Apr 17/14 – PPG course day 6 – pm

So finally a beautiful evening. Temperature about 15 Celsius and slowly decreasing south wind. That’s the way I like them. Shortly after we have arrived the equipment was set up and both Jim and Tal were ready to go.

Here is Tal about to get strapped in and here is Jim ready to go…

It took no time and Jim was in the air although on his take off he was pulling tremendous amount of break. Luckily there is so much passive built in safety with this aircraft that he simply proceeded to lumber into the air and we had no issue at all.

Tal was ready to go to. She did a textbook inflation, textbook take off, textbook flight and textbook landing. Just perfect! And both Tal and Jim really did not want to come down as it was warm and beautiful.

Here is Jim after his first landing

This is what I get paid the big $ ;-)

Here is Jim on the flight number two. After the following interview him proceeded to fly for another 15 minutes and then it was time to land just as he was turning final the engine quit on him so Jim had his first force landing. Since I was watching him planning to help him with his landing flare it was pretty easy to guide him down safely. We had some equipment trouble through this course. Mostly really related to bad batch of fuel that I have picked up. But this was different after Jim safely landed I went back to help towel to get ready for next flight and Jim noticed that the spark plug Was completely off. Well that would do it. Tal has tried to take off couple more times but again wind was getting lighter and she was getting tired so she decided that that will be it for her. Once you do perfect flight you may not want to mess it up I suppose.So me and Jim went to work and had to make a field repair to the machine. Luckily I am pretty good at that and so is Jim. This is the kind of guy that can do anything you’re better off asking Jim what he can’t do. 5 min later the spark plug cap was secured and Jim was ready to go again.

Jim cruising around – flying low

Here is Jim after landing

After we packed up it was time to go and celebrate very successful flying session. Tal has four flights and Jim also has four flights. The weather held us back for two days. I already promised both students a gift certificate for two additional days of training.

So off we went to a pub for some snacks and  beer. And let me tell you about this pub it’s freaking awesome. Just one of those old-fashioned places where everybody knows your name and there’s interesting art on the walls…

What a great evening we had. Forecast for tomorrow is good as well we have more day to go!