I took Adam up for a flight in the Grob yesterday. We released at 6,000 feet near Fremont Peak and glided around west of Hollister. We flew north/northwest of the field, looped around Frazier Lake airport, and headed toward the foothills before heading back toward the airport. Roughly 1.5 miles north of the field we found a broken thermal over a field that was being plowed by a farmer. I provided 2-4kt lift between 1,500 and 2,000 feet.
Today I headed down with Lance and Joyce. Lance now has his license, so we flew together twice. The first time we took up a 2-32 (N7531) so Lance could try flying from the back. I flew the takeoff to 3,000 feet and he flew the rest of the tow to 5,000. Then he practiced turns, speed control (which was excellent), and a few stalls. He gave me the controls back at 2,000 feet so that I could fly the pattern and landing. It was a bit odd flying a 2-32 again, but the landing was decent.
Then, after Joyce managed to ground 64E after a hard landing, we took up an ASK-21 (N63JJ) and flew out west of the field. Lance was just along for the ride on this flight. I had wanted to fly the Grob again, but Charles had booked it so I ended up in the 21. The flight was uneventful except for a bounce on landing. I landed well, tail wheel first and then main wheel. But when I went to put a bit more back pressure on the stick to keep the tail wheel down, I accidently closed the brakes a bit and the stiff headwind meant that we hadn't lost much airspeed. So we ended up back in the air. We climbed about 8 feet and then I leveled out and landed a bit more slowly the second time.
I didn't feel so bad after watching Charles land the Grob and do nearly the same thing.
Posted by jzawodn at July 27, 2003 09:06 PM
