Apr 22/18 – PPG course day 2
Second day of PPG training.
Started at 11 o’clock in the morning because there was no wind in the forecast before that. My old student Ben showed up at the field early and confirm that there was no wind to speak of from 8 o’clock till 11 o’clock.
We start to ground handle but within half an hour we were gettin very strong thermal cycle with gusts and then no winds. We decided to go to the motors and learn preflight checks start ups, get familiar with helmets and do our running exercises. Then we end up sitting around waiting for the wind to smooth out till 330 in the afternoon.
At 3:30 we went back to the gliders and start to ground handle again it was still bit gusty but manageable. Around 6 o’clock it really started to smooth out, so we tried forward inflations which we didn’t get a chance to practice before. Both Andy and Duncan picked it up real quick. They both had same level of ground handling skills but since Duncan is a skydiver I knew he would be fine in the air so we decided to try him for for first solo.
After five botched forwards he did lock one in and took off. There was a fair amount of break input on a climb out which I spoted right away and adviced to move hands up ASAP which Duncan did no problem and from then on he was just flying around like a pro.
Because it was late in the evening and the sun was already Setting we just started to pack and I allowed him to enjoy the air. He proceeded to fly for about 20 minutes and landed with fumes only in his gas tank. Again, being a skydiver, his landing was flawless.
Andy is next. Julia has still work to do.
It was beautiful and sunny afternoon at the field.
