Honor at Last for Roy P

I have a high school friend, Otis, who said to me, "I saved a lot of black and brown brothers but when I dragged out a white officer, they gave me the DSC!" I wish we would do more for our veterans.

50th B-day aerobatic glider ride

Power pilot Randy had a ride in the Pitts aerobatic airplane with champion Mike Goulian and wanted to experience some aerobatics in a glider.  We did a spin, loop and some tight turns but it was more fun for Randy to fly the glider which he did beautifully.

See the Tule fog east of the Diablos completely covering the Ca Central Valley all the way to the Sierras!

He got the co-ordinated turns figured out right away.  Power pilots usually have a difficult time with the long wings and adverse yaw.

While the rest of the country is experiencing snow and cold we had a beautiful day at 60F!

Almost left out this nice ride event!

Drew had a request for a ride on one of our closed days so I called a towpilot whose teaching-job vacation allowed for him to come out and give us a tow.  Sophi wanted to surprise her husband George and her friend Bijo with the ride and we all enjoyed the event.  Bijo on the right was a little apprehensive but George had paratrooper experience and confidence so as the ride progressed Bijo relaxed and we had a great time airsailing around the the clouds and among their canyons!

After our landing Sophi got in the "driver's" because it would not have happened without her!

I get to meet the nicest people and get "high in the sky" too!  The sky and clouds were very beautiful that day.

Last year's last rides

I've not updated the blog in a while so here goes.
Bryan, a motorcyclist and R/C pilot, wanted an acro ride but found himself flying the glider after we did a spin, loop, some steep turns and a hammerhead.  He would have flown it all the way to landing if I had let him but I wanted to show him a little more excitement before the glider touched the ground.  

A nice peaceful tow to altitude before the release, clearing turn, stall, spin, dive recovery into the loop followed by some aggressive knife-edge turns.

Bryan is a martial arts/sports jeweler in Carmel(JudoJewelry) and we hope to see him come fly with us again soon when we can experience some good thermal flying.

A slow December

Some think of rides only in the summer but visibility is much better in the winter!  These two came up from S. CA to enjoy their ride.

Ridge Runner III 2009

Dan gave me a ride in this plane once, although not with the tuned -up race engine! This was done at Stead during the Reno Air Races. We fly gliders at AirSailing near Pyramid Lake about 30 miles north of this airport.

Glider ride business is slowing because of economic troubles and seasonal weather but still I get to fly when people have loved ones give them gift certificates!

The ceiling was only high enough for a 4000 ft tow and his ride was supposed to be to 6k so we did another flight to 2000' and he got two take-offs and landings!  Josh said he'd be back in the spring so he could experience "thermal lift".

Emiliano brought Vanessa out for her birthday ride saying he had a glider ride long ago at Fremont.  At first, both we going to go in the rear seat until the gallant father decided that Vanessa would go alone in the front with me flying from the back so she'd be more comfortable, have a better view and the opportunity to fly!  Good decision as she enjoyed the total package.