Monday, March 28th 2022
Club members Nick Hoffmann, Phaedra Ovdiyenko, and Chris Ovdiyenko (me) travelled out to Minden, Nevada. We thought club members might like to check out how Day 1 went.
We started with ground instruction on the airport and the ASK-21 and then proceeded out to the field. At Minden-Tahoe the glider operations start off-runway and you’re towed into the runway—which is a little different than what we were used to at Marion. Phaedra flew first, her first flight in a glass ship. Nick flew second, and I flew last. Suprisingly, even though the day was mostly overcast, we were all able to find lift. Phaedra got close to 9000’ MSL, Nick and I were both able to get over 10,000 MSL—Minden is at 4700’ MSL so it was equivalent to a pretty good day at Marion in terms of altitude. I found it interesting that one of the “house thermals” was actually a Starbucks roasting plant. Wasn’t running today, but I’d venture it’s probably the best smelling thermal ever.
The ASK flies very similarly to the Grob 103 we have at the club. We were instructed to try to land tail wheel first which is how they like to do it here because of some pretty extreme crosswinds they get (longer base from tail wheel to main wheel to help keep stability in windy conditions).
No wave conditions today, but a great day to get acquainted with the glider and the airport, and some nice thermals to boot. Tomorrow we’ll be doing some aerobatic training.
