July 11, 2004 - Fly Day

It's a Saturday, good flying weather. Building the RV is going to have to wait. I flew the Citabria down to Lee Airport at Annapolis to pick up my friend John, who took this image of me coming in to land.

Taxiing in.
I briefed John on our route of flight through the Washington D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). We would be flying through the VFR flyway that bifucates the DC 15 mile no-fly zone on the left and the Baltimore BWI Class Bravo on the right. Navigation has got to be good or you can say goodbye to your pilot's license for awhile.
Taxiing out for takeoff.
Overhead Lee Airport (ANP). It's easier to get Washington Redskin season tickets than to getting hangar space at this airport.
We flew out to the Flying Cow Airpark for some soaring in the Ka-4 Rhonlerche.
Takeoff in the Rhonlerche. We are about 50 feet high, directly behind the tow plane. Look how straight the yaw string is.
These hawks were kind enough to show us where the good thermal was. We hung with them for awhile.
Over the field.
The Ka-4 Rhonlerche panel. Pretty basic: airspeed, vertical airspeed (VSI), altimeter, compass. I'm at 1300 feet, a little lift on the VSI and going about 50 mph.
We had a nice flight: 40 minutes. It was very unusual soaring weather. If we circled like we normally do to stay in the thermal, we left the lift. However, there were areas of the sky that we could fly straight and level and stay in good, consistent lift. Very unusual, but very nice!
This is a Pratt-Read PR-G1 (Navy LNE-1) training glider. A total of 75 were built for the U.S. Navy in 1943. This particular glider N2565X was restored by the owners in 1991 and still flies great! It has a big, roomy cockpit where the pilot and passenger sit side by side.
Previous
Home
Next