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.