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July 24 - Heat Wave |
Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:25 pm
[  Currently: Listening to War ]
Midsummer in the south usually means the three H's weather wise: Hazy, hot, and humid. This summer had been a little out of the ordinary in that is has been hotter than usual but also clearer than we would expect. The forecast was for a very hot day, with air temps nearing 100 F and dew points in the mid 70s, giving a heat index near 110. Winds were forecast to be light and variable, with a southwesterly bias.
H2 rated pilots do not generally fly in the midday hours under these conditions, as the LZ gets very active when it is thermally, so it's my goal to get to the launch to get a sled ride in before things get too active. I arrived a little after 11, and found a few gliders set up. I also found Sky_Walker and LittleWing setting up for a ride down. The word on the day's weather was that thermal soaring was likely in the midday conditions, and that there was a possibility of a wonderwind around 6 PM. I'm a little skeptical on the wonderwind but I'm certainly willing to wait and see.
First order of the day is to get my glider set up for a late morning/early afternoon flight. I'm at that point in my flying career where I'd like to fly in conditions that are a little stronger than what I'm used to, and since the LZ is looking placid, I'm in no hurry to set up too quickly. Besides, with the temps already at 90 degrees, it's not a day for hurrying. Sky_Walker and LittleWing are ready before I am, and LittleWing launches first. We can see that the air is still, and there's no lift at all. She makes a fine launch, a good approach, and winds up knocking over the target cone on landing. Sky_Walker is next, and finds similar conditions. At 12:30, I'm pulling my harness on, when Jen comes out of the shop and tells us to not launch. An aerotow pilot had crashed in the LZ, and there is an ambulance on the field. The word I got was that he was a very low time pilot who released early, stalled, recovered from the stall, turned back to the LZ, then made a low turn and dragged a wingtip. I also understand that he was unconscious for a few minutes, but was awake and alert when he left the LZ, with a probable concussion, some neck pain, and a possible broken arm. I didn't hear an update after that, but here's wishing a speedy recovery to you, bro, and come back soon.
At 1 PM I get the OK to launch. There's a light breeze on the ramp, but it's so hot that the density altitude is up around 5000 feet, so I dial a little more pitch down than usual. I do get a little better look at the trees than I would if it were cooler. Considering the conditions, I'm very satisfied with the launch. Out in the air, I don't find any lift, but I do find a few patches of sink. The only hint of lift I do find is over the hangars while on downwind, and those were just little bumps.
When I crossed over the field, what little wind there was appeared to be a direct cross, so I set up for a landing to the north. I find that when I turn final, I'm being pushed farther down the field than I'd have expected, but it doesn't register that I just might be going downwind. When it comes time to flare, I find I still have more groundspeed than I'd expect, and have to run fairly hard. While doing that , I wind up slipping and sliding in on one shin and my wheels. It turns out that while I was on final a light breeze came around from the southwest and I was landing downwind. The only damage is that I now have some road rash on the lower part of one leg. Two lessons learned: Always check the streamers on final, and if it's calm, always land into what is the prevailing wind for the day. Today's breeze aloft was from the southwest, and that is the direction I should have landed.
I (slowly) start breaking down my glider. Sky_Walker's and LittleWing's gliders are still set up in the breakdown area. It turns out they'd gone for a dip in the pool to cool off before breaking down. The three of us get our gliders bagged and back up to the top. Sky_Walker and LittleWing put their gliders away and head out to cool off, while I stay and observe. Around 2 PM a pilot launches. He finds some lift to work, and is able to stay up for 20 minutes or so before having to land. The local ace sees what he wants around 2:30, launches in what I believe was a Sport 2, finds a thermal, and takes about 15 minutes to circle up to cloudbase. There are a couple of cumulus clouds that he is circling towards, so as you'd expect the other pilots who were waiting all launch. They find the same set of thermals and start to climb as well. After 15 or 20 minutes of that, there's nothing but blue sky in the valley, and they all sink out with the exception of the Sport 2 pilot. I head into town to get some food and more drinks. Over the course of the afternoon, I drank a gallon of water and another half gallon of Powerade, and could have used more.
I get back up to the launch around 4:30. A partial cloud deck appears and cuts off the sunlight, ending the day's soaring, and with it, our chance of a wonderwind. It does create an opportunity for low time pilots to get their observed flights, and Mrsposer brings her glider up and begins to set up. I find out that she has completed seven of the 10 observed flights she needs, and the conditions look promising for #8. I set up as well, again very slowly, as even on top of the ridge the air temp is around 100 F, and the heat index is 110 or so. Since there's no reason to wait, I launch right at 6 PM. The air is even smoother than it was a 1 PM, and there is again no lift, except for a tiny patch just off of the ramp. There's not much sink either, and I see 200 -240 FPM down the whole ride. This time I approach to the south and get a little better flare, but still wind up running. I'm seeing lots of running landings as there is absolutely no wind and a little higher density altitude than we're used to.
After I get the glider bagged, I keep my eye out for Mrsposer. She launches at around 7 PM, and has what looks to be a very pleasant and uneventful flight into the beginning of the sunset. I give a couple of pilots a ride up to the launch, just in time to to see the last launch of the day, then head down to have dinner at the clubhouse. After hanging out for a little longer than I should have, I head home.
The next day, I get in my car to back it out of the garage, and the battery dies. I guess the battery gods were smiling on me on Saturday, they let me get my flying day.
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June 19 - When Life Gives You Sled Ride Conditions... |
Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:16 pm
[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Listening to Game Theory ]
The forecast for both weekend days was the same: blue skies, light winds, and hot, with a slight chance of thundershowers. I'd been trying to decide whether to go fly or to stay home and work on a project. I put the question to the board, and Noman3 responded that I should go fly, so that's what I did.
On the way up, the conditions were as advertised: blue skies and nil wind. As I approached the mountain launch, the skies turned cloudy and almost threatening. Last time I'd been up I'd left my helmet in the LZ, and one of Lookout's staffers had picked it up for me, so I went into the shop to recover it. As soon as I'd gotten it, a rain shower started. Xerxes had arrived shortly before me, and since there was no flying for a while, we went into town for lunch.
When we got back to the mountain launch, the rain had stopped, but the outflow from the squall line had pushed the wind over the back. By about 1:30 the tailwind started to subside, so we ran a car down the base with the hopes of flyable winds appearing. When we got back to the launch, the wind had diminished more, and half a dozen pilots were assembling gliders, so we got ours out as well. Mine was wet and needed drying anyway, so tailwind or not, it was coming out of the bag. At 2:30 or so, the tailwind subsided, and finally went away entirely. The first pilot launched around 2:45. I'd waited a little longer to pack my still wet bags, and was not ready to launch until almost 3 PM.
For this flight, I had three goals: maintain proper pitch throughout my entire launch, get used to my newly acquired (used) vario, and continue to work on flying slowly and making coordinated low speed turns. The sky is solid overcast and there is almost no wind, so I'll be providing all the airspeed with my legs. I've had some issues with popping the nose angle on zero wind launches, mainly because I want to switch from grapevine to bottle grip too quickly. During a slope launch it's no problem because there is so much time during the launch run, and on a breezy day it's not a problem because the glider lifts so quickly, but for nil wind ramp launches, I'm having issues, so for now I decide to try using the bottle grip from the start. I wouldn't want to do that on a breezy day because I get more leverage in the bottle grip position, but on a light wind day, the leverage isn't important.
