Apr 18/16 – PPG course day 3

Students were not ready to fly yet this morning so there was no reason to get up too early. We decided for 10 am start and worked on kiting. By 1 pm both Kevin and Jason were very proficient even with motors on their back. Govindan is participating on weekends only and will be back for more this Sat and Sun. Wind started to gust up so we took 2 hr lunch and talked pre solo prep. When we came back wind was still gusting so we waited and waited. At one point we used my very small training paragliders – fun to fine tune kiting with such agile and fast gliders.

Finally by 6:30 wind has decreased to an acceptable level. Jason took off first, but could not get into the seat. It is harder then in simulator so I see it often. He flew around a bit and then I sat him down for landing.

Kevin did his first solo as well. He did get seated, flew well and made great landing. Actually both had very controlled take offs and also landed on their feet which is unusual for first time landing.  It was 2 short flight as wind was at 20 km/h which is our max. Then Jason was up to go again. Nice take off, got seated, trimmed the glider but by now was on very fast down wind and ended up about 1/2 mile from the field. He started to inch his way back but it was very slow go and eventually his engine started to lose power. He had no choice but to do forced landing in neighbouring field. No problem, we got him, just picked big mud puddle to land in in otherwise wide open field. Ha ha. I suspect that engine slowly overheated as we were using smaller then usual gliders because of the stronger wind.  That was it, congrats on first solo pilots Jason and Kevin. And…well done Jason on successful management of forced unguided  landing.