I needed some "me time"...I needed to try something new, something different, but it had to have something to do with flying...
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For the last twenty years I have wanted to fly in a sailplane. Fellow hang-gliding pilot / firefighter and all-around great guy (and fellow ACP) Matt Epperson offered up a spot on the Duo Discus this past Saturday. Matt has been flying sailplanes for a little over a year in addition to hang-gliding. I've been following Matt's sailplane adventures on his blog and had been itching to go for a flight.
Matt doing the pre-flight...
The Duo Discus...Before we were towed up, though, I had to take note of a father with his young daughter and the flight park cat getting a ride on a golf cart...
Either the daughter or the cat will make a fine pilot someday...
Before long, we were under tow, heading west toward St. John and Snow Mountain peaks, Mendocino National Forest, and Indian & Bear Valley areas...
A controlled burn along the way made for a great wind direction indicator...We released from the tug at around 5500' MSL and started hunting for areas of lift...right off the bat we were finding 300' / minute sink...no worries...Matt does this all the time, right?
At this point, and assuming we didn't find anymore sink, we'd still make it back to the airport with 800 feet to spare above the 1500' AGL aiport landing space. The glide with a sailplane takes some getting used to compared to hang-gliders...
Within about 10 minutes of hunting and pecking, Matt was feeling some bubbles of lift from the predicted wave conditions that were supposed to happen. We were still "low", but the beeping sound of our vario indicated we might actually have a decent flight today...
Before long, we had gained 2500', and had reached 8000' MSL, as Matt worked the wave-like conditions...
Then another 1000'...
Then, finally, 12,500' MSL...The air temperature at 12,500' MSL was below freezing, but the Duo Discus had somewhat of a greenhouse affect and kept us much warmer than the outside temps...the effort it took to get to our max altitude was similar to working a light, but buoyant shear, at Funston. At least that is what I have to compare Saturday's flight.
The view from 12,500' MSL looking east...
The view from 12,500' MSL looking west toward Clear Lake with Indian Valley Reservoir in the lower portion of the pic...Matt offered to let me fly, but I was content to sit back and enjoy the ride. I was really impressed with his flying and command of the sailplane...amazing what he has learned in a little over a year of flying these things. I can see myself taking lessons someday and joining him in the air.
After about 3 hours, we chased the long evening shadows back to the Williams airfield. We had 7 mph cross winds and Matt brought the Duo Discus in for a sweet landing.
Happy Chris...Airtime: 3.5 hours
Max Altitude: 12,500'+ MSL