Mark Koepper
I can't say much for Honolulu. It seemed a lot like Los Angeles to me. My wife Cathy and I had just spent a week on Kauai. That was as close to paradise as I've ever been. Now we were sitting in traffic. A serious shock to the system. There is a gliderport on Oahu though. This is a good thing.
The next day I felt better away from our high rise hotel on Waikiki Beach with its elbow to elbow tourists. On the way across the island we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation and rode the dirt roads between the fields on horseback. We had an 11 year old kid for our guide, just the three of us. There must have been some misjudgment because the kid had by far the slowest horse and we repeatedly left him in the dust. He didn't protest too much when we stopped for him to catch up, but did insist that we arrive back at the corral walking, with him in the lead. No problem.
Dillingham field is one long runway parallel to a steep ridge. The wind blows 15 to 20 knots off the ocean on to the ridge all day and all night, all year. Well, on a few days a year the wind is from the wrong direction or too strong to fly (hurricanes, etc.). Isolated showers drift through all afternoon but pose no real problem. They produce some great rainbows if you look with the sun at your back.
I received a thorough briefing on the Grob 103 and the airfield. This was to be my first flight in a glass ship. Hookup and takeoff are interesting here at Dillingham. There are no line personnel to be seen anywhere. You hook up the ratty looking tow line to your own glider and take off without a wing runner. The first few seconds involve picking up the wing that's dragging along the ground while you steer out to the centerline. Take care to clear the glider that is parked a hundred feet or so ahead. After your initial evasive slalom maneuver, you line up behind the tow plane while compensating for that constant 15 knot cross-wind from the left.
Launch failures here are no problem. Either land straight ahead or fly a full pattern. The gliders are staged along both sides of the runway overrun. This is 2000 feet of pavement. So you are well airborne and established on tow before you get to the runway threshold. The runway itself is 9000 feet long so you climb for a minute and a half or so before getting to the other end. Then of course there is another 2000 feet of paved overrun. If that is not enough room you can always go into the huge grass field at the end of the pavement. Ropes are used until they break.
Near the end of the proper runway you turn right and almost immediately hit strong ridge lift. The tow plane may turn either way along the ridge and then you can release at any time. Very seldom are aerotows to more than 1000 feet done here.
Having never flown glass there was an expectation of something special about this flight. The Grob 103 was a real let-down. It seemed big and sluggish and not particularly quiet. Although the span is about the same as my Dart, roll rate was appalling. The ridge flattens out dramatically at 900 feet and slopes gradually to about 2000. Nice thermals were coming off of this slope, but I was not comfortable circling this flying pig until I was very high above the terrain.
Once I had gained some altitude the instructor called out the standard check ride maneuvers (stalls, slow flight, spin entry...). Then she indicated the time had come to enter the pattern. The idea here seemed to me similar to a pit stop at a car race. Great emphasis during the briefing was placed on landing with lots of speed (70 knots was mandated for approach speed!!). Then you were to taxi off of the pavement into a ``clear area'' between the gliders parallel-parked along both sides. Much was said about the importance of clearing the pavement so as not to get in the way of other launches. Little was mentioned about avoiding a crash into aircraft or people on the ground.
My landings were not up to snuff here. I was scolded about floating ``so far down'' the runway dissipating all that great kinetic energy. I had better learn to plant the main wheel down while she's still flying. After 6 tows my wife did not want to wait any more for a ride and we left without a sign off.
The next day a different instructor (the owner) did sign me off after 2 more tows. I never did attempt the swerve and screech pit stop type ground run they do there. I shamelessly rolled past all the gliders and turned off at the front of the line with a couple of miles of open space ahead. Silly me. The resting place was the same as my floating landings. But apparently since I had rolled instead of floated I was OK and allowed to take the glider myself.
My wife was not with me this time and she missed a great flight. Cloud base was unusually high that day (4200 feet). While within easy glide of the field most of the island was visible. Contrary to what I was told there were huge burnt stubble cane fields that looked fine for landing to me. If the rental glider were not an issue it would be interesting to fly cross-country jumping to the ridges along the east side of the island.
After about 90 minutes I'd had enough. Although it was tempting to really hold it off and set it down two points on this last landing I didn't. I flew the requisite 70 knot tire burner landing one more time and called it a day.