Hi all. Just thought I'd post an update. I went to another operation
to fly their G103 in an effort to help me transition to my LS1f. I was
fortunate enough to fly with Judy Ruprecht. She was very helpful with
some ground instruction and descriptions of what I should expect when
in the air. I really enjoyed flying with her. I think this will help
make my upcoming check-ride much less nerve-racking now that I know
her a little. Anyway, it turns out the G103 is a rather benign and
forgiving ship. After a few minutes, I was pretty comfortable with it.
We did some slow-speed/stall work in straight and turning flight and
the stall characteristics are pretty docile. Did a little soaring with
it too, and without audio. All I had was the mechanical vario, and I
was able to scratch back up to release altitude with it. I've never
flown without audio before. Flying at a new location for the first
time was the only real challenge, but that wasn't all that bad. About
the only thing that really stands out in my mind from yesterday is the
feel of more mass on landing. I had no problem on approach and landing
other than not holding off quite enough to get the two-point touch. I
pretty much greased the landing, but it was on the main wheel. Judy
made a couple of pattern adjustment suggestions mostly due to my
unfamiliarity with the field. The one bit of handling advice I got was
to watch my speed in the pattern. I slowed just a bit on base while
looking outside at my angles. She was more concerned about flaring too
slow and landing hard and made a comment about not slowing down any
further. But I easily picked up the pace a bit before we were finished
with base and the rest of the landing went well. Oh yeah, there's a
damned tree just to the right of the approach end of runway 7 that
seems really close. My instinct was to stay away from it, but that
would have had me aligned with runway lights under the left wing tip
(we were landing on 7R, grass). So after a quick suggestion from Judy,
I moved over towards the tree anyway rather than waiting until I got
by it. As I said, I had more problems with the strange field than I
did with the ship. Anyhow, the 103 really is an easy ship to fly. I
had myself psyched about nothing.

Dave