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Flight plans |
Sun May 06, 2012 3:17 am
[  Mood: Amused ]
Planning a 37 mile Triangle this morning. Largely depends on the rest of the crews plans.
Normally they go for downwind distance. Since I have to beg a ride from the other's wives/drivers, I usually just follow them. Light winds may allow me to talk them into my idea.
This will be the first XC with the topless.
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I got to fly! |
Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:52 am
So I hadn't flown since last October or something silly like that. Heck last year I only had about a dozen flights on half a dozen trips to the field. (That includes a week long stay in (not-so) sunny Florida.
Over Easter the guys went out and had some pretty good flying. Even the scooter tow pilots were soaring. Sadly I had family things to attend to and did't get to join them. I've been pushing to fly ever since.
Couple weeks ago I was trying to get enough folks to play hooky midweek, but it didn't happen. One of my sailplane buddies apparently spent 5.5 hours aloft and traveled all over south western Ohio that day.
Weekends have been windy and/or rainy. Sat was another such day. Not to mention cold. Sunday was forecast to be marginal, and marginal it was.
I took an early tow, to make sure I remembered how to do it. A little rough below 1500, but smooth above. Ended up a sledder.
My next one I used another pilot as a marker and was able to work a little bit of lift before the day gave up the ghost and everyone came down.
Not much, but man was it fun!
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4 months off and a new wing. |
Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:17 am
My last flight had been sometime in July, on my U2.
A suprise chance to fly during the week and I jumped on it. I recently picked up an Airborne Climax. The first one. Size 14. While this wing is 4 or so iterations old, it is in like new condition. I flew an Icaro Lammy last spring, and was looking forward to giving this one a go.
I suited up and was ready to go. I had to little vg and found myself climbing op to high and had trouble staying down with the tug. Once things started to go a little sideways on top of being high I opted to pin and try again. (My landing was not great, but not horrible.)
Second attempt went much better. I climbed out to 1700' and pinned off in lift. Considering I didn't expect any kind of organized lift, I second guessed my decision. To my joy the lift remained organized and I spent the next hour and a half working up to a max of over 4500' and fighting upwind against 25ish mph winds aloft.
I found the Climax to be a joy to fly. It took a little bit to get use to the things you have to do to make flying it smoother and easier. Once I figured the little thing out it was much much less taxing to fly.
Knowing the C1 is a dated topless, I can't wait until I can get under something more modern. Quick someone sell me a t2c for less than 1000 bucks!
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Multi-aircraft flying. |
Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:08 am
Sat I ventured out to the local flying field. One of guys had came by way of his home built Highlander.
One beautiful plane. (Oshkosh winner)Ended up getting about 30 minutes or so of refresher stick time. After many years it was funny how it doesn't take very long at all to get back into the hang of thing. I set up the approach and The PIC took over around 50'.
We waited around for an overcast layer to build, clear, and build. When it started clearing again it was time to go. First tow took me almost to cloudbase. Got off in lift and almost made my way to the white room. Once I got out from under the cloud I had nothing and was back on the ground fairly quickly.
Tow #2 a few minutes later and I was playing around at cloudbase again. Cloud base was about 2800 and after spending some time flying by feel I headed towards the next cloud. Again, nothing but this time it was a slow ride back down.
A little later the owner of a Monarch Sailplane offered a chance to fly it. I was hesitant, but decided it would be a fun experience. There was not much wind, and late enough in the day to be smooth.
I barely fit the cockpit. Headroom was not a key factor in the design of this thing. We hooked me up to the tow rope and off we went. A little squirrely at first, but soon got it settled down. The rest of the tow was pretty easy as a tad bit of bank and the tug would just pull the nose around.
Once off tow it was pretty smooth. I found me and the monarch like right turns better than left. My sense of coordination to the left is not as highly refined as it is to the right. I don't care what way I turn in ground bound vehicles. Once my feet leave the ground right turns are almost always more comfortable.
So I played around going around the neighborhood, until it was time to set up my approach. This was the part I was dreading the most. We have some powerlines at the end of the runway I had to come over. Not wanting to stall, and wanting to stay out of the power lines I came in a little high and fast, but otherwise a pretty decent approach I think.
