The Great Ongoing Aviation Thread (general and other)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
981

I’ve been taking sailplane lessons for almost a year now, with an estimated 40 hrs dual so far, and it doesn’t seem like I’m even close to soloing yet. This is waaaaaaaaaay longer than normal, and I must confess I’m getting a bit impatient. I’m starting to want to do some serious analysis of why it’s taking so long, and consider what I might do about it.

As I see it, I think there are four main contributing factors:

(1) Maybe a little talent deficit. I took lessons 40 years ago also; even then it took 6 months and 16 hours dual before I soloed (back then), which is rather longer than normal. (The above-cited 40 hrs dual is just since I re-started about a year ago.) I’m not too worried about this. My flying skill is gradually but steadily improving, and I’m okay with that.

(2) It’s generally agreed that older student pilots take longer. I’m 66 years old. There’s a rule of thumb that it takes (some constant) + (your age in years) number of flights to solo. Whatever it is, I’m way beyond that already, somewhere around 100 flights (including patterns) in the last year.

Those factors would follow me if I went somewhere else for lessons. But two other factors seem specific to the club I fly with now:

(3) At least five different instructors on a semi-random rotating basis. So I’m flying with someone different every week. And they don’t keep a record for each student like a checklist on a syllabus, nor otherwise coordinate with each other on each student’s progress (as far as I know). I’m starting to get assertive, trying to design my own lesson plans and telling the instructors what I think we should be doing each lesson. I badgered one instructor into teaching me how to do slips. I badgered two others into doing incipient spins. But mostly, they aren’t really moving me forward by teaching me new maneuvers I need to learn.

(4) Now here’s the biggie, I think: Our two-place gliders are Grob G103’s. They are just hard to fly and hard to handle, plain and simple. Most people I’ve asked, instructors included, agree with this. I’ve had occasional lessons elsewhere in other gliders (ASK-21 and Schweizer 2-32) that I found MUCH easier to fly. And the older members remember our Blanik L-13 which they all said was much easier.

OTOH, taking lessons with this club is inexpensive! Those occasional lessons I took elsewhere (at a commercial FBO) cost more than twice as much each!

I’m starting to wonder if I should be taking lessons elsewhere now. I wonder if, had I taken lessons at that FBO all along, would I have soloed by now (almost certainly), and how much it would have cost me altogether (a lot less, I’m starting to suspect?)

Aside from the lessons and cost per se, I also like the social aspect of a club. Commercial lessons don’t have that: Typically, you show up for your scheduled lesson, do that, then go home. At the club, it’s much more of a team sport. We have no employees. Pilots and students show up early, do ground crew for one another, and stay an hour or so afterward. I tend to stay at the airport all day (typically, 9 to 3 or 4 or 5) helping with the ground crew. Lots of hangar flying and getting to know people. I like that.

Getting to know the other pilots has its advantages. At least twelve times in the past year, other pilots have invited me to fly along with them; at least 7 of those flights have been over an hour (some over two hours), with lots of thermaling. They almost always let me do some of the flying. I’ve also met people who took me flying with them in a Cherokee, a Skylane (Cessna 182), a home-built Wittman Tailwind, and a Citabria. I think most of that would not have happened had I been taking lessons at a commercial FBO.

I’m still trying to decide where I should go from here. Stay with this club? Or get lessons elsewhere? The biggest two considerations seem to be: (1) Getting into sailplanes other than the Grob G103; (2) expense.

But wait . . . See next post . . .

982

So I’m starting to think about branching out and getting more experiences elsewhere. As I’ve made clear in a lot of my posts in the last three months, I’m already doing some of that – clearly a lot more than a typical pre-solo student. (For example, I think I was the only student pilot at that Panoche regatta last May.) Those flights I did at Truckee were certainly eye-openers for me. Yowza!

