April 19, 2003 - Morgan, Utah in a 2-33, 45 minutes dual
I was real excited for this flight since it had been since 2000 that I had last flown. Jay Thomson sat in the back seat and we took a 3000 foot tow to the local ridge. During the tow, Jay asked me why I was "churning butter". I instantly realized that I was way over using the stick and needed to concentrate on being more smooth. That comment helped allot! I didn't have too much of a problem staying on tow, however, for some reason I tended to stay to the right of the tow plane.
It felt great to be back soaring! There was spotty lift but we were able to work on thermalling techniques a little bit. One of the interesting things about the flight was that I kept going into fairly steep spirals. It took me a few turns to realize that I was putting too much back-pressure on the stick as I flew tight turns. With that corrected everything else felt fine. The landing was interesting. It was the first time I ever had the sensation of a ground rush. It really bothered me because the landing was picture smooth but I didn't feel normal about my awareness like in my past landings. I later figured it out that I was staring too close in front of the glider instead of looking down the runway. Problem fixed. Again, it was fun to be back and getting current again.
The second flight was to 1500 agl where the pilot started wagging its wings. I released and was happy I remembered that signal from my reading and studying beforehand. I was trilled with the landing because I put it down right where Jay asked me to.
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