Friday, March 30, 2012

Special ride for student-pilot Cache in DG-1000

For the last few months Cache has been receiving glider-flight instruction from our instructors in the Schweizer 2-32 that is also used for the commercial rides.  This week no instructor was available so I was privileged to have Cache fly with me in my glider club's state-of-the-art sailplane, the DG-1000:
 
After I did the take-off, I let Cache fly on tow where he performed an excellent box-the-wake training-maneuver as we flew out to the hills east of Hollister.  His flying while on tow showed me he had the "Right Stuff" stick and rudder skills to handle the glider after we released from the towplane.  Sure enough he found some thermals and circled in them to twice allow us to climb 1000' during our 2-hour flight.  While he was flying he pointed out the location of his home south of Hollister:
 
Before we flew we took the opportunity to get a nice picture of Cache next to one of the two P-51 Mustangs parked on the ramp:

 Too few kids get to experience what Cache did yesterday!  He is very lucky to have a mother who gives him the opportunity to explore his youthful passion, brings him to the airport weekly and allows us to expose him aviation.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Monday 3/26/12 Silver Hawk ride for two

Francois and Chantal, both glider pilot/owners, visiting from Toulouse, France had never been in a Schweizer 2-32 and enjoyed their ride over San Juan Bautista and the San Andreas Faultline on a day with scattered clouds.  We experienced some thermal and convergence lift while turning with another glider as we returned to the airport.

Observe how Chantal used Francois' scarf to block the excess ventilation or maybe it was to cushion her arm from the side as it is a tight fit for two "grown-ups"!


 
Francois showed me a picture of their glider in which they sit tandem, each with complete controls.  A state-of-the-art ASH 25 with twice the performance of our SGS 2-32:

I'm quite sure RC is their "race number" and does not mean "remote control"!  I'll bet they can fly all over southern France on a day with good lift.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

3/23/12 Birthday-ride for Jayne!

Nephew Steve gave Jayne a gift certificate for a Monterey Bay Scenic Ride to celebrate her birthday.  They chose a beautiful day and off we all went on tow behind our Pawnee towplane to the Monterey Bay shoreline at Moss Landing.

Here they are on the runway just prior to "hooking up" the towrope:
 After release I got this nice pic of them in the rear seat:
I sent them some pics to remember their flight and share with others.  I'll put some of these here on the blog for others to view:









Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A ride I'd like to experience!

Things have been rather slow in our glider-ride business these days.  A friend who had experienced a ride with me in my club's DG-1000 sent me this in an email about a ride I'd like to have some day:


  
You can see why the U-2 is considered the most difficult plane in the world to fly. Each pilot has a co-pilot, who chases the plane on the runway in a sports car. Most of the cars are either Pontiac GTOs or Chevrolet Cameros, the Air Force buys American. The chase cars talk the pilot down as he lands on bicycle-style landing gear. In that spacesuit, the pilot in the plane simply cannot get a good view of the runway. Upon takeoff, the wings on this plane, which extend 103 feet from tip to tip, literally flap. To stabilize the wings on the runway, two pogo sticks on wheels prop up the ends of the wings. As the plane flies away, the pogo sticks drop off.

The plane climbs at an amazing rate of nearly 10,000 feet a minute.
Within about four minutes, I was at 40,000 feet, higher than most commercial airplanes. We kept going up to 13 miles above Earth's surface. You get an incredible sensation up there. As you look out the windows, it feels like you're floating, it feels like you're not moving, but you're actually going 500 mph.. The U-2 was built to go higher than any other aircraft. In fact today,
more than 50 years since it went into production, the U-2 flies higher than any aircraft in the world with the exception of the space shuttle.

It is flying more missions and longer missions than ever before,
nearly 70 missions a month over Iraq and Afghanistan , an operational
tempo that is unequaled in history. The pilots fly for 11 hours at a time, sometimes more than 11 hours up there alone.. By flying so high, the U-2 has the capability of doing reconnaissance
over a country without actually violating its airspace. It can look off to the side, peering 300 miles or more inside a country without actually flying over it. It can "see" in the dark and through clouds.
It can also "hear," intercepting conversations 14 miles below. The U-2, an incredible piece of history and also a current piece of high technology, is at the center of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .

Enjoy the ride!

Click the link below. Go to the lower Right corner of the screen and click the icon immediately to the left of the volume control to bring up the full screen.
Be sure to hit the full screen button on the video. This is truly amazing.