HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. Not much story to tell. The wind was blowing quite strongly in the Central Valley as we left Fresno Chandler and had picked up there by the time we landed at Avenal. Loyal and his son, Michael, were there and tried to warn us about the gusting crosswind but there wasn't any need to do that and the landing was tricky but uneventful.

2. Since no one flew a glider, the only other thing we could do was convince Richard Walker to assemble his Schweizer 1-35. He purchased the glider in June but had been reluctant because he thought it would take 4 or 5 people to help. But after lifting a wing, I determined that his glider was much easier to assemble than my ASW 20 so we got to work. It was easy. In fact I was surprised at how easy it was to assemble. I think Richard was surprised and pleased since he may very well be landing out soon. :- )

3. The 1--35 has no spoilers or dive brakes but very effective flaps, all the way down to 90 degrees. So, learning to fly it is a matter of changing one's procedures to incorporate the flap descent angle instead of the spoiler angle. The big difference is that during a landing with dive brakes, the pitch angle varies hardly at all. All one is doing is spoiling the lift while keeping the airspeed (and thus pitch angle) the same. But with flaps, one must change the pitch angle as each additional position is increased. And being careful not to let the airspeed bleed off and have nothing left to round out with when about 3-4 feet above the runway. This technique can be practiced in the Blanik since the Blanik has both flaps and dive brakes and thus the landings can be made without using the dive brakes. In fact that should be the first attempt at landing with flaps only before one moves into the 1-35.

4. As you can see, the 1-35 is a beautiful glider, with graceful lines, and a whole lot of room in the cockpit. It should be a fun glider to fly and perhaps one day the Club will consider owning one of these nice Schweizer sailplanes.