Rebuilding the 2-33 - Part 2

Today, Bryan and Caitlyn Reigal, Kevin and I stripped the fabric from number 3.  Dave Welles stopped by to help and Ed Funk got us started but was feeling poorly and had to head home.

As the time lapse video above will attest, it didn't take long to get the bulk of the fabric off of the fuselage.  A utility knife and a little peeling took care of it easily.  Underneath was mostly the metal frame, but in some spots the fabric, or the impression of the fabric remained on the metal framework and we did what we could to scrape it down.  Other remnants included old and crumbly bits of tape that wrapped the frame and were underneath the fabric.

We also removed the fabric from the rear control surfaces - the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator (the stabilizer is fixed, the elevator is the moving part) and the rudder.

Between our last visit to the shop, Dave Welles and Shaw Siglin had removed all of the controls - the rudder pedals, cables, control sticks, spoiler actuators and so forth.  They also removed the fiberglass nose from the frame.  

At this point, the fuselage looks pretty bare and is ready for K&L soaring to come take a look at it and let us know how much the glass bead blasting and restoration of the frame will cost.  I haven't noticed much obvious rust or pitting on the frame, so I'm hoping that its years in the hangar have helped to extend #3's life quite a bit.

Next steps for us are to inventory the interior parts and decide what kind of repair, rework, or replacement needs to be done.

More pictures in my Soaring directory: https://picasaweb.google.com/tberry0916/Soaring

Rushing to takeoff

I saw the following quote in Flying magazine and it spurred some thoughts:

"Do not let yourself be forced into doing anything before you are ready." 

— Wilbur Wright

Another good quote: "Aviation, to an even greater
extent than the sea, is terribly unforgiving."
- anonymous

Happens to our pilots before takeoff in three ways - 

1.  The pilot doesn't get into the aircraft soon enough.  We usually go over this one at the safety meetings.  I've found over time that if I'm not strapping in when the glider in front of me is taking off, I don't feel that I have comfortably gotten my head in the game.  It only takes one twisted seatbelt strap to cost you a couple of minutes and before you know it the tow plane is taxiing up and you haven't even started the pre-takeoff checklist.

2.  Corollary to number 1, above - people don't realize that with two tow planes, you need to already be strapped in with the checklist complete BEFORE the plane in front of you takes off.

3.  Commercial pilots - strapping a passenger in, giving them the briefing, and then strapping yourself in and doing the checklist takes longer than you think.  Even with one tow plane, if you greet the passenger before the glider in front of you takes off, you are in a race to be ready when it comes back.  It's simply unavoidable that you will delay the tow plane in some instances -especially if they haven't brought the next passenger down already.  This happen often when you have two or even three commercial pilots flying - the cash position doesn't always know to keep the queue full even if the log person is on top of it.  It is helpful to have a ground crew strap in the passenger -very helpful, but even so, you can still end up with the tow plane waiting through no fault of your own.

Thus, at some point, you will almost *always* end up with the tow plane waiting on you while you strap in.  This is when you forget to lock the canopy or don't remember to check the passenger's weight and let them sit in the front.  I've read enough Aftermath articles in Flying to realize that getting rushed unnecessarily is a BAD idea.  The solution?  In this case, you control the tempo.  Take as much time as you need, and as little time as you can and tell the towplane to shut down if necessary.  Unless Heinz Jr. is flying.  Then don't make him wait for anything.  Kidding.  I'll make him wait too, if it means not missing an item on the checklist.

Obviously, we should do the things we need to do so we don't put ourselves in a rushed takeoff situation.  But my ADM says that if it *does* happen, be conscious that it is occurring and take the necessary time to do things right and prevent the issue the NEXT time you takeoff.  According to a chart I found on the O-540 engine, a Pawnee consumes about 10 gallons per hour or .16 gallons per minute.  If you take an extra 3 minutes, that's a 1/2 gallon or $3.25.  Not chump change, but probably worth the cost of ensuring something bad doesn't happen in flight.  Just make sure it doesn't happen again. 

Rebuilding a Schweizer 2-33 - Part 1

Number 3 is wheeled out to the line to provide faithful
service in training new pilots.

The board of directors voted to refurbish one of the three Schweizer 2-33's that the club owns recently.  Number 3 has needed some attention this summer as it developed a rip in the fuselage fabric and as you might imagine, after almost 40 years of flying it could use an overhaul.

The bulk of the work concentrates on the fuselage and today we spent a number of hours removing the rudder, horizontal stabilizer, interior, wheel, and skid from the aircraft.

Thanks to the National Soaring Museum for letting us use their restoration shop to do the work!

The fuselage is the main focus

The wings are stored in the restoration shop as well

The wings are in pretty good shape because we are fortunate enough to be able to store our aircraft in a hangar for the majority of the time.  So, when the time comes we'll give them some TLC to clean them up, wash them off, wax them and so forth, but there's really no need to paint them.

That's not to say they don't have a number of  'hangar rash' spots that come from years of club members moving them in and out of a crowded hangar.  But since many 2-33's are stored outdoors, their aluminum wings often require repaint from sun and rain exposure.  We are very lucky that isn't the case for us.

My son Kevin and I are assigned to the interior strip and removal.  Although I've spent my share of hours inside a 2-33, I didn't realize how much stuff there is inside the cockpit!

Many of the parts and innards of a 2-33

The picture at left is the parts rack of stuff we've taken off of the aircraft.  The control surfaces (rudder, elevator, horizontal stabilizer) are on top while the second shelf contains most of the stuff Kevin and I stripped out of the front and rear cockpit.

Sidewalls, floorboards, seatbelts, seat pans and seatbacks, control stick boots, and trim all came out to expose the innards of the 2-33.  It was really quite cool to finally get to see the inner workings of the glider and appreciate the simplicity that makes the 2-33 so reliable even 40 years on.

Before we began taking number 3 apart

I took a couple of pictures at the start so we could remember how and where everything goes when it is time to put it all back.  At left, looking from the rear cockpit to the front is the complete package.

By the time we finished in the afternoon, the interior was down to the bare bones.  The only thing left were the rudder pedals and control sticks.

