Beautiful clear day following the cold front passage

Vivian and Ricardo got lucky with their pick of a day to take their first glider ride.  Vivian said she had enjoyed her parachute experience in Hollister last summer.  She remembered the gliders.  We made up for the slight height differential with some cushions:

After release from tow at 4500' over the Diablos east of Hollister.  The snow-capped Sierras are off in the distance beyond the San Joaquin Valley.

Winter, wet season, rides

Bernard from Buffalo, NY was visiting son Philip in the San Jose area. I think it was Philip's wife who bought Groupon Hollister Hops for them on a day when the air was still between storms.  Philip's skills as a private pilot in powered aircraft allowed him to handle the controls very smoothly on the first flight and I could see that glider flying was of a great interest to him.  I didn't get a pic of him in the air but here's one of his father who took a higher tow.

Ed said this ride was for his 80th birthday but you wouldn't know it if you saw how easily he got in an out of the glider.

From this group, 4 of the 6 went up because the other two said they had a ride in Eugene, OR and were wanting to see their friends have a similar experience.

Brenna and her father, Kevin went first and those smiles tell all.

The last ride of the day was with Amy and her son Andrew.  We were having such a good time I forgot to get their picture in the air but here they are after landing.  I think Andrew might have become interested in pilot training especially after he was made aware of the fact that the young man, also named Andrew, who was working the line was already a private pilot at 16 having soloed at 14.  He's now working on his commercial license so he can give rides too.

When the young men get their licenses the first person they generally take up is Mom.  And the mom will ask, "Does he really know what he's doing?" and we'll reply, "You are about to find out!"

Retirement present ride!

Jim was given a glider ride gift certificate as a retirement gift from his employer in Mankato, MN.  His daughter Jennifer brought him down from her home in Sacramento on a beautiful day and he choose to take her along on his ride!  He said he had taken her flying in his Cherokee 140 many times.  They fit nicely in the rear seat and off we went.

After Jim pulled the release our towpilot brought the Pawnee around and waved goodbye!

 The picture doesn't really do the view justice as it is much better in reality!

Weather changes and opportunities!

The change in the weather has caused some people to postpone or cancel their scheduled rides which sometimes has them miss some great conditions!
Look what my friend Ramy did on one such occasion recently:

Another beautiful day!

Wolf and Nicole drove down from "the city" San Francisco for a Monterey Bay Adventure Ride and they picked the right day!

Monterey Peninsula from 8000' over Moss Landing:

The Hollister Soaring Center Pawnee towplane, personnel and Schweizer 2-32 glider

Accomplished ride passengers!

CAVU Friday!

Clear or Clean Air with Visibility Unlimited!  Actually it means: Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited.  It was a beautiful day for a glider ride:

Monterey Bay and peninsula from over Aromas

Steve taking pics on his acro ride.  Notice the towplane just above his left hand:

zoom view of Aptos and Santa Cruz:

zoom view of Monterey peninsula:

downtown San Jose was clearly visible:

the snow-capped Sierras visible over the Diablos and San Joaquin Valley:

Steve's wife liked sitting in the front seat:

Veteran's Day rides

First a picture of my father who is gone now like many of the WWII veterans:

As we know Veteran's Day was once called Armistice Day to commemorate the end of the "War To End All Wars" (WWI).  Needless to say mankind hasn't succeeded in ending war and we have many veterans.

I took my wife's friend Alis for a private ride in the BASA DG-1000 over the Quien Sabe Valley on a day with great visibility where we could see the snow on top of the Sierras and the clear air over the Monterey peninsula and bay:

Scott came from Santa Cruz to celebrate his birthday with a Mile High Acro Ride.  We went over the Quien Sabe Valley for a loop and some wingovers.  After the acro he flew the glider and took some pictures.  I was remiss and didn't get my little camera out to take his picture while we were in the air but got this pic with the beautiful light of the evening after our landing: 

Friday scenic and acro rides

Mimi was vacationing from NYC with a friend who was having an introductory lesson/ride from an instructor.  We had a nice scenic ride to the east hills and released over the Quien Sabe Valley.  The atmosphere is changing and there is the promise of rain which the dry hills are expecting!
Looking down the Santa Clara Valley from atop Henrietta Pk. we can see the fog over Monterey Bay, Loma Prieta Mtn. and the dismal haze over San Jose:

Trevor's parents brought him by for his birthday acro ride.  He liked the spin, loop, hammerhead, tight turns and wing-overs.  He understood the lift events and flew the glider very well for his first time!