With that in mind, I start the launch run. In the usual few steps I'm off the ramp with the pitch where I want it. I fly away from the mountain for a few seconds, then slow to trim speed. The air is as smooth as butter, so I start making steep turns, reversing 180s, and a few 360s. I can immediately see the advantage of having a vario for this sort of flying, as it gives good feedback as to how well I'm flying.
Liftless sledders are short, so rather quickly, I'm over the LZ with about 550 feet left over. I spend a few seconds trying to get unzipped, and finally do get the pull cord open. The approach goes without drama, but this time, I keep my hands on the basetube all the way into ground skim. I do get my hands switched without any issues, but this has upset my timing a bit, and I get kind of a weak flare and have to run the landing out. Acceptable when you have half a mile of flat grass, but I can do better.
We get packed up and head back up the hill. Xerxes heads back towards Atlanta, but it's not even 4 PM, the conditions are flyable but not soarable, and there are plenty of people going up and down the hill, so why not take another flight? When I get to the top Brandonrussell73 is getting ready to pull his glider out of the bag. I promised some pilots who had just landed that I would come and get them, so Brandon runs his car down to the LZ as well. Once we get to the LZ, we pick up three pilots, and their gliders and harnesses. That makes five pilots and three gliders in one Focus hatchback.
For the second flight, it's still overcast with very light winds. This launch also goes well, and this flight I concentrate on getting the harness zipped up quickly and trying to remained relaxed. I've had this tendency to want to do a pushup on the base tube, which is tiring and makes me less sensitive as to what the glider is doing. The vario is just as quiet on this flight as it was on the first, and it's easy to practice turns and thermal entries. This approach is similar to the first one, and I again try flying all the way to ground skim with my hands on the basetube, and the landing comes up similar, with a softer flare then is ideal and the need to run the landing out a few steps.
Shortly after I get to the breakdown area, someone offers me a body ride, which I gladly accept, and take a nice breezy ride in the back of a truck. I get my car down to the LZ and find another pilot who is getting ready to head up for another flight, so I put my glider on his truck and leave mine in the LZ, so we're good to go for a third flight.
For this one the sun has come out and there is an occasional headwind on the ramp. I get another solid launch, but this time I can feel that there is some lift when I first get off of the ramp. Not enough for me to work with for sure, and probably not enough for anyone to stay up in, but a little lift nonetheless. On this flight I stay as relaxed as possible and just try to feel what the glider is doing. It's a little harder to keep my speed down in turn entry this way, but if I'm ever going to do any thermaling, I have to learn to do this.
Because of the sun, I've found some spots where I could float along only sinking at 50 fpm, and other sinky spots where it was more along the lines of 400 fpm. Next flight, I have to try to spend more time in the floaty spots and less in the sink. The wind has turned around and this time I will be landing to the south. I always make my pattern on the west side of the LZ so as to not interfere with the aerotow operation. The terrain on the northwest side of the LZ is heavily forested and also rises. As I progress on my downwind leg, I start finding some of that sink. The LZ is fairly narrow at that end and is surrounded by tall trees, and I want to be on final while still above them. When I turn from base to final, I find the lift that went with that sink, and all but stop descending. I start making S turns at the north end of the LZ until I descend some, then pull in for final. Once again, I try flying on the base tube all the way to ground skim, and again things seem a little rushed. I do get a better flare this time, but still jog a few steps.
After I get my glider bagged up and a couple of pilots up the hill, I go back to the LZ to collect my glider and bicycle. There's one pilot left without any apparent way back up the hill, so we load his glider on my car and up we go one more time. It's almost dusk, and there's one more pilot ready to launch. We get his glider transferred to his car, watch the last flight of the day, and chat with some spectators. I finally head home at 9:25.
While there was no lift to speak of, I think that the day's flights have me better prepared for lifty days in the future.
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May 23 -A Friend of Ours (Re)takes to the Skies |
Mon May 24, 2010 7:46 pm
[  Mood: Embarrased ]
[ Currently: Listening to Frank Sinatra ]
I'd last blogged about my first flying day of the year, back at the end of February. I'd gone back up the week after with the hope of getting a soaring flight, but wound up getting a sledder as the conditions didn't pan out. I'd also been up one other time in April, on a northwesterly day that was a bit on the strong side for the most part. To make a long story short, a combination of a major attitude problem on my part and a minor equipment issue kept me out of the air, missing a glassoff. Since then, my daughters' schedule has been incredibly busy, and the weekend weather has been less than wonderful, with the exception of Mother's Day, which as you can imagine, wasn't spent on the mountain. Sunday was looking sunny with light & variable winds. Whether or not it was going to be soarable or not, I didn't know or care, I just wanted some airtime and a couple of sledders would be enough to make me happy.
As expected, it was sunny and hot on Sunday, with temperatures getting into the low 90's I arrived at the mountain launch around 12:30, and found a few gliders set up, but none in the air. The wind on the ramp varied from none at all to the occasional light northerly-northeasterly cross. Figuring that the LZ is going to get to be H3 or worse later in the afternoon, I make plans to set up. But before I do that, who should be standing on the ramp but curly_cue! She's healed from her knee surgery, had flown on the training hills the day before, and was getting ready for a tandem later that day. Her husband John was there as well. He had his Sport 2 set up, but was waiting for the day to develop before launching.
I get set up, get onto the ramp, and wait for a cycle. John calls the winds for me, and after a minute or so, we get a slack wind cycle, and I go. The launch goes well, and as soon as I get a decent distance from the mountain, I start working on slow flight and turns. The air's fairly buoyant, and the trees are a safe distance below, so I start trying 360's, reversing 180's, and 90's, all at or below trim speed. I see a few likely thermal triggers and head in their direction, but I only get one beep from my vario, and don't manage to find it a second time.
I float over the LZ, and still have a good bit of altitude left, so I poke around the west side of the field for a while. The tandem operation is not open, and no one else had launched, so I had the air to myself. The south end of the LZ is especially buoyant, and I almost think of trying some circling, but figure that would be a bad idea as I'm getting kind of low and I'd be in the way if anyone else were making an approach. I wind up extending my downwind and base legs, but I'm still a little high. I pull in a bunch and start to go down, but am going to land a little farther down than I'd like, so I get the bar back as far possible, which has the desired effect. I stay that way all the way to ground effect, so I'm going a ton, at least for a Falcon. I let the bar out a bit and climb back up a couple of feet - oops, too much. I pull in a bit to get back into ground skim, and bleed off some more speed. As the bar approaches trim I get my hands on the downtubes, then slide 'em up, and flare. It's not the strongest flare I've ever made, but it's good enough to get me slowed to jogging speed, and it takes about three steps to get stopped. Not too bad.
It's hot and sunny, and the Lookout LZ tends to get turbulent in those conditions, so I plan on flying at around 6 PM. I get a ride up the hill, get my glider bagged and back to the mountain launch, and head off for some errands. When I get back, most of the pilots who had been waiting for stronger conditions are in the LZ. Among them are curly_cue's husband, who had been up for about a 30 minute flight. He also said that he'd shared a thermal with her tandem glider.
When I get up to the mountain launch there's a decent collection of pilots getting ready to go, including PJwings and BrandonRussell73. I get the glider done and into position, and am waiting for the pilot in front of me. After what seems like a 15 minute wait for a headwind that doesn't appear, he settles for a no wind launch. I get on the ramp, find a no wind cycle, and head off. Now, I start off with a grapevine grip and rotate my hands to a bottle grip. I've been wanting to switch to what Dennis Pagan refers to as the "eternal grapevine" grip, but haven't been comfortable with trying to make the change on the mountain launch. Well, this time I wind up switching hands too early, which creates a big nose pop. Ugh. After a quick "OH CRAP" I pull in a bunch, probably overcorrecting a little. Now I'm a bit nose low, but with good airspeed. I do get a little better look at the trees below the launch than ever before, but that's about the extent of it.
