
We had a day of accomplishment on Sunday. We got new gator seats in (although they are quite a bit more forward than the old ones and we’ll need to work on that some). Traded one discomfort for another! Tom was out working on 094 with Eric, we now have an OEM looking mirror mounted on the spar of the Cessna, Eric reports great visibility and it looks like an official part of the plane. Tom is going to find a quick-drain plug for the engine oil as we’d have to drop the bottom cowling off of the engine to do oil changes and that’s a lot of labor hours for what should be a simple task. The quick-drain plug will let us get the oil out without a lot of hassle. Sounds like a good plan to me.
While there, Tom looked at our 1-26 radio set up and advised Dave to remove the existing antenna mount and see if there is a part number we can use to order a replacement. He said if we got the cable, he would put new connector ends on it for us. Dave is also going to look at an extra mic boom he has and see if that would be a suitable replacement for the current one.
All in all, it took us a while to actually get to the flying part of the day, but we got there about the same time the lift did, so that was OK. Dave took Kevin up in the 2-33 and up they went! While they were flying around, Tom helped us out with wing runner duties and I got up in the ’26. There was pretty steady lift in the four miles around Merlin. Eric was kind enough to drop me right into the lift under a CU and I had a pretty quick ride up to 4,200’ and minimums, so I popped out from under there and for the next hour plus, kept doing the same thing. Got far enough North that I crossed over 360, a personal first, but it looked like there was a pretty big gap between there and the next farther CUs to the NE, so while I could see the Chesterfield Berry Farm corn maze, I couldn’t quite get out to overfly it. Maybe next time! After that I spent a fair amount of time working between 3K and 4K, topped out close to 4,500’. Played with airspeed and altitude and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Tried to play music out of my phone speaker, but it couldn’t compete with the wind noise. May have to bring a short plug to put in the speaker box before Dave fixes the radio!
Dave had two flights after Kevin had to leave for the day. I think he pulled off and found some of the sink pretty fast and hard. He was chasing Eric back to the field. He relit and came up to play for a bit, but by that time the sun was pretty well past the yard arm and the day was quieting down. Knowing we were both going in about the same time, I figured to try and get in a good precision landing – and managed to pull it off! Almost all the way off, even. Got right between the first taxiway cones and had the ’26 turning into the taxiway before I stopped. A short tug on the straps and the runway was clear for Dave, who didn’t need it. But I was pretty excited about having the glider go where I wanted it to go and stopping pretty close to where I wanted it to stop!
There was a local family that came out to visit after seeing us flying around. Eric gave a couple of pattern flights to Rashad and his older brother. They were there with their dad and grandfather. Great folks, had a really good time looking at the gliders and talking with us. The boys (13 and 16) had ear to ear grins following their flights!
With the ’26 right at the hanger and the tow plane not stored, we decided to see if we could get some red and white hanger mates. And we can! The ’26 is now keeping 094 company. If we had a glider dolly we could easily move the ’26 in and out, but even so, it’s an easy exercise to get them both in. Eric painted some wheel marks on the ground to help us guide the planes in. We have an open tie down up front, Pete!
So ended Sunday. Lots done, I’ll put some pics up on the Merlin site. By the way, our Daily Ops page has copies of these mailings as well as a link to our club flight postings on OLC. If you want to show off what we do, the Daily Ops page is a great resource to help you do that!
And just to keep ego in check, I do have the #2 slot for R4… Out of 2. #43 out of 43 for the US. Daniel Sazhin did much better with his ’26 flying the ridges up in NJ for the #1 US slot/#2 worldwide. You should look at the trace, most of the flight it looks like a good size tree would have been the end of him! 512KM over 7.5 hours. That’s a good day flying!
While there, Tom looked at our 1-26 radio set up and advised Dave to remove the existing antenna mount and see if there is a part number we can use to order a replacement. He said if we got the cable, he would put new connector ends on it for us. Dave is also going to look at an extra mic boom he has and see if that would be a suitable replacement for the current one.
All in all, it took us a while to actually get to the flying part of the day, but we got there about the same time the lift did, so that was OK. Dave took Kevin up in the 2-33 and up they went! While they were flying around, Tom helped us out with wing runner duties and I got up in the ’26. There was pretty steady lift in the four miles around Merlin. Eric was kind enough to drop me right into the lift under a CU and I had a pretty quick ride up to 4,200’ and minimums, so I popped out from under there and for the next hour plus, kept doing the same thing. Got far enough North that I crossed over 360, a personal first, but it looked like there was a pretty big gap between there and the next farther CUs to the NE, so while I could see the Chesterfield Berry Farm corn maze, I couldn’t quite get out to overfly it. Maybe next time! After that I spent a fair amount of time working between 3K and 4K, topped out close to 4,500’. Played with airspeed and altitude and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Tried to play music out of my phone speaker, but it couldn’t compete with the wind noise. May have to bring a short plug to put in the speaker box before Dave fixes the radio!
Dave had two flights after Kevin had to leave for the day. I think he pulled off and found some of the sink pretty fast and hard. He was chasing Eric back to the field. He relit and came up to play for a bit, but by that time the sun was pretty well past the yard arm and the day was quieting down. Knowing we were both going in about the same time, I figured to try and get in a good precision landing – and managed to pull it off! Almost all the way off, even. Got right between the first taxiway cones and had the ’26 turning into the taxiway before I stopped. A short tug on the straps and the runway was clear for Dave, who didn’t need it. But I was pretty excited about having the glider go where I wanted it to go and stopping pretty close to where I wanted it to stop!
There was a local family that came out to visit after seeing us flying around. Eric gave a couple of pattern flights to Rashad and his older brother. They were there with their dad and grandfather. Great folks, had a really good time looking at the gliders and talking with us. The boys (13 and 16) had ear to ear grins following their flights!
With the ’26 right at the hanger and the tow plane not stored, we decided to see if we could get some red and white hanger mates. And we can! The ’26 is now keeping 094 company. If we had a glider dolly we could easily move the ’26 in and out, but even so, it’s an easy exercise to get them both in. Eric painted some wheel marks on the ground to help us guide the planes in. We have an open tie down up front, Pete!
So ended Sunday. Lots done, I’ll put some pics up on the Merlin site. By the way, our Daily Ops page has copies of these mailings as well as a link to our club flight postings on OLC. If you want to show off what we do, the Daily Ops page is a great resource to help you do that!
And just to keep ego in check, I do have the #2 slot for R4… Out of 2. #43 out of 43 for the US. Daniel Sazhin did much better with his ’26 flying the ridges up in NJ for the #1 US slot/#2 worldwide. You should look at the trace, most of the flight it looks like a good size tree would have been the end of him! 512KM over 7.5 hours. That’s a good day flying!