Kenny and I were scheduled to fly it in December, 2009 and January, 2010 only to be "weathered out" by fog and rain on four attempts. However, I did make the trek to Williams on our first attempt in December, knowing that I would not fly it that day, and sat in it in the hangar for almost an hour getting familiarized with the cockpit and the layout of the controls. The endeavor was completely worthwhile as the ASH-25 was a totally foreign ship to me. Not only was the layout of the instruments and avionics different than what I was accustomed to in the Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus, the ASH-25 is also equipped with performance flaps and therefore has an extra control handle.
Here it is as we are preparing to move it to the launch point. It has an 83 foot wingspan, only 10 feet shorter than a typical Boeing 737. The "unicycle" wheels you'll see attached to the wings in the next few photos are only used to support the long wings in order to facilitate ground handling. They are removed before flight.
Here's Kenny backing it out of its parking space with a golf cart for the trip to the launch point.
The performance provided by the long wings of this glider give it a 57-to-1 glide ratio (commonly printed as 57:1). This means that it will go forward 57 of anything from a height of one of the same anything. For example, it will go 57 feet forward from 1 foot of height. Or, it will go 57 miles forward from 1 mile of height. That is, in calm air of course. In air sinking at a rate of 1,000 feet per minute, all bets are off!
It was a busy day at the glider port as this was one of the nicest days of the year and pilots were anxious to get out and fly. Notice all the open glider trailers and assembled gliders ready to go.
Here's the front instrument panel. It is outfitted with state of the art avionics. Unfortunately, we didn't get much use of them as the computers were still loaded with databases for flight in Ely, NV! But that didn't matter much as we knew the conditions weren't right for a long flight where we would really be relying on the information they provide. We had all the basic instruments needed for safe flight (airspeed indicator, altimeter, variometer, and the all mighty yaw string!). And besides, the purpose of this local introductory flight was just to get familiar with how the ASH-25 flies.
Here's the front cockpit. The black handle on the right is the landing gear control. The blue handle on the left is the dive brake control. And the black handle on the left controls the flaps.
We decided to take a high tow out to Goat Mountain so that we would get a decent amount of flight time. Here, we are on tow approaching the first range of foothills at the Western edge of the Sacramento Valley. The wings seem to go on forever!
Looking right.
We towed to 7,000 ft. MSL and got off tow just East of Goat Mountain, which was covered in a fresh layer of snow. The air was perfectly calm. Good for an introductory flight, but not good for a soaring flight. The plane flies like a dream, and with a glide ratio of 57:1 your decent is nearly unperceivable. However, I quickly found that flying this glider is unlike any I've ever flown. It was like learning to fly from scratch all over again.
We made or way back down to the Walker Ridge searching for any signs of lift, to no avail. I did not take many pictures during this flight as I was selfishly reluctant to turn the controls over to Kenny. But I didn't feel too bad because by his estimation, Kenny has nearly 700 hours in the ASH-25. That's almost twice my total flight time!
After no luck on the Walker Ridge, we made our way back into the Sacramento Valley where we did find some weak thermals which extended the flight.
The road beneath us in this photo is Highway 20 as it crosses the first range of foothills West of Williams. The three peaks in the upper right of the photo are called Three Sisters.
The recent heavy rains had turned the foothills a rich emerald green. This won't last for long as the scorching heat of the Sacramento Valley will turn them brown in short order.
Several gliders that were flying to the East of us noticed that we had found a decent thermal. Here's one of them coming over to join us.
At this point we were only at about 2,000 feet MSL and still about 10 miles to the West of the glider port. That is just about the minimum height required to arrive back at the glider port and still have 1,000 feet to perform a normal pattern entry and landing.
The glider beneath us is being flown by Sergio Colacevich, a renowned pilot and one of the winners of the Barron Hilton Cup in 2002. It is my understanding that seeing him below you is a rare occurrence!
What an incredible experience this introductory flight was! It was a 1.6 hour flight in an incredible glider. I look forward to many more great flights in it!
A very special thanks to Kenny for continuing to come out of "retirement" to fly with me. And more importantly, to his wife, Suzanne, for letting him continue to do so!
Epiblog
Several days after this flight, I learned of the untimely passing of one of my many soaring mentors, John Campbell, PHD, of Mile High Gliding in Boulder, CO.
John encouraged me to take my first steps into the world of high performance gliders in May of 2007. After a number of flights with him in their Grob 103C, he suggested that I was ready to take my first flight in the Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus.
I eagerly agreed to his suggestion as we scheduled the flight, only to find that when the day arrived, I was completely at unease by my unfamiliarity with this new glider. He obviously sensed my discomfort and with a reassuring voice said "Pat, let me demonstrate the takeoff". Shortly after takeoff, he turned the control of the glider over to me and I never looked back. He had ushered me across the threshold into a new realm of motorless flight.
For this, I am eternally grateful and I would like to dedicate this flight, my first in the ASH-25, to his memory.
