I didn't arrive real early at Harris Hill because it was pretty blue early in the day. The forecast was for good soaring, but I just wasn't leaving town in the blue. If it stayed blue, my plan was to fly locally.
That's essentially what I did, although I ended up putting 75 miles on the logger and flew for just over 3 hours. I assembled the Discus and took off around 1pm. The other cross country guys were about 45 minutes ahead of me but I wasn't going to fly with them anyway, so I took my time and set up a local task - Corning, Cowanesque, Millerton and back. This is a pretty short task but further than I've flown before. Depending on the conditions, you are about 1 thermal away from Harris Hill. Today, conditions were good enough to glide back in most cases.
The closest to trouble I got was the first leg to Corning. I got there with no problem at lots of excess altitude to return but the leg to Cowanesque was pretty blue - few clouds. I decided to head north and try out some of the clouds over the high ground thinking that I could either hang around Corning until conditions were better or gain enough altitude to set off for Cowanesque.
Turns out the clouds to the north weren't awesome, either. I slowly hooked back to the Northeast and when I started to get low, turned for Harris Hill. This is where the glide computer does such a great job for you. I was able to decide how long to hang around and when to turn back. I got back to the field and worked the ridge with a 2-33 hoping for a thermal. After awhile, I found one and before long, I was back to 7,400 feet. I decided to head straight to Cowanesque rather than return to Corning first. With that much altitude, I could pretty much glide there and back.
The clouds were pretty good out there now, and I turned around at Cowanesque at about 6,000 feet and plugged Millerton into the computer. I proceeded cautiously, stopped for altitude when it seemed good, and arrived there at around 6,000 feet again. I wasn't going for speed and I flew a moderate 70kts most of the time, except for areas of deep sink when I sped up.
Turning Millerton, I knew I had Harris Hill easily made, so I headed out to the east of Elmira and thought I might work my way up towards Watkins Glen. Northeast of Elmira, I could only get to 5,500 feet and the clouds were beginning to dry up. I decided not to go too much further up and returned to Harris Hill.
This was a nice flight for me. I flew further away than I ever have and it's true that I chickened out and returned to the Hill instead of pressing on, but I did put some good mileage on the glider and for my skill and experience level, I definitely made progress and learned a lot on this flight. I fly because I get enjoyment out of it and this flight was a blast!