So now, I’m getting suggestions from several sources to check out Air Sailing, near Pyramid Lake, Nevada (a little ways north-east of Reno). One of our tow-pilots, who is also involved there, advises that I’ll learn more in 4 days there than in a month here. One of our instructors (whom I especially like working with) also teaches there. And the place is at the edge of the Sierras, a fabled world-famous soaring region.

And now this:

Another student pilot (a lapsed ASEL pilot) has also grown impatient with our club, much more quickly than I did, and went to ASI. He soloed there in just four days of intensive instruction, with something like 4 hours dual. He is now raving, perhaps correctly, that I just GOTTA do this too!

But he estimated it cost him $1200+ (much of which went into one-time up-front costs, like club membership there).

Furthermore, it’s something like a 6-to-7 hour drive from my home to get there.

I’m all stoked up now to at least visit there and give the place a look-over. But I’m really hesitant about the expense (by all accounts, dirt cheap once you get past the up-front costs), but also by the logistics of getting there and back, and accommodations. I can hardly go there for lessons every week, as I’ve been doing here for the last year. I’m almost tempted to pack my bags and move to Reno.

So, he sent me a run-down of his weekend there, with the costs:

I’m afraid that, the more I look into this, the more I’ll want to do it. With all my hesitations about expense and distance and logistics, that seems scary. I’m literally draining my very-modest retirement nest-egg to pay for this already!

983

My bolding. This is a big red flag at any flight school. The first question a prospective student should ask a flight school or independent instructor is, “Can I see your syllabus?” If they have any trouble producing one, move on.

When I was instructing this was the central part of my marketing. I inherited (and kept) a lot of students because they had dumped disorganized instructors.

That said, it sounds like you like this place and the price is right. So I guess it depends on how long your patience will hold out.

984

Not much more to say after LLama’s excellent points. IMO he cut right to the chase. What follows are individual thought-bites not adding up to an essay.
Learning to fly sailplanes first (before powered planes) is difficult because there’re no touch and go’s. Sailplanes are far less forgiving of any failure to correctly manage energy. Which is not an easy skill to learn. It requires concentrated continuous effort and good instructor continuity to make progress.
What you are doing now is getting an intro ride with a new instructor each week. Which may or may not result in actual useful instruction on the second flight that same day with that same person. Assuming you even have that second ride that same day with that same person.
I am extremely leery of big upfront and/or subscription costs for a logistically difficult hobby. At least with my personality, once the upfront money is gone I have two reactions, both toxic. One is guilt that I’m not getting my money’s worth by not going to all the extra hassle to drive 8 hours each week or whatever. The other is out of sight = out of mind; the upfront money has simply evaporated and no motivation or benefit has come from it. Ditto the monthly payments; they just disappear into the sauce.

Yes, those are contradictory. I don’t like feeling contradiction, so I push the whole topic out of my mind. Which leads to the worst of all worlds: I’m not doing it; I did pay, and am still paying, for it; and I hate to even think about it.

You are (obviously) not me. Your mind may be different. For me that’s a huge Danger Will Robinson!! Danger!! signal.
The Grob flies like a mid-performance sailplane, not like a trainer. That’s both good and bad. It’s the kind of experience you can enjoy; thermalling in a raggedy-ass 2-22 or 2-33 is no fun because all but the strongest largest thermals aren’t enough to offset its craptacular gliding performance. OTOH, flying a performance sailplane through takeoff, tow, recovery, and landing is work; that’s not what they’re optimized for and frankly they suck at it.

One thing’s for sure: a student will not make progress if they’re changing types. Fly one type through solo and rating, then branch out. Taking training hops, as opposed to joyrides, in whatever happens to be available is negative training, especially in the early phases.

It is real obvious you’ve been bitten by the soaring bug. Hooray for you! OTOH, it’s an expensive hobby which is a (severely?) limiting factor for you. If you’re content to be a semi-skilled passenger / eternal student you can keep doing what you have been. If not, something must change. Remember there are almost certainly more options than just the ones you know of today. Do more research and make a good choice, not just the least bad choice you know of right now.
Good luck. We all wish you well.

