{"id":2209,"date":"2013-09-06T06:38:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T13:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","slug":"78-soaring-with-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/78-soaring-with-pelicans\/","title":{"rendered":"#78 Soaring with Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC00228_2\"<\/a>
Colly’s Schweizer 2-33 sailplane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hugh and Colly had a very nice Schweizer 2-33 sailplane.\u00a0 Colly was learning to fly in it and she was taking lessons from Kat.\u00a0 Kat is a terrific instructor and a fine glider pilot.\u00a0 She is also a smartass, so on this day I was itching to give her some of her own medicine.<\/p>\n

It was a rare flight.\u00a0 Rare, because Kat and I rarely had a chance to fly formation with one another.\u00a0 But today we were sharing a thermal.\u00a0 I was flying the Big Yellow Glider, a 3-place Schweizer 2-32.\u00a0 I had a passenger in the back.\u00a0 Kat and Colly were flying in the two-place 2-33.\u00a0 We were sharing a thermal and it\u00a0 was a lot of fun to fly with the two.\u00a0 Flown by a competent pilot, the 2-33 can out-climb the 2-32.\u00a0 Kat was gradually outclimbing me in that thermal.\u00a0 But then I spotted a flock of large birds off to the West.\u00a0 I called Kat on the radio and distracted her.<\/p>\n

\"P1020765\"<\/a>
The big yellow Schweizer 2-32<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHey, do you see that flock of birds over there?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll bet you guys could fly over there and see what they are,\u201d I suggested.\u00a0 While she craned her peepers to see the small flock of large birds, I was slowly gaining on her.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t going to last.<\/p>\n

\"Pelican-American-White-13-7514-660x440\"<\/a>
With a beak that big, you better not turn your head too far in flight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got better penetration than I do.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t YOU go over there,\u201d she answered.\u00a0 Well, I wasn\u2019t going to fool her into leaving that thermal, so I gave up.\u00a0 She was right, anyway.\u00a0 I peeled off and headed for the flock.\u00a0\"pelican<\/a> As I flew toward them, I porpoised.\u00a0 When I flew into a little lift, I\u2019d raise the nose, slowing the big ship and staying in the lift longer.\u00a0 Then, when I exited a thermal, I\u2019d lower my nose to beat feet and get out of the sink sooner.\u00a0 Eventually I got to the flock. \u00a0They were big white pelicans.\u00a0 \u00a0They were alternating flapping with soaring and they were doing pretty well.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t hear the big yellow glider gaining on them to the rear and gradually closing in on them.<\/p>\n

\"DSC03647\"<\/a>
Kat and Colly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then one of the birds must have heard us.\u00a0 He turned his head to look back at that huge, funny bird gaining on his flock.\u00a0 Ever see the size of a pelican\u2019s beak?\u00a0 When that pelican turned his head, that big beak caught the relative wind and he snap-rolled out of control.\u00a0 The others began to flap, but by then I\u2019d overtaken them and I cruised through the flock and greeted the panicked birds.\u00a0 \u201cHi, Guys!\u201d I hollered, then pulled up and away to blast back toward that thermal in which Kat and Colly were riding upward.\u00a0 It took me a while to get there and they\u2019d gotten even higher while I\u2019d been on \u201cPelican Patrol\u201d.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have a hope of catching them.\u00a0 I left them to their lesson and my rider and I continued to hunt for another thermal and do a little sightseeing.<\/p>\n

I learned a lot on that flight.\u00a0 I learned that a cumbersome-looking 2-33 can easily out-climb the sleek-looking 2-32.\u00a0 I learned that I couldn\u2019t outfox Kat.\u00a0 And, most importantly, I learned that a Pelican can do a snap roll.<\/p>\n

Happy Swooping!<\/p>\n

Brian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“While she craned her peepers to see the small flock of large birds, I was slowly gaining on her. That wasn\u2019t going to last.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,173,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}