Home of the Central California Soaring Association in Avenal California.
Lessons, Intro glider flights, Tows
Saturday, December 19, 2020
A Great Day for Training
Visibility: Clear to the Sierras above 2500'
Wind: Calm
Altitudes: Tow heights
Time Aloft: 40 mins Kyle Detke and Alex
Max Lift: Alex?
Temperature: 50s
Comment:
Tow pilot: Dan Gudgel, Kyle Hyde, and Chris Bayns
Lots of activity for nearly the shortest day of the year! After Monday, we are over the hump with days getting longer and the soaring season getting ever closer.
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Piper Banys First Solo!
Visibility: Mostly clear, with low and high clouds passing all day
Wind: Light, typically NE at 5-7 knots
Altitudes: Release height!
Time Aloft: Sled Rides, except for one flight with some zero sink
Max Lift: Nada, zilch
Temperature: 50s
Comment: Beautiful winter training day
Tow pilot: Karl Kunz
Piper Solo'd Today!
Piper Banys made her first solo flight today. The first solo is a flight every pilot remembers the rest of her life, and I'm sure Piper's will stick with her as well. Her parents and brother were there to share in the special moment. There's more training to do, of course, but let's congratulate Piper for this terrific accomplishment.
New members Kyle Hyde and Kyle Detke, who are power pilots transitioning to gliders, worked on polishing their technique as well.
Today also saw the return to the air of 22S, after some months of Covid-19 lockdown. I'm sure some spiders were unhappy that we disturbed their habitat, but otherwise it was great to have the "Spirit of Laird" back in the sky.
We had several members out doing other tasks as well - Zach brought out a loaded fuel trailer and then did some runway smoothing / weed scraping for a while. 13F had a flat tire, so he and Chris Banys and others worked on extracting the wheel and planning on a tube replacement, clean-up and bearing-repack, etc.
Logan and a friend were out and got a flight to wrap up the day. A big thanks, as always to Karl Kunz for towing today - we tried to keep him as busy as possible.
This fall and winter have been drier than average, so let's take advantage of these clear, cool days to finish training or brush up on your proficiency and precision. And then you'll be ready for a pre-frontal wave day or two when they appear in the forecast.
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Logan Solos
Visibility: 10+
Wind: Calm
Altitudes: 5500 Alex Radko
Time Aloft: 1.5 hrs Jim Rickey
Max Lift:
Temperature:
Comment:
Tow pilot: Luciano Worl
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Monday, October 19, 2020
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Visibility: about 6 to 8 miles, in mild to moderate haze and light smoke
Wind: light and variable all day
Altitudes: approximately 6000 ft MSL by Zach Yamauchi in his Standard Discus
Max Lift: 4 kts.
Temperature: 93 deg. F. on the clubhouse porch.
Comment: Not quite as clear, and not quite as good lift as last week. But a nice fall training day, none the less.
Tow pilot: Karl Kunz
A more all inclusive view of Ken's beautiful Discus sailplane. He installed the winglets himself. He plans on refinishing it eventually, when time allows, hopefully this winter.
Monday, October 12, 2020
Saturday October 10, 2020
Visibility: Quite good. The smoke was gone (probably just temporarily). Just a pretty normal haze for this time of year.
Wind: light and variable all day.
Altitudes: We got to about 3500 MSL in the 2-33. Other ships probably got somewhat higher.
Time Aloft: 30 min. max in the 2-33.
Max Lift: 400 fpm. briefly. Enough to stay up for a while and enjoy the flying, without too much turbulence, or the extreme heat of the past few months!
Temperature: 92 deg. F. It was quite pleasantly comfortable today.
Comment: Thomas Wolfe solos! Wyll Soll flies the Discus 1B! Veronica Guzman and Ignacio Lopez take FAAST introductory lessons. Logan Stevens from San Luis flies in the 2-33. Lou Marquez opens trailers!
The smoke was going somewhere else today! We had almost forgotten what it looks like without it until today!
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Visibility: Very bad, due to the very smoky conditions.