Stamped on the back of an interior sidewall piece was
Run #21handwritten.  I turns out to be our own Corky
Gill's Schweizer inspection number.

Same view (looking forward) after stripping the interior

Did we find anything interesting inside after all this time?  We did, stamped on the sidewall of one of the trim pieces.  I was looking at it and noticed the handwritten "Run #21" among the various manufacturing stamps.  I read it out loud and  then heard, "Hey, that's me!"

Corky Gill, one of our senior club members worked at Schweizer until the early 90's and his inspection number was #21.  I showed him the handwriting and he confirmed that it was his!

Corky Gill's (in the red hat) inspector number rides inside #3.
Dave Welles, at right, was a test pilot at Schweizer.

What's next for number 3?  Well, after we strip the fabric, it will be off to K&L soaring for a fuselage inspection and reconditioning to ensure we don't have corrosion in the tubular framing.

At the nose, looking aft.

Following that, we'll have #3 re-covered and put it back together again.  We'll ensure any slop is taken out of the controls, replace any instruments that need help, and clean and paint the interior.  For all intents and purposes, the fuselage will be brand new.  And since the wings are in good shape, number 3 will be given new life to train our pilots at Harris Hill next summer.

Kevin and I really enjoyed stripping the interior and seeing how the 2-33 works.  It's nice to have a project to keep us busy over the winter season and I'm looking forward to flying in number 3 next year!

More pictures of the restoration are here.

RASP - Improving our Soaring Forecast

Output of a typical RASP run.
Source: Valley Soaring.net

"Do you know what RASP is?"  It was a question from one of our best sailplane racing pilots.

I told him I didn't really know what it was.  It turns out to be a soaring prediction model called Regional Atmospheric Soaring Prediction, or RASP.   The RASP model turns out what are called blipmaps which are maps of soaring conditions that indicate all kinds of parameters of interest to soaring pilots.

These maps are already available online at www.drjack.com, but the grid areas are large and the terrain isn't considered as precisely as it could be.  Dr. Jack Glendening is an atmospheric scientist and the author of RASP.  He allows gliding clubs to use his code at no charge, but also with community-only support.

I took a look at RASP, which is a collection of Unix programs that are controlled from an overall RASP script.  It is a terminal only program - there is no GUI, and all output during the runs is written console-style to logs that you pore through to determine the source of your errors.  Parameters are in different directories and not always obvious.  The documentation for the program is fairly robust, but suffice it to say that troubleshooting a complex software package that you have never seen before is quite a challenge.

So far, I've managed to get RASP right up to the edge where it actually run the atmospheric forecasting program.  In effect, the program so far downloads the results of model runs from the National Weather Service, then preps them for a local run of WRF, the Weather Research and Forecasting model.  That's where the hard number crunching happens, then the results are output in a format you can put them on a website with graphical charts showing the results.

I've come quite a way to make just a little progress and I'm currently stumped at one error.  The forum for RASP is understandably small and Dr. Jack doesn't actively support RASP, so if I can't figure it out, I'm sunk.  I've got one or two ideas right now, but right now I'll give myself about a 70% chance of success.

Snowbird 2011 Contest

The 2011 Snowbird is now in the history books.  The longest running soaring contest is hosted annually at Harris Hill on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Hooking up and ready for takeoff  All photos courtesy of Stefan Trego: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefantrego/

This was my second Snowbird, but the first one where anyone did any flying.  Last year's contest was weathered out with winds out of the West at 20 knots and gusting higher.  This year was completely different with reasonably calm winds and incredibly warm temperatures into the 60's.

I volunteered to log takeoffs and we kept two tow planes busy all day long with over 60 flights Saturday.  We had contestants from Finger Lakes and Valley Soaring and they brought their own 1-26 gliders -the machines of choice for spot landings.

Preparing to enter downwind for Snowbird.  All photos courtesy of Stefan Trego http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefantrego/

One of the nice things about Snowbird is that it is more a fun-fest than a contest.  With events like spot landing and specific duration, the point is to fly a short pattern and land at exactly the right time on exactly the right spot rather than be an ace pilot and stay aloft to fly fastest and furthest.

On approach during Snowbird.  The landing zone is on the right hand runway about 1/3 of the way up from the grass.  Can you see it?  I didn't think so.  All photos courtesy of Stefan Trego http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefantrego/

The event creates lots of...interesting approaches.  The landing zone is small, perhaps 40 feet.  If you touch down prior to the zone, you lose 400 points.  Overshoot it and lose 100, 200, or 300 points.  Then you have to stop pretty short and they measure your distance from a traffic cone.  The winner is usually decided by inches and seconds.  

Best landing of the day goes to two of our most experienced instructors -Dana Smith and Ron Ogden who touched down hot and laid down a good 180 feet of skid mark before crushing the traffic cone.  While they were a little sheepish, it's nice to know everyone is human.

I didn't fly this year.  I intended to hand over the log to someone around 1pm and fly a couple of flights, but pretty much everyone else was flying and there just wasn't anyone to do it until much later when I had obligations at home.  Even so, there was so much energy and activity on the flight line, it was still a lot of fun to participate.

Moving into the winter, we're going to be fairly active with rework on number 3 and buff and polish of the 4 ASK-21's we own.  I can't wait until April to fly again!

Photo Credit Dean Alexander.

Harris Hill Soaring Corporation was asked to participate in an historic soaring event - Soaring 100 a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Orville Wright's nearly 10 minute unpowered soaring flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The Wrights successfully flew the first powered aircraft in 1903, but the first real, practical version of the aircraft was the Wright Flyer III in late 1905 back in Dayton on Huffman Prairie.  In 1911, the Wrights returned to Kitty Hawk with a glider to test improved stability controls and there on the dunes, Orville ridge soared for nearly 10 minutes in a 50 knot wind.  The record held for nearly 10 years before it was broken.

The 1911 glider soars over Kitty Hawk

Soaring 100 celebrated the achievement 100 years later and HHSC's membership made the trek to Kitty Hawk with a Duo Discus, a modern example of recent gliding technology.  Club member Mo Acee piloted the Discus in demos for the crowd, landing on the same stretch of grass that the Wrights flew the original Wright Flyer from.  Only 15 examples of gliders were selected for the demo flights and it was nice that HHSC and the National Soaring Museum were asked to participate!

