The giant sucking sound

If you listen closely, you can hear a very faint sucking sound as Summer begins to run out and we enter Fall -and inevitably, the end of the regular flying season at Harris Hill.

It's gone by fast and the weather hasn't been very kind to us this year but nevertheless I consider it a pivotal year in my glider experience. I achieved all of my flight goals this year - to move up to the high performance ships in our fleet and to become comfortable flying them.

There's still the Fall to fly, so another 10 weeks or so of good weekends and Wednesday night flying will help lessen the anguish of shutting it down until better weather. The weather is generally pretty good and watching the leaves change over the weeks from the air is a special site that not many get to share. I'm going to make the best of it before preparing for my flying next year.

What will my goals be? I'm giving consideration to adding the commercial glider pilot's license to my ratings. That way, I can be scheduled to fly passengers on weekends, introducing them to soaring and adding experience to my resume at no cost. You need to be able to fly to a higher standard for the commercial rating and I'm not yet certain that I qualify. We'll see what I think as I begin to fly next year.

I'm also thinking of starting some cross country training. I have *plenty* to learn about good thermalling and flight technique but one way you can gain that is to fly with experts and our cross country instructors are the ones who can teach you what to look for.

Until then, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the time left in the flying season and sharpen up those flight skills.

It does not get any better than this

A friend from work visited this weekend. Aside from turning me into a Decemberists fan at their concert in Buffalo, we got a little soaring in. Today, he sent me a link to a Youtube video of us flying. You can see how spectacular the day was!

It's all good now

I've been flying as much as I can, concentrating on learning how to put the ASK-21 on a spot that I want it to land on. One thing I've concentrated on is how to land from what is obviously 'too high'. This allows me to more easily control the glider when the risk of an undershoot is greater - like on a landing to the North.

I don't land all that close to the flight line, but I'm always touching down at the mid field taxiway, which is where I've been aiming. I've decided that I don't care if my landings require a lengthy push back to the flight line. What I care about is landing the glider where *I* want to land it and doing that consistently. Later on, I'll be able to gauge it more accurately and I can move that point back while still having plenty of room for error.

I've also been concentrating on holding my airspeed and turning in 30-35 degree circles. I've been doing some practice at steeper angles of 45 degrees as well. I'm getting the hang of it and am starting to be able to tell when the airspeed is increasing without having to look at the gauge. I'm still working on it, but I am improving.

I've done well in the last 8 or 10 takeoffs at keeping the wings level while compensating for crosswinds. No major bobbles or swerves recently and I'm pleased that I'm doing better at this. Gotta stay on top of it, though.

Awaiting takeoff at Harris Hill

I'm beginning to fly passengers with me. Bryan Riegal flew with me the other day on a pair of flights and took some pictures. No lift that day, so you couldn't stay up, but my oh my the view was nice and it was a perfect early evening set of cruises.

Behind the tow plane climbing to altitude

Your moment of Zen. Releasing from the tow plane to soar.