Cherokee out and about

On May 18, 9:11 pm, Jim Meade wrote:
The FSDO called Friday and I hope to have my amended operating
limitations perhaps this coming week. I'll have 10 hours to fly off
in the Iowa City - Muscatine area.

After that, I hope to come up to Ames and tag along some day and let
you teach me to go cross country.

Good job on your flying. I was up today for a bit in the KR3 but the
lift was ragged and I couldn't stay in it.

Lift was a bit better north and east of there today. We drove under
the edge of the system about an hour before arriving in Faribault, MN,
from the SW at 1pm. Jim Hard flew his 1-26 from Faribault, MN to
Pontiac, IL today, around 350 miles.

Frank Whiteley

On May 18, 11:01 pm, Frank Whiteley wrote:
On May 18, 9:11 pm, Jim Meade wrote:

The FSDO called Friday and I hope to have my amended operating
limitations perhaps this coming week. I'll have 10 hours to fly off
in the Iowa City - Muscatine area.

After that, I hope to come up to Ames and tag along some day and let
you teach me to go cross country.

Good job on your flying. I was up today for a bit in the KR3 but the
lift was ragged and I couldn't stay in it.

Lift was a bit better north and east of there today. We drove under
the edge of the system about an hour before arriving in Faribault, MN,
from the SW at 1pm. Jim Hard flew his 1-26 from Faribault, MN to
Pontiac, IL today, around 350 miles.

Frank Whiteley

thats awesome! I was figuring that it was a perfect day for Jim to do
a long distance flight.

I got the Cherokee back out today as conditions looked good and my
schedule was free for the afternoon. I discovered a few things that
all of you people know.

1) I need to fly faster. dawdling in sink in a steinway sailplane is
a bad idea.

2) I basically need to take every thermal, and take it to the top.
For a while I was thinking I was some hotshot racing pilot in a racing
glider and would only work a thermal until it started to weaken, or
skip a "weak" thermal altogether. probably why my average distance
last year was something like 20 miles.

So today I wanted to fly but had to be home for a powered lesson at 5
PM. headed west to the airport next door and worked up to 5000 AGL.
decided to make a run northeast to a small town and then make a turn
south with a very light tailwind for the trip home. Using the
brainwaves mentioned above I had a successful, and necessarily slow
flight. In fact its the first real triangle that I have ever
completed in the Cherokee. 46 nautical miles total in a mere 3 hrs 10
minutes. Lift was strong and so was the sink. A few times I pushed
ole 373Y up to a whopping 70 mph! I was always rewarded with another
thermal.

Final glide was fun too. I managed to get to my highest altitude of
the day over the last turnpoint. 6100 AGL with 18 miles to home. I
heard other club gliders having trouble finding lift at all near the
airport so I knew I should get as high as I can while I still had 500
fpm thermals. some high cirrus were moving in from the west and
partially obscuring the sun down there. I was pretty much on
glideslope the whole way back. I finally broke down about 4 miles out
and 1700 AGL and spent a few minutes circling to try to better my
position. I managed to improve it slightly but not much really. I
got to the airport with plenty of altitude to do a pattern. The good
ole cherokee managed a solid 18:1 ratio on the final glide, with
basically calm winds.

Maybe, just maybe, im starting to get the hang of this. Or I just got
lucky, cant really tell.

I think it's so great that there are still guys out there who like
flying for the sake of flying.

Bravo

Pete
Anchorage



wrote:
In fact its the first real triangle that I have ever
completed in the Cherokee. 46 nautical miles total in a mere 3 hrs 10
minutes. Lift was strong and so was the sink. A few times I pushed
ole 373Y up to a whopping 70 mph! I was always rewarded with another
thermal.

Final glide was fun too. I managed to get to my highest altitude of
the day over the last turnpoint. 6100 AGL with 18 miles to home. I
heard other club gliders having trouble finding lift at all near the
airport so I knew I should get as high as I can while I still had 500
fpm thermals. some high cirrus were moving in from the west and
partially obscuring the sun down there. I was pretty much on
glideslope the whole way back. I finally broke down about 4 miles out
and 1700 AGL and spent a few minutes circling to try to better my
position. I managed to improve it slightly but not much really. I
got to the airport with plenty of altitude to do a pattern. The good
ole cherokee managed a solid 18:1 ratio on the final glide, with
basically calm winds.

Maybe, just maybe, im starting to get the hang of this. Or I just got
lucky, cant really tell.