Season's End Again

What an interesting soaring season I had!  I accomplished my goal of earning my commercial glider pilot's license and my son decided that soaring was a passionate interest for him.  Meanwhile, I developed a new motto to deal with the awful weather - "Never pass up a good flying day."

That held true even yesterday, the last day of scheduled ops for 2011 on Harris Hill.  I'd gone up there to meet with one of our club members to discuss some business but the weather looked so good I convinced my son to go with me.  "We'll only be a little while...,"  I told my wife.  I've been soaring long enough for her to see right through that lie.

It was quite cool, but when I said hello to some of the folks there it became quickly apparent that the conditions were really quite good for soaring.  After a few minutes of discussion, Kevin and I decided that it would be foolish to pass up conditions like these, especially since we probably won't fly regularly until April at best.

After deciding to fly the ASK-21, I put Kevin in front and off we went.  It took almost no time to get to altitude because Tim Welles, our tow pilot, knows how to tow through thermals and uses them to shorten the time on tow.  We got off at 2,000 above ground (3,700 on the altimeter) and were immediately in lift.

I'd turned over the flying duties to Kevin shortly after takeoff and he did a good job of keeping us in the lift as we climbed over the valley North of Harris Hill.  It looked like there was cloud streeting, so we decided to push out along the street to see if we could go anywhere.  In most cases, we saw zero sink and when we reached the South end of the street, we found 4 knots of lift that strengthened and turned into 6 knots!

Cloud streets are horizontal lines of clouds that are usually indicative of thermal activity

Kevin took us up close to the bottom of the nice, dark cumulus cloud and we topped out at 5,800 feet, a new record altitude for him.  We stayed up about 45 minutes and returned when we began to get cold.  I flew a passenger later at the end of the day and we did some stalls, a wingover, some zero-g pushovers and had a generally good time together. 

My landings in the ASK-21 are getting much more precise and I've been able to touchdown exactly where I wanted to and make those long slow rollouts balanced on the center wheels all the way up to the flight line.  Quite often, the juniors on the line will catch the wing before it touches the ground.

My goals this year were to get my commercial license and to do a better job of handling the ASK-21, especially on landing.  While I've felt competent in the 21, I now feel much more confident in it.  It's a good way to end the soaring season.

Flying the 2-33....again

I forgot how much I like the 2-33

After flying commercial flights for several hours, I was ready for a break but my son wanted to take a flight.  The ASK's were busy with passenger rides, so I saddled up in the back of the trusty Schweizer 2-33.  Kevin was thrilled to fly his training aircraft.  I did the takeoff, then turned it over to him for the tow and rest of the flight.  He flew a tad high on tow, but would generally correct back to the proper position and I could see that he's definitely 'getting it' and learning how to handle the aircraft.  A couple of bumps kept him alert and were good experience.  Pretty soon we were up to release altitude - 3700 feet above sea level.  We released and began looking for lift.

I directed us over the hang glider launch since that's where I'd found a pretty reliable thermal for most of the day and sure enough, we found it.  The thermals were a bit odd with shear in them and sort of an on/off feeling to them.  I'd been able to center them in the ASK-21 with passengers, but I thought I'd let Kevin try his hand at it without too much direction from me.

Pretty soon we were circling with good lift on one side and zero on the other.  The right thing to do is to try and move your circle towards the stronger side of the lift by banking steeply on the weak side and making a more shallow bank when you are on the strong side.  This moves your circle, hopefully strengthening the lift so you are in it all the way around the circle.  I gave a little direction to Kevin and pretty soon he had it centered and we started climbing steadily.  We topped out right at release altitude after 700 feet of climb or so and I could tell he was pretty excited that he made it happen.

We flew around a bit more, discussing what to look for and think about and then he set us into the pattern for downwind.  I took over from there and made the landing, talking through the checklist with him and explaining what I was doing and why.  As we turned base, I told him that I thought we looked a bit high and he agreed.  What he didn't know was that there was sink off the end of the runway but I did because I'd flown through it all morning.  With spoilers almost closed, I used it to bring us down and turned final only slightly high.

Kevin said, "You're too high," but since I barely had the spoilers cracked, I just eased them open, brought us into line, then eased them almost closed and touched down in the grass right where I'd been aiming.  After we got out, I smiled and said, "So you thought I was too high, eh?"  It was good to know I could still fly the 2-33!  

It had been a couple of months and I get nervous about being used to flying a higher performance glider, then flying a lower performance one -especially since I was in the back.  But it turned out to be the same trusty 2-33 I learned to fly in and it was great fun to fly it again.  Plus, we both enjoyed flying together and he seemed pleased to show me what he'd learned.  I know I got a kick out of it.

Return on Investment

Yesterday I worked my first full commercial pilot shift at Harris Hill.  I was scheduled last month but we were weathered out with a no-fly day.

Yesterday was different - a cool morning with river fog gave way to a sunny and spectacular Fall day at Harris Hill.  When I arrived, there were three passenger rides waiting and after a slight delay to allow the fog to burn off, I started giving rides.  Taking a glider ride was apparently a popular idea as we steadily built up a queue of people waiting for rides.  By the time I landed with the second passenger, we had three gliders in passenger operation and kept them all busy until 5pm.

I gave 8 rides that day and passed the magic number of 12 passenger rides which is the point that the personal cost of getting my commercial license is exceeded by the cost of flying 12 times.  So, now I'm on the plus side of the ledger and every flight I make with a paying passenger is gravy on top.

I like introducing people to soaring and although the weather was quite good, I really liked flying steadily for a period of 4 or 5 hours because I got to experience the changing conditions from smooth and calm to thermal activity.  The East-Southeast wind we had was very, very light on the surface but caused some turbulence and a decent crosswind on takeoff and landing.  It was quite different in the sky than on the ground and it was interesting to experience it evolving.

Even though it was a light wind, there was a good deal of sink on final approach, but I had anticipated it and making 8 landings gave me a good feel for what it looks like under those conditions.  The other thing that is nice is that you aren't trying to stay up for a long time.  Twenty minutes or so is the length of the ride, so if you find a single thermal you can easily make 20.  You stay near the field and simply fly wherever you want with no particular destination or task necessary.  You pass a few minutes of pleasant conversation with passengers and then return for landing.  Nice.  And of course, you get more experience with flying the ASK-21.

