Ridge-soaring as the eagle does it!

One of my glider-club friends posted this nice video on our user-group site.  I was reminded of some of the ridge-soaring flights I've had in the back seat of one of our high-performance sailplanes with a skilled pilot flying from the front.  I'd like to be able to fly like this and share it with my passenger too! 

Flying eagle point of view. http://wimp.com/flyingeagle/

Ridge-soaring in the Alps, from a camera on an eagle's back.

Friday, the 13th, glider rides!

The date didn't cause any trouble but the sky condition did as it was overcast with a very low ceiling to start causing the first potential passenger to leave, planning to come back the next day.  My wife's nephew, Tim, arrived from Corvallis for his ride and the towpilot asked if I wanted to go now that it appeared to be clearing to the west.  Sure, we'll follow him but release and return if necessary.  The sky started to open up as we were on tow so we just went up on top to 3500' and released.  We could see Mt Hood and the coastal range as the clouds dissipated below us.

We landed, Tim got out and Peter got in for his surprise Birthday Ride!

A good time was had by all!

Rides at North Plains, OR Willamette Valley Soaring Club site

The day started with a low overcast good for only student training in take-offs and  landings.  Two women arrived for the birthday ride for one but when told it might be a two-hour wait for the sky to clear enough to get to 3500' they opted to go pick peaches!  When they returned we could indeed get towed above the broken cloud layer for a most enjoyable 84th B-day ride for Evelyn.  Here we are level with the clouds after gliding for ten minutes from our release point on top of them.  Now we have another ~20 minutes to look for some lift before preparing to land back at the grass strip that is our airport.

Evelyn didn't know beforehand that she was my first passenger at my new club!

The second ride of the day was with Jane whose slight stature required some extra ballast and when I asked if she wanted to be raised up more in the cockpit, she replied that she was comfortable there, so off we went on tow behind the Pawnee:

We experienced some subtle lift and circled like the birds trying to use it to stay aloft.  Jane liked the turns and enjoyed the maneuvering as well as the great panoramic view.

There are always smiles at the end of a nice flight:

Later in the day, a student with instructor as well as two private owners flew for ~two hours enjoying the light lift.  Afterwards the private gliders are taken apart and stored in their trailers until the next good day.

WWII glider pilot finally gets his medal!

Little known are the 6,000 World War II glider pilots who were towed into combat zones, in a one-way flight to drop off soldiers and supplies. Bob Swenson, 90, of Bellevue, finally is getting an overdue Bronze Star medal for his heroism.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021630149_gliderpilotxml.html

I've joined a glider club in the Portland, OR area!

Had my 2nd flight, 1st solo, from my new club, Willamette Valley Soaring Club, just west of Portland.  We gave 20+ rides to a group of kids from a science museum trip.  I'm still getting acquainted with the new, to me, operation so I just worked the line until most all the rides were done.

Here's the operations/waiting area adjacent to the beautiful grass runway with Mt. Hood off in the distance on the other side of Portland.

 

 Grob Twin Astir where the passenger sits in the front seat and the commercial pilot operates the controls from the rear.  In the air, at altitude, the passenger may fly using the dual controls.

This is what it looks like from overhead.  There are acutally two parallel runways with takeoffs going east on the closest one and landings to the west.  One glider is on final for 27L while another clears the runway to be prepared for launching while the towplane is ready to tow a glider on 9L.  Private and club glider trailers are on the southern border of the property.

Club members brief and prepare passengers making sure belts are tight and controls are clear.

The Blanik L-23 is used for instruction as well as rides.  This instructor is treating this passenger as if she were a student, that's an extra!  Maybe she'll chose to be a student-pilot after experiencing her flight.

Here's the Pawnee 260 being used for this tow.

There is also a Cessna AgWagon being used for towing:

After all the kids got their rides, I took the covers off this G-102 and pre-flighted it for a solo ride myself.  The last time I flew one of these was about six years ago just west of Orlando, FL from a nice grass strip.

Now I'm ready for the towplane:

After towing to 3000' I released and found some lift allowing me to turn in tight circle and climb like a bird for a 1000' all the while looking outside for other aircraft while also enjoying the view of snow-capped "dormant" Cascade-range volcanos in the distance!

Got back to the airport with plenty of altitude allowing for 15 minutes of area familiarization.  I didn't find any more useable lift before landing on grass, as it should be!

I saw a maze below which reminded me of the Swank Farms corn maze in Hollister.  I'll have to check it out.

Sure is nice to be involved in a glide-ride operation again.  I'll be giving rides soon but I know I'll be missing the Schweizer 2-32!

Maybe my last flight for a while!

I had a marvelous few days of nice CA weather, a flight over the Sierra, visits with friends while inspecting their nice ships and a comfortable stay a friend's nice house.  Gee what could one add to that?  Well how about a BFR(biennial flight review) with my favorite flight instructor, Charlie Hayes!  Every two years a pilot must have one of these and it is said to be more an opportunity to learn and/or improve skills rather than a test.  If I had my way all road vehicle drivers would have the same type of operating review.

Here's Charlie "running" the wing of the BASA DG-505 while I'm in the rear cockpit(my preference as I like my passengers up front for the better view)!

