Blustery Sat 3/19/11 rides

A challenging day with SE winds 20 gusting 25 brought out some hardy souls for their glider rides.  The N on their caps means Nebraska. In my trucking life I experienced winter days there so I know Eric & Evie are "up" for the occasion!

 We towed off runway 13 into the wind towards Fremont Peak and experienced some rotor turbulence.  Off tow at 3k wasn't high enough to get the smooth wave but we worked what we could and as you can see by Evie's face, my passengers enjoyed the flight.

Ed and Susie brought grandson Kaze out for rides.  At first Kaze was very quiet and shy but when he felt the first bumps of action in the air on tow he came alive with delight.  He wanted more so we did some "roller-coaster" and wing-overs.  Susie liked those too!  Ed said he couldn't get Kaze to take a ride at the amusement park and was pleased that he was enjoying the action in the glider.  We might have planted the seed for a new glider pilot!

Can't let a few raindrops or blustery winds stop us!

Saturday 3/11 rides

Andrew arrived in a yellow Corvette to take a Monterey Bay Adventure Acro ride followed by a parachute jump with the commercial skydiving operation next door to us.  As a pilot with previous glider/acro experience Andrew was just out for some fun and relaxation and flew most of the flight himself.

Jeff was having his first experience of this sort and enjoyed the motion and the view.

We wear the parachutes as part of our equipment but jumping for fun is done with our neighbor outfit.

Caproni checkout

The owner Pedro de la Serna was visiting in his home country of Argentina while his son, Pedro, was checked out to fly the beautiful two-place side-by-side Italian-made Caproni, very few of which are flying in the US.  I was pleased to have been involved in its annual inspection and lucky to get the chance to be checked out in it by our instructor Charlie Hayes.  Here are three generations with Pedro's Caproni and Charlie:

Busy Sat at Hollister

Erika and Josh enjoyed a day with calm air and great visibility during our "wet" season:

Shawn put on the parachute for a spin and loop before flying himself while looking out over the land and water he knows so much about in his work.  He might have found a new sport/hobby!

Rhonnie and Caley got lucky when we experienced some thermal activity of the Diablos with ER and two golden eagles.  Not everyone is exposed to soaring on a glider ride but these two know the difference now!

ER in his single-place hi-performance sailplane was below us but then climbed above us to 6000' along with the two eagles:

As we returned to the airport we watched the Caproni being towed out to catch that good air:

Forouzan and Jonathan were next to enjoy flying on such a nice day.

Kathlyn and Lev were my last two passengers and we went to Monterey Bay for a nice long flight to end the day.

Friday at Hollister

Marty had his first glider ride:

Peter gave his friend Udo, a power pilot, a taste of soaring for a few hours without an engine!