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Winter Gliding



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 13th 20, 07:32 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Winter Gliding

The rain had stopped earlier in the day, but it left a solid cloud deck at about 1000 feet. The tow pilot and ride pilot were sitting in front of the heater, swapping lies when a paying customer walked in! How much for one of them glider rides, he asked? The owner knew it wasn’t wise to attempt flight under the existing weather conditions, but turning down a paying customer in the dead of winter was hard to do. Fifty bucks and we’ll give it our best shot. On the ride out to the 2-32 in the golf cart, the pilots agreed they’d back off on the power below cloud ceiling and give the customer about a 10 minute flight. They towed from the intersection on 30, but shortly after passing the end of the runway, both ships disappeared into the clouds..........still on tow!

The ride pilot released immediately and turned left to get some separation from the Pawnee, then waited for the ground to reappear, hoping the wings would be more or less level when they became VFR, again! As they exited the cloud, the wings were level, but they were headed straight for the rotating beacon tower! Another left turn avoided hitting the tower and put them more or less lined up to land back on the ramp. Touched down and rolled up to the intersection they had departed from, not more than :02 minutes ago!

The customer was white as a ghost and had large wet spot in his trousers as the owner cheerfully asked, “ would you like to go, again”? Speechless, he only shook his head and ran for his car!

🤑JJ
  #2  
Old January 13th 20, 08:12 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
AS
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Default Winter Gliding

On Monday, January 13, 2020 at 1:32:09 PM UTC-5, wrote:
The rain had stopped earlier in the day, but it left a solid cloud deck at about 1000 feet. The tow pilot and ride pilot were sitting in front of the heater, swapping lies when a paying customer walked in! How much for one of them glider rides, he asked? The owner knew it wasn’t wise to attempt flight under the existing weather conditions, but turning down a paying customer in the dead of winter was hard to do. Fifty bucks and we’ll give it our best shot. On the ride out to the 2-32 in the golf cart, the pilots agreed they’d back off on the power below cloud ceiling and give the customer about a 10 minute flight. They towed from the intersection on 30, but shortly after passing the end of the runway, both ships disappeared into the clouds..........still on tow!

The ride pilot released immediately and turned left to get some separation from the Pawnee, then waited for the ground to reappear, hoping the wings would be more or less level when they became VFR, again! As they exited the cloud, the wings were level, but they were headed straight for the rotating beacon tower! Another left turn avoided hitting the tower and put them more or less lined up to land back on the ramp. Touched down and rolled up to the intersection they had departed from, not more than :02 minutes ago!

The customer was white as a ghost and had large wet spot in his trousers as the owner cheerfully asked, “ would you like to go, again”? Speechless, he only shook his head and ran for his car!

🤑JJ


I hope he paid up-front! ;-)

Uli
'AS'
  #3  
Old January 14th 20, 02:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Winter Gliding

JJ.
Why don’t you tell everyone about the time you were going to teach me how to slope soar the east side of the pine nut mountains east of Minden and I ended up walking home carrying two parachutes.
John jr
  #4  
Old January 14th 20, 02:39 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Winter Gliding

JJ.
Why don’t you tell everyone about the time you were going to teach me how to slope soar the west side of the pine nut mountains east of Minden one winter day and I ended up walking home carrying two parachutes.
John jr
  #5  
Old January 14th 20, 05:51 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Winter Gliding

John Jr. and I had flown several very enjoyable slope soaring flights out of Stead (former AFB) north of Reno, on Peterson ridge (about 10 miles west).. After the Stead glider operation closed, we thought the Pine Nut mountains should work when a west wind was blowing. Bad plan, especially in a Puchacz! On a gloomy Winters day, we towed east into the Pine Nut Mountains, but found little slope lift over the foothills and I was reluctant to go 15 miles downwind in an unknown ship on a questionable slope Soaring day! We soon abandoned the slope soaring idea and turned west into an estimated 10 knot wind. This was well before anyone had fancy computers that told one if they had the altitude to make Minden? It became obvious, we weren’t going to make it and I told son John to head for a little sandy strip about 5 miles east of Minden! Arriving there with maybe 500 feet, john made a tear-drop left pattern and touched down with a perfect first off-field landing!

We called for an aero tow and then started shoving the bird to the east end of the 1000 foot sandy strip! Pawnee landed and stopped rather quickly due to the sandy conditions. The Pawnee driver surveyed the situation, short sandy runway, heavy bird, no headwind..............and said, “here’s the deal, the parachutes come out and only one of you are getting back in”! I offered to stay, but John insisted he stay............I think he had seen enough of the Puchacz!
So, I towed back, tied the bird down and then jumped in the pickup and headed east looking for son John. Shortly, found a kid with two parachutes over his shoulders, walking in the dessert!

Good memories,
JJ
  #6  
Old January 15th 20, 02:28 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Winter Gliding

JJ, thats the very same little sand patch that I made my first off field landing!

I was 15 years old and on my second ever flight in a “high performance” ship, a pilatus B4 lol. That 33/1 was heaven after flying a 1-26 the previous couple of years. It was a relatively weak day and I was trying to work my way to the higher ground of the pine nuts. I was getting pretty low and things were getting a little desperate. Along came Marcel Goudinat about 1500 ft above me, and in his heavy swiss accent he called me telling me I might want to set up for a land out on that sand strip that was right below me lol. I set her up and put her down there, having to walk all the way back to the airport to get my brother and our rickety trailer to haul her home.

Good old memories!

Dan
 




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