Awright, put that behind me and fly the glider. This flight's plan is pretty much the same as the previous one's but the air is butter smooth but has no lift. I work on steepening the turns and quickening my entry into them. With no lift, the flight is short, and soon I'm on approach. With the calm air, this approach is easy. I've got the target cone in sight, get close to ground effect, reach my left hand from the basetube to the downtube, and wind up grabbing the wire instead. OK, try again. This time, I get the downtube, but put myself in very slight turn. I get that straightened up, get my hands up, flare, and land on both feet about 25 feet from the cone. Nice. There are a number of pilots in the LZ, including Sky_walker and LittleWing, who had flown earlier in the day. PJWings and BrandonRussell73 drop in as well, as does a pilot who is making his mountain solo. He makes a fine approach and a nice landing, and comes in with that ear to ear grin that a first mountain solo provides.
So, that was probably the worst launch I've ever made, and probably the best landing. Does that make the flight average? The first chance I get I'm going to get to the training hills to practice launching in the grapevine grip. That will be at least four weeks away, as I've got a camping trip in two weeks, and my wife and older daughter are going to cheer a friend who is in a triathalon the one after that, so the next three weekends are shot.
After I get packed up, I head up to the mountain launch, where PJWings and BrandonRussell73 are setting up to go again. The wind is swinging between slack and crossing, but as the first pilot is ready to fly, the wind starts tailing. Unfortunately for all the pilots on the ramp, the tailwind sets up, and the flying day ends a little before sunset.
Y'know, if a really good northwesterly day happens this weekend, maybe I can sneak up for an evening flight after all...
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February 28th - Welcome to 2010 |
Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:07 pm
[ Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Listening to Level 42 ]
I hadn't gotten as much flying in last year as I'd have expected. The winter weather was horrible, spring and early summer were good, while late summer and fall were spotty at best. With the limited airtime in the last six months, I was looking for a mellow day to get a couple of extended sledders to kick off the season. We've had a few good days, that for various reasons, I've not been able to go up for. The weekend approaches, and both days are looking northwesterly. The consensus is that Saturday has a good chance of being blown out, so I plan on going up Sunday.
I'd had a ripping sinus headache on Saturday, and I go to bed Saturday night hoping to be rid of it by Sunday morning. When the dog wakes me up at 7:30, the headache is almost completely gone, but I'm still moving a little slowly, and don't get on the road until almost 10:30. As I head out, the breeze is starting to stir, and I'm feeling a little concern that things will pick up too much. When I arrive at the mountain launch, it's 12:45, mostly cloudy and about 40 degrees, with the wind blowing 12 to 14 mph straight on the ramp. Surprisingly, no one is in the air. I get my equipment off the car and stop for a few minutes to observe the conditions. After a few minutes, the first pilot of the day is ready to fly. I get his keel and we get him hang checked and up on the ramp. For some reason, he has his right wing low by about 20 degrees. Both the guy on the left wing and I are telling him that he needs to level his wings, but he yells "CLEAR" and heads off. At that point, there's nothing we can do but let go and hope for the best. He sets off in a turn, and his wingtip starts dragging against a rock on the side of the ramp. Not good. The dragging wingtip is increasing his yaw, but since it can't descend with the rest of the glider, it levels his wings and the wingtip slides off of the rock and he flies away. That could have been a lot worse. He makes a few passes up and down the ridge, but sinks out pretty quickly, and heads to the LZ. If that had been me, I'd have needed an underwear change about then.
I wire crew for another couple of pilots, who launch uneventfully and go up to enjoy the ridge lift. By the time I get set up and eat part of a sandwich, the winds have backed off to 8 mph or so, which is a little less than I need to fly the ridge, so I decide to wait to see if things pick back up. They don't, and there are four or five other pilots also waiting to see what happens. By 3:00, the sun is mostly out, the winds are 6 to 8 and don't seem to be increasing, so I go ahead and launch. It's very easy launching in those conditions, you go out towards the red line, take two steps, and you're in the air. Not too far off of launch, I get a pretty good beep from my vario, but I'm just a little too close to the ridge to feel comfortable about making a 360, especially with the breeze wanting to push me back towards the hill, so I make some S turns to get as much as possible out of the lift. I do that a few times, but finally lose it, and head out into the valley looking for more bubbles.
I do find some bumps, and get a few squeals from my vario, but nothing that I can stay in. I also had one episode where the air pushed me way nose high, almost into what felt like an incipient stall. Naturally once I pull in, I fell out of the backside of the bubble and am now facing the ground. Interesting, but not scary.
The air is buoyant, so I float around the valley for a few minutes looking for more lift. It's a little bumpy, and I'm flying faster than minimum sink for a little extra control. I need to learn to fly more slowly in these conditions.
I start my approach, but wind up a little high on final. Rather than make a few more turns, I pull the bar to my knees and the Falcon elevator comes down quickly. I can see that I'm going to round out a little past the midpoint of the field, which will have me touching down about two thirds of the way down the LZ. It's a bit bumpy on final, but nothing too significant. Since it's been three plus months since my last flight, my flare timing is less than perfect, and I have to run about four steps. Total flight time was 14 minutes.
As I walk over to the breakdown area, I see that Sky_Walker and his lady pilot friend Theresa are in the LZ. We chat briefly, and they head up to the mountain launch. When I look back at the ridge, I can see that all the pilots who had been waiting are now in the air. I guess I was a very effective wind dummy.
It's only 3:30, and my car is in the LZ, so I get the glider broken down quickly and head up for another flight. Jake526 is in the LZ as well, and he and another pilot ride up with me. We get to the top, unload the gliders, and I'm just in time to hang check Xerxes for his second flight of the day. Jake and I both set up, while Sky_Walker and Theresa launch. By the time I'm ready to go, it's 5 PM and the wind is about 5 mph, but occasionally crossing to the north. I wait for a cycle, then head out. This time I take one pass along the ridge, but there's not much going on and head out to the valley. The air is much calmer this time, and I concentrate on making turns and relaxing in the air. I've found that I'm too tense, and also that I tend to pull in a bit on my turns. I really need to learn to fly slowly if I'm ever going to be able to stay up.
After a few minutes of floating around the valley, it's time for an approach, which is easy in the calm air. I find a little lift on my turn onto final, and I'm high anyway, so I again wind up with the bar at my knees until I get the edge of the target circle as my roundout point. There's a little crosswind so I wind up drifting a bit more towards the east side of the field, and get a three step landing. I get my glider broken down and Sky_Walker gives me a ride up to my car.
While the day's conditions weren't quite what I expected, they were exactly what I needed after the long layoff. I'm now starting to see where my mistakes are and what I need to do to correct them. Now's all I need is more airtime. I know it's only Tuesday, but the forecast for the weekend looks favorable. Two weeks in a row? Dare I dream? Only time will tell.
