Another “test flight” in Tullahoma, Tennessee on the same field the Concordia first flew, but perhaps a little different. The Cherokee II was a very popular plans-built glider, circa 1950s. The particular ship was passed around for many years, until Gary Flandro got his hands on it. The original logs were lost but the…
“This glider was unique. First of all, she was no contest sailplane. Most competition-oriented pilots could see that.” — Stan Hall (1956) Stan Hall dryly made this statement in his report about the first flight of the Cherokee II in the November/December 1956 edition of Soaring.While the glider was not designed as a competition ship,…
The task for Day 4 was a 3:30 MAT. Mandatory turnpoints were Eagle Rock Ranch for the first and the West Start point for a steering turn at the end. It was up to us to fill in the gaps. Frank Paynter (TA) gave a quick how-to talk after the pilots meeting to help the…
Todays task was another 3:30 TAT. Turnpoints were Brady (25 miles), Lampasas (25 miles), Harris Ranch (25 miles) and Mason (15 miles). We got our turn at the back of the grid today which was nice. More time to relax before launch and less time churning around in the start cylinder before the gate opened. …
Today we once again had a TAT with a 3:30 minimum. Turnpoints were Hamilton (30 miles) to the north, then back south to Moursund (25 miles) then west to Mason (20 miles) and a short run east to Llano. I appreciated the task as the north/south of the first two legs was more or less…
Today’s task was another Turn Area Task, this time with 4 cylinders. The course would take us generally over the same area as we flew yesterday in the practice day. By the way, I was very pleased to learn this morning that the old Cherokee II and I won the practice day! Our handicapped speed…
Today task for Sports Class was a TAT with turnpoints at Menard (30 miles), Kerrville (30 miles), and Burnet (20 miles). We started launching about 1 PM and tasks opened at 2. I started pretty quickly and managed to climb to nearly the max start height of 7000 before leaving the cylinder. The run towards…
[Note: Here is a flight report from arguably my best flight last season. ] I had a fun time skipping work yesterday. Declared a 300 km out and return and took off at ~ 1PM. I made sure to get a valid start within 1 km of the start point on the opposite side of…
On May 2nd at 1:30 in the afternoon I sat in my sailplane on the runway at Sunflower Gliderport in Yoder, KS. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was headed, but I knew I was going to hook up to the tow plane, climb above the airport, release, and then soar as far as I…
