Saturday, August 21st - Ted Boileau
Arrived at the field at 9:00 AM. 9:15 AM It began to rain. 9:45 AM It began to rain HARD!. 12:10 PM Still raining hard. Went home and took a nap.
Ted
Sunday - Joe Schena
Flew 1 pattern tow around 1400 on Sunday. I attempted an accuracy landing at the 1st cone on runway 34. I discovered I need a little work in that area.
After several bouts of so so weather, Monday looked promising and I headed the field for my first flight in the Pegasus 101A. It was GREAT! Since I'm new to fiberglass gliders, and having assembled the glider only once before under supervision, my first solo effort at setup was a bit awkward (not to mention the breakdown) but the job got done.
Take off was uneventful but different from the B4. The B4 is pretty tail heavy when sitting on the ground and so, even with the belly hook, tends to track where you point it during the initial take off roll. The Pegasus does not. It is light on the tail and there is a distinct tendency to weather vane into any cross wind - and this happened to me. Immediately after the tow plane started to roll, the Pegasus started to slowly drift to the left. I started to reach for the tow release but as my left hand was moving forward, the rudder became effective and the take off and tow proceeded normally.
The handling characteristics of the Pegasus are simply superb. Aggressive 45 degree banked Dutch rolls were simply not a problem. At the point of stall with the nose up about 35 degrees, the nose gently dropped to about -35 degrees, with no tendency to drop a wing. Recovery was trivial. To test stability while thermalling, I set the trim and let go of the stick and the glider just kept on thermalling - it just stayed in the turn at the same speed - pretty neat.
And the thing is quiet. With the air vents closed and the speed upto 90 kts, there was very little perceptible wind noise. All in all, I flew the day pretty conservatively. I went to within 2 miles of Gardner (at 5500 feet) and back and forth to Fitchburg a few times. After 2 hours and 40 minutes I was still very comfortable but decided to call it a day. The spoilers are VERY effective and the landing was a non event. Thanks to Ken W, Dick U, Mike P, Desi H, and others who helped me stumble through the set up and breakdown of the ship.
Did I tell you that I had a nice flight?
Tony
Oh yeah, I can learn to live with the climb averager and flight director :-).