Panoche Gliderpalooza

We operated out of the Panoche airstrip over the weekend because the Hollister airport was closed for an airshow:  http://www.hollisterairshow.com/performers.htm

I flew down in the backseat of 2-32  N87R with a power-pilot who is transitioning to glider. He did the whole flight and landed on the little dirt strip as if he'd done it many times!  The strip is at the bottom of the pic parallel to the "main" road.  The view in the distance is of the San Joaquin Valley with the Sierras on the other side.

Esther and Gabriel had a nice introductory ride on Sat:

Christine and her brother Eric enjoyed Sunday's ride with thermals and some fun maneuvers:

Alan wanted some thermalling practice and I just sat in the back to enjoy the ride.  You can see from the vario that we are climbing at 400 ft/min!