GliderPort to Port

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Having a serene blast flying motorgliders in AirHauler with paying passengers. Been finding out that I can still catch and carve thermals fairly well keeping within the bank restrictions...keeping Smooth is another matter but def. getting better at it...it is Great Turn and Slip indicator practice...the window tape is a huge help too. (oh, and discovered that the motorglider Does have wingtip wheels, my fears of fiberglass patches were unfounded). Keeping smooth with pax aboard adds another dimension/challenge to the flights...whoo fun.

 

This is our Full Glider Experience trip from Lodi (O20) to Cloverdale (O60), flown today...It is our longe$t flight leg overflying Angwin-Parret (2O3) my Mid Base between the two. Regrettably scenery import is not avail yet and for some reason default Calistoga Glider port doesn't show up as an airfield in Airhauler, or that would be one of my bases as well.

 

Preparing to board/buckling up the Passenger and explaining the cockpit/what not to touch.

 

Up and away...no launch or tow necessary...not much gas either as it turns out. I will burn about .2 gallons to get up to my Starting Altitude. And with luck, pluck and skillz, hopefully no more than that this flight.

 

Nearing motor stow altitude, 5,000 feet, just now cruising over a relatively lift free marshy area with a small throttled back motor push to help clear the area.

 

Nearing the end of the wet area, and the air is starting to rise, so the motor is lowered...as is the sound level dramatically. Let the See'nic Begin and the Noise End.

 

We picked up altitude fast once clear of the delta, and even had a small reputation reducing mishap that sucked me up into this cloud bank before I realized what was happening. Without an ADI to orient myself in the fog I relied on the glider's inherent stability and shoved hard down against the lift...killing a few rep points till we blindly bumped our way back down out of the cloud. A clearer head in hindsight might have popped the spoilers...doh.

 

We circle once or twice on the way to the hills, but found lift even going straight ahead, and regained some altitude quickly...getting above the lower clouds before the ridges.

 

The customer is enjoying the ride and view.

 

World's most amateur customer attempt to make a wide angle montage...clearly I wasn't carrying George Lucas this flight...although rumor has it that he is booking several flights next month for some shindig he is throwing...hush hush though.

 

Nearing my Mid Base, Angwin. A terrific starting spot for one of our Mid Level flights, either a quicky up to Cloverdale, or a somewhat longer flight to Lodi...or customers start at either end and fly to the middle or other end...we have a flight to suit anyone's time or Generous Wallet. Once in a while we hope to offer a cross country excursion if customers show interes, using one of our Cherokees as a support vehicle, I hope to carry a passenger to Denver or further. We are also awaiting "Mission Upgrades" to see what kind of excursion variety we can offer our customers. For now Flights start at 200.00 usd...and all scheduled routes have been booked solid this week, we are expecting business to keep Soaring till the end of summer at least...maybe longer with the odd weather patterns these last few years.

 

My view of Angwin as we fly over. Angwin is a great starting spot for a motorglider, it is on a 2300 foot ridge, and getting to 5,000 or lift is a breese from there. The valleys on either side seem to have reliable lift in the afternoons...customers get into Glider Mode quckly and get alot out of even the short flight around Mount St. Helena to Cloverdale.

 

We hit some booming thermals just before and over Mount St. Helena, so we used them to get a final couple thousand feet to our top altitude of the flight of 10,500 feet...not bad for Zero Gas since 5,000.

 

Customer snapshot of the tip of St. Helena.

 

Once past the Hill, it's all down hill to Cloverdale.

 

Picking up quite a bit of speed, I try to keep it in the green speed range on the airspeed indicator...

 

But at these speeds it just wants to lift...spoilers deployed alternately to kill speed and lift during our 9,000 foot dive to Cloverdale.

 

Knowing how slippy this thing is by now, I am confident keeping the speed down at the lower end knowing I'll still need to do some spoiling on final yet.

 

ORBx did a nice job catching the flavor of the Mill near the field...it's a very attractive place to fly into.

 

Final final over some of the ubiquitous winery field blowers...large propane powered fans that keep air moving over the fields at times when there is danger of dewfrost...not good for grapes.

 

Down and rapidly slowing despite not using the brakes...a tiny patch of ground contact is more drag than the entire plane aloft.

 

No shots of the drunken leaning taxi to parking...but this is my chosen glider spot at Cloverdale on the north end of the parking area...a nice out of the way spot for my long wings at this mostly GA field.

 

 

Thanks for flying along.

Next ride will be $550.00 for the Full ride, or perhaps our $375 for the Angwin-Lodi leg, or perhaps our $200.00 Cloverdale-Angwin trip is more to your liking...let us know. We are open to arranging Group Discounts. Call us at any of our GliderPort locations and let our friendly agents book your Uplifting Wine Country Experience...GliderPort, its a better way to get high in Wine Country.

 

Cheers.

Coff.

 

 

P.S.

A surprisingly profitable venture in Airhauler. I have 4 flights per day scheduled for each glider...they bring in 1200 dollar a day averaged between the 4 gliders (so far...training new wannabees and CPLs as I type), and monthly lease is 6,800 a month, with pilot fee (wannabees and lowbees fly them just fine...ie...cheep) looking at paying for costs well within a week and three+ weeks of pure profit each month.

 

Oh, and for those folks (most of them) that aren't doing a round trip flight in the gliders...we have a couple shuttles to carry them, or other local pax back to my other bases...they fly 4 shuttles each day as well and turn a smaller but still tidy profit. I expect they will be the mainstays, and expect to be expanding the GA fleet over the winter for this operation.

 

Cheers.

OddCoff.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Captain Coffee

[wain 879]

nice one Matt, these gliders are really good fun, have not mastered it yet but really liking it, makes a real change but I find I actually need to concentrate more in these things.....great scenery too....

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Thanks Wayne. Agreed it's much more focused than normal powered flying...especially while working the thermals. On the other hand, when it is trimmed out and I am zooming between thermals, or rather between point to point and hoping to find a thermal... It flies so stable I can pretty much fly it eyes and hands off for minutes at a time while watching Netflix or running over to the fridge and grabbing a beer. Last night it was trimmed to 95 kias and while over at the fridge i heard the vario squeeling a bit, and was 700 feet higher and still on course when i sat back down ...fun fun.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Captain Coffee