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.