Saturday, June 23, 2012

Epic Soaring

The soaring today couldn't have been better!  

Good soaring today.  It looked a lot like this picture.
I showed up at Harris Hill later in the afternoon, a crisp, clear, 80 degree day that makes the summers in  the Finger Lakes so very, very pleasant.  I had, ahem, domestic duties to attend to but I kept glancing at the building cumulus clouds and feeling the day slip away from me.

Finally, around 3pm I made it out there and they were looking for someone to give a passenger ride so  I strapped in and took Amy from Big Flats up for a ride.  The conditions were GREAT and we stayed up almost at will, enjoying the scenery below.  At least 5 other gliders were near us -some high, some lower, some at our altitude.

After landing, there were no other passengers to take up but the conditions were so good, I decided to go alone.  I took off and Roy McMaster, our tow pilot, towed me right into a huge thermal.  I should have let off right then but was a little slow.  Fortunately, Roy did a 180 and towed me right back into the thermal.  I cut loose and started my climb upward.

4,000, 5,000, 6,000 feet and the thermals were solid with 4-6 knots showing on the variometer.  I looked out and saw a cloud street headed toward me, so I circled and waited.  Pretty soon, I was near cloud base and sharing the thermal with a hang glider.  As I topped out, I decided to jump across the blue gap over to the cloud street.  I pushed 70 knots through the blue and pretty soon I was across and under the next street over.  

The lift was good, the street was long, and I followed it down South of Elmira over Southport.  I was losing almost no altitude during the transit and used the time to figure out where the best lift was.  I turned back and traversed the street back to the North.

I spent the rest of the flight jumping from one cloud to another and trying to work on how to use them to move from one part of the sky to another.  After some time, I centered up a NICE 6 knot thermal underneath a cloud and rode it up to cloud base.  I began to get some rain on the canopy and checked to be sure it wasn't turning into a thunderstorm.  Off in the distance, I'd been watching a buildup that was moving towards me and decided that although the conditions were good, they were dying just a bit and I should probably get down and get the glider put away.

I landed around 5:30 with about an hour and a half on the clock.  The soaring was fantastic, and the skill building was great practice for cross country flying.  All in all, one of those soaring days that you dream about in the middle of winter and hope for on a summer weekend.  Awesome.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Dreaming of cutting the strings...

I have...had...two goals for my flying this summer.  First, I wanted to get my tailwheel transition signoff  so I could learn how to fly as a tow pilot for our operation.  We're quite shy on tow pilots and...well...there's no reason I can't operate an aircraft with an engine.  I am, after all, certified for Aircraft Single Engine, Land (ASEL).  It's just been a while.  Plus, I sort of have a distrust of aircraft with engines, now that I've been flying aircraft without them for quite some time!

Anyhow, that goal is on hold after an incident that caused our club's Super Cub to depart the runway in gusty conditions (I was not part of this incident) and end up with quite a bit of damage.  It's out of commission for quite some time, likely the balance of our flying season at the very least.

The object of my desire - the Schempp-Hirth Discus
On to my second goal - get certified in the single seat Discus and learn to fly cross country.

They call it 'cutting the apron strings' and it means flying out of gliding distance from your home airport and often from any airport.  It is something that I've been trying to prepare for since I got my glider rating.

First step - fly with one of our cross country instructors in the Duo Discus, a two seat version of the Discus.  We are so fortunate to have world class pilots who will instruct you in the technique of cross country flying at Harris Hill and I will take advantage of that.  Once I learn the basic techniques, I'll get a checkout in the single seat Discus and the fly in tandem with another cross country pilot -me in the Discus, him in his glider.  I'll follow him to see how he does it and hopefully learn enough to begin learning on my own.

I also have the Condor glider simulator to work with.  It's a great tool for learning how to cross country soar.  I've ordered rudder pedals for my computer setup and will start giving it a workout.

I am, as everyone is when they start pushing out beyond the airport, excited and nervous.  I've done two things to try and prepare for this phase of my flying.  First, I've worked and worked at flying thermal circles at a steady airspeed and at least 45 degree bank angle.  It is critical to know how to quickly center and take advantage of a thermal when you encounter it.  I'm better than I was and I think I'm good enough to go out with an instructor and fly cross country.

Second, I've been learning about spotting lift conditions and cross country considerations.  I've read Helmut Reichman's excellent book, "Cross Country Soaring" on the advice of instructors and there is a LOT of information in there that can help you stay aloft.  I need to re-read it as I begin to fly cross country.

It's going to be a little while before I can get started, though.  Right now, my real-life workload just won't let up and has conspired to keep me from being flexible enough to pick a day to take off for training, a prime requirement for a good training start.  Hopefully, that will let up a bit soon but I've been thinking that for the past month and it hasn't happened.

It's killing me, too.  One of my soaring friends recently cut the strings and flew away on his first 150 mile triangle and sent back incredible pictures of him with a huge grin on his face as he circled at cloudbase.  We both started flying around the same time and our flight 'careers' have progressed at roughly the same pace.  I was surprised how much those pictures made me realize that I have to get REAL about making my transition to this new level of flying.  I'm not sure it is what I'll do ALL the time, but it is something that will make me a much better pilot, whether I fly locally or not.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the trip and I'll keep posting here about the journey.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

That Voice in Your Head

Sometimes a little bit of experience can go an awfully long way and I'm finally getting to the point that *I* have some experience in soaring rather than taking it in from others.

Today wasn't the *best* day to fly passengers - when I got to Harris Hill it had just rained, but was clearing nicely.  There was a high overcast but we had a window of decent weather before winds were expected to build a bit and rain would return later in the day.

I was the commercial pilot on duty and right away we got a passenger.  As I said, the rain was a short shower and the ceiling was quite high, still overcast, and the radar showed showers NE and SW of us, but not coming our direction.  I took the passenger up, we had a great flight and when I got back, we waited for more passengers.  It was a slow day.

In the meantime, Tim Welles, our CFI was busy taking students up for training.  As the morning wore on, the winds began to build and by twelve-thirty I saw a few gusts to 15 mph.  But the wind was a mild crosswind, perhaps 30-45 degrees and the ridge began to work.  Our students were still flying and I kept my eye on the radar.

Around 1pm, we got another customer.  I explained to her that the winds might make it a little bumpy but the ridge would be working and we should have a good flight.  Sure enough, we had 1,000 feet before we cleared the hang glider launch point.  Near the top of the tow I got a few droplets of water on the canopy.

That's when I knew I'd been here before.  My only landout in our emergency field happened in the same conditions minus the wind.  I'd been looking at the weather but looked closer this time to see if any rain looked like it was on its way.  MAYBE there was some out to the North/Northwest but it was hard to tell.

I flew along the ridge and watched the glider below me, two of our members who were riding the ridge in an ASK-21.  I wanted to see if they turned into the pattern to land.  If they did, I'd probably do the same thing.

We stayed up for a few minutes and then I spotted what looked like heavier rain coming towards us, perhaps 10 minutes off and I began to pick up sprinkles of rain on the canopy.  I decided to land before the gust front hit, so I opened the spoilers, descended into the pattern and put it on the ground.  My passenger had a great flight despite the rain and in truth, we were probably only shortened by 5 minutes or so.  

A few minutes later, after the other glider landed, we felt the gust front come through and I was glad I'd made my decision to land.  It was that experience from my previous landout that allowed me to recognize what was likely on its way.  It's funny to think that when I started this blog, I was a newbie pilot and now I'm writing down today's flights as my 218th in a glider.  That's not a LOT of experience, but it is adding up to the point that I'm able to use it in my decision making.