Saturday at Hollister

The Hollister League informal cross country competition started the season with the morning briefing:

Buzz doesn't have to wait for a towplane as he has his own stowable engine and prop!



Wolf is already to go, just needs to be pushed out to the runway and hooked up to the rope behind a towplane:

Here is the BASA DG1000 ready to launch:

After all the rest of the gliders for the League contest launched we did rides.  Laurlea and Dilan went for a Monterey Bay Ride:

Chatham put on a parachute for a Mile High Acro Ride and flew back from the east hills himself after we were done with the maneuvers:

Friday's flying

Bill and his daughter Angela came out for a beautiful spring-day ride:

Sven called to say he was coming down from San Jose to fly with me in the DG-505.  We got going late but still had a nice hour in the air. Here he is flying on tow at 4000' towards the east hills to join four other gliders:

After we landed Sven(92) spoke with Pedro(87) who had just landed his Italian-made Caproni two-seat side-by-side glider.  They were discussing the possibility of some sort of record age-wise flying together in the 40-year-old Caproni!

Sunday rides

Bruce and I put on parachutes for a spin, loop, etc. and had a very nice flight:

Michel and his son, Chel flew over the Diablos and found some lift while waiting for the runway to clear with another glider launch:

After the commercial rides were over, I sat in the backseat of the Grob for an hour while Joy practiced her thermaling over Henrietta.  She had to come back to work the office and then the private owners started landing after their flights down to the Pinnacles.

"Tuesday Afternoon" w/Matt for 4.5hr ride!

My commercial ride cancelled and Matt had an empty back seat in the Jaguar of the sky, the DG-1000.

Kurt took a power-pilot friend for his first glider ride lasting 3.5 hours.

We got together with a few Golden Eagles too.

Dan made a nice video:   http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=S9PyWiq- et8

View from the front cockpit on the Monterey Bay ride

Monterey peninsula sticking out into the ocean with Elkorn Slough/Moss Landing in the foreground and the Salinas Valley going off to the left:

Santa Cruz in the distance and Watsonville in the foreground:

Kim and Bryan on a Monterey Bay Adventure

Kim originally gave Bryan an acro ride for his birthday but he wanted to share the air with her!

Sister and brother get their first aviation experience!

It was very good of their father to give these children a real life experience instead of some video game!

Marcie and Jacob take a Mile High ride

It was a beautiful day after a day of rain and there were some nice clouds to fly around.

After landing we switched seats.  At 16 with the proper training and successful check ride, Jacob could take his mother for the ride!

Millie and CJ fly among the clouds

John brought them in and Joy helped getting us ready for our Monterey Bay Adventure up and over those clouds in the background: 

Those clouds are now below us as we are over Prunedale meandering among them on our way back:

In the air with a Polish priest

A former jet pilot in the Polish Air Force trained in gliders as the Europeans do brought in a visiting priest whose English was only a few words better than my Polish!  The briefing had to be interpreted and some hand signals agreed upon before Stanislaus and I could launch for a 4500' tow over to the Diablo on an overcast day.

I did get a smile from him when I tapped him on the shoulder to have him turn around and see me jesture with both hands exclaiming, "God is all around us!"  After that his demeanor returned to one that I could only describe as deep concern as he must have thought he was in the air with some wild and crazy guy.

Riding along w/Matt for a 4 hour flight!

Matt called to ask if I wanted to fly with him in the BASA DG-1000:

 Certainly!  Launched at 1, got off tow at 1500' thermaled to 4500' and headed north into "tiger country".  Worked our way up to Mt. Hamilton.  Here is a pic of Matt taking his pic of the Lick Observatory before we found some nice lift and circled over the top:

We then cruised over to the Santa Cruz Mtns only to return to the Diablos and run down a convergence line over Pacheco Pass to Bickle's.  The hills were green with the recent rain:

We then crossed the valley to Fremont Peak and the Gabilan range.  We landed back in Hollister at 5 and put the covers on until another day.  We were both aware that there are so few people who ever get to experience this perspective in this manner, it is truly elegant.
It wasn't a race, 135 miles in 4 hours, just a nice cross-country stroll!

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1128478458