Session 8

WHEN     : Sunday 30th April 2000
WHAT     : Intro to the Grob
WHO      : Dual instruction with Bill Campbell
HOW LONG : 25 minutes in 1 flight

  The day was extremely windy. Some rather dodgy frontal weather had been through, and although the cloud cover wasn't too bad, the wind meter at the club was showing sustained winds of 15 mph with frequent gusts of over 30 mph. The windspeed itself wasn't the problem - the gustiness is what made it interesting. Windshear all around!

  I knew that before arriving, though, and was reminded of it whilst landing the Cessna 140. Landing a tailwheel aircraft on grass in strong winds is fortunately not too bad, but keeping the plane properly lined up in the crosswind gusts on final had me working!

  The wind was really too strong to take the 2-33, so we took the Grob instead. This is a fiberglass two-place ship (in need of a little TLC as well). It's a little bit heavier than the metal gliders, so does better in gusty winds. After going over the Grob and its features with Bill, we climbed in and waited for the towplane. We had to wait for a while this time, but eventually we were hooked up and ready to go. I've ridden in the Grob once before with a friend, Michael Masterov, before I started working on the glider rating. I remember the tow being really tricky then, so I wondered how it would be today in the gusts and turbulence. Fifteen previous aerotows however have taught me a thing or two since I took that ride with Michael. I actually found the Grob very easy on the tow, despite the turbulence. In fact, it was easier than the 2-33. The one thing I didn't really like about the Grob controls were the rudder pedals. Gary Gandy (the local glider DE) said that the "rudder pedals were made for someone who was bow-legged". I would agree with that assessment! However, I found I could use them in a more natural position if I moved up my feet a bit so that the rudder pedals would sort of sit in my instep. The other thing that caught me by surprise was the supposedly locked spoilers decided to open on takeoff. I had checked them, but they weren't quite in the detent. Bill quickly closed them...lesson learned!

  The Grob was very pleasant to fly. We did find some rather turbulent and broken up thermals too, and managed to gain a little. However, there wasn't much and after twenty minutes, I was back over the IP. The other thing was the winds aloft were very strong and we were always headed downwind very rapidly. Until I start working on cross-country soaring, I'll keep upwind, thank you!

  The landing was a bit of a knife-fight in the turbulence, and Bill kept his hands ready on the controls to correct if necessary (he said there wasn't enough time with these gusts to tell a student to change his inputs and wait for the correction). However, I didn't really have any problems - the Grob is easier to land than a flapped, powered taildragger!

  All in all, a very educational session. It took me 20 minutes longer to get home due to the strong winds aloft too, but I knew that already!