 And here's looking forward while I'm holding the canopy open with my left hand as the golf-cart tows us to the runway:

On the runway, Bill is going to get the rope with the ring from the "stinger" of the Pawnee tow-plane that is being piloted by Quest.  There is 200' of rope reeled up inside the fuselage.  Charlie will get in the front seat and off we will go:

We towed off rwy 6 straight to that cloud just over the top cowl of the Pawnee.  All through the takeoff I was ready for Charlie to release us to test my ability to handle a rope-break/uncommanded release event.  After releasing a 5000' over Henrietta we thermaled SE along the East ridge of the Quien Sabe Valley while Charlie was refreshing my knowledge of airspace classifications and rules.  We then headed SW out across the upper Santa Clara Valley over Bikle's airport south of Tres Pinos towards the Gabilans.   

Here the gauges say we are flying at ~50knots with a sink rate of ~150'/min 12.7 miles SE of the airport.  The altimeter reading of 3650' was making me feel low and uncomfortable!  Charlie said, "do the math".  Then I knew we had plenty of altitude to safely return to the runway.  He was "stretching" me!

The Hollister airport seems a long way away!  It is that area between the two sets of white appearing buildings just below the horizon forward of the wingtip.  Nice looking cloud over the Santa Cruz Mtns.  That must be my finger in the lower right!

 Now we are "recreating" above the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreational Area looking ESE along Cienega Rd and the San Andreas Fault Line:

We were finding no lift and it was time to return.  At this position we are closer to the airport than the point at which we released and I know I can make it back to the airport with altitude to spare, a very comforting thought.

And of course we did return for a smooth landing to end a very "instructional" and fun flight.  A most pleasant way to end the visit to my "Old Soaring/Gliding Airspace"!

Here are some pics of the high-performance two-seat DG-505 owned by the Bay Area Soaring Associates.  My 14 yr-old grandson Henry stands next to 5KM tied down with its covers on.

Henry is in the front seat with his parachute on ready to go!

This is a typical launch procedure where Caleb, the line-boy(could be line-person) has attached the rope to a hook in the nose and he is signaling the towplane to take up the slack.  When the rope is tight and the pilot gives the "thumbs-up", Caleb will lift the wing; the pilot will wiggle his rudder; Caleb will rotate his arm signaling the towplane to start the take-off roll; the tow-plane pilot will wiggle his "tail feathers", announce the take-off, throttle up and Caleb will run with the wing until it is pulled from his very light grasp!  A few seconds later the glider will lift off and stay in position waiting for the tow-plane to fly as well.  After that it is just follow the leader!

I don't know when I'll next return to Hollister. When I do so,  I hope to find the same quality of management, equipment, and operations that I was a part of for the last fifteen  years

More inspections!

Sunday at Hollister started with a breakfast at the Ding-A-Ling restaurant on the field and then a little look-see into Hugh Bikle's Museum hangar where hanging from the ceiling is his father Paul's, made in Elmira NY, Schweizer 1-23E.  In 1961 Paul used the Sierra mountain wave to set an altitude record of 46,267 feet with a still standing altitude gain record of 42,000 feet!  Below the glider is one of Hugh's antique airworthy(flyable) bi-planes, a 1926 Travel Air 4000.

 Underneath the wing, on the floor, is the removable left wing-tip from his latest toy, a  U15 Phoenix S-LSA motorglider{http://www.phoenixairusa.com/}  It was flown out to Hollister from Florida in three days, I heard{http://phoenixairusa.blogspot.com/}

I now know what I want from Santa!

Next was a visit with my friend Tim and his bird-friend Tonto:

Now for some inspections

2T, an LS-8a, belongs to Peter Deane who helped represent the US in the 32nd FAI World Gliding Championships in Argentina this January.  16, a Discus 2a, is owned and flown by David Greenhill, a US standard class champion.  I was lucky to have crewed for them at the national contest in Montague, CA a few years ago.

 Peter and David are friends AND competitors in sailplane racing!

In the afternoon the early overcast cleared and I met Ken Ward in the hangar area for the inspection of his Lithuanian-built Lak-12 open-class glider.

Meanwhile back on the ramp, pilots and their gliders were assembling in preparation for launching.  2-3 hour flights were enjoyed my many!

It turned out to be a good flying day!

And another beautiful day in Hollister for inspections

The weather continued to be wonderful after my days spent under rainy/overcast skies in my new home Eugene, OR.

Rodger had his very nicely kept Discus 7D ready for inspection:

Matt's NT and Ron's E4 are lined up as well:

Annual inspections for sailplanes kept in excellent condition by owner/pilots who are the only ones to fly their ships and who are technically and mechanically inclined are most often very strait-forward and uncomplicated.  In the case of the self-launching sailplane, the complexity of the powerplant adds time and difficulty to the inspection!  However it does help to have another owner/pilot with the same type ship for consultation and comparison.
Here's Ron and his E4:

And here's Darren with his same make/model U2 and Steve who flys everything from hang-gliders to Cessna Citation jets!

These sophisticated soaring machines have electronic "gizmos" for performance and navigation on their long cross-country flights.  The battery, electric/electronic installation and connections are inspected along with all the mechanical flight controls.  After we finish with the fuselages we inspect the wings and horizontal stabilizer/elevators.

Another full day of interesting aviation...  

A nice day for glider inspections

First glider to get the annual inspection was Doug's beautiful British-built high-performance Slingsby Vega.  Doug keeps it in the trailer at his home and the ferocious guard-cat keep it free of any vermin.  

Over at the airport I meet with Walt Canon and get to inspect his award-winning restored '59 Scheibe Zugvogel IIIA:

 Walter has been playing with these airplanes since he was fourteen and I didn't start until I was forty!

Another full day of aviation work.  Doesn't get any better than this!