Skyport Saturday 11/29/08

[SA]

We set an early 9am meet at Parma hoping to get a couple laps in for some of our newer student pilots. We packed the eagle van and arrived at launch with very light cycles. After letting things heat up for a half hour or so Chip Hildebrand was first off. He managed to get above launch a hundred feet or so, but couldn’t break through the inversion. Even though we were all stuffed with loads of extra ballast from all the turkey we had eaten our glides were extremely buoyant. This turned out to be the case all day. Everybody who flew made Parma all day long.

We started chucking some of our newer students off the hill and they managed to work some light lift at launch. They were also able to make some turns and thermal a bit over the Monastery and Parma as well. We sent five eaglets off then I headed down to Parma to grab them for round two.

The cycles were still a bit light when we returned to launch, and pilots were still launching when we arrived. After a few more pilots had taken off and found nothing at launch it decided to turn on a bit. Marge, Doug Swain, Christian, Bryan, George, Adam, Ty, and I all had nice cycles to launch in and some decent lift in the house thermal at the Skyport. They were able to get up at launch and get a nice glide out. There were occasional thermals at the roundhouse spine, the monastery and above Parma. I was the last one off and able to get 350 over launch and made a play for the R&R. I kept thermaling up to the inversion and was never higher than 3300. I thermaled at Tunnel Tit for a bit, then headed for Parma.

The day turned out to be perfect for newer students, and was a challenge for seasoned pilots to stay in the game. The Skyport offers a wonderful opportunity for newer pilots to receive radio coaching in the house thermal on their technique. The instructor has a front row seat and can really get the students information on how to work small areas of lift. The fact that the instructor has a visual on the student during the entire flight also makes it good for newer pilots. Unlike flights from the Alternator, they student can receive coaching input the entire flight.