Today was the first day of regular Wednesday night flight training at Harris Hill! Our flight students were up there after work and I headed up to get my annual field check with an instructor and get myself FAA current in flying a glider.
The weather couldn't have been more perfect as an overcast this morning with winds out of the North turned to clear skies with little, if any winds by start time at 5:30. Harris Hill requires an annual safety flight with an instructor after the winter layoff and I need it since the logbook said I hadn't flown since the end of September!
I got a bonus two-fer. I took my check in the 2-33 trainer, which I probably haven't flown for a year, plus it was my first flight in about 6 months. I climbed in, remembered where all the controls were and we towed out of 4NY8 into the afternoon sun. An East wind reminded me that one should stay close and tight to the field and the lower performance and lighter wing loading of the 2-33 kept me near the hill. I chose to stay mostly on the East side of the airport so the wind would quickly push me back to the proper side for landing.
Everything went smoothly. Okay, mostly everything went smoothly. I remembered how to fly on tow, I remember when I'm supposed to feed in rudder and elevator, and I can still keep the machine right side up pretty easily. On landing, I intentionally carried more altitude than necessary and slipped down base and around the right turn to final. Ron Ogden, our instructor extraordinaire (does anything ever upset him?!) said - put it on the asphalt, so I side stepped towards the pavement.
Spoilers open full to help bleed height and WHAM! we're down but in keeping spoilers open fully, I've got the brake on unintentionally. We touch down just short of the asphalt (I'll work on that, thank you very much), jump up onto the pavement and one wing goes low while the tire skids us to a very short stop. Not pretty. I told you I was rusty!
I emphasize to Ron that, no I wasn't pulling on the spoiler handle when we landed but that must have still activated the brake. I should have let the spoilers off just slightly before touchdown like I was thinking, but the approach was going okay and I didn't want to mess with it very much. Plus, if you do that on the ASK-21 you'll get a nice pop up into the air and possibly a porpoise that will amuse your pilot friends. See earlier blog posts about how I've pulled that stunt before.
Anyhow, Ron says "Well, I think you'll do okay on your own," and I'm checked out! I take a backseat passenger ride with one of my colleagues in the ASK-21 and then I'm off on my own in it after we land. And what do you know, I find a little zero sink air and milk the ride for awhile as I circle gently near the pattern for landing. Coming down final, I line up, get my spoilers set to help manage my energy and put it down on the pavement nicely, keeping the wings level and managing a nice taxi in the direction of the hangar. It's time to put the birds away for the evening.
But not for long. The soaring season at the hill has begun and Saturday is the club's first day of public operations. It's going to be a good year!
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