Wind: Light and variable.
Altitudes: 1200 ft. AGL max. in order to stay legal VFR ( in "class G" uncontrolled airspace, 1mile visibility, and clear of clouds, of which there were none, just a lot of smoke)
Time Aloft: maybe 15. minutes
Max Lift: None. (We didn't even try).
Temperature: About 92 deg. F.
Comment:
Tow pilot: Dan Gudgel
A few die-hards came out today in spite of the ugly sky conditions. Thomas Wolf is working on getting ready to solo in the 2-33. He flew quite a bit near his home at Hinkley gliderport near Chicago this summer, about 25 flights in an ASK-21, after a very small number of 2-33 flights last school year here at Avenal. He mainly is getting used to the 2-33 again, and getting familiar with the Avenal gliderport area and it's procedures again. He did some pattern tows today, which was as high as we could go and still stay legal under VFR rules. We were listening to the ATIS and AWOS reports from nearby airports such as Hanford and Lemoore, which were reporting 1.5-2.5 miles visibility most of the time, and that seemed consistent with what we were estimating here at Avenal. Aleks Radko was flying his Glasflugel 304. I believe he's flown more than anyone else in the club for the past 2 years! He comes out regularly and flies in all different types of conditions, and his very good flying shows it as well!
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Comment: Video made by Frank Owen of Kris Caldwell's commercial glider checkride with F.A.A. Designated Pilot Examiner Dan Gudgel
Tow pilot: Frank Owen
http://www.aoengr.com/Handoff/KrissCheckflightWithCaptions.mp4
Monday, August 17, 2020
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Visibility: Good, as long as you stayed away from thunderstorms to the west that had some rain and eventually, some lightning that hit the ground and started some fires up in the foothills near the big power lines that come over the hill from the Diablo Canyon power plant. See pictures.
Wind: light and variable during the time we were out there. Slightly favoring using runway 30 for take offs. But we variously landed the gliders on runways 8, 12, and 30 depending on where we wanted to position the gliders for the next take off, or to stow away for the day in their tie down spot, or hangar, in the case of Ethan.
Altitudes: I think Ethan Ronat had the best soaring flight of the day, but I forgot to ask him how high he got though!
Time Aloft: Probably a little less than one hour by Ethan Ronat in his beautiful new Ventus 2.
Max Lift: Not sure, but definitely not very good!
Temperature: The highest I remember seeing was 103 deg. F. on the porch thermometer. But we left early, so it may have gone higher. It was quite humid for Avenal. So it felt oppressively hot!
Comment: The RASP forecasts were way off today. They didn't seem to get the mid level monsoonal moisture that came in from the south, mostly to the west of Avenal, and resulted in some thunderstorms with virga, lighting, and even a few drops of light rain at the airport by the time we all packed up to leave.
Tow pilot: Karl Kunz, all the way from Carmel!
Some serious soaring, and other professional talent in this shot of Karl Kunz, Kris Caldwell and Dan Clark. Kris is preparing to fly from the back seat of the 2-33 with yours truly in the front seat in prep for adding on the glider rating to his commercial pilot certificate. Kris was getting some tips from Karl, a former line boy at the Fremont glider port, tow pilot, glider pilot and CFI, and recently retired 777 captain for United Airlines! Kris is currently flying the F-35 for the U.S. Navy at nearby Lemoore NAS. It's very interesting, and always educational, to listen to those guys talk!
Saturday, August 8, 2020
August In Avenal
Its hot in August and even the local snakes have thrown in the towel!
But the soaring was good today and a number of well-hydrated folks were out to enjoy the conditions.
A few highlights:
- New member Carl Lindgren had a good first flight.
- Daniel & Mark got another nice set of flights (they came down from the Bay Area and flew Friday and Saturday).
- David Simpson got checked-out to tow by Dan and was put to work immediately
- Sergio got current again with a Flight Review from Alex
- Eric got checked out and had his first flights in JB
- Kris continued his preparations for his commercial practical test
- Joe, Aleks, Kris, Eric, Ken & Ethan each spent some time in nice blue lift.
