WEATHER
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

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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.

Chuck Jarabek, with a Commercial Airplane rating, has soloed in gliders before at other locations, and is now coming to Avenal to persue his rating! 

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.