985

An update here on building the next Air Force One: Flying on Air Force One: Absolute, 100 % safe? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

986

Sorry if this has already been discussed up-thread (I did not look through 20 pages):
Flying a Cessna 172 sounds complex enough already. I’m concerned that I might get switched to a different aircraft mid-training, or that I might get assigned to do my check ride in a completely different aircraft than what I trained in.

  1. Do students get switched around from aircraft to aircraft in mid-training? My concern is that I would never get familiar enough with any to truly master the aircraft if I’m getting yanked around from type to type.

  2. Do most private pilots just stick with one aircraft of choice for many years? i.e., always search for Cessna 172s and rent those?

  3. How similar are all these light aircraft, in terms of avionics, instrument layout and whatnot?

987

I trained in 152’s and 172’s and then switched over to Piper Cherokees. I didn’t have a problem with the transition.

yes the planes had different characteristics but they were easy enough to deal with.

Now if I went from a tail dragger/stick to a tricycle gear/yoke that would have been interesting.

988

You wouldn’t do your checkride in a completely new aircraft because your instructor has to sign you off for each type (make and model) you solo. You act as PIC on your checkride, so it would have to be one you’ve trained in. And no CFI worth their salt will send you to a checkride without both of you being confident of the outcome.

As to changing aircraft during training… I think there’s some value to it as long as it doesn’t cause undo delay. If you don’t fly any other types as you train, I’d strongly suggest you do so very soon after earning your license. It’s interesting, for one. And it will make you better.

There are some differences between high and low wing aircraft. They handle a little differently in ground effect and crosswinds. Also a fair bit of difference between low wing planes depending on wing length. A Warrior or Archer has a lot more float than a Hershey Bar Cherokee. Fuel management is also different, and that’s a point I used to focus on when transitioning a Cessna pilot to Pipers. Cessna people never had to switch fuel tanks before.

Learning different types is one of my favorite flying challenges. I have a file somewhere listing everything I’ve flown. If you count the various flavors of Cessna, Piper etc, I’ve flown something like 70 types. I used to read the manual of a new plane and ask the pilot checking me out not to tell me anything unless necessary for safety while I figured it out. I liked playing test pilot.

989

Got it…thanks.
I’m not so much concerned about the flight characteristics of the aircraft as I am about the location of the gauges, displays, knobs, controls, etc. I tend to be a creature of habit and like things being in a familiar place.

990

One rather blatant variation in cockpit controls: Older Cherokees had an overhead crank for the trim control, while newer models have the more sensible trim wheel on the floor between the front seats (just behind the flaps lever). (The few glider models I’ve flown have trim either to the left of the pilot on the side, or alongside the stick. ETA: Except, see below.)

The basic “T” instruments are pretty much standard, I guess, but everything else seems up for grabs. The Cherokee Archer has the tachometer to the left of the throttle (with the priming knob in between them). IIRC, the C-182 I flew (once recently) has the tachometer on a panel to the right of the radio stack, more nearly in front of the right seat than in front of the left seat, and the priming knob near the top left corner of the left-side control panel. (Kinda makes sense, for a high-wing plane.)

I suspect any student pilot with only the most utterly minimal experience (to-wit: this poster) would pick up details like that quickly enough as you move from one plane to another. Much more important, and less obvious until you study the POH, would be the performance specs that you need to know – oh, petty little details like all the important V-speeds, weight-and-balance specs (especially critical in gliders), aircraft limits, stuff like that. (Or, knowing how many G’s each plane needs when you get frustrated and want to rip the wings off.)

(ETA: Anecdote: I personally witnessed a student pilot about to do his first solo in a Schweizer 1-26 – I watched him sitting in the cockpit, feverishly studying, reciting, and memorizing all the important V-speeds.)