All in all, a great decision to get my commercial rating this year!

Region 3 Glider Contest

Harris Hill just finished hosting the region3 glider contest and it was good fun.

The contest is a race - whoever flies the farthest the fastest scores the most points.  Each morning a specific course is laid out for the contestants and they must fly to various turn points on flights that can last 2 hours or more.  Distances are generally 100-200 miles.

There are two classes of aircraft FAI and Sport class and they compete in their own class.  The contest lasts a week, which is good since they had only 3 reasonably good flying days plus 1 practice day to get ready.

I worked the retrieve office for the contest.  Our job was to track who took off and place a prepared card on the window as they departed.  When they landed, we would take the card down.  It's a simple way of tracking who is back and who isn't.

If a pilot can't make it back and 'lands out', they are instructed to call the retrieve office and give us relevant information about their location and how to contact them.  We then flipped their card over to the red side as a signal to their crew that they need to get the trailer ready and go get the pilot and glider.

We had a couple of land outs but not really too many.  Contest pilots are usually quite seasoned but as they push themselves to complete a task, there's always the possibility of a land out.  Sailplanes are designed for this and pilots are used to it.  The old joke goes, "There are those pilots who have landed out and those that will."  Everyone gets a turn eventually, especially when trying to win a contest.

Our Harris Hill juniors did an outstanding job of volunteering and working the competition and everything went smoothly for the week.  Watching the pilots launch and waiting for them to return, I wondered whether I would ever do any contest flying.

I doubt it.  The learning curve is steep and to be any good at it you need to fly cross country an awful lot.  Also, the contests are a week long which puts a crimp in the vacation leave time, plus you have the expense of staying wherever the contest is and of course, you need to own a glider or have one you can take with you.  That's a lot of difficult variables for a married person with kids nearing college age and it explains why many of the racing pilots are retired.

Andy Brayer won the Sport Class

Interestingly, the Sport Class competition was won by our very own Andy Brayer in a borrowed Discus glider owned by Harris Hill!  I guess that sort of shatters the barriers, but of course those were taken care of  because he flew the glider from its home base and the contest was held here at Harris Hill.  Nevertheless, I'm really happy for Andy - he's one of our juniors and he's turned into a top notch pilot who selflessly give training to our juniors all summer long.  He obviously worked hard for this win and he earned it by winning every single day that we flew -particularly against Roy McMaster, one of our ace pilots with a great competition history under his belt.  Congrats to both Andy and Roy for their 1, 2 finish.  

First commercial passenger

Yesterday I was at Harris Hill and the scheduled commercial pilot was a no-show.  The clouds were only about 1,200 feet so the only flying going on was training.  Short hops up, then back for landing.  There was little wind, but with the deck so low it wasn't suitable for passenger rides.

After noon, to the east a big hole opened up and the promised clearing began in earnest.  At about that time we had several inquiries about passenger rides.  I agreed to take one -my first commercial passenger.  There wasn't too much lift but we found some zero sink and I managed to extend the ride for a little bit, then turned into the pattern to land.

Everything went smoothly and as he was getting out of the glider, he exclaimed, "Wow!  That was incredible!"  I thought so, too.  I thanked him for flying with us and pushed the glider back into line.

I Learned About Soaring from That

This post could probably be sub-titled "How to (almost) land out without even trying."

Last Friday, in preparation for my commercial glider checkride, I decided to take the afternoon off and fly some spot landings to convince myself yet again that I know how to fly and calm my apprehensiveness.

When I got to Harris Hill, the place was a beehive of activity.  The soaring forecast was not just good, it was GREAT.  One of our members remarked that it was the best soaring day of the season.  I grabbed the last ASK-21 available, put a battery in it so I could monitor what everyone else was doing and took off.

I could hear that most of my fellow pilots were up between 7,000 and 8,000 and lift was everywhere.  The thermals were closely spaced, nicely marked by cumulus clouds, there was little wind to tilt them over and they were reasonably strong.  Buoyed by all the good reports of lift, I got off tow a few hundred feet lower than normal as we passed through a 4 knot thermal.

A 'blue hole' was over Harris Hill.  This is fairly common at our field when the wind blows cool air off of Seneca lake to the Southwest.  The cooler air dries up the clouds and can kill the thermals in the hole.  I'd gotten off tow at the edge of the hole and circled up to about 4,500 when the thermal petered out.  I decided to move away from the hole to the southwest where some cumulus clouds looked promising.

I kept finding lift, but only of the 2 knot variety.  I was able to stay at about 4,500 feet but couldn't seem to connect with thermals that would take you to 7 and 8,000 feet where everyone else was.  I continued to move from cloud to cloud trying to find better lift to get higher.

Eventually, I wasn't even finding 2 knot lift.  At 3,900 feet I thought I'd try one more cloud before turning back to the airport as I was getting pretty far away.  That cloud didn't work out and I turned back to the airport.  It looked pretty far away and I considered that the little itch in my head that told me to go back at the last cloud would have been a really good idea.

As I headed back, I saw why the thermals were dying.  The blue hole had shifted to the Southwest -my direction, and was killing the lift.  I would have to cross the blue hole to get back to Harris Hill.

At this point, aside from being deeply disappointed with allowing myself to get this low this far away from the airport, I considered my options.  I could head North and get out over the Chemung valley and probably land out in a field down there.  I could head West, even farther away and look for more thermals.  There were lots of fields to land in, if necessary.  Or, I could head back to Harris Hill and most likely land somewhere in between.

Looking back towards Harris Hill, I could see at least 5 fields that were grass covered and easy to land in.  I figured I'd head back, not expecting to find any lift, and likely land in one of those fields.  If I was lucky, I could make it to the valley and easily glide to our emergency landing field in the valley.

I headed back and, as I expected, didn't find lift.  However, there were periods of zero sink.  I slowed up during those times and sped up to best L/D speed when I wasn't in it.  Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of sink.  I eventually found a small 2 knot thermal.  I circled tightly, perhaps 50 degrees of bank (great practice for my upcoming flight check!) and managed to gain a few hundred feet.  But it wasn't a very high thermal and I still didn't have enough to get back to Harris Hill.  Reluctantly, I left it as it died and headed East again.

