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!

Back to Hollister for work and fun-aerotow over Sierras

I took the Amtrak coach starlight from my new home in Eugene, OR south over the Cascades and past Mt. Shasta on a clear full-moon night.  I had to get the conductor to turn the lights off in the almost-empty observation car at about midnight when we passed by.  It was a beautiful sight.  The moon was overhead and visible through the roof windows.  Picture-taking would have been difficult but it looked something like this, only darker:

My old(he's younger than I) boss at the Hollister Soaring Center, Quest, picked me up at the Salinas train station.  I spent the first of many comfortable nights with my fellow commercial glider pilot, Doug Padrick.  10am the following day found Doug and I launching in the Duo Discus behind Charlie Hayes in the Cherokee.  We were aero-towing the glider OVER the Sierra back to its home in Minden, NV.

Over the Diablos and across the Valley with the snow-capped Sierra ahead!

There's Doug in the back seat.  Nice to have two pilots and dual controls!

We're feeling real comfortable now at 12000' with Minden in easy glide and S. Lake Tahoe airport right below us:

Now we have released from the towplane and are headed for the Carson Valley just on the other side of this "little hill" ahead:

Mission accomplished:

Now the most difficult part of the trip for me, sitting in the rear seat of the Cherokee, without controls, while we make the return flight over the High Sierra in a single-engine airplane.  One of the reasons I transitioned to glider from power was to remove that anxiety!

Climbing out of Minden headed for Hollister:

Passing Lake Tahoe:

The high peaks wilderness west of Lake Tahoe:

Back over the Diablos, passing Pacheco Peak, almost to Hollister:

We were blessed with fantastic weather, we had good equipment and proved ourselves to be competent pilots.  Who says work has to be drudgery!