"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
Leonardo da Vinci

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tam, Ace and the Beach

After a full month of life Ace hasn't had a single big adventure, I haven't hucked a flexwing off a perfectly good mountain and today is just too beautiful outside to pass up. Off to our big adventure at Mount Tam where I got Ace to preflight my glider for me.
"B" Lauch with ace yelling "Nose Down" in the foreground from his full terrain stroller.
C-A-V-U
Now to show Ace the beach.
Mom and Ace chillin in the sand.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Ace and Some Air

A wonderful addition to my lifestyle has left less time for flying and none for blogging over the past couple of months. Ah yes, there has been many changes, even my trusty Toyota couldn't hang anymore, with the 50 percent larger family. So in order to drive my bigger family and live that soaring lifestyle, what car should I get?
Duh! OK, now thats settled.

On to my biggest adventure, ACE! Unfortunately I haven't been able to get him off the ground just yet, as Wills Wing currently doesn't stock anything with a clip in range from 10 to 15 pound. Instead, I have been focusing on the sailplane and getting him to solo. Teri feels he isn't ready just yet, as she indicates that he lacks awareness of ability to control his extremities, that he can't see past 12 inches, blah, blah ... and other made up excuses from her child development degree.

Not to argue, I focus on ground school instead and am very pleased that he has acquired the requisite aeronautical knowledge, even being able to plot several polar diagrams for theoretical airfoils which he is developing. His favorite time however, is spent aboard his full motion simulator with five point harness where he is working on keeping milk "INSIDE" his stomach during inverted maneuvers.
Well thats about all I can do for Ace at this stage, so today, I take the opportunity and head off to WSC to catch some much needed airtime. After confirming with another pilot that you "pull" back on the stick to go up and "push" forward to go down I jump on tow, off to Walker Ridge catching my first thermal over Indian Valley Reservoir.
I work hard and patiently climb to cloud base in weak lift. With just enough altitude, I push into the mountains where the low clouds are scraping over the Southern peaks.
At 90 knots I race up Goat Ridge.
And turn a beautiful Lett's Lake, idealistic scenery with kayakers afloat.
The clouds are obscuring Snow Mountain and others to the North, so I turn around and make my way to Lower Clear Lake.
A turn towards the valley and a tour of Cache Creek and the Rumsey Gap my the way home.
I bring it back to the strip at WSC a hair over three hours after a nice tour despite never getting above 7K feet due to low clouds. Time to get back to Ace and share todays big adventure.