My Flying

Today was a big day for our club. It was our first open day in many many years. The gliders were cleaned, food prepared and equipment checked, all for the visitors that we expected. The club members really pulled together and put in a huge effort to get things organised.

Unfortunately we were let down by the weather.

The day started off nice enough and a few paxes got in excellent value for money flights as we had a few hours worth of wave overhead the airfield. But then the clouds came over and the rain came down and things got a little damp.

Still, lots of fun was to be had in the hanger playing a glider simulator on the big screen.

When I arrived early at the airfield I wasn’t really expecting much to be happening, weather-wise. It was mostly overcast and even drizzled lightly at one stage.

The sky however started opening up a little and we decided to launch the gliders. While on the holding point of 08 and waiting for the trainer to land, two very distinct, thermals let there presence be know, just a few minutes apart.

The winch launch sucked and I got like 900 ft. I immediately turned downwind and I was therefore unable to explore for lift were the trainer managed to get away. All the way on downwind the vario was giving -2 m/s and I thought to myself, dam-it, this is going to be a short flight. Just before I needed to turn base, like magic, the needle started to climb, hard left and 50 minutes later I landed.

A very very lekker flight which I really really enjoyed.

After that, I hopped into the Falke for a short flight with an instructor to complete the final bits of my GFT. We landed about 30 minutes later and all that I still require for my license is a short cross country flight.

All in all a very satisfying weekend, costing about 276 ZAR.

Yet another very quiet day at the airfield. Fortunately we had enough hands to get the gliders airborne.

I took three short flights in the Single Astir, on winch launches, to fly three very nice circuits. The wind was a light Westerly and my circuits and landings went off very well.

I'm starting to get the hang of flaring with the Single and one of my landing was, I think, my best ever. I needed to double check by looking out of the cockpit to the left and make sure that the brakes were fully open as I barely felt the touch down.

A very rustig day at the airfield in nice weather = 131.40ZAR.

Again a very quiet day at the airfield. These type of days are becoming more and more frequent and it's sad to see how our club is slowly grinding to a halt.

The day started off very misty, which was actually perfect as the module on human limitations was presented to a small group of members.

Never-the-less I took my flying test in the Falke with one of the instructors and all went well. We couldn't do a cross wind landing as the wind was too light, so he decided to carry that part of the test over to the following week.

For the rest of the day I helped another instructor give two paxes some rides, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Cost 234.80ZAR.