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November 8th - Family Tandem Day |
Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:48 pm
[ Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Listening to Linda Ronstadt ]
Back in February, LMFP was offering discounts on discovery tandem flights. Although I’ve been at this for a couple of years now, my family has never been to the flight park, as it would be rather a lot of standing around for them. While I’m not going to push anyone into flying, I thought it would be nice for them to experience it at least once, and understand why I keep disappearing off to the mountain, so the offer is made. Towards the end of the month when the offer is slated to expire, I remind all of them to let me know by the end of the month. I’m slightly surprised when my wife tells me that she would like to go, and considerably more surprised when our (then) eight year old daughter also agrees. The seven year old decides against it.
We had planned a trip during spring break for them to take their flights, but the weather did not cooperate. Life, and some extremely rainy weather prevented us from rescheduling until now. My birthday was coming up, and I decided that I wanted to celebrate it with my family at the flight park, and they agreed. The forecast was for warm temperatures and light and variable winds. If all went well, I could get a mountain flight in, and my wife and daughter would almost certainly have great conditions for their flights.
Rather than try to fit four people and a dog in my Focus, I stuck a ladder on top of my wife's Odyssey van. It has a factory roof rack, but the crossbars are some sort of plastic material that doesn't give me all that much confidence, but if it can't hold a 50 pound Falcon and 10 pounds of ladder, it's not much of a rack. I find that it works fine up to about 65 mph, but I still spend the entire trip with an eye on the glider. We arrive at about 1:45 PM, at which time the instructors are launching pilots on observed flights. We go in and get Linda and Allison signed up for their tandems, which are scheduled for the 3:00 hour, then I start to set up. While I'm doing that, the wind starts to switch around to both crossing and tailing. In addition, I'm a little nervous about being distracted while building the glider, the two that are flying look a little nervous about their upcoming flight, and we're all a little distracted because the dog seems nervous and is all over the place.
Since I'm concerned about being distracted, I plan to make two very complete preflights before launching. Sure enough, on the first one, I find that I've missed connecting the top wire on the kingpost.  Once that is corrected, I make two more complete walkarounds to double check that the glider is properly assembled.
The wind's still going between a crossing tailwind and absolutely slack, so I head over to get on the ramp and wait for a cycle. On the way over, I ask my wife to pick up the glider bag and put it in the car. Once I get to the base of the ramp, I ask for a hang check, which I get, along with a question about whether I really wanted to launch in a tailwind. I say that no, I intend to wait for a windless cycle, and if I don't get one, that I'll tie the glider down and come back later. When I get up on the ramp, the tailwind kicks up for about 30 seconds, then goes to slack. I take this opportunity to launch. Set the pitch, get the wings level, look straight ahead and go. I feel myself switching from grapevine grip to bottle grip too early, and have pushed out a bit as well. I'm still running, so I correct the pitch, and get a bit of a nose low launch. I'm not really expecting anything in the way of lift near the ridge, so I fly straight away from the mountain a bit, then work on flying slowly. I do find one pretty good thermal on the way over, but don't really try to core it, as I'm kind of focused on getting my wife and daughter to their tandems. Thinking back, I should have made a few turns in it, it would have been good practice. Next time, I will make sure I do so. Hey, it's not like their tandems will leave without them, right?
All too soon, I'm over the LZ and at approach altitude. The approach goes very well, and there's a bit of a crossing headwind, so my ground skim tracks across the LZ a bit. I don't flare as aggressively as I would in no wind conditions, but probably should have done a little more, as I have to jog three steps. OK, but not perfect. I think I'm going to have to spend a morning on the training hills to get my flare timing nailed. I can use it to practice launching with my hands still in the grapevine grip as well.
At the breakdown area, I call my wife, who tells me that they missed my launch. I'd asked her to take my glider bags to the car, and she had interpreted that to mean immediately, while I meant to wait until I'd launched. Grrr, I'm sorry they missed the launch, but that's just another reason for them to come up again.
Now for the main course - tandems. As soon as my wife and daughters arrive, we head over to the tandem operation, with just a brief interruption while the dog makes some friends. While I was up at the mountain launch, I asked Matt Taber about how to get them nice, mellow, relaxing flights. There are a couple of pilots whose specialties are giving thrill rides, which is not what we want. He suggests that I ask the ground crew for just that, and that they will get them with the right pilots. While we are walking over, a golf cart rolls up and offers us a ride, much to my younger daughter's delight.
We arrive at the gazebo, and Sky_walker is there to take pictures. Since he's a local now, I'd asked him to come out and meet my family, and he was gracious enough to do so. It's about 3:15 at this point, and the afternoon's tows had started. People are getting clipped into gliders, while those who have just landed are sharing their excitement with their friends and family, and any nervousness that my two were feeling just evaporates. Lookout has a video that tandem students are required to watch, so that is set up for them, while my youngest and the dog and I hang out with Sky_walker.
There's not a real big crowd today, so in short order, it's time for my two to get harnessed up and go. First up is my daughter, who is flying with Pete. Off they go without any drama. I was a little concerned that she might, well, freak out, but there are no signs of that as they climb out to the ridge. We see them release, and float along the mountain well above the ridge.
There are a few mid level altocirrus clouds in the very blue sky, and the low sun refracts through them into rainbow colors. We're probably about a week after the best fall color, but there is still some, and the day is pleasantly warm as well, We've been waiting six months to do this, and we couldn't have been favored with a better day.
Now it's my wife's turn. She's going to be flying with Dan. He gets her clipped in, and off they go. My daughter is still in the air as they climb out. I suspect they've found a little lift, plus since she's so light the glider doesn't sink as quickly as it would with an adult passenger.
As they begin their approach, a couple of solo gliders come in and make an odd pattern. I'm thinking I'm glad I'm not the one flying right now. Pete handles the approach like the professional he is, and as they fly overhead, I can hear my daughter saying "wheeee".
The golf cart heads out and picks them up. My daughter seems very happy and excited over her flight. She's never been in an airplane, and I'm proud to say her first flying experience is in a hang glider.
EDIT: Added pix. Thanks Sky_walker!!! 
My wife is still up on her flight, but she's lower than my daughter was as the same point. I'm guessing that they didn't find the same buoyant air. They have the LZ to themselves, and Dan makes a straightforward approach and landing. My daughters bum a ride on the golf cart and head out to get their mom. When she gets back, her only complaint is that she would have liked a longer flight.
On the way back, my wife tells me that she'd like to fly again someday, and even hints that she might consider taking instruction someday, and she now knows why it is I keep going up to Lookout.
I've had 52 birthdays, and although my actual birthday wasn't until the next day, I can unequivocally say that was the best one I've ever had. I'd like another crack at the ridge before the holidays start, but the forecast isn't promising. If there's a good possibility of a couple of sledders on one of the weekend days, I just might take that. If that doesn't work out, there are flyable days in most Januarys.
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October 24th - Ground Suck |
Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:50 am
[  Mood: Confused ]
[ Currently: Listening to Laura Nyro ]
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. My last flight was two months ago...
Yeah, I know the Catholic church doesn't use that any more, but it's appropriate. First problem has been the weather. Normally September and October are our driest months. Where I live, we've had over 22 inches of rain since early September. I've needed a couple of the few nice weekend days that we've had to do family things, and the Petit Le Mans auto race was in there as well, so yes, it has been two months since my last flight.
Forecast for this weekend was for a front to push through sometime on Friday, giving us a northwesterly breeze for Saturday, tracking more northerly and ultimately northeasterly on Sunday, so Saturday it will be.