Fortunately, that thermal gave me the altitude I needed to get to the monastery which is on the edge of the hill overlooking the valley with our emergency landing field and, although I was too low to get to Harris Hill, I knew I could glide to the field, or if things were not going well, I could land in the field in the monastery.

As I passed over the chapel, I caught some lift near the edge of the dropoff to the valley.  I was perhaps 500 feet above the high ground and did a circle.  The thermal was small and I banked over, determined not to lose contact with this one and managed to gain a few hundred feet.  While circling, I heard someone on the radio remarking that one of our gliders (me) was way low and asking who it was.  All this time, everyone else had been up at 8,000 feet while I was struggling for altitude!

Remembering Kai's guide to off field landings, I turned the radio off.  It was distracting and I needed all the concentration I could muster.  After a few minutes, I'd climbed to 2,700 feet but the thermal dissipated and I was left with 3-400 fpm of sink.  It was time to cross the valley and land out.

I expected no lift over the valley -usually that is the case as the cooler air and crop cover tends to make the valley and unusual place to find lift.  However, the day was warm and you never know, so I headed across the valley towards the hang glider jumpoff on the Harris Hill ridge.  Still too low to make the field, I had at least accomplished making the emergency field.  

I lost less altitude then I expected crossing the valley due to mostly zero sink and I arrived at our ridge with 2,100 feet of altitude.  I had enough to check the knob where the hang gliders launch and while there was a burble of lift, it wasn't something you could circle in.  I sighed and went through my pre-landing checklist, extending the spoilers to check them.  I sidle along the ridge, still above it in zero sink when it happened.

Whoosh!  I stumbled into a 2 knot thermal.  I immediately circled and gained 50 feet.  Continuing, I managed to center the lift and get 2 knots steady all the way around the circle.  Pretty soon, I saw 2,300 feet on the altimeter, then 2,400, then the magic 2,500 which is our normal approach to landing altitude!  I was now in easy gliding distance of the airport and just like that, I was NOT going to land out!

I decided I'd had enough drama and excitement for the day and left the thermal and headed in the direction of our landing pattern.  Would you know it?  I stumbled into a 4 knot thermal.  I couldn't pass it up, so I circled and the thermal strengthened to 6 knots.  In a matter of minutes I was passing through 4,000 feet and climbing.  The thermal was getting wider and smoother, settling down to a steady 4 knots and I rode it all the way up to 5,000 then 6,000, then 7,000 then 8,000 feet!  I topped out at 8,200 feet -FINALLY up at altitude with the rest of the gang.

I continued the flight for another 2-1/2 hours, never getting lower than 7,500 feet, finally landing with 3 hours and 19 minutes on the clock, the longest flight for me so far and the highest I've ever gone - 8,400 feet.

After I landed, I considered what I had learned.  

1.  I learned that I was able to formulate and execute a plan when I needed to.  I knew I was pretty far away from Harris Hill and the main mistake I made was leaving a perfectly good thermal to try and find a better one, all the while moving a little farther away.  There's nothing really wrong with that and there wouldn't have been anything wrong with landing out, but to be safe, I should have made a *conscious* decision to turn back or try another cloud with the possibility of landing out.  

2.  I did not compromise the safety of flight.  There are plenty of options for landing in fields in the area I was in, so the safety of the flight was not in question.  However, I will revise my aeronautical decision making to highlight when I am making a decision that includes the possibility of not returning to the field.  I want that to be a very specific 'go/no-go' decision.  In this case, I made it more casually than I should have because I believed the lift on this day was good (which it was) and would continue (which it eventually did).  

3.  I saved the flight because I was lucky, not skilled.  Let's be perfectly frank - I didn't land out because I got lucky.  

4.  I capitalized on opportunities in a safe manner.  I made good safety decisions when faced with the prospect of landing out.  When I stopped to circle in lift, I made sure I had a plan if it turned into sink.  I put myself in a position to take advantage of the lift when it showed up and I thermalled the glider like never before to center the lift and climb away when I needed to.

This was my best soaring flight ever.  I had lows and I had highs.  I probably learned more about soaring from this one flight than any books could have ever taught me.  That's what I love about soaring - it's a continuous challenge and you can always do better.

Commercial Success!

I passed my commercial glider pilot checkride today.

This was my goal at the beginning of the season and here I am with it all achieved!  What a great feeling - and what a weight off of my chest.

I let myself get all wound up for the ride and as my instructor said, "bad rehearsal, great performance!"  It all started with a less than stellar performance a few days prior to the checkride.  I simply performed poorly - much more poorly than I usually do, starting with the takeoff and tow to altitude.  Granted, it was quite gusty and we were getting pulled around quite a bit but still, it was not a great start.

As we started in our base leg, the wind had really picked up and I realized we were dropping like a stone.  I abandoned the base and aimed for the runway, accelerating to get closer before we lost too much altitude. The wind gradient made for moderate turbulence on final with loss of airspeed, gain of airspeed, crosswind, you name it.  I managed to get us down in one piece and without damaging the glider, but my confidence was shaken.  It was too rough to fly after that, so we rescheduled for the next day.

After a rather sleepless night, the next day's tasks went fairly well with one major issue - being able to rollout to stop inside a designated 100 foot box.  The solution was relatively minor, I needed to let the glider get a little bit lower on final.  I was simply carrying too much energy into the landing in the form of altitude.  My instructor reluctantly signed me off and I stuck around to do some touch and goes with some friends from the field - including Bryan, who was also going for his commercial checkride the same day.  We flew until we could nail the spot consistently.

When the big day came, Bryan went first and, as I was certain he would, nailed the ride and passed easily.  Then it was my turn.  First we did about 1.5 hours of oral question and answer, followed by 3 flights.  The examiner, Jim Rizzo, was really, really, good about getting me to relax and being very conversational.  We went over the weight and balance I prepared, a cross country I built in advance, the weather and so on.  By the time we were ready to fly, I felt pretty good.