- Ethan was flying his new ship, Z5, for the first timeFriday, June 5, 2020
Retrieves
We've gotten some practice with retrieves lately at CCSA. Its an unavoidable and sometimes fun part of cross-country soaring. Here are the Retrieve Heros from my off-field landing on Thursday - our own Martin Caskey and Jesus of the Zapata Ranch. Big thanks to them both.
When you have a chance to join a retrieve, don't hesitate. There's always something to be learned and some grand adventures and maybe tall tales as well.
- Kevin
Friday, May 22, 2020
Flying 5/20/20
Visibility: infinity
Wind: light out of the north
Altitudes: 8000ft
Time Aloft: 6.5hrs
Max Lift: 9kts
Temperature: 70s
Comment: Awesome midweek flying day
Tow pilot: Alex
Alex agreed to come out tow for us on this Wednesday. With high bases and nice weather predicted Aleks, Ethan, Ken, and myself (Wyll) came out to fly. Here is a bit about the day from my perspective.
This was probably one of my all-time favorite flights and my
best by far flying out of Avenal.
Launched around 11:30 with good cu already building over Black and a few wisps around the airport. Alex towed me about halfway out to Tar Peak and I got off in decent lift. It worked well with a decent climb rate but cut off around 3300ft. I made one attempt to reach the clouds over the hills but was met with lots of sink on the way and high tailed it back toward Avenal. I then climbed back up in the same spot but held on to the thermal a little higher and was able to connect with the clouds in the mountains and they were booming.
Looking south towards Soda Lake |
I then met up with TG and continued on towards the California Valley. Once on the correct line, the run south was again uneventful staying above 6000ft and only stopping for climbs around 5kts or better.
Cloud base was about 6500ft when I got my first good climb and rose throughout the day to about 8000ft. I cruised under the well-marked convergence from Black around the horn to EL4. At EL4 with cloud base still, only about 6500ft I couldn’t go any further north without committing to New Idria as a landout so I turned around. This also worked out because about this time the Hollister guys were just getting their first climbs at EL1 and so I figured I would get a head start on all the modern glass that was going to be chasing me down in my 50-year-old Libelle.Looking North from Cholame |
Looking south from my turn around point |
Just north of Caliente Mountain, the line turned from fully developed cu to wispies. TG reported they were working but I decided not to push my luck and turned around. The run back north was again uneventful and I spent a decent bit of it flying with HV and 1KS.
Climbing with HV and 1KS |
Heading North over Parkfield |
I continued north past Avenal with my goal of getting to EL4 again before turning around. As I got close to EL4 a few climbs didn’t work and I started to get worried.
8kts on the averager |
Getting towards the edge of
glide to New Coalinga I started heading east.
I realize now that I was probably too far east of the convergence line
and flying under dead clouds. I kept
getting lower and started going into survival soaring mode, taking anything
that felt like a thermal just trying to make it back to Avenal. About this time my glider battery also took a
dump (I had been flying for about 6 hours) so I turned everything off but the Vario
and switched to a handheld radio. After
two broken climbs in the hills that didn’t work out, I figured I was destined
to land at New Coalinga, then about 2 miles from the edge of the town of
Coalinga I hit my 2knot savior.
This 2kt climb just got me home |
I climbed as high as it would go which was about 50ft above a Macready 4 glide back to Avenal and set off. Not ideal but as long as I hit some good air I could make it and worst case I could turn around and go back to New Coalinga. Luckily I hit good air and was able to float my way back. I closed off my trace and headed into land touching down right around 6:05. Big thanks to Alex Caldwell for towing today and Ethan Ronat for helping me put WE away.