The weather played out a little more slowly than forecast, with some light rain early on. As I drove up, I ran through some drizzle, but nothing of any substance. When I arrived at the mountain launch at 12:30, there was a solid overcast, no rain, and the wind blowing in at 10 to 15 mph. Word from the office was that the wind was expected to peak around 2 PM, and not back off until sunset. Another pilot and I run my car to the LZ, then started to build our gliders. As expected, the wind filled in a bit, staying in the 12-15 range, with periods of 15 to 18. That's a touch stronger than I'd like to see, so I decide to wait a while to see how things develop. At 1:25, the first pilot of the day launches. He makes a diving launch, more like what you'd expect from a no wind situation, then looks like he's being tossed around pretty badly. After a fairly short flight, he heads to the LZ and makes a wheel landing. Naturally, this gives the rest of us pause. Around 2 PM, the pilot who helped me get my car to the LZ decides to launch. He makes a wonderfully smooth launch, and immediately begins to climb. By the time he returns from his first trip down the ridge, he's a couple of hundred feet over launch, and after a couple of more passes, he really starts to sky out. This gets a number of the other pilots motivated, and the launches start happening quickly, and everyone is getting over the ridge, with some getting a thousand feet or more over. I'm looking at them and am just imagining what that must be like.
As for me, there are still some times where the winds is in the 15 to 18 range, and sometimes a little stronger. Since the front hadn't passed all that long ago, I want to stay on the ground until I'm sure the wind isn't going to pick up to 20 to 25. When I first arrived, I was a little nervous about launching into these conditions after the layoff, but I'm starting to feel better about things after wire crewing and observing for a while.
It's now around 3 PM, and conditions have settled to where I feel good about flying. I wait for a few pilots to launch so that I can walk my glider onto the ramp. I get out on the ramp, and the wind picks up.  We wait a couple of minutes to see if it is going to back off, but it does not, so we back off and I tie my glider down.
While I'm waiting, Sky_walker arrives and begins to set up. While I'm waiting for the wind to settle back down and he is building his glider, we wire a couple of pilots off. We try to wire one pilot in particular, but we both feel like we are controlling his glider more than he is, and we both start suggesting he wait until the wind backs off. He finally agrees, much to my relief. I was about to ask him to back off and find someone else to wire crew, because I didn't want to be a part of that launch. After another 15 minutes or so, the wind backs down, and I go over to him and suggest he check the conditions. He does so, likes what he sees, and we wire him off in a nice, smooth, controlled launch.
Things are looking good for me as well, so I get back into the harness - the one that is still attached to the glider.  Sky_Walker assembles a wire crew for me, and we head out onto the ramp. It takes me 30 or seconds or so to get the wings level and everything balanced, and off I go. I make a gentle right turn and start flying along the ridge. I'm not climbing, but I'm not sinking either, and am at the ridge's ground level. I try to zip in, but I'm not that good at flying one handed yet, and drift a little farther away from the ridge that I probably should. I finally give up on the idea and figure I should wait until I'm above the trees before trying again.
A mile of so north of the launch is Burkhalter Gap, which is where we new pilots are supposed to turn back towards the mountain launch. I'd heard that there is a house thermal just on the other side of the gap, and since I wasn't climbing, I thought I'd try to reach it. Almost as soon as I get into the gap, I start to sink. Not good. OK, that's not working, so I'd better turn back. In just a few seconds, I'm now well below the ridge, and standard policy is to head towards the LZ, so I do. One of the problems with Burkhalter Gap is that the moutain doesn't fall away as quickly there as it does a little farther down the ridge, so the ground is uncomfortably close - to the point where I'm evaluating which tree I'd like to land in. No, check that, you don't land in a tree, you crash into it. It's not a landing when you're still 75 feet above the ground. I'm trying to fly slowly, but not too slowly as I still have a headwind to deal with. After what seems like a long time but was probably about two minutes, the ground begins to fall away and I now focus on getting to the LZ.
On the way there, I hit a few alarming patches of sink, and some uplifting patches of lift. Since I'm so low, I don't dare trying to turn in the lift, but just slow and take advantage of it.
A few more minutes pass, and I cross over the last trees before the LZ. I'm right at pattern altitude, and have enough to cross over to the other side on a diagonal downwind. I now try to put the scary part of the flight out of my mind and focus on making a good approach and landing. The approach goes very well, with just a little turbulence at the tree line. I round out a little too low, and flare too late as well, winding up sliding on one knee.
So, now I'm in the LZ. There are about 10 happy pilots and one pissed off one. I bet you can guess which group I was in.
I get packed up, utterly disgusted with my flying (lack of) skills. There was lift up there, but I wasn't able to take advantage of it, and that judgment error put me on the ground after a total flight time of nine minutes. I've been working towards this for a while now, and I can't even stay up on a good ridge day. What's worse, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. The last couple of flights, I've been able to work the ridge some, but have been stuck at ridge level, and never got above it. This time I make one trip down and sink out.
Since my car is already in the LZ, I'm able to give a couple of other pilots a lift. One of them is John, who I flew with last fall. He's had a great flight, and came down when he wanted to. We start discussing my situation, and he makes me feel a little better about it. It's only about 5:30 by the time we're packed up, so I have time to fly again, but I'm kind of stiff from standing up on the chilly and windy ridge, and my attitude is rotten, so I decide to stay on the ground.
When we get to the top, there is one pilot getting ready to go. Everyone else is either in the air or the LZ. Sky_walker is still in the air, and yells out to me. John and I hang around in case this last pilot needs a wire crew. Turns out that this pilot was one of Lookout's sew shop employees, and Matt Taber wants to get a few pictures of the glider she's flying. John and one of Lookout's instructors wire her off while Matt takes pictures. He comments on how she'd be up over the ridge if she were paying more attention to her airspeed, and I realize that is probably what I am doing as well - flying faster than needed. It probably comes from being somewhat nervous about being blown back into the trees. Falcons don't glide well at higher speeds, and all I need is about 50 fpm of a climb to be above the ridge after one pass.
I head back down to the LZ to get my glider and to offer Sky_Walker a ride. He gets packed up, we get his glider up to the top and put away, and head off to get a sandwich, which he buys. Thanks, bro, for the food, the wire crew, and most of all, the moral support. I needed that.
I suppose I shouldn't beat myself up. I have all of 24 mountain flights spread over two years. I knew when I got into this that my time would be limited, and that the progression would be slow. Next time there's a ridge day, there are two things I need to try: Flying a little more slowly, and not drifting so far from the ridge. I believe the first one is the more important of the two. If I get a chance, I'm going to take a tandem on a ridge day to see if I can jump start the process.
And I'm not flying into Burkhalter Gap unless I'm 300 over the ridge. 
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August 22 - A Little Lumpy |
Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:34 am
[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Listening to Abbey Road ]
At my experience level, I’m not really able to stay up in purely thermal lift, and am looking for some ridge soaring or a glassoff. Ridge soaring requires a north to west breeze in the 5 to 10 mph range here, and July and August tend to be windless, so I’m not expecting a lot of airtime right now. However, it is getting towards the end of the dog days of summer, and fronts start to push through again. As luck would have it, one pushed through on Friday night, and the forecast was looking good for the weekend. I’d promised my daughters that I’d take them to the water park on Sunday, so Saturday was my day to fly.
