As the flying season winds down, I've decided that I'm finally comfortable flying the ASK-21. I've achieved my flying goals for this year, which was to move up to higher performance aircraft and become comfortable flying them.
I know that because I've been recently flying a lot of friends and family members, giving them a taste of soaring in 15 and 20 minute chunks. I wouldn't do that unless I was comfortable and of course, a spate of dead calm, no thermal weather has made it perfect for passenger trips, if not for soaring itself.
One of my goals was to get better at thermal centering and flying in the higher performance aircraft. I haven't had as much time to practice this because there haven't been that many thermals when I've flown. I did manage 53 minutes recently on a day when thermals were in the 2-3 knot range. That was really good practice for circling in light lift conditions and while I was better at the end of it than when I started, I'm still not doing it efficiently. I'm letting the yaw string skid off too much when I circle, meaning the tail isn't following the nose.
Of course, circling at a constant bank it's not too tough to keep the yaw string straight back. But in a thermal, you often vary the angle of bank to center up the thermal. A little less bank on the strong side of the thermal, a little steeper bank on the soft side of the therm will alter the circle with the intent of moving you closer to the center of lift. Varying that angle skids the tail if you aren't good with the rudder.
The concept is simple, the execution not as easy. Rolling the ASK-21 into a bank, you add more rudder than aileron. As you roll in, you ease off on the rudder although not all the way. Then you may need to reduce aileron as you reach your roll angle. When you do that, you need to add a little rudder to get the tail to follow because one wing is flying faster than the other around the circle. (Just think of whirling a ball on a string around your head -the speed of the ball is quite a bit higher than the speed of a point on the string near y
our hand). That extra speed creates more drag and pulls the nose in one direction requiring correction with the rudder. The amount of correction varies with bank angle and since you are almost constantly changing the bank angle as you circle, you need to do it pretty much automatically. If you think about it, you'll be behind the aircraft.
So, I'm not satisfied with my technique and I'm also not satisfied with my awareness of the sky conditions. I need to read and think more about where lift is or might be under different conditions. I'll work on that this winter and try to apply it next spring.
Next year, I've got one more milestone aircraft to check out in - the Discus. Our club has both a Duo (two seat) Discus and a single seat Discus. They are mainly for cross-country flights but the single seater rarely gets flown as it is in a trailer and has to be assembled. Our other aircraft are in the hangar and easier to roll out.
I'm also going to consider getting my commercial rating so I can fly passengers at Harris Hill. As I said, I'm still not satisfied with my skills and a commercial rating requires more precision than the private pilot glider rating. I'm going to look through the requirements for commercial rating this winter and even if I don't go for the rating, I'm going to train for it. It can't hurt and there's no reason I can't get the rating.
In addition, I'm going to sign up for cross country flight training from our club pros next year. That will introduce me to the world of thinking on your feet and will make me a much better pilot.
I'll close with a shot I took yesterday from the ASK-21 that I landed out in earlier this year. The leaves here in upstate NY are changing and it's always lovely. There was no lift but the visibility was excellent and I hadn't flown since the leaves started to noticeably show. It was still and quiet and truly beautiful.
That's why I fly.
