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Great day soaring today!!

MountainsMountains Veteran
edited June 2010 in General Banter
I did my first cross country flight in a glider today, with one of our club's big whig competition pilots in the back seat of the club's ASK21. I feebly attempted to learn how to use the GPS and L-Nav systems, while at the same time (with my other two hands) trying to find, center, and exploit thermals, while at the same time trying to orient myself to new landmarks, while at the same time trying to whistle Dixie in the key of E. To say I was overwhelmed would be putting it mildly, but it was fun none the less. Very choppy, small thermals, with nuclear sink in between, yet we managed to reach cloud base a couple of times, and did three legs for a total of almost 2.5 hours. Only right toward the end were there some tense moments of serious sink (10+ knots down), no lift, and not enough altitude to make it home. As Peter said "I was getting a little tense there" - I know, it got really quiet back there! But in the end we found a booming thermal that zoomed us up a couple of thousand feet and gave us plenty of leeway to get home. So much that we were able to duck the nose and do a high speed pass (130kt indicated - yee ha!) down the runway and into a 3g pull up with a wing-over to downwind entry. I did the landing, and since nobody else wanted the airplane, we landed long and took it back to the hangar. I managed to stop my roll-out *right* in front of the hangar doors (good planning!). Sweaty, stinky, and nasty looking on egress from the airplane, but a very satisfying feeling not to have had to land out someplace!

J

Comments

  • daveysmithdaveysmith
    edited June 2010
    seems you had lots of fun today.
  • TreeLuvr87TreeLuvr87 Veteran
    edited June 2010
    What a neat experience! I've had "ride in a small plane from Topping airport" on my goals list for the past two years in a row and have yet to be ballsy enough (or save up enough money). The local small airport does a neat tour over the rivers nearby.

    They always end up coming over my house right as I decide to lay out topless though. I think they have some type of boob sensor set up at my house. Although hopefully they are just as busy as you were and don't have time to notice.
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