Since I hadn’t been up in five weeks, I wanted to get up early enough to get in a sled ride before things became too active. My wife is in training for a half marathon, and Saturday is her day to get in a distance run, so I have to wait until she’s back before I can go. This means that I’m not going to get to the launch until almost noon, which may be pushing the limit of when I can fly. The Lookout LZ gets active in mid day conditions, and when the sun is as strong as it is now, between about 2PM and 5PM, only H3 and H4 rated pilots should fly. When I arrive, the wind is blowing in at about 6 to 8 mph, which is not quite enough to ridge soar, and the towing operation is still going, which means that the LZ is still in good condition. I get the OK from Matt Taber to launch, get the glider put together, and with a little assistance from a couple of the pilots who are waiting for conditions to strengthen, head out into the sky. I have instructions from Matt to not try to run the ridge, as conditions aren’t strong enough for that, but do feel some bumps, so I turn on my vario and get some beeps as well, and start looking for some thermal lift. I do find some bits to circle in, but can’t find anything where I can make a sustained climb. I was only expecting to make a sledder anyway, so the little bit of soaring was an unexpected benefit.
After a few minutes, the trees start getting bigger, so I head down towards the LZ. Since the wind was from the northwest, I expect the air to be a bit bumpy on my approach. I do find some areas of light turbulence, but it’s nothing to speak of, and once I’m below the tree line, the air is smooth. One of the reasons I’d wanted to get this early flight was to work on my landing approach and flare. On this approach, I make sure my wings are level before I pull in for speed on final, and the glider feels rock steady. I get into roundout with my hands low, slide them up the base tubes, push up and a little back, and the glider decelerates nicely. As the glider settles, I take one easy step and stop about 10 feet from the target cone. Much better.
When I was up at the top, I met up with Sky_Walker, and he said that he was going to launch shortly after I did. I saw another glider in the air, which I assumed was him, but it turned out to be a pilot on a Sting who was using a knee hanger harness. He landed shortly after I did, and the two of us and another pilot catch a ride back up the hill. When I get to the top, Sky_Walker was still there. Turns out one of the local aces talked him out of flying. That same pilot had seen me trying to thermal, and suggested that when I’m that far out from the ridge, to slow to trim speed and to bank more steeply when thermaling. It's always good to get some advice from the experienced pilots.
I've got a few hours until it's time for me to fly again, so I go grab a sandwich and hang out in the LZ for a while. By this time, there is enough lift for the more experienced pilots to stay up in, and a number of gliders are in the air. The wind in the LZ, though, is light and switchy. Even though the predominant wind of the day is from the northwest, the wind switches 180 degrees in the LZ and is now coming from the southeast. I can imagine that there must be some substantial gradient at some altitude, and it's obvious to me why H2's don't fly in midday conditions on days such as this one.
As the afternoon wears on, I take my glider up to the top and set it on its wheels, but leave it in the bag, and then head back down to see if I can bum a ride back up the hill. While I'm waiting, some of the pilots who launched at 2 PM or so are starting to come down, and I can observe their landings. One pilot makes an odd approach, stalls at about 8 feet, and pounds in. A couple of us go out to see if he's OK, and he is, but has bent a downtube and needs help carrying the glider, which a couple of us do. Other than that, the landings are safe, if not particularly stylish.
By this time, I need to head up to the launch as the conditions are approaching what I need, so instead of getting a ride, I give one to three of the pilots who have landed. At the top, I get my glider built, and get the go ahead to launch at a little before 6:00. I need to let a couple of other pilots launch in order to get to the ramp, so I head over to wire assist a couple of pilots. As one of them heads up on the ramp, the wind picks up to where it is sustained around 15, and is gusting to 25 mph. The pilot who was on the ramp backs off, and we stash his glider in a wind shaded spot.
The wind continues on for about an hour. Around 7 PM it starts to lessen, and at around 7:15 we resume launching. Those pilots who had launched before the wind had picked up are all still in the air, along with some who had launched even earlier and had been in the air for a few hours. I finally take my turn at around 7:30, as the wind has slackened to around 10 to 15 mph, with far fewer gusts. My launch is fine, but I don't get much in the way of lift. I turned to the north, and am paralleling the ridge, but the wind is gusty, and so I'm staying a safe distance from it. As I travel down the ridge I'm not descending, but I'm not climbing above the ridge either, and the general gustiness makes me not want to get any closer to it. Before the wind had ticked up, pilots had been able to climb above the ridge from in front, but it's not working for me now. Last time I flew, Sky_Walker had given me a few suggestions where to find lift, but I'm too far in front of the ridge for them to work on this flight.
Since I wasn't having any luck getting above the ridge on the northern part of the ridge, I figure I'll try the southern part. I get kind of the same result, just being able to keep at the ridgeline, not being able to climb, but not really sinking either. Since that didn't work, I give the north side of the ridge another try, with the same result. At this point, I'm a little below the ridge, so I head out away from it. Now I start scanning the trees looking for thermal lift. I can find a few bits to work, but the wind has chopped the thermals up and the bubbles are small. It's still gusty and I'm super aware of where I am relative to the ridge, since I can't afford to go back towards it. The strength of the wind also makes it tough to circle, as the downwind part of the turn carries me back towards the ridge quickly. When a gust comes along, if there's lift with it I can slow and just about hover over the spot, and stay in that lift, but it mostly keeps me from descending; I don't get a climb.
After scratching for all I'm worth, I wind up close to the LZ, and pretty much out of any thermal lift, so I start setting up an approach. As I cross the LZ, I find some sink, and by the time I'm on the western edge, it's time to set up a downwind and turn final. Since the turn onto final will actually be down wind, I have to make a sharper than normal turn, and then have to head back towards the target cone. Once I'm back leveled out, I stuff the bar to dive through any gradient. The approach is fine until I get to the altitude where I'd normally start rounding out. I've switched my hands from the base tube to low on the downtubes, and would usually be letting the control frame out a bit at this point, but I've stopped descending, so I pull in a little more. After a second or two of that, the bottom drops out and the ground is approaching rather quickly. I push out a bit to slow my descent, but it seems to me that the wind gods are offering me a wheel landing, so I accept that and roll in to a safe, if not pretty, stop. Sky_Walker comes is in the LZ, and tells me that all of the landings he'd seen in the last half hour or so have been less than wonderful, so I feel a little better about my wheel landing. He also offers me a ride up the hill, which I gratefully accept. Thanks again, Jaime.
Comparing the two flights, the first was more enjoyable, while the second was more satisfying. At 19 minutes, it was also my longest to date. Those were the strongest conditions I've been in, and it was gratifying to know that I could handle them. I'll have to work on my landing technique when the LZ air is active. I've seen pilots make some odd approaches in active conditions, and I'd like to develop the technique to make a safe foot landing in that sort of air.
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July 18 - September in July |
Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:53 pm
[  Mood: Cool ]
[ Currently: Listening to Jethro Tull ]
From mid-June to the end of August, the weather in this part of the country can be described with three H's: hot, humid, and hazy. Fronts don't generally make it this far south, and the air can get kind of stagnant. So, for a big surprise, a moderate cold front pushed through on Friday evening, leaving cooler, drier air, and a forecast for northwesterly breezes in the 5 to 10 mph range, which generally means ridge soaring. It's been four weeks since I've last flown, so naturally I reserve Saturday for myself.
Normally, I would head up early to get a sledder in the morning, and then an evening flight. Because the days are so long and the sun so strong at this time of year, I decide to skip the morning flight so I can get a little family time. My older daughter had fallen while roller skating, and her hand is in a brace, so I didn't want to run off first thing Saturday morning without spending any time with her. My plan is to head up mid-afternoon to observe conditions, with the expectations of a launch around 6 PM. I arrive at 3:15, and check in with Gordon, one of Lookout's instructors, who is observing the mountain launch. He tells me it's pretty windy, and tells me that a 6 PM launch sounds about right. I get out my airspeed indicator, and get readings in the 12 to 16 mph range, with puffs up to 20 mph. That's a little too much for me, but what's of greater concern is the condition of the landing zone. It's switchy and thermally, and more than I'd care to take on. After hanging out a bit and meeting with a few pilots, I head out on an errand, intending to return at around 5 PM.
