Onwards and upwards into the Discus...

It's been a while since I have had any noteworthy experiences to post about, and the time to post them.

We haven't really had a lot of calm weather recently - what we've had hasn't been a problem for flying and has even been enjoyable for the most part, but much of it has seen launches and landings occurring on our short runway and we've even had a few winching days. 

All of that has really meant that it hasn't been the right time to move into a different type of glider. To do that for the first time needs a pretty benign day so as not to unnecessarily increase the workload.

Finally, a day came when we were using our long grass strip and the wind was pretty negligible and without any significant crosswind component to it. 

I could have just flown the club Astir again, but it was in use, and in any case - I didn't really feel as though it would achieve anything. I can't go cross country yet and the cloudbase wasn't really suggesting a good day for a height gain attempt, and I've completed what I need to do in solo flights to get to the next stage of my gliding career. Stick time is always useful but it's all the better when there's something to aim at.

So, retrieving a glider that had just landed down the field, I asked the CFI what I could do that was either useful or interesting. He suggested I go and grab the manual for the Discus, read the important bits, and get it ready to fly.

I don't like to make a big mental deal of a type conversion - after all, as most people say - "It's just another glider" and I've already flown 4 pure glider types (5 if you count two Astir variants) and 2 motorglider types so far.

So, after being quizzed on the manual, position of flight controls, etc, and of course testing and adjusting the cockpit to make sure I can get all 6'0" of me inside it - we were ready to go.

There's not much else to say. An uneventful aerotow up to height, and nothing really in the way of exploitable lift as it was getting late in the day. I found the controls to be smooth as other pilots had suggested, and the glider did pretty much exactly what I wanted it to do with a finesse that the Astir doesn't quite match (although again, the air was smooth and usually I fly in thermic or ridge conditions!). 

At about 1300' I decided to head back to high key to arrive at a generous circuit height of 1000' - I'll lower that a little bit when I've become more confident with the gliders performance. To my slight surprise, I arrived where I wanted to be having only lost around 100' so I had to circle a little more. 

A nice wide circuit and a fully held off landing ended a very enjoyable experience!