Winter Training...

Monday Steve was out to the hanger to install a few new goodies on his Defiant. One of the upgrades was a new APCO SLT Harness. This will shave a bit over a pound over the base harness.
Tuesday morning I met Matt E and Mark T for some cold weather flights. Matt is a serious Mountain Snowmobiler and is well prepared for the snowy conditions. Looking a bit like Darth Vader in his helmet and face mask he found he was actually overdressed despite the temperature being in the low teens. He had no issues making back to back flights in the crisp air.
Mark R was out Tuesday afternoon to fly his new Moster 185 Miniplane. He was a little intimidated by the snow covered fields and the added challenge of running through the 4”-6” of accumulation. After a few pointers on how to compensate for these new problems he found it was actually much easier to launch than anticipated. The cold and very dense air helped him get into the sky quickly, limiting the number of steps he needed to make in the snow. His landings were soft, in part due to the thin layer of fluffy white. All in all a great experience. It opened his eyes to the joy of winter flying.
​Wednesday morning Ryan, Brad, Kory and Willow were out to the airport early. Ryan had just a few flights and one challenge left to meet his requirements for PPG2. His last remaining task was to turn off the engine while in flight and start it back up again before touching down. We got him way up in the sky, high enough that he didn’t need to concern himself with the ground anytime soon. He grabbed the pull cord, gave it a practice pull then killed the motor. After confirming that the motor was off over the headset, he gave the handle a quick rip and she willingly fired back up. Well done Ryan. A couple more flights and he was done with the airborne portion of training. After that I released him to fly around the area with Kory and Brad while I worked with Matt S on his kiting.
Somewhere between 40 minutes and an hour later the boys were back on the ground trying to warm their hands. Electric gloves are on their Xmas wish lists if you are looking for gift ideas for them.
​Mark T was back for more Thursday. Also intimidated by the snow, Mark soon discovered that it’s not that big of a deal and made a couple flights with ease. That is until he tripped over a snow pile left at the side of the runway by the plow on a launch attempt and did a face plant in the snow. No injuries, just a good face washing and some laughs.