After I get back from the errand, I swing by the LZ to drop off my bicycle and to offer a ride to anyone who needs it. The entire Poser clan is in the LZ, hanging out and observing, so I stop and visit for a few minutes. There are a few pilots who have landed and are breaking down, including Jake526, so I give them a ride up.
While I was in the LZ, I was observing the wind there. It was light, but would periodically shift 180 degrees. I imagine that was from a thermal, as the surface winds were light, but it's enough to make me want to push my launch back a few minutes. Some other more experienced pilots are launching, so I help wire a few of them off. Sky_walker is up, and is trying to decide whether or not to set up, as the conditions are a bit stronger than he'd like. Things back off a bit, and he and about a dozen other pilots set up and start launching. I finally find a spot to set up, and get ready to go. It's about 6:45, and I have Gordon and Matt Taber as a wire crew. The wind is smooth, and it's no effort to get the glider balanced and go. Off the ramp, I get a little climb, and I'm a bit over launch as I turn to the north. This time I remember to transition my hands to the base tube, and am able to make firm corrections when the wind picks up. Last time, I felt a bit tentative, but this time I'm feeling much more confident in my flying. There's not quite as much lift as last time, but I'm maintaining altitude along the ridge, even after the turn back towards the ramp. I do sink a little bit on the return trip to the ramp, so when I reach it, I head out away from the ridge.
There are some little patches of lift to work, and I do my best to use them. The air is fairly smooth other than the lift, and I can feel the lift before my vario beeps. The patches are small, and I'm extending my glide more than anything else. The air's a little buoyant as well, so I'm not sinking very fast, so I'm able to stay on the hillside for a while.
After a while, the trees start getting closer, and I have to head back towards the LZ. I'm hoping to find some lift near the LZ, but it's after 7 PM and there's not much left, at least not below the ridgeline, so I transit the LZ and start setting up an approach to the North. There's some bumpiness around 200 feet, but all in all, the approach is fairly easy. I think I pulled in for speed a little before I was level, and wind up oscillating a little on the way down. The breeze in the LZ is crossing, and I wind up turning into it a bit just before roundout. Because I'm preoccupied with keeping the wings level, I don't get the strongest flare, and wind up running the landing out more than I'd like, but nothing other than my feet touch the ground, so I won't complain. Total flight time was 12 minutes.
At this point, there's a pretty good size group breaking down, so I go over and join them. After the Falcon is packed away, I go over to the clubhouse and chat with the Poser family. Lookout is serving deli sandwiches for $5 tonight, so I join them for dinner. We're all sitting out on the deck, eating dinner and watching pilots play on the ridge, while others come in and land, and others tow up, all in the cool evening air. $5 for dinner and a show, can't beat that.
At some point, Sky_walker comes in, after an hour and a half or two hours up in the air. I go over and chat with him briefly, and then take Mrsposer up on her offer to run me up the hill to my car. I get back to the LZ and pack up my bicycle and glider. When I get back, Sky_walker is finished packing up, and he gives me a few good tips on where to find extra lift on the ridge. It's after 9 PM, so we get his glider on my car, and he, I, and his lady pilot friend get back up the mountain to retrieve her car. It's a good thing that they are cozy, because my bike was in the back seat, and they had to share the other front seat.
After that flight, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to fly the ridge. I was able to try a couple of different turns that I may need when ridge flying, and I'm looking forward to the next front coming through.
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June 20 - A Little Soaring |
Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:48 pm
[  Mood: In Love ]
[ Currently: Listening to Steely Dan ]
Because it had been so long since I’d last flown, I went up the previous weekend in sled ride conditions, figuring that I needed to not be too rusty when soarable conditions came along. As a general rule, I don’t go up two weekends in a row any more, as it leaves too much to do at home and an unhappy family as well. However, since I’d only been up twice this year and it was Father’s Day weekend, my wife even suggested that should go both weekends. With that in mind, I’d started watching the weather early in the week. Forecast conditions were for blue skies and a northwest wind at around 10 mph, which is perfect for both Lookout and Henson’s Gap, but also blazingly hot, with air temps in the mid 90’s and high humidity. My wife and older daughter both have tandem flights coming to them, so I suggested that we all go up on Father’s Day and they could take their flights. My wife is a great heat hater, and wanted no part of that plan, so instead I figured that going up solo on Saturday, then spending the day at home with the family on Sunday was the best option.
Saturday morning started out fairly calm and a little overcast, which is normal for this time of year. As I approach Lookout’s mountain launch, I see gliders in the air, and not just a few. There are a couple of gliders still setting up, but most are in the air. I check in with Matt Taber, and he tells me that conditions are a little much for me to launch, and particularly, for any H2 to land. It’s not quite 11 AM, and already conditions are too strong for those of us with limited experience. Since I have the glider off of the car I set it up on its wheels but leave it in the bag, and go hang out on the launch.
Shortly after I arrived, I meet Nick, a pilot who is a member of our local message board, who I had not met in person before. He was in the same no fly situation as I was, so after wiring a few more experienced pilots off, we head out to visit the Henson's Gap launch, which is about an hour from Lookout. After a few missed turns, we find it. The area around the launch is big, flat, and has lots of trees and grass. At first glance, you wouldn't think there would be a hang glider launch anywhere near there. At the time we got there, no one was flying, but there were a few pilots who were planning to a little later. Among the pilots there was Clark, who gives footlaunch tandems from the site, who was waiting for a customer. We get to know some of the pilots, and they fill us in on the finer points of flying from the site. Around 3 PM, those pilots who were there start setting up and begin launching. The wind is blowing 15 to 18 MPH, and mostly straight on the ramp. In these conditions, it takes about two steps to go from standing to airborne.
After we wire off the last two pilots, we take one pilot's truck down to the LZ, and head back to Lookout. As we're approaching the town of Trenton, you can see the Lookout ramp from the highway. At first, I can't see any gliders up, then finally I do see one of the tandem gliders. That is a good sign for me, because if the tandem operation is running, I can generally fly. As we get closer, I see a number of gliders in the air, and when I get to the ramp, I see that things have calmed down a bit, so it's time for me to set up.
Assuming I get to launch, this will be my 20th mountain flight. My first lesson was on June 24, 2007, so my 2 year anniversary is coming up, and I don't yet have a soaring flight. Earlier in the day I was feeling a little sorry for myself, until Nick pointed out that if I can soar on my 20th flight, that's actually pretty good. After all, the first ten had to be sled runs, and it takes a while to gain experience when you don't get up that often and your flights average six minutes each. I'd had a couple of near misses last fall where I almost got to soar, but instead got extended sledders, and then we had a pretty bad winter/spring. So, here's my chance to end the streak.
With the glider already on the wheels, it doesn't take long to get it built. At a little before 6 PM, I head over to the ramp and get a wire crew. I get a hang check, head up onto the ramp, and head down close to the red line. The glider floats around a bit, and Gordon, who was the instructor who launched me on my first solo, suggests I take one more step forward. That sets everything right, and I get a couple of "neutral"s from my wire crew, and off I go. I start a gentle left turn and immediately begin to climb. YAHOOO! 
