Friday
Daniel’s day off; our tow pilot was Ellie, a young lady in an Arizona State University ball cap and classic Ray Ban aviator sunglasses who could have stepped out of a James Cameron film.
On our first flight there was lift everywhere. We hardly needed to spiral upwards in thermals to gain altitude, but could just drive around anywhere we wanted. It was a great opportunity to practice looking for emergency landing sites, discuss cross-country flying, and of course work on standard maneuvers.
At one point we were chatting and I said, “I don’t have ambitions to be an aerobatic pilot or instructor, I just want to be a good pilot.”
He replied, “You’re already there.”
That felt good to hear but I thought it perhaps a premature assessment.
Still, he is the expert.
After that we did five much shorter flights, with emphasis on practicing “soft release”. This is an important skill that seemed to be the one thing that really scared Sasha when I didn’t do it right. He emphasized how an improperly released towline could entangle the sailplane instead of falling clear, which if it happened could ruin our whole day.
Then I was scared about it too.
It was taking me far too long to get the hang of it, though it’s really not that difficult a maneuver.
But at the end of the day he said my skill level was at a point that usually took twice as many flights as I’ve logged so far.
Daniel’s day off; our tow pilot was Ellie, a young lady in an Arizona State University ball cap and classic Ray Ban aviator sunglasses who could have stepped out of a James Cameron film.
On our first flight there was lift everywhere. We hardly needed to spiral upwards in thermals to gain altitude, but could just drive around anywhere we wanted. It was a great opportunity to practice looking for emergency landing sites, discuss cross-country flying, and of course work on standard maneuvers.
At one point we were chatting and I said, “I don’t have ambitions to be an aerobatic pilot or instructor, I just want to be a good pilot.”
He replied, “You’re already there.”
That felt good to hear but I thought it perhaps a premature assessment.
Still, he is the expert.
After that we did five much shorter flights, with emphasis on practicing “soft release”. This is an important skill that seemed to be the one thing that really scared Sasha when I didn’t do it right. He emphasized how an improperly released towline could entangle the sailplane instead of falling clear, which if it happened could ruin our whole day.
Then I was scared about it too.
It was taking me far too long to get the hang of it, though it’s really not that difficult a maneuver.
But at the end of the day he said my skill level was at a point that usually took twice as many flights as I’ve logged so far.
RSS Feed