I guess most planes with two front seats have the throttle near the bottom center of the panel; it may be a knob or a lever. But single-seater, or tandem two-seaters like the Citabria, seem to put the throttle (and carb heat?) controls on the left wall of the plane, on the pilot’s left. This makes a big difference: Typically, I’m told, pilots learn to fly the yoke with left hand while managing the throttle with the right hand (is this commonly so?), but in a tandem plane, you fly the stick with right hand and manage throttle with the left hand. There’s a big habit shift! (Glider pilots learn to fly the stick with the right hand and manage trim and dive brakes with the left hand – except for the 2-32 which awkwardly puts the trim on the right, requiring the pilot to take his right hand off the stick to fiddle with the trim :smack:)

991

Okay, getting back to this:

Thank you, Llama Llogophile and LSLGuy for your extensive and detailed comments on my self-lack-of-progress reports, a few posts above.

I will refrain from commenting too extensively point-by-point lest it look like I’m arguing or trying to rebut each of your points, which is not at all what I want to do (but for the points below). I agree entirely that the absence of an organized (or any) syllabus is a problem here – my lessons are quite ad-hoc and aren’t moving me forward much.

This I feel I must partially rebut, in fairness to my many instructors. What you wrote there is kinda true, but highly exaggerated. I really am moving steadily forward, but just way slowly. The several flights on a single day (which I lump together in calling “one lesson”) typically consist of one or two high tows followed by one or several patterns, all with the same instructor on any one day. They typically consist of continued practice doing the maneuvers I’ve already been taught (each instructor has his favorites), with new maneuvers being occasionally introduced (sometimes as a result of my badgering them to do so).

I began to feel just about competent and confident enough, late last year, that I wanted to at least sample some lessons in other gliders, and I did. In retrospect, I’m glad I did and I feel it really was helpful and instructive and not at all negative – if only to learn that other gliders handle easier than the Grob! The ASK-21 was especially instructive: It’s extremely comparable to the Grob G103 is almost ALL of its specs and clearly fills exactly the same market niche – and yet – it handles MUCH easier! I’ve been describing it as a Grob G103 with power steering. If I had been flying that all along (and a few other factors were a bit more optimal), I would have soloed long ago fer sure!

And now that I’m wanting to explore other options, it’s entirely possible that I’ll jump to another school with a different glider. I’m entirely confident that this would entail only minimal back-tracking. I’ll certainly expect to do most training in just one model, but occasional lessons in a variety of other gliders, I think I can handle and will be good to do.

And finally this:

As much fun as I’m having even on those flights where I’ve just been a semi-skilled passenger, I’m definitely NOT content to be just that, nor an eternal student. As I noted to begin with, after nearly a year I’m starting to get a little impatient. And I’m seriously eager to be as competent and proficient a glider pilot as I can be. (Did I mention that I want to try aerobatics eventually? Yeah, I did.)

But a lot of that precision flying skill will simply entail hours of experience and practice, and I should be able to do a lot of that solo. So let’s teach me all the maneuvers I need to know to solo already, well enough for me to be a predictably safe solo pilot, and then turn me loose to practice, practice, practice on my own time already!

Okay, so I just might start doing something about all this. See next post . . .

992

So I decided (largely at the urging of that other student pilot, whose expense report I posted above, and of one of our tow pilots who also tows and soars at ASI), to at least pay a visit there.

