two and one-half hours and up to 8600 msl. He described the lift the same way as all of us were experiencing. Very strong in the same places all day, and deep sink in all the same places all day. Not organized at all and didn't encourage cross country soaring for most of the day.

8. The Blanik was also flown by Bart Klusek who traveled down from UC Davis to fly at Avenal.

9. Dan Solis and I went up in the Orange Crush to review some of the maneuvers in soaring. We finished early and returned to the field because the air aloft was getting worse by the minute. Dan and I will go again next time he's at Avenal.

10. On Sunday, a group worked on doing experiments with auto towing. They apparently got reasonably good at it using both the 2-33 and the 1-26. Heights weren't great but with no tow available from Loyal, that was the best alternative. Mario, Alex, Jerry, Morgan, and Julie all were figuring out how to get the best height from the limited towing by truck.

11. Later in the day, Morgan's Dad, Jim, brought friend Jennifer and her daughter, Brook, to Avenal. Jennifer is a CFI at Hawthorne in Los Angeles and maybe we can convince her to try her hand at soaring. Then again she might get hooked on gliders, leaving Hawthorne more often for glider ports in the Southern California area. And there are many.