I headed down to Hollister for a bit of Pegasus flying today. On my first flight (1pm or so), I towed to about 4,700 feet and flew into the east hills. It was a little bumpy but I didn't really find much of anything until I got down closer to the terrain: between 3,700 and 4,000 feet. I couldn't really work it well, but I tried.
On the way back, I looked for the low thermals that few thermals that we hit on tow. I didn't find much, so I lowered the gear and headed for the pattern entry point. When I got there I found some real bumps. I decided to give it a shot and managed to stay up an extra ten minutes, going between 1,600 and 1,800 feet. It was hard, but I managed a bit of lift.
I entered the pattern mid-field for 24 and noticed a bit of a right cross-wind across the runway. As I came over the runway I had a bit of difficulty lining up on it. The cross-wind was stronger than I thought. In fact, I fought it most of the way down and the typical wind gradient was almost non-existent. But I made it down safely. It was weird having a north wind to deal with in the afternoon.
For my second flight, I took off on 31 and the wind had shifted again. I had a right cross-wind on take off, which would have been a tail-wind on 24. I towed high to play over the hills and get a feel for what the wind was doing as it blew over 'em. I didn't find much of anything interesting and came back to land on 31.
I was done flying for the day and found myself chatting with a few folks. Just when I was going to leave, Lance, Darren and I got to talking. Lance was about to go for another acro lesson with Drew, so Drew pulled the three of us into the classroom to give us a quick lesson on rolls. Interesting stuff. I need to get some lessons in loops and rolls sometime soon. Very soon.
Posted by jzawodn at November 23, 2003 08:10 PM