Here is a link to my OLC trace to see more
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=7763442
Happy Flying
Wyll Soll
Friday, May 15, 2020
Visibility: great
Wind: seasonal, from the N
Altitudes: bases were 7-9,000'
Time Aloft: 4-5 hours
Max Lift: Strong
Temperature: Pleasant
Comment:
Tow pilot: Frank
Limited Operations Resuming at Avenal
Great soaring conditions have arrived. Several from CCSA flew yesterday, both locally and XC. This picture shows the 100+ mile cloud streets from the OTHER side (Paso Robles airport) at the end of the day. Plan to come out, enjoy the fresh air and help get the fleet and airfield into shape. Then get current, following the modified procedures adopted by the Board, and remember how fun this is.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Saturday, February 8, 2020
WEATHER
Visibility: Probably about 8 miles in haze below the inversion. Unlimited above the inversion, which was at about 3,200 ft MSL.
Wind: Light and variable most of the day. Out of the ENE late in the day, at about 5-10 kts.
Altitudes: 3,100 ft. MSL
Time Aloft: 30 min.
Max Lift: 2-3 kts at times.
Temperature: 70 deg. F.
Comment: Dual control soaring simulator running Condor2 software at the field.
Tow pilot: Karl Kunz
We had 5 students that flew today from the Cal Poly Akaflieg group. Will Beaudoin, Anthony Bellanti, Thomas Wolfe, Alan Lewis, and Lux Vadakin all flew. Everybody got 2 flights in. One of Alan Lewis's flights was a shortened one, with a practice rope break he got because he's ready for that phase of training. Otherwise, we towed to 2,000 ft. AGL, 2,500 ft. AGL, or on one flight to 3000 ft. AGL. For a while, we had 2 of our 2-33s flying when Zach Yamauchi flew a friend. Also flying today was Luca Soares in the SGS 1-26. I think Luca flew at least 2 flights in the 1-26, maybe more. On one flight in the 2-33, we had some lift, and climbed the better part of 1,000 ft. from our low point, up to just a little over our release point at about 3,100 ft. MSL, if I remember correctly. On the flight just before that, we had some zero sink type lift. The lift window for the day was pretty narrow, as on the next flight, I think we couldn't find anything. By then, the wind had also come up just a bit out of the ENE, at maybe 5-10 kts., and it seemed to put a damper on any further lift. I thought the temperature also felt like it had dropped with the arrival of the wind. Perhaps a cooler airmass had moved in, maybe a convergence line had crossed over the field as the new wind arrived?
Zach Yamauchi brought out a glider flight simulator set up that's on loan from Truckee Soaring to the Akaflieg group. It has 2 seats with dual controls. It was made by Mike Mayo and loaned to the Cal Poly Akaflieg group until the Truckee Soaring season opens. It's quite impressive, and must have taken a lot of thought and creativity to get it all working. My first impression was that it might have been made from an IKEA kit, as it's mostly wood. It has an ingenious system of pulleys, cables and electronic sensors to feed control input data to the program running on the associated computer. It's running a copy of the new Condor2 software, which is a giant leap in performance and the realism of the terrain and scenery over the original Condor. Zach has asked that we use it only when a checked out Cal Poly Akaflieg member is present to supervise, and not allow unsupervised children to use it, etc. It could be breakable if not treated with a lot of care. I watched a couple of the Cal Poly flight students using it. I think it is a valid way, with a supervised, well thought out training syllabus, to practice a lot of training maneuvers that would otherwise cost a lot of money for tows, and would also require waiting for the right weather conditions, etc. Thanks to Zach!
Thanks also to Karl Kunz for donating his whole day to provide the excellent towing!
Monday, February 3, 2020
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Visibility: Very good, almost unlimited. Some fog in the valley to the east early.
Wind: Very light all day
Altitudes: Release altitude -500 ft.
Time Aloft: .5
Max Lift: 1.5 kts.
Temperature: about 70 deg. F.
Comment: We got some very weak lift on a couple of flights and were able to gain about 300 ft. on one flight and hold altitude for a little while on the other.
Tow pilot: Nick Ferraro
Some funky fledgling ravens on our clubhouse roof a couple of years ago. Maybe title should be fledgling ravens doing the "funky chicken"! Not shy, in fact very curious, but being closely watched by their parents in the adjacent palm tree.
