Sunday, September 10th 2000, a Huge LOW over the the atlantic just off the Spanish coast, another one over the balkans and a high pressure area over central Europe make the jetstream form a huge omega shape all over europe. This "omega" weather brings a week of really nice and fair autum weather all over central europe.
This is also the case at the airfield Trieben, ICAO identifier LOGI in the province of Styria in the heart of the Austria alps.
The sun is glowing down from a steel blue sky with not a single trace of clouds, the air is dry and clear giving visibilities from "pole to pole" as the saying goes.
i'm arriving at the airfield at about ten o'clock in the morning. It's a quiet day and nobody else is here yet as the gliding season is over since a while and there's nobody doing pattern work either today. A glance at the clock tells me i've still got about forty minutes till my passanger will arrive, so no need to hurry.
I walk over to the hangar and push open the big wooden doors. Rumbling back in their tracks the moring sun touches the airplanes inside. I smell the somewhat damp but familair scent of fabric, oil, avgas and the other things that make each hangar in the world smell somewhat the same.
The tow pilot arrives and together we start getting the airplanes out. First the "Remo", a DR400 Robin "Remorquer" our clubs towplane, a sleek wood and fabric four seater with awhite and red paint job.
The next plane we pull out of the dark hangar is the 60 foot spanning grace of a Nimbus IIa, a high performance glass fiber glider, mos of it's glaring surface finish hidden by the protective covers that are on the wingsand fuselage when the aircraft is in the hangar. The next one is "my" plane. A L13 Blanik. She's not the newest neither the hottest, but still as we push her out into the sun the light is reflecting on her aluminium wings and fuselage.
The Blanik is the work horse in the club, it has tought so many people how to fly in the years of it's existance, including me, but she's still standing fast even after these years of missuse of student pilot landings and literaly throusands of flights.
After pulling the canopy cover of i start going through the preflight routine.
Installing the battery and checking the radio, flaps and spoilers, stick full and free, the tow hook and it's release, all is looking good. I walk around the big silver bird and run my hands along the leading edge, have a close look at the aileron hinges, the flap tracks, peek into the acces holes for the aileron rod bellcrank, then walk back to the rear section checking the fabric covered elevator, rudder, the trim tabs and the tail wheel, the same rountine that i followed on the right wing i run through for the left.
I have another glance at the clock, "half past 10, she's gotta come soon" i think, and i'm right as her car pulls up into the parking lot a few minutes later.
My Passanger of that day is a friend of mine , Babs, she has never flown before in a glider and we want to do some aerobatics today. Naturaly she's a bit nervous´
So we walk over to the Blanik and i give her an explanation of the cockpit, what does waht, where you cangrab a hold at and where not, then we go over the parachute and the bail out drill (THAT got her attention). Finally we talk through the aerobatic routine we want to do.
Spin left, looping, immelmann left, Split S right, hammerhead turn left, aileron roll right , turn right, roll left.
All excited we push the Blanik down the taxiway to the takeoff position on runway 11.
A few minutes later we are strapped in and the tow plane taxies up infront of us. "OPEN!" "opend" "CLOSE!" "closed" the man assisting us for the takeoff shouts over the roar of the Remorquers engine as he attaches the tow rope.
"Trieben, Oscar-Echo-5034 Artweger plus one, 1100 meters" i announce our intentions to the tower and get a "click-click" as an answer.
"Oscar-Novermber-Papa , Oscar-three-four ready 1100 over the runway please" "November-Papa"
The tow plane taxies forward to stretch the rope, and as soon as it is fully extended the engine roars to life at full throttle. And off we go accleretating down the runway. At 40 mph a slight pull on the stick and we are flying, 3 feet above the concrete while the tow plane is still acclereating down the runway. A few seconds later the Remo has reached it's takeoff speed and we are flying, climbing into the smooth air.
A few minutes later we reach our release altitude, the tow pilot knows his stuff, so we are perfectly aligned with the runway and straight over the field when we release.
"Oscar-three-four release thanks!" i call after pulling on the yellow T-handle of the rope realease and seeing the rope fall clear. The Remo is dissapearing in a descending left turn out of our field of view and we used the excess speed in a climbing right turn to get some more altitude.
When the tow plane is gone and the speed is back to 55mph it gets really quite in the airplane, with just a soft whistle of air rushing by.
"Wow feels as if we are stopped in mid-air" Babs says from the rear. And true, with the speed back and slowly turning it realy seems as if you were suspended in mid air and not moving at all.
"Oscar-three-four 1100 over the field starting the aerobatic rountine" i say over the radio and another "click-click" is the answer.
Ok here we go .. "ok we'l start with a spin to the left, you all strapped in and ready?!" "yea i'm ready let's go", slowly i pull the nose up to the horizon. As the speed slowly decease to 40 mph i pull the stick into my lap and stomp hard on the left peddal.
"ooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwWWWWWHHHHHH
HHHHAAAAAAAUUUUU!!!!!" I hear from the back as the nose drops through the horizon and we stall over the wing into the spin. "Half turn, NOW stick center, full opposite rudder" i shout over the rushing air as we're going down. The Blanik comes slowly out of the spin pointing straight down. "Now nose up to the horizon, build speed to 180... PULL" 3.5G on the accelerometer and up we go into the blue sky again. AS we coast over the top almost weightless, with the ground above us and the y below i can't help myselfe and chime in with Babs "YYYeeeeeHHHAAAAAA", down we go, speed building up to 220 Km/h. PULL, 4.5G up we go, nose on the horizon, stick center, aileron full to the left slowly feeding forward stick. The world is spinning around the canopy as we roll. Dwon again to build some speed, then a short pull to 15 degrees above the horizon, foll roll right and then bleed speed while flying inverted hanging in the straps. As the speed bleeds to 100 Km/h pull back on stick and down we go in the split-S. Wings level, glance over the wing , a short hard input of left aileron to get a slight left wing down, then pull up at 3.5G to straight up , pushing in a bit of right rudder to drag the hanging wingtip up, quick glanz to the speed indicator, 21 thousand, 22 thousand , full left rudder and a bit of right aileron.
"WOW !" a single word says all, THAT is just about the feeling you have when the airplane almsot comes to a standstill and you're weightless while it rotates around a wingtip.
The flight was only 16 minutes long, but as we landed and clambered out of the cockpit Babs eyes were glowing and she had red cheeks from the adrenalin "Let's GO AGAIN!" she shouted !!
THAT is what flying is about ! Flying no matter what you fly is pure JOY!.
DW6
*disclaimer i havn't flown a glider in 3 months and havn't seen the sun for a month due to frekking bad winter weather so please see this as venting winter frustration....