So I decided upon an sudden, impromptu and minimally planned road trip:

[ul][li] Thursday: Drive up to Minden, poke around there for a day.[/li][li] Friday: Drive on to ASI, poke around there, talk to people, ask questions. Maybe even do an intro with them.[/li][li] Saturday: Drive to Truckee. Watch the glider races they’re having. Pig out at their big annual BBQ bash. [/li][li] Sunday: Hang around Truckee all day, with nothing in particular to do. Maybe sleep all day.[/li][li] Monday: Fly again at Truckee with Larry, the same instructor I flew with a couple weeks ago. This will be a bona-fide lesson, and again, almost certainly a fabulous multi-hour one. Then drive back home.[/ul][/li]I will especially be paying attention to what I see at ASI. It’s such a long drive, it only makes sense to go there several days at a time. That other student pilot who decided to take up lessons there tells me he plans to commute there for long weekends (3 days? 4 days?) apparently rather regularly, and we may plan to car-pool together. It’s apparently dirt-cheap, relatively speaking, once the up-front costs are paid. Their training glider (or one of them anyway) is a Blanik L23, which everyone seems to agree handles much easier – AND it’s spin-legal so I can get that training too!

Back on Tuesday!

993

Glad to get your feedback. Yes, I sorta painted the worst case interpretation of your explanations of your training and progress to date. The point I was aiming for was to see whether or not you recognized your situation in that semi-caricature. It’s happy to hear that things aren’t quite that bad.

I (We?) can hardly wait to get your report from ASI & Truckee.

994

The limit case of this kind of faux pax was the early Bonanzas.

Most retractables had the gear up/down switch to the left of the throttle & the flap up/down switch to the right. The earliest Bonanzas did that the opposite way. Since they were one of the very first GA retractables, there was no standard. As far as Beech was concerned, they were setting the standard. And as was common in those days, every switch looked and felt like every other; Just a neat row of identical up/down paddles flanking the throttle, prop, and mixture knobs.

Then one model year they swapped which side was flaps & which was gear to align with the developing industry standard of flaps-on-the-right. And to eliminate problems when pilots of non-Bonanzas flew one.

An awful lot of incidents of long-time Bonanza pilots raising the gear in their new Bonanza while clearing the runway ensued. Oops.
The F-111 confronted a cockpit/UI design dilemma like this. In all airplanes you push throttles forward for fast and pull throttles aft for slow. For flap handles you push forward to A) move the trailing edge flaps forward=up and B) go fast. You pull flap handles back to A) move the trailing edge flaps aft=down and B) go slow. For speedbrake / spoiler handles, forward = retracted = low drag = go fast and aft = extended = high drag = slow down. So far so consistent across the board; forward = fast and aft = slow.

So when you add a lever for controlling wing sweep, should lever forward = wings forward but slow, or should lever forward = wings aft but fast? Conceptually, does the lever control speed regime or does it control the position of the underlying machinery? Either way the engineers do it, one of the two cues is backwards from the historical precedent of flap controls.

IIRC the prototypes and the early A models had lever forward = wings forward but slow. After a crash or two and a bunch of close calls with folks sweeping wings full aft in the traffic pattern :eek: they reversed the sense. Thereafter lever forward = wings aft but fast. After a brief transition period the close calls stopped happening.

As to learning in different types, the punch line IMO is that in the very early stages the typical student needs consistency and needs continuity. You need to practice often and practice in the same environment to make the maximum progress per hour or dollar spent. As you get more skilled your knowledge and your mental skills and your muscle skills become more abstracted and less specific. At which point more variety can be taken in stride. Whether that’s variety in instructor, aircraft type, home airport, etc.

Early students are typically already challenged to fly often enough to get full value from each lesson. To the degree any given lesson is just offsetting skill / proficiency deterioration since the last lesson, it’s running in place, rather than progressing to the goal. Ref Senegoid’s comments, this is doubly true if you don’t have instructor continuity and a syllabus and a gradebook with detailed notes about each prior flight, topics covered, and progress in each.

In USAF pilot training they had a goal to fly or sim every single student every single work day to minimize that deterioration. It didn’t always get done, but it almost always did. They were trying real hard to make maximum progress in the minimum number of sorties. Civil training isn’t as rushed, but the concept still applies.

