My Flying

Another day at the airfield and again the soaring weather was poor, even for winter, and disappointing.

I took two short backseat launches in the Twin Astir and then took a flight in the Single. Otherwise not much to report. Cost = 146.20ZAR.

Today was one of those days when one actually wonders why one bothers with gliding. All that work and labour for a few minutes of airtime. Sometimes it gets me a little down, especially when you get members hanging around and doing stuff all and expecting everything to be laid out for them and watch happily while others toil and labour for their benefit.

I had two backseat flights in the Twin and both went off well, but for a slightly bumpy landing on the second flight; I suspect an undulation on the runway caused this. On the second flight I (we) went exploring far in desperate search of lift as another glider managed to get-away. I found some nice bubbles, but they were too narrow and more importantly we were too low for us to explore for too long. We got back with not a lot of height to spare. Much later that afternoon and when the Single became avaiable I took a winch launch and headed for the ridge which had been working nicely for the last two hours. Unfortunatly for me there wasn't much lift left and I barely manager 15 minutes before needing to head home. All went off well, but sadly not with that satisfied warm fuzzy good days flying feeling. Cost for the day 185.25ZAR.

The day was not without drama and I witness a particuraly hairy landing by a motor Falke (not the club's). The Falke is a very good and forgiving aircraft and a safe arrival was the eventual outcome after some high and very scary looking bounces.

Bit of a quiet day at the airfield today with a low turnout of members. The soaring weather report had predicted some weak thermals for early that afternoon and those there were eager to get flying. The Twin and Single were hauled out to 26L and circuit flying commenced. Unfortunately the predicted lift never really arrived and the best we could manage were 10 or so minutes in some very broken and weak lift. I took a backseat flight in the Twin and two flights in the Single.

My first flight in the Single was a bit hairy with the plane pulling very skew on the winch launch during the ground run. It does that sometimes, especially if the winch cable is laid on the upwind side of the runway and the wind is a little cross. The rudder takes a while to become effective but I managed to get airborne in time. I then went exploring quite far for lift and only made it back to the airfield by the skin of my teeth. All valuable lessons learned at a cost of 165.30ZAR.

Yesterday, Saturday, I come to the airfield to do some work on the winch and also took a short 26 minute spin the in Falke. The wind was blowing SW and strong (60 kph) from about 1500 feet up. I tried to soar the Western side of the ridge but was pretty unsuccessful. There were a few nice bumps, but not much else at 99.84ZAR.

Another successful day even though the soaring weather was non existent and only good for circuits.

I made two backseats flights in the Twin from winch launches on 34L and both went off very well. The only real problem that I am having is remembering to keep the aircraft in the middle of the runway when landing. When sitting at the back you need to look past the head of the person sitting in front of you and I tend to fly to where I'm looking which is then obviously to the one side of the head in front of me.

I also made a sort flight in the Single that I really enjoyed, even though it was very sort. I managed to find some lift bubbles over the graveyard and worked them as hard and as long as I could. The problem is that I was distracted as both runways were occupied and I need to keep my options open to land and thus the thermalling didn't get my full attention.

More good news is that I received my rating to fly paxes in the Motor Falke so now I can take some people for flips and share the aviation experience with them.

So the cost for today for 3 winch launches and 15 minutes of flying is 150.75ZAR.