Ground school

5/8 - Ground school with B.

Three pattern flights. Pretty good - I'm writing this later and don't remember any details.

Ordered a Sporty's E6B flight computer.

10,000 feet !

5/1 - Ground school with M, about 4 hours on FARs, airspace, VFR, charts, preflight checking. Also new ideas on diving approaches.

Then a solo flight in N8. A big day for firsts and personal records:

• First time using my radio gear (handheld, headset, and joystick-mounted push-to-talk button.
• First flight with a map, using it to identify landmarks.

Awesome lift - 800-900 ft at times. Also awesome sink - 800 to 1,000! I thermaled to 8600, 9300, then 10,300, my highest ever!

J. came over in the PW-5 and shared a thermal for a while.

With over 9,000 ft, I flew over to the ridge, about 8.5 miles across the valley. The night before, I had calculated how high I needed to be to get there and back to the IP, and so it was an easy decision. I got back to the IP area with about 3K to 4K to spare, so I practiced some new stuff: turning slips, and dives with spoilers (up to 80 knots). I also did two straight-ahead stalls.

Then it got interesting. I got to the IP at 1000', but in sink. Apparently that distracted me enough that I didn't finish the FUSTALL checklist, so I wasn't trimmed for 55kt, and I did not get a look at the wind sock. Sink continued all the way on downwind. I closed flaps to half (should have closed all the way). I ended up cutting the corner, in front of the racetrack, not doing a base leg, and hardly using spoilers at all. Then when I was in float, I was about 15 degrees crooked. I misunderstood the crosswind (it was from the right and for some reason I thought it was from the left), and straightened up just before touchdown. Then because I had the wrong wind in my mind, my corrections on the ground were wrong. I didn't touch a wing, and didn't drag the nose, but I was all over the place. Not at all smooth!

Written test prep

3/13 - No soaring today, camping at S. Studying the private pilot sample questions (looking many of them up in AIM/FAR) because I'm told the glider written is the same as the power written, so there are lots of things I haven't studied that could be there. Slow going.

Solo flights

3/6/04 - Two short solo flights. Takeoffs very good! First one a slight wobble I corrected right away, second perfectly straight and level. Air too stable to find any good lift, although a Nimbus seemed to stay up for hours. I only stayed up :17 and :19. Landings pretty smooth (very slight bounce on one) and stayed straight, now need to work on rolling out to a point. Touched down early both times - maybe 50' before the box. I guess I need to pull my aiming point closer to the box now.

Booming lift

2/28/04 - Two awesome solo flights in N5 on a booming day after a storm. First flight, P says I touched a wing, and although I knew it dipped I didn't feel or hear anything.

The tow pilot ("Alaska John") took me right into lift under a cloud. Right away I was in 5 kts, and shortly into 8-9 kts. I went from 4500 to 5000 (just under cloud base) in no time. Lots of small, gray cu's to play around under! First flight, I never got below about 2000' AGL, so no problem staying aloft. I touched down after 1:02. Pretty good landing, smooth and in the box but wandered a bit and touched down a wing wheel while still moving pretty fast.

Second flight, lift not as strong, but still lots of 5 kt thermals. Some very strong, pushed me around quite a bit as I blundered into them - takes a little getting used to, getting reoriented. So much lift, I had to use slips to lose about 1000' to get back down. Next time I'll try spoilers to come down faster. Second flight: 1:15! Same issue on landing - wandered a bit, but better. Need to focus on rollout. Also: N5 definitely pulls to the right - takes a lot of left aileron just to stay level!