"You know, we're probably not going anywhere today", my instructor, Tim Welles, said. I acknowledged that, but I asked him if we could at least check me out in the club's Discus so the day wouldn't be a total loss.
He agreed and within the hour were strapping in to the Duo Discus for local flight training. We stated up about twenty minutes but the building Cumulus clouds signaled that if the overcast would clear, the day still might take off.
A few minutes later, we were climbing in a thermal and in no time at all, Hariis Hill was receding into the background. We were headed cross country.
Cloud bases were just 4,500 feet giving us a scant 2,500 feet above the high ground, but we stopped early and often for more lift. As we headed West, the bases rose but so did the floor and we eked our way into the lift, managing to stay aloft.
It took us over an hour to fly the first 50 miles. Some clouds would work, others wouldn't. We wove under all of the scraps of clouds but it was in the blue that the thermals were best. Finally we arrived over Hornell, and turned back for Harris Hill. We kept especially alert to stay in the upper third of the altitude band, especially over the higher ground. The turnpoint at Hornell was Arkport airport and I was sort of hoping for some lift to take us higher as we turned. "If you hang out near an airport in case you land while looking for lift, you'll usually end up landing there," Tim laughed, as I circled vainly working weak lift. We pushed out and towards the town of Hornell.
"I've got it," Tim said as we sunk below 4,000 feet. The town was looking kind of close, below. Under a likely looking cloud, he circled, adjusted, circled, adjusted, circled, decided that the weak lift was the best we would get and kept circling. Slowly.....slowly....slowly...we gained altitude. After what felt like about 10 minutes, I began to consider exactly when I would begin to feel sick and how long after that it would take before I threw up. Fortunately, the answer was never! On this day, I'd felt much better than the previous flight and while I'm sure I could have reached my limit if we'd kept circling, it never happened.
"Okay, your aircraft," Tim said, as the lift improved and we climbed safely out of trouble. I took over and kept us centered until we couldn't climb any higher and off we headed back to the east towards Harris Hill.
The lift was getting weaker and farther between as we returned. A circle in promising lift would turn out to be a lie, we'd continue on and the same thing would happen a few miles later. We were able to dodge from cloud to cloud in zero or weak lift but that would be erased by heavy sink. Still, we were able to fly quite long distances without losing lots of altitude. Eventually, I could see the town of Corning coming into view but it was clear we would need to gain altitude to get all the way back to Harris Hill.
We were within gliding distance of the Corning Painted Post airport when Tim called out, "Okay, my plane." At this point we had perhaps 1200 feet between us and the high ground. Weak lift under a cloud kept us from descending but climbing was a different matter. Tim worked every inch of the lift area looking for the best spots but we weren't climbing. Still, this was our best option.
More circling and a hundred feet of altitude gain was followed by...more circling and another 100 feet. The computer said we needed 900 more feet to arrive at Harris Hill's runway elevation. In another minute we had 200 feet more, then 300, then 400. "Your plane," Tim said. The thermal strengthened into a beautifully strong and easy to center updraft that carried us to more than enough altitude to make it back. It took another couple of turns so we could speed up on the way back.
I left the thermal at 80kts and found plenty of lift on the way back. So, I accelerated to 90kts. It was exhilarating to burn along at 110+mph and it only took minutes to return to Harris Hill.
Perhaps I was a bit too excited because I entered the pattern hot and never got slowed down properly. We put the gear down and I still flew into final with about 10kts of extra speed and a slight tailwind. The Duo Discus is a marvelous machine and it does NOT want to quit flying, whether you want it to or not. I landed long and had to get on the brakes hard to get us stopped before we went off the end of the runway. "That was scary," Tim said.
Lesson learned. Keep a razor sharp eye on the airspeed and keep it under control on landing. If not, you'll be sorry.
Tim said the conditions during our flight were difficult. I, being a cross country newbie, wouldn't know any different of course. But it certainly took us quite a bit of time to travel only a little way - 132 miles total took us nearly 3 hours. I was glad I experienced a difficult day and I learned an awful lot about proper thermal technique, what to look for, how to think two steps ahead and so forth. What I really learned was that I can't wait to do it again.
Maybe this Saturday...the forecast is looking pretty good.
