AT Signoff

[tdilisio]

This past week, I went down to Bushnell Florida to attend a friends military funeral service. I looked at the map and found that
Quest Air is only a short distance away. Wanting to satisfy 2 agendas in one trip, I called Quest and talked to Paul Tjaden on
Monday. Tuesday night I arrived to a nice air conditioned room with a "Welcome to Quest Air, Tony" sign on the door. Wednesday
morning, with very short notice, Mitch Shipley graciously agreed to be my tandem instructor... I can't thank him enough. His tandem
instruction was excellent. Since I had already soloed at BlueSky a couple months prior, he let me do the flying. The morning air
was smooth and all went well. He took the tandem glider to the outer limits (left, right, up and down) and gave it to me to fix. We
also did a couple tows where he simulated (pulled the release) a weak link failure at low altitudes. All went well. Paul Tjaden was flying the (Pink)
tug, and Lauren was crewing and coaching. Over the course of 3 days, I took 13 solo flights, the last 9 being on my Sport 2 155.
I've towed in the smooth morning air, as well as the more active mid-day conditions. Definitely more challenging during the active
part of the day, but as Paul put it... I was "rock solid". If there are any pilots out there seeking to get the AT
training/signoff, I highly recommend the folks at Quest. I don't think I could have accomplished this at any other facility on such
short notice. The quality of instruction and safety oriented approach provided by Mitch, Paul and Lauren are in my opinion, one of
the best you will find. I thank them very much.

Looking forward to joining you all at Highland... once I get up the nerve to make that drive.

The links below are to some footage of the tows at Quest Air. Seems to be a lot of yaw action going on at times. Above the clouds it was smooth as glass, and really fun flying around them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL6_iZgr8dA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL6_iZgr8dA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHimZNKgCg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHimZNKgCg

Fly safe

[mcelrah]

Congratulations, Tony. Yup, "Quest is best", but you should know that Paul special-ordered that color on the tug (not that there's anything wrong with that)... - Hugh

[DanTuck]

Nice job Tony! See you at Highland.

[Paul Tjaden]

Hey Tony,

Wow! Thanks for the great compliments. We really need and appreciate the word of mouth advertising. You were a great student.
I was also curious about the yawing on tow. It is possible that you played some part in this but I wonder if it's just that the camera placement at the end of the keel makes it look worse than it is. I'm sure that my glider yaws a bit on tow but I've never placed a camera on it to see what it looks like.

Paul

[Lauren Tjaden]

Thanks, Tony. It was great to meet you! Thanks so much for coming -- and sorry we were such novices with our new camera that we didn't get shots of you. Come on back anytime!