January 7

My first flights of the new year were also my first flight as owner of a glider! I bought the Northwing Horizon ET 180 that I had been flying the past few weeks. Although I am at the lower end of the weight range for the large glider, I feel comfortable while flying and have no issues handling the glider at all. I also love the look of the glider and think it's in excellent condition. From the reviews I've read and the impressions that I've gotten from other pilots it'll probably be a glider I will fly for a number of years. It has enough performance that I'll have room to grow so to speak in the future.

Next will be to decide on a harness. I'm trying to decide between the Wills Wing Z5 and a CG-1000. Another student here at Wings To Fly had recently ordered a CG-1000 and expects it to arrive soon. I'll get a chance to look at that harness and hopefully make up my mind about ordering one.

This weekend was unusually warm and we had a sunny and breezy Saturday for scooter towing. The wind was from the West which was pretty well split between the two runways at Wes/Mar so we towed diagonally across the Field at one end. These were shorter tows for a max height of 750 feet or so but enough to play around a little, work on efficient turns, and even experiment with the VG. My first few trials pulling the VG full on didn't seem to do a whole lot. This time I made a larger effort to pull the VG all the way on and made some straight flights and turns to try to get a good feel for how it changes the gliders performance and handling. I felt it didn't effect the turn initiation but it did effect how easy it is to stop the turn. If I start a turn, and then want to level out for straight flight, I'm having to high side more and hold it longer to get a reaction. I also expect to also see an improvement in the glide ratio but don't know how I could have measured that in flight.

I didn't really improve my landing habits from last time though. When I transition to the down tubes on approach I'm immediately grabbing way up high at ear level. This gives me ineffective control to make small corrections to keep the wings level. This is probably why I sometimes end up with wings just a little off of level and end up fighting to stay in balance. I should be keeping my hands low (at elbow height) and only moving them up to my ears after rounding off the final and just before I'm ready to flare. Effective flaring position isn't effective handling position. So for the second time in a row, I'll have to work on this more next time I fly.

After 6 days since getting my H2 rating, I'm up to 1 hour 45 minutes of flight time. I'm very slowly working towards 10 hours flight time which is the requirement for H3. I am starting to consider making trips to other flying sights in New York or Tennessee or even back home in New Mexico in order to find the best flight conditions. Otherwise I'll be waiting until Spring or Summer here in Ohio when the real soaring conditions (and Aerotowing) start up again.

I feel like I've been given a huge bowl of ice cream but only a little tiny miniature spoon to eat it with. These little bites are still delicious but I can't wait until I get to eat a huge spoonful all at once.