With the Christmas festivities behind us, we once again started eyeing the weather. We looked again for that combination of a thaw, followed by a freeze-up, and finally a day of moderate winds and temperatures. By January 20th, things were looking pretty grim for a January flying day.
But, my wife Louise, an avid weather observer, said there would be an opening within 7 to 10 days. Bless her heart, her optimism kept our spirits up.
How many other soaring pilots have a spouse who is always saying things like, "Get ready to go flying next Tuesday or Wednesday; the airmass will be suitably unstable by then."? Or, "Why don't you go flying tomorrow? Call your buddies."
I don't know; maybe she doesn't like me hanging around the house. To me, she says, "You get owly when you don't fly, so go on, git, and don't come back 'til you're done." That's my girl.
Sure enough, January 31, 1994 was a suitable day. It was overcast with moderate temperatures and light winds. The ceiling was around 3000 feet.
We arrived at the field to find more equipment problems. The winch wouldn't start, which was no big surprise. But, the retrieve had a flat. There was no spare, of course, and the tire was really flat.
How flat was it? It was so flat, it was flat on the top, not just the bottom. It was so flat, the tire had separated from the rim, which made it impossible to inflate. And, since the retrieve vehicle was between the winch and the door, it looked like there would be no flying today.
We finally fixed the problem (hey, we were desperate) by jacking up the vehicle. Once the wheel was off the ground, we booted the tire until it more or less conformed to the contour of the wheel. Then, we pumped like mad. It worked, and we were off to the races again, with more towing, pushing, pulling, and jump-starting.
Between noon and 4 PM, we did 12 flights. Most of them were less than 10 minutes long, although Stu Baker and Doug Devine managed to scratch out a 20-minute flight.
We all agreed that it was most definitely winter. We were well- dressed in multiple layers, but at high speeds, the aircraft nose- hook opening let into the cockpit large amounts of cold air. I remember thinking during my first January launch, "My, but that's an interesting place to feel a cold draft."
The cold was a major factor in our flight operations this day. Some flights were cut short because the pilots soon got their fill of super-chilled body parts. Some pilots were obliged to remove articles of clothing so they could fit in the Ka7's narrow cockpit. Part of the pre-flight check was to ensure clothing would not get fetched up in the controls. Mittens were no good; we had to wear gloves when we flew. We weren't long putting mittens back on after we landed, because it was brutally cold on the field.
Nevertheless, we all enjoyed our day, and returned to our homes, looking forward to our February flying adventures.
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