I had a red letter day at Highland today! And yet my longest flight was only about 24 minutes! Why am I thrilled? It will come as no surprise to all who know Hugh that even in his temporarily disabled state he is nurturing the development of pilots. Having been my observer on numerous mountain flights, while talking last week he suggested I ought to be pulling out the syllabus and going over material to study for the H3 exam. He further pointed out that he doesn’t need to be the one to observe my spot landings, another pilot could and I might be well served to do some pattern tows at Highland. It was just the nudge I needed.
When I arrived at about noon the field was quiet – morning flights were over and the tug was back in the hanger. Tandem pilot Steve said there hadn’t been much lift so far, but that was fine with me. If I didn’t find lift, I would be more than happy to do pattern tows and practice spot landing. As I was setting up, Steve K arrived. My first flight, a full tow, was my longest of the day – there was some light lift. I made a nice landing close to my spot (marked with my bright orange crocs) and called Steve over to see, and asked if he could make note of my landings (if he wasn’t in the air himself). He took off before my second flight, more effectively handled the thermals than I, so when I landed he was still in the air. I decided then to change to pattern tows. By now Jon and Amy, along with Bacil had shown up, and my 3d flight, 1st pattern tow, was nice and close to my target, but was a belly landing

. I was concentrating on the spot and looking down and didn’t flare well. 4th flight I came in nicely and close to the spot – which Bacil and Steve K (back on the ground now) both saw. So I asked Bacil to also keep on eye on me; I would try two more pattern tows before I called it a day – and either that would give me the three in a row or not. And it worked! Both Steve K and Bacil were on hand to verify I got my 3 spot landings! I tore down and was heading out by about 5:30pm. Jon and Amy were still enjoying flights when I left.
So! Thanks to Bacil and Steve K for checking out my landings, and to Hugh for kicking my butt a bit to get serious about working on the requirements.