IMO pre-solo it’s desirable to actively minimize variety. After that, some is actually good, so you begin to learn the difference between “Type X flies/works like this.” and “Airplanes fly/work like this.” We all know people with a lot of experience in some narrow field who mistakenly think/say “The world is like this.” when the truth is really “My very limited experience is like this.”
The punch line, and why I related the F-111 tale, is this goes to a comment a friend of mine and long time USAF instructor and airline pilot once said: “You don’t fly with your hands; you fly with your mind.” That really struck me as a pithy aviation truism.

As your skill comes together, it’s the idea of fast or slow that matters, not the specifics of which way the wings move to make that happen. Your goal as a student is to make the progression from flying by thinking of pushing and pulling this or that to flying by the ideas inherent in the task. That’s how you get fluent and smooth and precise and not task-saturated.

Once you’ve made the transition where basic aircraft control is happening mostly in your subconscious mind, then whether it’s a yoke or a stick or which hand is throttle and which is stick/yoke becomes immaterial. Before that transition, it’s just another obstacle to progress. Maybe not a big one, but one nonetheless. When you’re paying serious bucks per hour to make progress, skipping optional obstacles is IMO good.

995

Senegoid - keep plugging away, its worth it. I’m not a CFIG but it seems to me consistency with instructors is important. I remember my primary instructor basically forbid me to train with other club instructors until I soloed. It was never an issue because he was always available and I did sneak a few flights in. One thing not mentioned is the use of a simulator. Condor, in particular, has a loyal following, even among some instructors. I think there is a new version coming out soon if it hasn’t already. It does require some hardware (stick and pedals) but can be a great aid. Don’t worry about the tow on Condor as its much more difficult than the real thing, in my opinion.

It took me about 50 flights over two seasons to solo at age 35. If there is somewhere near you that offers winch launching you can get a lot more flights in for a lot less money. Once you have landings down pat, solo should come quickly. Repetition is the key here. Personally, I found the tow to be challenging until one day when it just clicked. My instructor asked if I’d been taken lessons elsewhere as I went from all over the sky on one lesson to doing it pretty well the next a few weeks later.

The Grob is sometimes called The Plastic Pig. I flew our club Grob a few weeks ago after not having been in one in a couple of years. In the meantime I’ve been flying my ASW 15 or Pegasus and an occasional checkride in an L-23. Man, that Grob is a truck. That said, its still a fine primary trainer. I look forward to seeing your “first solo” post. You’re in soaring paradise out there. Make the most of it!

996

Hi all. Just thought I make a brief post. I’m at Air Sailing, Nevada now. Did an intro in a Blanik L23 today. Just about to hit the road for big BBQ bash at Truckee this afternoon. Weather shitty – air smoky from fire somewhere, killing thermals and my lungs. More later when I get home. For now, just this:

Fer sure! It took me a LONG time to be anywhere other than “all over the sky” on tow, and likewise, a moment came when it sort of “just clicked”. Then I could at least kinda-sorta stay behind the tow plane. Gradually, over many additional months, I got even better. Two different instructors have independently remarked recently how much I’ve improved.

More later.

997

Okay, I’m back home, a day earlier than planned. This was an interesting weekend. Mindful that we’re not supposed to use this board as a personal blog, I’ll try to be a bit succinct (not necessarily very successfully).

Friday: At Air Sailing (ASI) all day. Weather predicted to be 12 kt thermals galore up to 18000. That didn’t happen. Air full of smoke from a fire somewhere, and the haze prevented thermals from developing. “JS”, one of our club tow pilots and a tow plot at ASI, who has been urging me to visit ASI, took me flying in the Blanik L23. Only found some weak lift. We had hoped to be up for hours, but only about 30 minutes.

