Inspection Day

Cody and I took advantage of a blustery, snowy, wintry, IFR-type-day to do a full sail-off annual/100 hour glider inspection. The big gym at Cody's workplace made a great, warm, indoor inspection area. Cody already did his U2 inspection last week, and found no major problem which would render a glider "grounded", but he decided to replace a few flying wires due to the number of hours on them.

Cody thoughtfully offered to help me inspect my Sport today! We carefully followed the step-by-step instructions in the manual, allowing us to completely pull the sail from the frame. Then we visually and manually inspected every inch of the 7075 air frame, and all the wires. Ol' Sport passed her "physical" with flying colors, with no dings or dents in any of the aluminum. A couple of the cables will need replacing in the next year, but there was nothing to indicate un-airworthiness! Cody said he will feel much better the next time he sees me doing a loop ;-}

The sail is not exactly crispy, but in very good condition for a Sport, showing no signs of any UV degradation or fatigue. I am definitely hoping to move up in gliders soon, but until then I will get plenty more airtime on this one!

We re-assembled and completely set up my glider, and everything looked and felt good. We then had time to set up my Wills Wing SST, which I recently pulled out of storage. It was my 2nd glider - right after the Pliable Moose!

I last flew it in the Fall of 1987 on the south side of the Point, logging a nice 45 minute soaring flight.*

It took some time trying to recall how to set it up, but between the two of us we figured it out. Although the transport bag has seen better days, the glider itself is in very good condition. Cody and I could not resist ground-running and "flying" it across the entire length of the gym, ending each run with a gentle flare. After my run Cody asked, "Where's your camera?!!" and I suddenly realized how blog-worthy the moment was! But, alas, my camera was at home :-(

But I'm bloggin' about it anyway :-)

and improvising with some old pictures - because a 'blog without pic's can be a bit blog-bor-ing!



On 4-25-76 an SST piloted by Bob Wills carried 5 people over Guadalupe Dunes, CA. A short time later the same glider carried 6 people! This was done to test the limits of wing loading, although the glider had too much flex to ever reach such a limit, or even sustain any structural damage.

HGMA Certified in 1977, the SST (SuperSwallowTail) was a huge leap ahead in performance for its time. It enabled many pilots to readily experience extended soaring flights instead of just "ground skimming" or brief "sled rides".

Flying my SST over the valley in central Washington in 1986 as the cumies are poppin' - check out those high-tech leading edge de-flexors!
*Thanks for the pic's. Mom!