August 15, 2009 - Soaring & RV Rides

Today promised to be a great aviation day.  My parents were visiting, so my Dad and I flew the RV out to York to have breakfast at the Kitty Hawk restaurant.  Then we checked out the Gettysburg battlefield at 2000 feet, before heading south to Clearview (2W2) to get gas.  After that it was a quick flight west to the Flying Cow airpark.

We met the family at the Flying Cow.  Bruce had towed his glider out.  We assembled the gliders and then went soaring.  Here I am preflighting my K-8.  My nice Emily (AKA Amelia) took this great photo sequence with her Digital Rebel.

 
Jan getting ready to fire up the Motor-Falke towplane. 
 
My ground crew -- Lynnette -- briefing me on the flight. 
 
Jan taxiing into position. 
 
The rest of the family is watching the launch closely -- Not.  Bruce is in the background working on his glider.
 
Lynnette gives the Go signal.
 
Here we go.  Lynnette is running alongside, holding the wing up.
 
Now she's at full stride. 
 
My ground crew can't keep up! 
 
 
 
The K-8 is airborne.  The glider will start flying before the towplane does. 
 
I keep the glider a foot or two off the grass until the towplane starts climbing.
 
 
 
 
Now Lynnette is launching Bruce in his SF-27.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I had a nice flight for about an hour.  There was lift but I had to work for it. 
 
Afterwards, I took Jan up in the RV. 
 
 
Here we go!
 
 
Making a low pass. 
 
Then it was Amelia's turn.  Amelia has always liked to fly.  Here we are about to start the takeoff roll. 
 
The Flycow strip is in the upper left-hand corner. 
 
Left-hand turn.
 
The family is watching.
 
The grizzled pilot. 
 
We saw Bruce enter the landing pattern so we followed him around. 
 
Gliders land so slow that you can land them in a short area.  That's why Bruce is flying down most of the runway. 
 
Here we are coming in for a landing ourselves.  The Flying Cow is dead ahead. 
 
 
 
 

Getting ready to flare.  . 

Later, my Mom flew with me back to Essex Skypark in the RV.  The air was smooth, we had a nice tailwind and we were there in 30 minutes.  The RV is a great traveling machine. 

 
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