Not a bad day after all!

Got up this morning at ~6:00 (so much for the extra hour of sleep) because the house was freezing! Lost power some time during the night, it came back on at 9:00 am.

I have a new coal stove in the basement which I'm having a heck of a time lighting, got it up once but then dampered it down too far and choked it out. It runs so much differently than wood.

Went to the airport to fly. This is Stu's new I-26. A guy bought it new in 1968, put 20 hours on it when his doctor told him he can't fly because of a health issue. It sat in the barn for 25 years when Stu bought it for $5k.

I got Mrs. 914 up today. No thermals, light breeze, lots of sun and blue skies, perfect day for a first timer. She was towed to 2000 feet and Tim took about 25 minutes to get back down. She's thrilled, says she loved it!

Now that I've got the Finance Department on my side .....

This is me landing the Blanik trainer we have. I had someone take the shot to show off my styish new GRM head gear.

Nice hat, bad photographer.

Some of our neighbors are noisy.

Wicked cool on all counts! You won today.

always wanted to try that.. the club up in the white mtns said i was about 35 pounds to heavy for there gliders....

there is a field near here with gliders.. been by several times.. NEVER found anybody out there soaring

Wow that is an awesome barn find.

A sail plane made me really nervous the first time that I went up. Usually when you are flying along and everything goes silent your first thought is "Oh crap". It took a little bit to get over that, well that and watching the one armed tow plane pilot hang an arm out the window with a clip board.

I love T6's too.

If you ever manage to bum a ride from that noisy neighbor, ask him/her to do aerobatics. Straight and level will be permanently ruined. Ask how I know.

There's a guy that comes around with a Corsair? Some WWII two seater, he gives rides for a fee. There are cameras on the tail and wingtips and you get the video at the end. My friend Paul went up as a Christmas present from his wife, Paul is a pilot. Once in the air and having been through some aerobatics without puking, the guy let Paul drive. Hol-Eeeee-Crap! is all he could say! 1800 hp, the noise, the vibration; couldn't slap the smile off his face.

Felix, a 15 year old in the club was doing his Spin Training yesterday also. A camera was mounted on the tail, I'll try to get a copy. I don't know if power pilots have to do this, but because Sailplanes aren't allowed to fly in clouds we have to do spin training. If you find yourself at 10,000 feet or so and clouds have closed in below you, put it in a controlled spin and cork screw down through the cloud; trying to fly is so disorientating that you'll just get lost.

That looks like fun. About spin training, the FAA decided that it was too dangerous to require spin training. Now you are required to be told what a spin is and how to recover from one. As an option you can still learn spins in the airplane. If I was instructing I would not take on a student that would not do the spin training. When I did my spin training we discussed the procedure on the ground and the instructor did the first spin. The discussion did not prepare me for the spin, it has to be seen to really understand it and what to do to recover.

Opposite rudder, right?

Flying sail planes is great, isn't it? I've had a few trial lessons flying sail planes/gliders in the UK and loved it.

Hmmm.

Supposedly this area here is superb for flying them due to the specific thermals/winds that you get out here[1]. And I clearly need another cheap hobby.

[1] That'll be the same ones that tend to cause trouble if you're trying to fly a small plane across the Sierra. Just ask Steve Fossett.

I paid $500 to be a member, but that includes all the instruction to get a license. $10, $15 or $20 per tow to 1000, 2000 or 3000 ft. There are more expensive hobbies.

The Club I'm in has ~60 members, 20 or so have their own ship. Different degrees of involvement from the guy who's there every day to the guy you see wondering around the field once a year and looks lost.

Also a diverse group of backgrounds & training, but they all seem very nice, always pleasant always ready to help and more than happy to talk flying.

They have a contest in the spring (look at a map now) from out airport near Albany, NY, fly to a check point in Bennington, VT, then to Pittsfield, Mass. and back to Saratoga; all without landing or in flight service.

I'm afraid I like it!

A lot.

When I was a kid down in Miami at FIU they had an airport and we would watch a guy in 3 wheel sail rail got a couple of rides never forget it . Awesome gonna build one someday . The one I remember was much more sand rail like roll bar metal type <>

pilotbraden wrote: That looks like fun. About spin training, the FAA decided that it was too dangerous to require spin training. Now you are required to be told what a spin is and how to recover from one. As an option you can still learn spins in the airplane. If I was instructing I would not take on a student that would not do the spin training. When I did my spin training we discussed the procedure on the ground and the instructor did the first spin. The discussion did not prepare me for the spin, it has to be seen to really understand it and what to do to recover.

I remember the day I said, "Dan, I know I don't have too, but I want spin training this morning." You could see his face go , "Oh fuuuu..." Dan had a couple of thousand hours in the Navy. Try as we might, we couldn't get the 152 to do anything better than a flop. Every control was at the stops, but no avail. Fun, though.

Dan you are an inspiration for how I want to live the next part of my life.

During my short stay in USAF pilot training you had to do spin training in a T-37 every sortie of the weather allowed. 10K feet.

Ruined rollercoasters for me for years after that.