For my birthday in 2005, I received some dual in Hollister flying an amazing sailplane, the Duo Discus. It has like a 40-to-1 glide ratio which is 40 miles from 5000 feet!. I hadn’t flown a sailplane since 1981 when I got a few hours of dual in a Schweitzer 2-33 outside Colorado Springs. This was also a hot rod compared to the 2-32 I got some stick time at Mississippi State.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great soaring day in Hollister where I flew with the Hollister Glider Club, though it seemed promising at first. I met the owner who was a friend of a co-worker. He set me up with an instructor. After a very short takeoff behind a Piper Pawnee, the instructor started me on flying the “box”, practicing holding positions behind the tow plane. This was a much shorter tow line than I was used to, only 100 ft, I think. The thermals bumped us around a bit and it took me awhile to stay in line. We cut loose near the foothills to the east of Hollister, looking for some lift.
With such long wings, you have to use the rudder to counter the adverse yaw from the really long wings, but it came quite naturally as the Discus had great control response. We flew around for about half an hour or so, not really gaining altitude but not losing much either. We flew very close to the ridge. I hadn’t flow that close to a hill since flying in France. As you can see by the picture, we were below the ridgeline.
Finally, it became time to land, so we turned the battery powered radio back on and reported our position and intentions. It is always so quiet after landing in a glider and coming to a stop, not like a powered plane.