The flights went pretty uneventfully.  I made several lame attempts to thermal and after the second landing, I caught my foot on the side of the glider and fell out onto the grass.  I asked if that amounted to points deducted and he laughed.

We did one really cool combination of maneuvers.  He asked for a steep turn in one direction, and after I went around once, he asked me to roll into a steep turn the other direction, then at the completion of that turn, to pull up into a turning stall.  That was pretty neat.  I'd always practiced them as separate maneuvers without linking them, but this was both more challenging and more interesting.

I did well at keeping my airspeeds right, I think I did average at coordinated flight, and after our third landing, we went inside and he filled out my temporary flight certificate for commercial glider pilot.

I worked really hard for this.  I wasn't afraid I would fail because I didn't know how to do the things I was supposed to do.  Rather, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to demonstrate them to the examiner.  In the end, I was able to do that and I've got another level of certification for my continuing journey in soaring.

I owe thanks to many people for getting me this far, particularly my instructor, Ron Ogden.  He takes all kinds of personal time to come out and train us for flight and gets nothing back for it.  Thanks, Ron!

Into the breach

Well, it's been a whirlwind since I passed my commercial written exam.

I contacted the examiner and he told me he has an opening next Sunday.  Like....6 days from now.  Gulp.

I took it.  But I also synched up with Bryan Reigal, one of my fellow prospective commercial pilots.  We're both scheduled for Sunday with the examiner and we're both pretty nervous about it.  Like, that sort of butterfly in your stomach-a little nauseous feeling you have when you're about to do something like bungee jump.

But it's now or never.  There's no question I know how to fly, I'm already a pilot.  I've knocked the rust off of my skills by flying as much as I can lately and I've been practicing to the Practical Test Standards that are published by the FAA.  I'll go flying tomorrow afternoon with my instructor and we'll practice for the test.

I *know* I can do it.  The real question is whether I manage to demonstrate that on the day of the test.  We'll see.  Until then, I am on pins and needles studying, prepping, and worrying.

Oh yeah, the weather Sunday is calling for a South wind of about 9 knots, which can cause all kinds of issues like extended takeoff roll, less effective ailerons as you take off with a tail wind and big sink on final approach.  In my note to the examiner I mentioned that if it was a strong wind I might need to reschedule.

More likely, what will happen is it will be *kind* of strong, making the decision gut-wrenching.

I'll post on my progress with my instructor later this week.

Phew! That was crummy.

Well, the good news is that I passed my commercial glider pilot written exam!  That's one major paperwork detail that had to be taken care of before I could progress to setting a date for my flight exam.

To get your commercial glider pilot's license, you have to pass two tests.  One is a written knowledge test that is proctored by an FAA authorized testing facility.  They're dead serious about it, too.  I've seen less security at an airport checkpoint than at the test facility.  The 100 question test has about 90 questions that don't seem to have much to do with flying a glider in a commercial setting safely but nevertheless it is required.  So, I studied for it and now I have passed it.

Next up is to set a date for my commercial flight check.  You have to have an oral question and answer session with a designated examiner from the FAA and then take several flights with him/her to get their endorsement for your commercial rating.  That's the test that makes the most sense to me.  I'd rather go through an exhaustive Q&A in person than a computerized test that seems designed to trip me up than test my knowledge.

My focus now is to fly with Ron Ogden, my instructor, to brush up on my flight maneuvers, emergency procedures, etc. and get ready for that in-person test with the examiner.

I've been using the Practical Test Standard guide from the FAA lately and trying to fly all my maneuvers in accordance with that guide.  Earlier this week I flew at minimum controllable speed for about 30 minutes in ridge lift, practicing my turns to the left and right without stalling.  I've practiced a few stalls, done some steep turns, and I've also been letting my son sit in the front of the glider while flying it from the back.  It's actually kind of fun to fly from back there.  Definitely more room in the back.

Amazingly, now I'm almost (almost) looking forward to the check ride.  I got some practice flying a passenger last week when one of our club members had a relative visiting and he asked me if I'd take her for a ride as he was busy doing his flying duty.  I had a chance to preview my technique giving a ride to a stranger and I had a good time doing it!

I'll continue studying for the oral test but there's no reason except for the examiner's schedule, that I can't get my rating by the end of July as long as I demonstrate that I know what I'm doing.

Pulling the trigger

I've set a date to take my commercial pilot written exam.  It's two days from now.

I'm really nervous about it because although I've been studying a lot for it, I keep getting high 70's on my practice exams.  It's not that I don't know the material, I do.  It's just that they way they phrase the questions makes me get them wrong -even when I know the right answer.

Anyhow, I'm not improving on my scores so I'm going to resign myself to getting a crummy score and get it over with.  The only thing I DON'T want to happen is to get less than a 70 on it.  The test costs $150 to take and I'd have to deal with the examiner to explain why I failed it.

Funny thing is that I'm pretty good at the oral questions.  I sat down with my flight instructor and he was satisfied that I knew the basic information necessary to pass the oral exam with the designated examiner.  It's different when they ask you the questions because you can ask for clarification or demonstrate that you know the answer by explaining the details around the question.  Even if you get it wrong, it's not usually totally wrong.

I could also rail on about how the questions on the written exam ought to be aimed at making sure the applicant knows how to keep the airplane right side up rather than a lot of stuff you'll never need to know that is competing with space in your head for the stuff you actually need to know.

Okay, one example I'll give you is there are several questions about how to fly a course with an NDB (Non-directional beacon) instrument.  The last time I saw an NDB was when I took instrument training for my private pilot license.  Why in the world I would need to know what heading to turn to to intercept the NDB at a 30 degree angle give my magnetic heading is beyond me.  You don't even fly that way.  First, you match your magnetic heading to the NDB heading, then you make the 30 degree course correction.  Done.  Not to mention there is something called VOR and GPS.

To be fair, you might find yourself in a motorglider trying to fly a course.  Okay, but how about a VOR question, then?  Even the VOR questions use an RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator) as the display instrument.  I've never actually seen an RMI although I suppose they're out there somewhere.  It just doesn't add up.

But it doesn't matter.  I have to take and pass the written to get my commercial license and that is the end of that.  So, Friday I'll find out if I passed or should have taken longer to study for it.

