Spring is here. Time to fly!

WEATHER
Visibility: 10+
Wind: variable
Altitudes: 6000k
Time Aloft: 2.5 hours
Max Lift: 5kts 
Temperature: mid to upper 60s
Comment: beautiful spring day
Tow pilot: Jim Rickey & Brian Rouska

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Julie and Darrell arrived in her Citabria to find Larry, Mark, and Jim already hard at work and Peter getting his ship ready. Larry headed up the crew to make a dump run and was back before noon… just in time for flying.

Julie launched first and released into a nice climb over the red barn and had a 2.5 hour flight with a multitude of ravens, a red tailed hawk, and a golden eagle pair who were gracious enough to mark a thermal and try to teach her a few skills about coring it.

Peter was up next in his ASW20 for a 30’ warm up flight before relighting and staying another 1.5 hours getting up to 5300’.

Both Darrell and Mark got in a flight with Larry in the back seat and appeared to be maximizing the thermals out there.

The best part of the day was seeing Jim fly a glider instead of a tow plane. Brian came out to ferry Jim in the 2-33 to Hanford and then return with the 1-26. 

Soon all the aircraft will be back online and ready for the season. Don’t be a lazy dog… let’s go fly!

CA69 Projects

Work Day at Avenal

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A number of members got a lot accomplished on the March 1st work day.

This group (Jim, Richard, Morgan, Mark & Darrell) tore down the 1-26, did all of the routine maintenance and cleaning work, reassembled and generally got it ready for its annual.

 

Joe got the old batteries out, did a thorough clean-up and installed the new batteries in the second golf cart.  So now both carts are working well!

 

 

And a couple of others (Larry & Kevin) created temporary tie downs at both ends of the main runway.

 

   

 

More to do next time...
 

January 11,2025

WEATHER
Visibility: clear
Wind: increasing crosswinds

Altitudes:.  3300’
Time Aloft: 0.5 hours
Max Lift: 2-3 kts
Temperature: 60ish
Tow pilot: Julie

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The morning started off cool with a slight NE wind. There were some good training flights in both the 2-33 & 1-26. The wind consistently built until it blew a car sized tumbleweed across the runway on the last tow. With that, Julie decided she was done towing leaving Peter sitting in his ASW-20 on the ground. Sorry to everyone who was grounded!

Happy New Year

First Flights of 2025

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We had a beautiful day on Saturday to kick off a new year of soaring at Avenal!  

After we finished shoveling the snow (OK, maybe not), we got busy flying.  Jim was kind enough to tow.  A number of pre-solo and post-solo students flew, and Julie and Morgan each got some weak weather thermaling practice in XD.  Richard was out, supervising some re-arranging of trailers and glider parts, and then administering some sort of aid to the tractor.  Various other chores got attention.

 

 All good signs of a quick start to 2025, with a gorgeous sunset to finish the day.

 

 Photo credit to Mark P.