Here we have returned to the airport environment and are surveying the area in preparation for landing:

The "east hills" of the Diablos over which we flew are in the background and that's one happy birthday person in the cockpit after our landing:

Annual PASCO Safety Seminar and Awards Banquet

It was a nice time to meet with the area glider/sailplane community.  One of the members who represented our country in the World Championship played a nice video for us:
        
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTu7KxfaiCA

Wednesday rides

Our tow-pilot Paul, retired UAL Captain, brought his family out for a "field day" to let them see what he was playing at in retirement and to have his son-in-law experience an acro ride.
Paul is watching his granddaughter look into his cockpit:

Somebody wants to go with Daddy!

Grandmother Eva gets ready to remove the little one while Grandfather Paul is coming with the stroller in the background:

After Chris's ride the family had a picnic and Quest came out to tow me with Tracey and Chito to 8000 ft over Watsonville for a Monterey Bay Adventure ride.  

Most of the bay was covered with fog but we could see Santa Cruz quite well:

It is always a different view and ever-changing!

pics from Epic day

Ramy took this blurry pic of Hearst Castle after flying his glider all the way from Byron!
You can see his trace in the previous post.

Matt has the hot setup for navigation and recording to augment the glider's built in LNAV, GPS and data recorder:

Here is a link to the pics Matt took that day:

 http://picasaweb. google.com/ MattmanG3/ 101410KCVHBigSur SCMtnsDiablos1CH #

Epic Oct. Day from Hollister 10/14/10!

The guys who follow the weather said we'd have some good days and Thur was The One!
About 30 gliders from Williams, Hollister and Avenal enjoyed the energy in the air to make long, easy and scenic cross-country flights on the Central Coast. After launching all our Hollister guys, I just decided to play hookey from my maintenance tasks and take a BASA Pegasus to play.
5W,UV and U2 rigging:

 GJ pushes out to the runway:

 VN on runway 24:

On tow in 9JH behind Charlie Hayes in the Pawnee:

After Charlie took me to the lift and I started to thermal, he came over and thermaled with me in the towplane! (I didn't have camera out at the time so this pic is from another occasion)

We don't get to see this view on the instrument panel very often, going up at 400 feet/min at 12K!

 Ramy came down from Byron and got up under this great cloud south of Fremont Peak:

1CH, 5KM, VN, GJ, U2, UV, BG, TG and 8L were all down over the Santa Lucias and some of the guys flew out over the Pacific south of Big Sur while TG turned Hearst Castle and VN flew over his house in the Carmel Valley!  I headed down that way past the Pinnacles and got half-way across the Salinas Valley when I decided to return to the Gabilans and follow Yuliy up to Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz Mts.  Here are some of the flight traces as recorded on the On Line Contest run by a German Glider Club:

Monterey is off in the distance over the Salinas Valley from the Gabilans.  The fog is covering Prunedale.  Yuliy is in a DG-800, that little dot in the middle of the picture:  

I left the Gabilans at 12.5K and got to Loma Prieta at 6K where Yuliy was already climbing in a good thermal.  

Here's a zoomed shot of Yuliy porpoising on the way to Loma Prieta:

It was comforting to get back up to 12K again looking out over the Santa Clara Valley and San Jose:

ER and 1CH came in low under us, finally got up and followed 8L over the Santa Clara Valley to "Tiger Country" in the Diablos but I retreated to Hollister.  Here you can just see two gliders circling down low: 

Back over Hollister Charlie Hays and John Little were flying in 87R and I got some nice pics of them before landing after 3.5 hours of fun and frolic!