Hard Deck

At 19:55 02 February 2018, Steve Koerner wrote:
Chip's great stories reminded me of one of my most magnificent
experiences in a glider. This was coming back to Crystaire after a
long flight decades ago. The sun had set and the gliderport was
closed and completely vacated.. I did a long low pass westbound
down the length of the runway then pulled up for a right downwind.
As I pulled up, right there, were two eagles circling together to the
right in a 1 knot end-of-day thermal. I joined the two eagles
across that thermal for a few hundred feet of climb before continuing
my landing. Obviously I was quite low when I made those
thermalling turns yet I am as sure now as I was then that making
those turns was perfectly safe for me and for all other human
beings. The air was still -- there was essentially no chance of
encountering any degree of sink or turbulence at that particular
occasion.

Exactly that will never happen again. But something similar might.
I choose liberty please. Pretty please.

Steve, I had a similar experience. It was on October 24, 1998. One
of our club pilots had passed away due to cancer, and his wife Linda
(who is still a pilot in our club) decided to hold his memorial service
on our airport. She requested that I tow out at the end of the
service and do a low contest style flying finish dumping water ballast
as a tribute to Louis, her husband. I was only too happy to oblige.
It was a beautiful Fall day in New England with calm winds and
pretty stable air. I towed out near the end of the service and came
back dumping my water. As I neared the top of my pull-up, I saw a
hawk circling just ahead and to the right. I joined his thermal and
found that he had a nice steady and smooth 2 knots all the way
around. I climbed with the hawk for a few turns gaining altitude
while giving myself enough time to ensure that I had been able to
dump all of my water in case one wing was dumping slower than
the other. I could have stayed with the hawk and climbed away,
but I pulled the plug to join the rest of our club down below. It
was as if Louis had been there giving me a lift...... The airport was
closed except to me. The wx was perfect, and I was right off the
end of our runway. It was perfectly safe as far as I was concerned.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/40eVcQ9t3lXF3mSk2

RO