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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
