Flying the 2-33....again

I forgot how much I like the 2-33

After flying commercial flights for several hours, I was ready for a break but my son wanted to take a flight.  The ASK's were busy with passenger rides, so I saddled up in the back of the trusty Schweizer 2-33.  Kevin was thrilled to fly his training aircraft.  I did the takeoff, then turned it over to him for the tow and rest of the flight.  He flew a tad high on tow, but would generally correct back to the proper position and I could see that he's definitely 'getting it' and learning how to handle the aircraft.  A couple of bumps kept him alert and were good experience.  Pretty soon we were up to release altitude - 3700 feet above sea level.  We released and began looking for lift.

I directed us over the hang glider launch since that's where I'd found a pretty reliable thermal for most of the day and sure enough, we found it.  The thermals were a bit odd with shear in them and sort of an on/off feeling to them.  I'd been able to center them in the ASK-21 with passengers, but I thought I'd let Kevin try his hand at it without too much direction from me.

Pretty soon we were circling with good lift on one side and zero on the other.  The right thing to do is to try and move your circle towards the stronger side of the lift by banking steeply on the weak side and making a more shallow bank when you are on the strong side.  This moves your circle, hopefully strengthening the lift so you are in it all the way around the circle.  I gave a little direction to Kevin and pretty soon he had it centered and we started climbing steadily.  We topped out right at release altitude after 700 feet of climb or so and I could tell he was pretty excited that he made it happen.

We flew around a bit more, discussing what to look for and think about and then he set us into the pattern for downwind.  I took over from there and made the landing, talking through the checklist with him and explaining what I was doing and why.  As we turned base, I told him that I thought we looked a bit high and he agreed.  What he didn't know was that there was sink off the end of the runway but I did because I'd flown through it all morning.  With spoilers almost closed, I used it to bring us down and turned final only slightly high.

Kevin said, "You're too high," but since I barely had the spoilers cracked, I just eased them open, brought us into line, then eased them almost closed and touched down in the grass right where I'd been aiming.  After we got out, I smiled and said, "So you thought I was too high, eh?"  It was good to know I could still fly the 2-33!  

It had been a couple of months and I get nervous about being used to flying a higher performance glider, then flying a lower performance one -especially since I was in the back.  But it turned out to be the same trusty 2-33 I learned to fly in and it was great fun to fly it again.  Plus, we both enjoyed flying together and he seemed pleased to show me what he'd learned.  I know I got a kick out of it.

Return on Investment

Yesterday I worked my first full commercial pilot shift at Harris Hill.  I was scheduled last month but we were weathered out with a no-fly day.

Yesterday was different - a cool morning with river fog gave way to a sunny and spectacular Fall day at Harris Hill.  When I arrived, there were three passenger rides waiting and after a slight delay to allow the fog to burn off, I started giving rides.  Taking a glider ride was apparently a popular idea as we steadily built up a queue of people waiting for rides.  By the time I landed with the second passenger, we had three gliders in passenger operation and kept them all busy until 5pm.

I gave 8 rides that day and passed the magic number of 12 passenger rides which is the point that the personal cost of getting my commercial license is exceeded by the cost of flying 12 times.  So, now I'm on the plus side of the ledger and every flight I make with a paying passenger is gravy on top.

I like introducing people to soaring and although the weather was quite good, I really liked flying steadily for a period of 4 or 5 hours because I got to experience the changing conditions from smooth and calm to thermal activity.  The East-Southeast wind we had was very, very light on the surface but caused some turbulence and a decent crosswind on takeoff and landing.  It was quite different in the sky than on the ground and it was interesting to experience it evolving.

Even though it was a light wind, there was a good deal of sink on final approach, but I had anticipated it and making 8 landings gave me a good feel for what it looks like under those conditions.  The other thing that is nice is that you aren't trying to stay up for a long time.  Twenty minutes or so is the length of the ride, so if you find a single thermal you can easily make 20.  You stay near the field and simply fly wherever you want with no particular destination or task necessary.  You pass a few minutes of pleasant conversation with passengers and then return for landing.  Nice.  And of course, you get more experience with flying the ASK-21.

All in all, a great decision to get my commercial rating this year!