Flight Log: September 21st, 2015

From John Stefanick’s flight records back in 2015:

Well it happened again. I went for glider training Sunday not expecting much. I took two informative lessons in the 2-33 trainer. First was a simulated rope break at 200 ft altitude. Second lesson was to perfect my turning stalls, straight ahead stalls and steep angle turns.

Again the instructor turned me loose solo to practice what I learned.  It was very hard keeping exactly in the correct position behind the tow plane with all the turbulence.  Released at 3000 ft agl and practiced my lesson down to 2000. Then I caught some minor lift and figured why not try thermaling instead of landing.  My steep turns would certainly be practiced.

Holy moly! I kept on catching fast up-currents so I took the elevator to the top floor near the 5400 ft agl cloud base. Now I needed to descend to stay safe. My glider's minimum sink speed is 45 mph. I popped the spoilers and nosed down to about 80 mph to get away from the cloud. I was descending at negative 700 fpm with spoilers extended. I lost a good 500 ft and flew away from the cloud.

Back to min sink speed I caught an updraft in clear blue sky. With all that aircraft drag, the WHOOPEE meter still showed +400 ft per minute climb until I lost the lift. I leveled off at 4000 and a moment later I caught another grand ride up.  This happened repeatedly. Nobody was in line for the aircraft so I played until I decided to land.

Usually my landings are way long by 500 ft or too short by a few hundred. This was my best landing to date, within 75 ft of my target and my instructor did not even see it. He was up with another student. Dang…

I knew the flight seemed long.  Without even trying, I earned my first badge for an hour long solo flight.

I just may have a long term love affair with this glider flying thing!