- Ephrata Dustup 2009
May 2009 - DG-1000 on TV
Apr 2009 - Flying the A36 Bonanza
Dec 2008 - Soaring in the ASH-25 Mi
Nov 2008 - Flying the Cessna 340
Sep 2008 - Flying the Stearman PT-18
Sep 2008 - Northwest Soaring & Flying
Summer 2008 - Flying the Kitfox on Floats
Jun 2008 - Flying Old Yaller in Alaska
Apr 2008 - Flying the Chang (Pt2)
Jun 2007 - DG-1000 in Australia
Mar 2007 - Father/Son Soaring
Dec 2006 - Flying the Nanchang CJ-6
Dec 2006 - Soaring in Australia
Dec 2006 - Soaring in the DG-303
Nov 2006 - Soaring in Poland
Jun 2006 - Soaring in the 304 CZ
May 2006 - Flying the Lake Renegade
May 2006 - Soaring in Hemet, CA
Apr 2006 - Flying the Cessna 120
Jan 2006 - Flying the Jet Caproni
Jun 2005 - Warrior Flying
2004-2005 - DG-1000 Soaring
2003-2005 - Ridge Soaring in Hawaii
Mar 2005 - Flying the 1946 Swift
Nov 2004 - Flying the Goodyear Blimp
Oct 2004 - Flying the Cirrus
Sep 2004/Aug 2006 - Soaring in New Zealand
Mar 2004 - Check Out in the DG-1000
Sep 2003 - Ephrata Encampment
Jun 2003 - Flying the Stemme S10-VT
Oct 2002 - Darrington Expedition
Jul 2002 - Winter Soaring in Florida
Feb 2002 - Flying the T-33
Oct 2001 - Soaring in Ireland
Aug 1999 - Soaring in the U.K.
May 1999 - Flying the F-15 Eagle
1978-1987 - Other Fighters
1975-1985 - Flying the Phoebus
May 1976
Soaring in Lynn Weller's DG-1000- 2003-2005
In the fall of 2003, Lynn Weller was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his new acquisition, a beautiful DG-1000 20-meter dual-place sailplane. I had previously checked out in Charlie Hayes' DG-1000 at South Lake Tahoe airport, and was ready to help Lynn as he brought the first DG-1000 to the Great Northwest.
On 29 November 2003, I had the pleasure of helping Lynn Weller assemble his DG-1000, and fly with him for the very first flight of N7760A in the United States. What an awesome sailplane! If you're familiar with a driving off in a new car and enjoying that "new car smell", it pales in comparison with being able to strap on brand new bird and take it aloft for its first flights. Lynn's DG-1000 is especially nice, since the workmanship and flight control harmony are so outstanding.
Lynn had previously flown once in a DG-1000, with Knut Kjenslie of Seminole-Lake Gliderport in Florida. We had both read through the DG-1000 flight manual in detail, and felt confident of the speeds and capability of the sailplane. For the first flights on this overcast but dry day, Lynn and I swapped front and back cockpit opportunities, giving us experience in both cockpits during our four checkout flights. I was amazed how smooth and balanced the flight controls felt, and how agile this sailplane was in turns, even with its 20-meter wingspan. Lynn and I checked out tow procedures and the DG seemed to just follow the towplane in its tracks. We checked out the correct rudder use to balance out adverse yaw, flew shallow and steep banked turns, straight ahead and turning stalls, slips at altitude, and then just reveled in cruising at a 47.5:1 glide ratio. The DG-1000 is an amazingly smooth and quiet ship, surprisingly agile in thermals. Pattern, glideslope control and landing are a breeze, especially with the very effective spoilers.
In the early summer, I got my next real taste of cross-country at Ephrata, after getting an awesome DG-1000 flight in Omarama, New Zealand.
A few sample Northwest DG-1000 flights:
Outstanding cross-country flight with Marty Gibbins, his first DG and first XC flights. Nice thermal right after tow release, climbed northwest past the duster strip, continued across the Moses Coulee to Badger Mountain, then west of Waterville. Flew with swallows at 10,500'. Continued north to Chelan, then east to Mansfield, caught boomer thermals to 13,700', nice cumulus markers, took photos of Steamboat Rock. Flew by Coulee City towards Wilson Creek, then on to Quincy. Demo'd three lazy 8's, then flew formation and thermals with the BESC L-23. Nice approach and landing, my first in the DG-1000 at Ephrata.
DG-1000 cross-country with Lynn Weller, over an hour of scratching between 3400' and 4000' in the Ephrata local area after an early takeoff. Finally caught a decent thermal to 6000', headed northwest. I worked a decent thermal to 8000' off a dust devil at the plateau duster strip. Lynn pressed NW, found a boomer thermal west of Wenatchee, Lynn worked it from 5500' to 10,300'. I flew on to Wenatchee while Lynn took photos of a relative's home, cruised all around the ridges to the east of Wenatchee, not a bit of lift. Worked the ridge for 20 minutes, finally had to land out at Wenatchee, Lynn took the landing on runway 25, nice rollout to the taxiway and into a parking slot in front of the FedEx hangar.