I failed to bleed off much of that extra speed te firt time the wheel touched down. I bounced once, twice, and finally stuck to the runway. I still had just enough speer as I crossed the "bump" where the drain culvert runs under the runway. I was instantly launched 15 or 20' back into the air with a very unhealthy attitude.
In my powered training this was a simple case of add power and fly it back down. In a sailplane I really had no clue on how to react.I did what felt right, and I think it may have been wrong. I bounced 3 more time, each time a little harder than the last.
I'd like to say everything was fine, but there were some cracks that have to be patched up. Matt Kollman is on hand to do the repairs, and Dan only paid $250 bucks for the Monarch anyway, but it still makes you feel like s*** when you break other kids toys
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First real flight this year. |
Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:16 am
I made it to the field around noonish. Set up and waited for about another hour.
Finally I went for it. Launch was clean as far as I could tell. The air was a bit textured, and soon 900+ was showing on the averager. My tug pilot made a circle in lift, and I questioned releasing, but I hesitated. Frank (my tug pilot) spoke to me using the power of the force.....errr.. 2 meter. Told me he didn't think it would get any better. We dropped out of the lift, and another circle back and we found nothing. The vario was now struggling to show more than 200fpm climb. I wanted off in lift, so I mentioned towing over Darbyville in search of it. We did, but there still was no lift.
I think it took me longer to get down than it did to get up. I worked a little bit of lift on the way down, but it fell apart and I settled in to join the others in thinking we had another day that looked decent, but stunk.
A little before 4 Mike P decided he needed to fly his Millennium. Other than a quick oscillation coming of the ground, it looked like it was flying pretty smooth. John, A, Larry B, and I were ready to go now. I won the race to suit up, and launched.
Frank again towed me into lift. This time I got off just under 2k. Thought maybe I didn't know how to center a thermal, because try as I might I netted a loss of altitude for the first few minutes. Eventually either I or the thermal got our s*** together and I climbed up to where Mike P was. I think Larry came in under and worked his way up.
Larry headed out towards 5 points. Since that was cross wind, I didn't think he was going on his first glide of an XC flight, and I opted to head back towards the field. I searched and searched and was under 1000'. I saw Frank pulling John, and started the slightest hint of a 360. I thought he might be turning to come back around for lift lift and made a bee line for them. At 600 foot a hit a steady beep. It broke up little between 800 and 1000, but turned nice and steady up to 2500. Broke up again around 3k and then gradually dropped of between 4 and 5k. (I don't think I broke 5k, but it might have been close.)
After that it was just a matter of finding a little bubble, and then finding the core, or you could just look for one of the 6 mor 7 other gliders in the air.
I eventually made a mistake and left lift to early. The other guys hung on a little longer as I headed towards 5points. I was almost there, but worried about making it back. I was not finding anything and have already had to land there a couple other times. I headed a little farther south and watched the other guys head past 5 points. John called on the radio to say he had lift north of 5points, but I was past the point of going looking for it.
I very slowly worked my way down over Darbyville. I didn't see the others to go pimp off of, and couldn't find my own lift. I came in with too much VG and sped across the ground stirring up grasshoppers and the like. My flair was a bit early and slow, so I zoomed up and came smashing down in a bone jarring, but non-whack,non-damaging landing. Not happy with it, but the joy of the flight could not be tarnished.
Matt D came in after, followed by JD, Larry B and Mike C. JD did a touch and go, but ran it out. Mike C did a touch and go with his impression of a pro wrestler doing a pile driver from the top rope. A scrape, but glider and pilot were otherwise fine. Larry had to run, but kept it up. John A came creeping in behind us us and replayed Mike C's landing with a resounding thud. We haven't had much flying time, let alone landing practice this year. First time any one has had to land in no-wind conditions and other than Matt D's I don't think I saw anyone NOT struggle. Mike P doesn't count, he has wheels on his crate.
Final tally, I had just over 2:30 in the air. a few pilots had that much time in just 1 flight.
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