Saturday: A genuine lesson with a CFI-G in the L23. Again, weather smokey, flight only about 30 minutes. Instructor declares that with just a bit more training, I should solo pretty soon. Everyone here seems more oriented towards intensive training, and they all told me stories of starting ab initio and soloing in a week or less. That’s almost certainly too intense for me. But I’m thinking of continuing lessons here. It’s a six hour drive from where I live, including about 30 minutes on a ratty washboard dirt road that turns into a mud river in the winter, so the logistics is a problem. This place is way the hell out in the sagebrush. It’s also open rangeland with cows everywhere, so it behooves pilots to look before landing. Late afternoon, drove to Truckee for their annual big BBQ bash.

Truckee weather was sort of crummy. No smoke, but mostly cloudy and drizzly. There were air races planned that day, but that got scrubbed. There was a contingent of pilots and families there from Seminole Lake Glider Port, Florida, out on their annual “soaring safari”.

Interesting sight: Florida license plates have the county of origin shown on them. One plate in the parking lot said “PASCO”. Now this is amusing to see on a license plate in a Northern California gliderport parking lot, because the local chapter (Region 11) of the SSA is called PASCO, or Pacific Soaring Council. I saw at least four glider trailers with Florida plates.

Sunday: Weather so-so in the morning, fairly clear. Forecast for increasing clouds and lightning later in the day. I was scheduled for a lesson on Monday (would have been similar to the flight I posted about two weeks ago), but we both agreed to cancel that, as we wanted to go home today.

Anyway, in the afternoon, one of the BASA pilots (soaring club in Hollister) took me flying in their club DG-1000. This was some flight.

Airport altitude 5900 ft. Towed up 3000’ to about 9000’ ft. Other than launch, tow, pattern, and landing, he let me fly it for about 2/3 of the flight. We had lots of thermals up to 10+ kts up interspersed with 10+ kts sink. Lots of very active turbulent air! We climbed up to about 12500’, mostly me working the thermals. Given my degree of experience with thermal flying, I must say I was impressed with myself. My pitch and airspeed control still needs work though (buy hey, I never stalled). The DG-1000 certainly handles differently than the other gliders I’ve flown. It took some getting used to, but I liked it – very smooth handling. Flying all those turbulent thermals was challenging, and we got tossed around a bit. I got my daily dose of adrenalin fer sure.

And yeah, there was lightning! :eek: A dark thundercloud passed right over the airport (we were about 10 miles away I guess), and there was a lightning strike right over (or near?) the airport. We both saw it. I wish we had a GoPro on the job.

We landed after about 1.5 hours, to find that all the other glider operations had quit for the day, and we the last ones still up. The story was, everyone was wondering where we were and holding their breath to see if we were ever going to come back alive. I told everybody that it was us hurling those lightning bolts down upon mere mortals who displeased us.

Well, I had a real gas up there! Or, with all that lightning, maybe I should say I had a plasma.

So, in the last year I’ve now flown five different gliders at five different venues.

Ken (that BASA pilot) was staying there in a little camper with his wife, and one of his regular soaring buddies was also there with his wife. They invited me to join them for breakfast, then brought us a sumptious lunch (which we ate out on the line next to the glider – I had lunch sitting in the back seat), then desert after we made it back alive. Then I drove the 5 hours back home.

Okay, so that wasn’t so succinct. So sue me.

998

But it was cool! It wasn’t the adventure you expected, but it was still a fine adventure.

999

True dat! Ken (the DG-1000) pilot had promised to take me flying with him “sometime” way back at the Gliderpalooza last May, and it finally happened! I wish I had a video of some or all of that!

And now this:

While waiting around at ASI for nothing-much to happen, we watched some Accident Case Study videos on YouTube.

Take a look at this one (13 minutes long) and see what you think. What’s the first best word that comes to mind to describe this?

Hint:

Eleven letters ending with "k"What do y’all think of this? Let’s discuss.

1000

Lot of words:

Pilot proves 75 hrs a year is not enough. Totally dropped the ball by thinking he knew better.

Tower guy did not follow protocol and if PJ had been on duty, she would have over ridden him, then hung him out the window and spanked him… with pictures.