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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.
Posted By: FormerFF 1 Comments (Post your comment) |
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About FormerFF
Joined
Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:27 pm
Location
Roswell, Georgia, USA
Occupation
Software Developer
Interests
Sports car racing, bicycling
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Blog
Blog Started
Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:42 pm
Total entries
40
Blog Age
1318 days
Total replies
76
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