Trading altitude for distance

Last Saturday I was waiting for an ASK-21 to come back from a flight so I could take a spin when I realized the 1-34 was sitting out there just waiting to be flown. So, I hopped in and off I went.

The wind was from the South but would sometimes blow and sometimes stop. Takeoff was to the North. The first flight reminded me that I forgot how much the spoilers will slow you down on a 1-34! Let's just say that I 'attacked' the runway in firmly returning to earth.

I took another ride, hoping to dust off the cobwebs. It was an odd day with shear and broken up lift aloft. The tow line went slack once and I carefully swung the nose out to slow the ship and take keep from putting a shock on it as the line went taut again. I was able to find zero sink but never sustained lift. I'd gotten aloft after a high overcast shut off the thermal activity, but no matter. This was more about wounded pride than staying aloft.

When landing into a South wind at Harris Hill, the wind blows up the backside of the hill and curls over and down into the valley at the northern end of the runway. That's the end that you cross on final approach when landing into a South wind.

I kept my pattern high and close on base leg and turned final with quite a bit of altitude. The wind sock was showing about 10 knots or a little less as I opened the spoilers and started to slip hard to lose altitude. This time I had my speed right as I descended down final when suddenly I started to lose altitude very quickly. I was in the waterfall.

Fortunately, I had been expecting it so I closed the spoilers and accelerated to 75 knots, pointing the nose down to get to that speed. The edge of the landable area was getting pretty big pretty fast. I started to mentally calculate when I should break off and make a turn to go back into the valley when suddenly the descent rate decreased. I was through it.

I pulled the nose up and tried to slow to 55 for landing. Suddenly, I'd gone from landing way short to looking like I might go long! No matter, I put the spoilers out full, slowed to approach speed and then closed them to about 1/3 as I got close to flaring out for landing. I bobbled a bit but managed to touchdown precisely where I'd been aiming and made a credible touchdown and stop.

I'm still rusty, but looking forward to more flying soon. The weather this Spring so far has been nice only when I'm working and a bit crummy when I'm flying. Hopefully that will break soon and I'll get some thermaling practice in.

And he's Current!

At today's Wednesday night training session, I completed my 3rd flight in the past ninety days, making me FAA current and legal to carry passengers on flights. I've completed my annual safety check ride, I'm current, and the season has just begun. Life is good.

Today, the winds were pretty strong out of the south all day but were predicted to change to the northwest and drop to under 10 knots. That's not exactly what happened, though.

When I arrived at Harris Hill, the winds were out of the northwest alright and dropping but after I got into the glider, the windsock went limp. I took off in what must have been a lull. Upon getting airborne, it was clear that the atmosphere was unstable with gusts and bumps all the way to altitude that got gustier rather than smoother as is usually the case.

I headed upwind looking for any signs of lift but when I found it, it was choppy and not very large. I flew 45 degree circles trying to stay inside it but finally decided that they weren't thermals after all but instead were gusts being blown up after hitting the ridge below.

The wind switched all the way around to the Northeast after I got to altitude and picked up again, necessitating a North landing with an eastern crosswind component and gusts. I stayed close on downwind, carried some extra altitude into the base leg, keeping it quite close as well, and turned onto final. I was determined to pick out and land on a specific spot, not too far down the runway but not too close from the threshold and get it stopped before the taxiway.

I nailed it. I did let my airspeed slip a bit on final but got it back to approach speed and put the glider precisely on the spot I wanted to land on, kept wings level, and kept flying it all the way to the stop, easily finishing before I got to the taxiway. I let the brake off, coasted onto the taxiway and stopped. Beautiful. A nice confidence builder.

So, now I'm ready to fly. I need some lift, first of course! The weather isn't too promising this weekend, but we'll find a day soon to practice thermal centering and climbing. I've been reading Kai Gertsen's Cross Country Guide and it is jam packed with practical advice. I'm preparing for cross country training this year and expect to be a much better pilot by the end of the season.

Weather station takes a step forward...

Saturday, I managed to get the HHSC weather station mounted. Thanks to Burke Carson and Doug...sorry Doug, I forgot your last name! Both were a great help to put the station up on the side of the flight center on a REALLY blustery day!

It's not perfect, of course. I chose to use a length of pvc pipe about 8 feet high but when we got it up, it's not really as rigid as I hoped for and it oscillates in the wind. And the day we put it up, the winds were pretty strong - 20 gusting to 30 mph.

I think we'll have to replace the pipe with something metal, unfortunately. I shouldn't have tried to cheap out on this part of the install.

Ominously, the blasted console is also giving me a lot of trouble powering up. I'm going to have to call Davis wether systems, It had this issue before.

Meanwhile, I've purchased an Ebay WiFi router and some parts to build a cantenna for the museum WiFi connection. The parts should be here soon.