I recently added 'glider' to my certificate. There's a glider club about an hour from here that I have wanted to fly with. They have really nice equipment and are pretty active. The downside is that it's a flatland airport and primary/transition instruction would take forever to do there due to CFI availability. So, we spent a long weekend during Dakota's fall break from school up in TN. I did my transition training at Chilhowee Gliderport 2 of the days we were up there and we camped in a cabin in the woods and had picnics by the river the rest of the time.
What a FANTASTIC place! You have GOT to come over here and go spend some time up there with me. It's a 2600x50' turf field with a nice little clubhouse and plenty of hangar/trailer space. Toward the east, the Appalachians rise into a nice, long north/south ridge that's about 2-3000' AGL. Yup, you guessed it...prevailing winds are out of the west It's a great ridge soaring site. Looking over the back of the mountain, it's all national park land and lakes/rivers/forests. Very, very pretty...especially in autumn with the leaf change in full swing.
I trained all day one day (Oct 18-19) in a Blanik L-13. 4 flights with the instructor (who was so much like G. Putnam it was just weird...right down to the dirty, shoeless feet!) then did 7 solo flights. The following day I did 2 more solo flights and we had to head back for Gainesville. It took a few weeks for me to coordinate with them to schedule the checkride: Carie's parents visited and I had a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for their trip, examiner was only available on the day I had to work one week, etc. I finally got up there this Monday (11/7) to do checkride prep and one more solo flight...then met the DE for my checkride on Thursday.
Easiest checkride I've ever done. We did slow flight, straight ahead and turning stalls in a variety of configurations. Steep turns. Heh, after the steep turns he directed me toward the airport...I hit a bit of a thermal and cranked the glider into a turn, made a few turns in it for a slight gain and told the DE to excuse me, old habits die hard!
We flew the pattern and landed in a pretty stiff x-wind, coming to a stop exactly perpendicular to the marker he'd asked me to stop at.
We hooked up for one more flight, where he wanted to see a slip to land. He briefed that he'd have me fly the pattern with no spoilers out, just slipping...until on final he would give me spoilers back. We launched behind the Pawnee and at 200' I feel the rope BANG and see it flying away toward the Pawnee! Great. I turned immediately and was stinking high, made a few S-turns and popped out the spoilers to gently touch down in the first 1/3 of the runway.
"Congratulations", the examiner tells me.
We went to the clubhouse and did the paperwork. I talked the school owner/manager/tow pilot/instructor/A&P, Sarah Kelly, into towing me up for one more flight up to the ridge to see if it's working. She asked all about my HG experience in ridge lift and wanted to make sure I knew how to stay out of the rotor and within glide of the airport...no problem there.
We towed. Field elevation is 770'. I released right on top of the ridge at 3600' MSL and slowed down to right in between best-glide and min-sink (47mph) and boated down the ridge in very light lift. Shallow turn, back in the lift, I'm gaining maybe 20'-40' with each pass. Every now and then I hit some sink/rough air and every now and then I hit some +2-6kt lift. After about an hour, I'm just delighted...remembering how long it took me to get my first hour flight in a hang glider. I'm at 4000' MSL, looking back into the valleys...watching the sun get low in the west, enjoying the crisp air and gorgeous fall foliage. A cold front had moved through the night before and the air was clear and clean, offering excellent visibility up and down the range.
Sarah was waiting for me and I had to takeoff for home before it got dark. I had flown my boss' Cherokee 140 to the gliderport, which has no runway lights. So, I turned out and pitched for about 80 toward the airport. Plenty high, I did some wingovers to burn altitude and just threw my head back and laughed and laughed, reveling in the joy of how good God is to me and how he just fills my life with good things and gives me experiences that I love.
It was wonderful.
After landing, Sarah and I put the glider and tug away and I got ready for my flight home. It was getting dark and the mountains were between me and home. I filed IFR for the return trip just to have extra eyes watching my flight and keeping me away from the terrain...the Cherokee isn't exactly a high-performance climber. Every time I take off there, I picture the plane bouncing over one of the many bumps/high-spots in the runway and shoving the prop into the ground. So, I kept the yoke in my gut on the ground roll and eased it in a little when the plane left the earth. "Thanks Sarah!", Frequency change, "Chattanooga Approach, Cherokee 56784 departing 92A, IFR to Golf Victor Lima, ready to copy".
"56784, where is 92A?!"
With the tailwind, I was able to make about 130kts on the way home...took less than 45 minutes to get there. Good thing to, I was just in time for my Thursday night tennis match. We lost, and I could feel myself coming down with a cold, but I couldn't get the smile off my face.
I'm back to work on training now, working on my commercial certificate for the airplane. We just got a Seminole, I'll be doing commercial multi/single concurrently and hope to be done by year's end. After that, I'll go back up to Chilhowee and fly some more...and get my commercial glider. Then I'll be able to go up there and fly tourists on weekends and get free flying!