Saturday 6/23/12 rides

I was in our maintenance hangar getting ready to go home after an annual inspection of a glider when my friend Jester, a tandem-skydiver/photographer, brought in two men who were waiting to skydive but wanted to fill their wait-time with glider rides!  I couldn't refuse the opportunity to get in the air as I hadn't flown for two days.
As you can see by these pics taken with my iPhone(didn't have my usual camera) these guys knew how to best use their wait-time:

Saturday rides 6/16/12

Mike and Ben took a Mile High Ride over the Range just east of Hollister.  Too early and smooth for the eagles to be up soaring but they both appreciated the smooth "ride of my wife"!  After landing Ben sat in the front contemplating training:

Steve and his daughter Heather also chose a Mountain High ride so off we went to 6250':



For the final ride of the day, Ryan, Tammy and I stayed on tow all the way to the Monterey Bay at 8250' where we released for slow and gentle flight to enjoy the sights.

After five or so minutes I heard some "spirited" empathetic exclamations and realized that a proposal was being made.  Here's the result:

Acceptance as evidenced by the ring and smiles.  The ring is bigger and shinier than it appears here!

We performed a few celebratory maneuvers, wing overs w/tight turns, for some added excitement and then cruised back to the airport for a low-approach-zoom-over-the-road landing.  Champagne was produced:

 And the bargain was sealed again!

Now comes the rest of their lives...

BTW, this is the second time I've had a successful proposal/acceptance!  The first one was with a Naval Aviator, F-18 pilot out of Lemore and his present wife, a pediatric intensive care nurse from Fresno!

http://glider-haven.blogspot.com/2010/06/popping-question-at-8000-over-monterey.html

Friday 6/15/12 rides

Two grandparents and two grandsons=two good rides!  Jean and Logan went first for a Silver Hawk ride to 4750' over the Hollister Hills where they've ridden dirt bikes.  We flew over their house, circling for some interesting views!

After landing, logan got in the front seat and Jean reacted to the possibility that in a few years Logan, at 16, could be taking her for a ride!

Ozzie and Steve are in the back seat together for their ride provided Logan gives up the front seat to me!

Mack and Aidan chose the Mile High ride.  It is usually the younger ones who are playing with their toys and missing the ride!  The Monterey Bay coastline is visible just aft of the trailing edge of the right wing:

Aidan could start lessons and then give his own rides.  That is our Cherokee 235 towplane in the background:

Saturday 6/9/12 rides

I was very lucky to have two great rides on a day with very good visibility.  The summertime weather pattern sometimes finds Monterey Bay covered in fog like this:

But this is how it looked for my passengers today:

Moss landing in the foreground and Monterey peninsula in the distance

Santa Cruz at the north end of the bay

Cal had flown with the US Marine Corps in WWII but had never been in a glider.  Daughter Nancy decided that it was about time!

On tow behind our Pawnee towards Monterey Bay at 75mph while at 6275' over Prunedale climbing at 350fpm according to my gauges

Coleman and his father Pat were taking it all in:

Prunedale in the foreground, then Castroville(Artichoke capitol of the world), and the Monterey peninsula sticking out into the ocean:

Grandson Henry's flying day at Hollister!

My 14 yr-old grandson Henry was visiting from Florida for his first trip to California, first time west of AL!  With so many things to see and do in and around my home in Monterey, the aquarium, redwoods, Big Sur coastline, Santa Cruz, etc., Henry's first question was when do we go in the glider?!

First we had to take the covers my club's DG-505, a state-of-the-art, high-performance, composite sailplane:

Henry fits nicely into the front cockpit.  The parachutes are required for aerobatics!  He liked the loop.

"taxiing" to the runway for take-off:

 Enjoying the sights over the hills east of Hollister:

After our hour in the air which included many "thermaling" turns, we landed and got the "grandson/grandfather" picture!

  
Quite different from the picture of me in 1946 in the lap of my bank-attorney grandfather, Stanley Rich:

Lunch at a "real" Mexican eatery in Hollister, Los Cuetas:

Back at the airport, Henry gets to sit in the cockpit of our beautiful Pawnee towplane:

Now Henry was going to fly in our Schweizer SGS 2-32, N87R, for a glider-flying lesson:

We are towed aloft behind another of our towplanes, this one is a Piper Cherokee 235:

After releasing from tow at 4000' over San Juan Bautista, I showed him some tight turns and wing-overs and then talked him through flying back towards the airport with some gentle turns.  I was very pleased to see how he worked out the "feel" of the controls and their relationship to making the aircraft do what he wanted!  It appears he has "The Right Stuff".

Saturday 6/2/12 rides

First to fly were Laura and Rodrigo for a Silver Hawk flight to 4750' MSL over San Juan Bautista:

There was fog over the Monterey Bay coastline:

After landing:

Next to fly where mother and daughter, Sandra and Jenn for a Hollister Hop to 3250':

Nice smiles on a beautiful day:

Thursday's ride for Bloyd

In return for Bloyd's help in moving our ride glider after the closing of the Hollister Airshow, he received a nice Hollister Hop ride to 3500'AGl over the city and its environs.  After we released from the towplane, Bloyd flew the glider very well as he was accustomed to operating machinery on the farm back in Minnesota!

On tow behind our Cherokee 235:

flying at 58 mph 2200' MSL over Hollister descending at 180 ft/min:

Nice view from the front seat!

After our landing and roll out to parking:

Family members:

 

Panoche Gliderpalooza 5/12

I put some pics of our weekend at the Panoche Valley airstrip up on Flikr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98883461@N00/sets/72157629985558754/