Sometimes, you just have to go fly

The word came from Walter Striedieck Saturday morning: "Tomorrow will do, see you there!".

Sunday: cold but severe clear. Okay, lots of clothes and warm gloves.

Three of us show up with gliders. A pair of Disci and me with my as yet unflown ASW-20B.

The Disci rig and depart. I barely notice as I am deep in the details of a not-yet-familiar assembly, pre-flight check and cockpit check. But the Disci stick. Cool.

The last part of the preflight check is to roll the ship for about 50 feet, paying close attention to how it tracks. The 20B has a tiny roller blade wheel mounted to a glue-on rubber skid. They are rarely perfectly straight. Yep, expect a little right drift.

Finally stuffed in the cockpit with too many layers, I select flap position 2 (per the book), roll, pull in flap position 3 and we're off. Happily, I am immediately at home. On tow it flies just like the ASW-24 I am familiar with, but with better forward visibility.

Off tow, it flies even better! I trade licks with the Disci for 3:20. I even get in a little ridge running on Hawk's Mtn. The "B" streaks down the ridge line at 80 kts with barely a puff of wind. The airport in the valley reports wind calm. The tree tops are completely stationary. It feels like sorcery.

A Discus comes down to try the ridge -- and immediately falls out. Well, I'm not far behind. The other Discus has been thermal soaring and he's about a minute behind me. However, no one is complaining, it's been a beautiful day.