Trading altitude for distance

Last Saturday I was waiting for an ASK-21 to come back from a flight so I could take a spin when I realized the 1-34 was sitting out there just waiting to be flown. So, I hopped in and off I went.

The wind was from the South but would sometimes blow and sometimes stop. Takeoff was to the North. The first flight reminded me that I forgot how much the spoilers will slow you down on a 1-34! Let's just say that I 'attacked' the runway in firmly returning to earth.

I took another ride, hoping to dust off the cobwebs. It was an odd day with shear and broken up lift aloft. The tow line went slack once and I carefully swung the nose out to slow the ship and take keep from putting a shock on it as the line went taut again. I was able to find zero sink but never sustained lift. I'd gotten aloft after a high overcast shut off the thermal activity, but no matter. This was more about wounded pride than staying aloft.

When landing into a South wind at Harris Hill, the wind blows up the backside of the hill and curls over and down into the valley at the northern end of the runway. That's the end that you cross on final approach when landing into a South wind.

I kept my pattern high and close on base leg and turned final with quite a bit of altitude. The wind sock was showing about 10 knots or a little less as I opened the spoilers and started to slip hard to lose altitude. This time I had my speed right as I descended down final when suddenly I started to lose altitude very quickly. I was in the waterfall.

Fortunately, I had been expecting it so I closed the spoilers and accelerated to 75 knots, pointing the nose down to get to that speed. The edge of the landable area was getting pretty big pretty fast. I started to mentally calculate when I should break off and make a turn to go back into the valley when suddenly the descent rate decreased. I was through it.

I pulled the nose up and tried to slow to 55 for landing. Suddenly, I'd gone from landing way short to looking like I might go long! No matter, I put the spoilers out full, slowed to approach speed and then closed them to about 1/3 as I got close to flaring out for landing. I bobbled a bit but managed to touchdown precisely where I'd been aiming and made a credible touchdown and stop.

I'm still rusty, but looking forward to more flying soon. The weather this Spring so far has been nice only when I'm working and a bit crummy when I'm flying. Hopefully that will break soon and I'll get some thermaling practice in.