Kevin flies

My youngest son has become interested in glider flying.  He's just joined our junior program and has taken instruction in 8 or so flights so far.

Kevin's first flight lesson

I haven't either encouraged or discouraged him to fly.  Becoming a pilot is a lengthy and challenging process.  It requires persistence and will to make it from student pilot to licensed private pilot.  You have to not only learn how to fly, you have to pass your written test and a flight test with a designated examiner.  In short, to be a pilot, you really need to WANT to be a pilot.

No amount of encouragement will make someone who doesn't want to become a pilot suddenly love it.  For that reason, while I've encouraged him to fly with me from time to time, I haven't done anything beyond explain how the program works.  I did have him accompany me to our winter ground school this year but that was more to expose him to the book work that is involved and to let him see how much you have to know to become a pilot.

Last year when I flew with him, he liked it but would get dizzy when we circled in a thermal.  This year, he doesn't have nearly the problem with it he used to.  I think he was a bit frightened during the flights and that made him feel poorly because now that he's the one doing the flying, he has gained a lot more confidence.  When you learn how it is done, you become familiar with it and usually less afraid.

Yesterday he begged me to go to Harris Hill to get some instruction.  I obliged and Tim Welles flew three flights instructing him on the basics.  Everything seems to be going well and he's learning how to fly behind the tow plane, how to set up for the landing and they even got some thermalling in.  When he landed, he was pretty excited about managing to go higher than the tow plane took them.

I'm glad he understands my passion for flight and I'm hoping he'll stick with it and see his training through to his private pilot glider license.  That would make us a three generation aviation family!

Hop, hop, and away!

It's happened twice, now. On takeoff, just before I reach liftoff speed, I horse the airplane into the air and get a bounce, bounce, and airborne.

I know why, of course. The first time, I was rather pleased with my crosswind correction during takeoff roll but wanted to get airborne so I could establish a good crab angle and keep tracking straight. So I took off before I had all of the speed I needed. Bounce, bounce, liftoff.

The second time, there was even less excuse. NO wind but I attempted to liftoff about 5 knots too soon. Bounce, bounce and away.

It is now on my official list of stupid stuff I need to improve on.

Also, after great progress Friday, my thermaling flat out sucked on Sunday. I kept slipping as I circled. Despite paying close attention to it the whole time, I just couldn't coordinate it to my satisfaction. It doesn't help that glider 8 flies "funny" since they repaired it but that's no excuse.

Sigh. More work before I feel confident enough for a check ride.

Woo-hoo!

"We'll be up there tomorrow and we'll have a tow plane.  You around?  It's supposed to be good flying.

Indeed it was.  A couple of our instructors were getting their Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) ratings renewed and arranged for a tow pilot today.  The weather has been nasty or I've been gone and I've been itching to fly, so I was eager to go.  Even if I had to take some time off from work.

After I saw the weather forecast, I was MORE eager.  Plenty of thermals and a north wind at about 15 knots.  That meant the ridge would be working plus I might be able to fly away if I could connect to a thermal.

I showed up about 11 and was airborne by 11:30.  Sean Murphy towed me to a thousand feet where I let go and pointed the nose towards the ridge.  It was working, but it was a little weak.  Often, you will get either zero or positive lift as you fly along the ridge but this time I was getting some sink -about 2 knots or so mixed in with some lift.  The effect was net negative and I was slowly descending with each pass.

I started thinking I *might* have to set up for the landing pattern if this didn't get any more promising.  I was able to find lift on the west end of the ridge, but on the east side, not so good.  I decided I would zig-zag back and forth in the lift on the west side and see what happened.

Zig.  Zag.  A little bit of a climb.  Zig.  Zag.  A little bit of a climb.  Then it hit me.  "You moron, you are zig zagging in a thermal.  CIRCLE and CENTER it.  So I did and up I went.  3 knots of lift, 4 knots of lift, 5 knots of lift, 6 knots of lift.  I worked to center it, fly smoothly and coordinated, and also fly slowly to maximize the thermal time.  Up and up I went.  The longer I circled the stronger it got and a few minutes later I topped out at close to 6,000 feet.  I headed off towards the nearby shopping mall to see if there was any parking lot lift.

There was.  In fact, there was quite a bit of lift scattered all over the place.  I could hear other glider pilots talking about this cu or that cu but from where I was, the sky was blue.  Blue flying is more difficult because you can't spot the lift, but today I felt pretty brave.  First, if I got low near Harris Hill, I could hug the ridge and ride the lift back up high enough to enter the landing pattern.  Second, the thermals were not only fairly plentiful, they were pretty easy to center up and climb away in.

I could see Seneca lake and Watkins Glen in the distance and considered heading upwind to check it out.  I figured if I would lose the most altitude heading into the wind and could always make it back to the airport in Elmira if necessary.  Alas, work was calling and I didn't have enough time to try it out!

I returned to the ridge and figured I'd spoiler my way down to pattern altitude.  Instead, I decided to point the nose down and pick up some speed for fun.  Whenever I entered lift, I would accelerate to keep myself either at zero sink or a slight descent.  If the wind is blowing hard, this means you pick up a LOT of speed.  I was zooming along at over 90 knots at times.  If the lift stopped, I would raise the nose to slow the descent.  Eventually, after a lot of fun I was near pattern altitude.

The landing was to the North.  I held my pattern close to the field and turned base close to the field.  I carried and extra 5 knots of speed to deal with the gusts and opened the spoilers and planted the tailwheel right on my intended spot - the taxiway that cuts across the grass.  I heard it squeak as it touched down.

Was playing hooky worth it?  Absolutely.  Best flying of the season so far.

What Harris Hill looks like this Spring

  That picture pretty much sums up what has to be the worst and soggiest Spring I've ever seen.  I've only lived here for 5 years so I can't really speak to what Spring normally looks like around here -except for my recent experience.  However, old-timers say it's nothing like this.  Spring usually arrives with clear skies, moderate temps and the promise of outstanding soaring - day after day.  We do get the rains, but they come and then they go.  They don't hang on for a week at a time!

