Visibility: Excellent
Wind: SSE 10-12 kts. early, light and variable later.
Altitudes: 7,000 MSL over the mountains
Time Aloft: ???
Max Lift: ???
Temperature: low to mid 80s
Comment:
Tow pilot: Peter Mersino
On Sunday Oct 5, Jim
Rickey soloed in the 2-33 "Big Bird", with Peter Mersino doing the towing, and
Yutaka Butto running his wing. Congratulations to Jim! I got it on
video from the above link for your perusal and critique. It was a really nice day out there at
Avenal. Maximum temps I think were in the very comfortable mid 80s,
but there was lift over the valley most of the afternoon. Just enough to
stay up, but not much turbulence on tow. The wind was out of the SSE
most of the afternoon. Not really very windy, maybe 10 -12 kts., but
just enough to cause us to operate off runway 13 most of the afternoon.
It became light and variable late in the day, and we switched back to
31. Andy was up most of the afternoon in his Russia. Karl Kunz decided
to not put together the AS-W 20, but couldn't resist flying, so he
went up in the 1-26. Dan Gudgel stayed out there all day with his student Dan Clark. George Garcia
from Las Vegas was driving along highway 33 on the way to a Chargers/Raiders
football game in the Bay Area. Don't ask me how he got lost and ended up
on Highway 33. Anyway, he happened to see the gliders, so he stopped in
and got an introductory lesson. Jack Knudsen was out with his Dad,
and flew Big Bird, staying up very well in the weak conditions. Mike
Paoli and Vance Ray were out and made solo flights and we all hung
around the patio eating the lemon cookies left there by Peter. There was
quite a bit of dirt that had blown onto the patio from the wind event
we had on last Thurs./Friday, and we all took turns sweeping it off the patio. A
side benefit of the big wind was that all the tumbleweeds we cut last
week have disappeared. They are probably in Kern County somewhere.
Morgan's friend from hang gliding, Matt Potter, from Los Osos, came
out. Matt is a hang glider pilot and has quite a bit of student power time over the years. He says he is going to join the club,
get his gilder add-on rating, and wants to get his own glider
eventually. He had one lesson with Harold last year, along with a
X-country flight with Morgan in the DuoDiscus.
Alex Caldwell
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