Gary's Blog :: Continued

Continued

Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:39 pm

After many more weekends at the local training hills. I had the urge to buy my first wing. I wanted to be able to go to the training hills without my instructor to continue to practice my launch and landings. My instructor gave me a led on an older used Cumulus. Yep, one of the oldies with the wing wires that supported the leading edges. I picked it up for I believe $150.00 from a local who had quit flying. The first chance I got I was off to the training hill with it to get some practice in. I attempt in vain to fly this thing but it seems to have a mind of its own, turning by itself and a real handful in the air. I call my instructor and he advises me to wait and he will look at it during our next training session. The next good weekend, I meet up with my instructor and he test fly’s the glider and tries to make some adjustments to the wing wires. After a while he gives up and says I have no business on this glider. He proceeds to nickname it the squirrel and feeling bad that he had recommended it he offers to buy it from me for what I paid for it. I often wander what happen to that glider. I assume it was salvaged for parts or a nice HG rack for someone’s vehicle. thumbsup

After a little more searching a local flyer said he knew were I could get a used Comet in good shape. It wasn’t long before I had this glider and proceeded to continue my learning on this glider. This was the first double surface glider I had flown. It was a lot easier to handle than the “Squirrel”. I spent a lot of time practicing with this glider at our local training hills. With a week’s vacation time coming and the glider loaded on the truck I headed back to the outer banks with the wife. I spent all the flyable mornings and evenings on the dunes practicing my launching and landing techniques. I felt I really learned a lot during this week and that I was finally getting a handle on the new glider. There are a few things that stick out in my mind about the comet. First off, it was heavy compared to other gliders I have owned since. Secondly, the wing had a lot of flop from side to side when standing ready to launch. I eventually got used to this but it is very awkward at first. Lastly when comparing this glider to some of the newer ones I have flown, the comet is like driving a truck without power steering and the newer gliders are like driving sports cars with power steering. The comet took much more input from me to turn than the newer gliders (more on that later). I remember at times having to hang all my weight on a down tube to get the glider to turn. Again, I became used to this but it would a hard habit to break later on when I got my next glider. Here is a old scan from a Polaroid of my first Comet. I have some old videotape lying around here that I am in the process of converting to digital. When I get that finished I will post a video or two taken during that vacation learning how to fly the comet on the dunes.

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