It's getting downright disheartening to look at the weather forecast these days.  Right now, the last good, flyable day we had was the middle of last week.  Naturally, I was on a business trip and couldn't be here for it.  I tried to check in on the webcam but it was mysteriously down for two days then fixed itself before I could head out to the Hill to see what was the matter.

Outlook for the weekend is similar to this week - cloudy, rainy.  We've got a regional contest coming up in June and I'm wondering if the weather is going to cooperate!  Here's hoping the weather breaks - SOON.

A day on the hill

Galo Grijalva shows how you have to keep
flying it until it stops

Actually, this post should probably be titled "A day without rain," with a tip of the hat to Enya's album of the same name.  April has been a miserable washout with just two flyable days for me!  It took me all month just to get in my three takeoffs and landings for currency this season.  It is one of the coldest and wettest months on record around here.  Lovely.

But the skies did part and the sun came out last weekend and I made sure to take advantage of it by heading up to Harris Hill for the better part of a rather eventful day.  The skies started out dotted with small cumulus clouds, indicating thermal activity, but by the end of the day, they dried up leaving just a blue soaring day.

Finally, a clear, sunny Spring day.

Whether you fly or not, just being up at Harris Hill is fun.  Today, there was plenty of activity as private club gliders were pulled out to be flown for the first time this year while the regular club gliders also got a full workout.  The 2-33's, the 1-34, the 1-26 and of course, our ASK-21's were all out on the flight line awaiting their turn in the air.

I took the 1-34 up for a pleasant one hour flight to remind myself that I actually can find and center thermals and to work on my steep turns.  At first, I thought I would be the only one to head up and come back down - after release, I headed into a gaggle of gliders circling a few hundred feet above me, hoping for a quick climb above release height, but today the thermals were more like bubbles -if you didn't get in as it was rising, there was no lift underneath them.  As I passed through the center of the thermal, below the climbing aircraft there was no lift at all, so I headed over towards the ridge searching for thermals that were being blown up the hill.

Flying is coming to an end as the club and
private gliders wait their turn to be put away

No luck.  I'm getting down to decision time to begin my entry into the landing pattern, so I lined up over the hang glider field and suddenly felt the whoosh and saw 2 knots of upward lift with signs that it was stronger than that.  I calculated what would happen if I circled and lost 100 feet of altitude and decided that wouldn't be a problem.  I turned sharply and was rewarded with 3...4...5 knots of vertical speed!  I feebly tried to ascertain where the lift was strongest and weakest the last time around and moved my circle slightly...6 knots of lift!  After just two circles, the field was looking LOT smaller than it did when I was contemplating landing.

I stuck with the thermal and really concentrated on centering it and getting as much lift as I could out of each circle and pretty soon I was climbing through 4,400 feet after starting at 2,500.  The thermal topped out with a nice 2,000 foot altitude gain.  I headed off to search for more thermals, fat, dumb, and happy.

Andy and Stefan preparing to search for lift

They were out there and an hour later, after a number of climbs and descents, I decided to open the spoilers and come down so others could enjoy the flying.  It was actually a little difficult because that same thermal was cycling again in the same spot, so I had a chance to see what happens if you get caught in an updraft underneath a thunderstorm - full spoilers, still climbing.  Pointing the nose down fixed that and I was back on the ground in a few minutes.

What do you do up there besides fly?


Often, when I'm up at the hill for quite awhile, I get that phone call asking me, "What are you doing up there?"  There's all kinds of stuff that just burns up the afternoon.

First of all, there's something about Harris Hill that is a little bit like a time machine.  You get out of your car and you enter a DIY world where it's up to YOU to take care of everything.  Launch, retrieval, even routine maintenance is all up to you.  I think it is related to the fact that most pilots aren't required to assemble their aircraft before they fly them!

Louis and Bryan replace a flat tailwheel

Our club ships stay put together in the hangar, although they can and do come apart for transportation or maintenance.  But the private gliders are stored in trailers, which means each time they are flown, they are put together by their pilots.  Wings are attached to fuselages, horizontal stabilizers are connected to tails, controls are connected to control surfaces each and every time they are flown and the whole process is reversed after flight to store them safely in their trailers afterwards.

Naturally, it helps to have some assistance to assemble and disassemble, so we all get familiar with the process.  That seems to breed the DIY mentality that permeates the atmosphere up there.  Tailwheel on the tow plane is flat?  Replace it.  Tow rope needs swapping out?  Go ahead.  Need a little lubricant on the hinges?  It's over there, go get it.  Add oil to the engine?  Okay.

Chris Butler tows in the Super Cub

Now, to be clear, we don't do anything that isn't allowed under the Federal Air Regulations.  Several of our members are mechanics and they do the inspections and maintenance that can only be done by mechanics.  But the DIY spirit is prevalent everywhere on the hill and it's something that I really appreciate -especially around an airport.  Most people are used to the commercial airports where passengers are routed like cattle through the terminal and onto the aircraft and restricted areas and special badging requirements abound.  Not at a private airport like Harris Hill.  I like it, and it contributes to the free and easy atmosphere that makes it fun to be there even if you aren't flying.

The unexpected


Sometimes you end up doing a little DIY duty for some unexpected tasks as well.  After my first flight, as I got back to the flight line, several members were watching a glider as it sank out of view below the ridge line over the valley.  After a few minutes, it was obvious that this glider was not climbing back up in a thermal which meant that the pilot must have landed in our alternate field in the valley below.

A call on the radio revealed that he was in the field and okay, having been out to test his sustainer engine but had been unable to start it and was forced to land in the field below.  The alternate field is for just this purpose - if you get low out on the ridge, you can land in a field down in the valley.  I've done it, as a matter of fact, and it's a great resource to have as it gives us a 'second chance' if things don't work out the way we'd planned.

I volunteered to drive down and see about him while others hooked his trailer up to a truck and brought it down.  It is possible to tow out of that field, but the torrential rains made it soggy and we figured it was best to simply disassemble the aircraft and tow it back up to the hangar.  An hour later, several of us had managed to get the trailer into the field without getting stuck in the mud, disassembled the glider, and brought it home to Harris Hill.

Between swapping stories, hooking up gliders, making minor repairs, and even retrieving landouts, there's plenty to do up at the hilll, even when you're not flying.  The only thing there's not enough of is...time.