Alright, lets get this figured out. I'm watching for traffic first, then I look down to see where I am. I'm directly over the ridge, looking down at the trees. That's a little closer than I'd like to be, so I try to turn upwind, and the glider's just not responding like I think it should, so I check to make sure I'm not cross controlling, and I realize that I still have my hands on the downtubes. I put them on the base tube and everything's back to normal. I turn away from the ridge to give myself a little clearance.
There's lots of traffic today, so I've got my neck on a swivel looking around for it. Fortunately, it's all a little higher than I am, so I don't much have to worry about it. I think I did wind up a little farther from the ridge than would be ideal, but better farther away than too close. There's a cell phone tower a ways down the ridge where new soaring pilots are supposed to turn around, so I make a turn back towards the launch. I suspect I should have let myself drift back towards the ridge a bit more before I turned, but with this only being the second time I've been down the ridge and the first time in lift, I'm wanting a little extra margin. I head back towards the ramp, and when I get there, I'm probably about 10 or 20 feet below where I launched. The rule for new pilots is that if you're not above the ramp when you get back, you should turn towards the LZ, so that's what I do.
On the way over, I get a few beeps from my vario, and get a few wing lifts as well. I try to work those areas, but can't sustain anything. It may very well be that there was usable lift there, but I don't have the skills to work them yet.
When I arrive over the LZ, I've only descended about 250 feet, so I go hang out over the southern part of the LZ, which tends to be kind of buoyant. I'm still descending, but not very quickly, so I float around enjoying the view.
All good thing must come to an end, so I eventually turn northerly for my downwind leg. It's not particulary bumpy, so the approach is easy. Because the northern end of the LZ is fairly narrow, I turn a bit early so I don't wind up in the aerotow pattern, which sets me up for a landing a couple of hundred feet from the middle of the LZ. On final, I'm getting bumped around a bit, but nothing too serious, but I do misjudge my flare height, and wind up coming down with a bump, first on my feet, then one knee, then my wheels, but at zero groundspeed. Certainly not my best landing, but a safe one nonetheless. Total flight time: 16 minutes.
Since I got over launch for the first time, and I got more airtime than I would with a sledder, I'm going to declare this to be my first soaring flight. I realize in some parts of the world, that wouldn't be much, but for around here, I'm very happy with it.
After I get the glider packed up, I sit down and watch landings while I wait to bum a ride. I see a lot of pilots climbing slightly as they round out, and see one make a landing that must have looked exactly like mine. I'm guessing the buoyant air is catching us all by surprise.
Another pilot and I catch a ride up to the launch with Avnav8r and his wife. They've been working today and have swung by for an evening flight. When we get to the top, The other pilot and I help Dale (Mrs. Avnav8r) with her glider, so she can get into the air a little more quickly. We're trying to get the base tube on, and there's a little bit of misalignment, so we rotate the downtube back a little and the FREAKING DOWNTUBE COMES OFF!   When we disassemble it, we find that the piece that attaches the downtube to the keel bracket is shaped like the letter "C", and that part of the end of it has worn off. In flight, as long the glider was loaded with positive G, the downtube would have been fine, but there's no way anyone's going to fly with a broken piece. Somebody calls down to the LZ to get permission to borrow one of the school gliders, and Matt agrees, so we go get a Falcon 3. Dale is not that familiar with the Falcon 3's hardware, so another Falcon 3 pilot and I help her get it assembled. We both preflight it, and a couple of pilots and Gordon wire them off into the evening sky.
I head off to the LZ to collect my glider, then set off for home. I arrive at 12:15 to a hero's welcome...from the dog.
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June 14 - Adding Another Sledder to the Collection |
Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:58 pm
[ Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Listening to Tears for Fears ]
Our spate of bad flying weather continued through late spring, so I hadn't been up to Lookout since April. Things started to improve towards the end of May and into early June, but we were off on our family vacation, so I missed out on that. The weekend after we got back looked to be marginally soarable, but after having visited nine different sites in seven days, I wasn't feeling like getting back in the car, and anyway, I was still basking in the glory of having planned the most righteous seven day family vacation in the history of Dad-dom.
However, the weekend of the 13th-14th was looking flyable, if maybe not soarable. Saturday was forecast to be a little on the stormy side, so I penciled in Sunday. Now, Nibs had warned me that there was a strong chance that there would be a cirrus deck that would preclude any chances at soaring, but since I'd only flown once this year, I figured a sledder or two would be good enough.
I got a little bit of a late start on Sunday because I wanted to see the end of the 24 Hours of LeMans. As promised, there was a solid overcast all the way there, and light winds directly on the ramp. Just as I pulled up, I saw a familiar glider getting ready to do. It was Cathi H., who I first met while helping build gliders for the Flights for Charities event last year. I stop to chat for a moment, and find out that her "man friend", who she had gotten into hang gliding, had just made his fourth mountain solo, and was probably in need of a ride up. She shows me her new vario, which he bought her for Christmas. (Talk about a great relationship!) We get her hang checked, and Gordon sends her on her way. I head down to see if anyone else needs to come up.
When I reach the LZ, I find a whole carful of pilots needing to come up the hill, including one from our local FlyHighAtlanta group, and John from central Georgia. Once we get up to the top, I get my glider built and ready to go. The wind has started crossing, so I get a wire crew and wait for a good cycle. I get a calm patch, and head off into the overcast sky.
The air is glassy smooth, and I don't hear a sound from my vario once I leave the launch. I do a few turns just to get back into things, but don't do too much, as the trees look a little closer than they usually do.
Once I cross over the LZ, I can see that I am lower than I usually would be at that point, so I go ahead and turn downwind. The windsock is pointing directly across the LZ, but is looking limp. Since the wind was blowing out of the south when I launched, I figure that I should land to the south as well. As I head downwind, I realize that I'm a bit high, and extend the downwind leg a little. I don't want to go too far to the north of the LZ as the terrain rises pretty quickly there and it's nothing but trees. So, I turn final a bit high, but as always, I'm on a Falcon with a speedbar, down is doable. I pull in and it's apparent that I'll touch down a little past the center of the LZ. If I tried that on a double surface glider , I'd probably would have wound up in Alabama, but it's no problem on a Falcon.
My handwork is less than perfect when I transition from the basetube to the downtubes, and I balloon a little bit. In the calm air, it's not a problem, but I need to do a better job, to be ready for the less forgiving days. I've had a few issues with pushing out rather than up when flaring, so I concentrate on getting my arms fully up. I think I did that, but I also think I waited a bit too long and flared at a little lower airspeed than I should have. I do wind up having to jog three steps, but considering that it was dead calm, that's not too bad. I do think I can do better, though.
I hitch a ride up the mountain, then come down and collect my glider and get some lunch. After that, I headed back up to the mountain launch to see how conditions were. There were a few showers in the area, which are now clearing out, but there is now a crosswind that seems to be building more than abating, so I head home.
I now have all of 19 mountain flights, scattered over 22 months. The longest so far has been 15 minutes, and the most recent one was probably one of the shortest, owing to the sink that I found. The forecast for this weekend is looking soarable for both days, with Sunday probably being the better day, especially for me. Sunday is Father's Day, and I do need to spend it with the family, so I'll have to see if I can get them all to come up with me. My wife and older daughter have tandem flights to take as well, maybe they'd like to do them then. It will be a long day trip on a hot day, so I'm not sure how well the suggestion will be received.
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