I fly sailplanes pretty much any weekend the weather is good. My friend and I recently purchased a racing sailplane, a Mini-Nimbus. We are planning on doing some upgrades to the avionics/cockpit, and some other maintenance on the airframe finish this winter. See our blog on our exploits here.
I have also somehow been tricked into serving as president of the Pittsburgh Soaring Club this year.
I went out to Bandel for what turned out to be my last flying day with the club ships this season. I went up in our Astir 102. Conditions were cold and fairly blue, but Cu’s started forming around 1:30pm. I launched at 1:45 to sniff things out. I was able to get a reasonable …
Read MoreI went out to Ridge Soaring to do my first flight in the Mini-Nimbus that Tom Stepleton and I purchased. (See www.chamberdyne.com). I did some gentle maneuvers and had a so-so landing. The video below shows my first experiment with my GoPro camera. This video has been quite helpful in analyzing my flight.
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Last weekend I went out to Ridge Soaring to fly the Mini Nimbus. The weather conditions were basically unsoarable, but I got a chance to get to know the ship better. I also installed our new airspeed indicator. As promised, the terminal velocity trailing edge dive brakes are impressive. As soon as you pull to …
Read MoreTom Stepleton and I went out to Ridge Soaring this weekend. Saturday was beautiful, but with no lift to be found. We were the only pilots there, and the bunkhouse seemed eerily silent. I can’t wait for a good soaring day! As always, Tom Knauff and Doris Grove were excellent hosts.
I tried a new setup …
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