Steve Schery preflighting "Big Bird", SGS 2-33 N3613F, prior to completing his flight review. Steve currently flies a Carat motorglider, usually at nearby New Coalinga Airport. He has previously had both
Discus and Russia sailplanes , which he's flown here and in Moriarity, NM. He is working part time at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffet Federal Airfield in Mountain View, CA. He is a Professor emeritus, of physics, if I recall correctly, from the University of New Mexico. He is also a tow pilot with over 500 hours in Pawnees flying at Moriarity, and has also towed in our Cessna 150/150 for our club as well. He helped the club get our current tow plane set up to be legal to tow, which was no mean feat. He also makes very good tow ropes and weak links.
Later, I flew with Alan Lewis and Lux Vadakan, both of whom made two flights and are progressing well. Sorry, I didn't take any more pictures. I saw Jim Rickey and I hope he may have gotten a few! Or maybe Richard Walker, who was also out at the field today. There was another couple there who's names I didn't get. I don't think they were flying. We had some weak lift on some of those flights, and were able to gain about 300 ft. one one flight.
Dan Gudgel came out and flew with Spencer Umney and Anthony Bellanti in 22S. Thanks to Dan! He also finished the glider familiarization portion of the towing endorsement for Nick Ferraro. I noticed everyone was pitching in helping to tie the gliders down at the end of the day, fueling and putting the tow plane away at the end of the day, securing the hangar, checking the water level in the golf cart batteries, cleaning the battery tops of dirt, and thecorrosion from the battery terminals, hooking up tow lines, running wings, retrieving and positioning gliders in the take off area, picking up trash, collecting tumbleweeds and other property maintenance chores. The operation seemed to go pretty smoothly with everyone helping out. I'm not sure exactly how many tows we did, but it was at least 12, perhaps 14.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Visibility: Very good under the cloud deck
Wind: Stiff breeze / light north wind on the ground, more up a bit.
Altitudes: Mostly whatever you released at.
Time Aloft: Short.
Max Lift: +1 knot, hard to find, short lived.
Temperature: Cold for Central California.
Comment: Not a soaring day, but good for training.
Tow pilot: Kyle Jason
January 11, 2020
Spring Training is just getting started.
Yes, this is out of order--the blog for January 18 ought to be above this one.
Note that in the pictures below the runways are refereed to as 30, 12, and 8. Richard has accurately measured, and it has been determined that with the current 13° E variation, those are the correct descriptors. No more "0-7," "1-3," or "3-1."
The cloud deck moved up and down a bit today. This is about the lowest it got. |
Charles ("Chuck") , from Santa Maria, gets ready for his first flight from Avenal. |
Charles's daughters Charlotte and Lily move out of the way before dad takes off. |
Our faithful towplane, today piloted by Kyle Jason, pulls a 2-33 up for the umpteenth thousands time. |
Left wing low, (forward slip to counter the north wind), right rudder to keep it aligned with runway 08, 13F is on short final with Black Mountain obscured by clouds in the background. |
Still keeping the left wing a little low, still keeping right rudder to counteract weather-vaning, and up elevator to keep skid off the ground. |
Richard takes a tow in his 1-35. |
Richard has released and Kyle is on his way to the next tow. |
Because of the long distance for this shot, it may not look like Richard cleared the wires with little room to spare, but he had plenty of clearance on his way to landing on Runway 12 |
Lily was the first daughter going up for a ride. |
Away she goes! |
Lux, Charlotte, Richard Walker and Chuck, the "retrieve / welcoming committee," go out to see how she enjoyed her first glider ride. |
All was well, and she convinced Charlotte to take a ride, too! |
Lux running the wing as Charlotte is on her way, too. |
Richard helps Aleks get his glider lined up for takeoff on "3-0." |
While all the fun is happening outside, Joe is faithfully getting the riding mower ready for the upcoming season. |
Alex instructs Eric Wang during the takeoff roll. |
Eric is practicing a full slip on his way to landing on "3-0." |
Eric is straightened out and ready to land. |