Even though I've gone out and flown the 21 since I landed out, I'm still a little jumpy about it.

I'm very comfortable with the decision I made but the inevitable self doubts creep in. "Maybe I should have continued the approach. I might have made it." I need to erase those because I made the right decision for a guy with a grand total of about 8 flights in a new type operating a brand new $117k airplane.

The conversations around the field would be a lot different if I'd put it into the trees or damaged it trying to land. I'd probably quit flying I'd feel so bad. Not to mention my wife would have a thing or two to say about it.

It's all good. I fly for fun and this week I'm not doing too much of it because the International Vintage Sailplane Meet (IVSM) is at Harris Hill! There's about 30 sailplanes that are 50 years or older up there and yesterday was a continuous stream of odd and unusual airplanes taking off.

I worked a regular staff position in the cash office, selling glider ride tickets and tow tickets to the pilots. Fortunately, the office has a great view of the field and you could see everything. It was practically a carnival atmosphere.

After I was off duty, I hung out for awhile watching the air show. At one point, about 7 gliders were circling in the same thermal. As one of our members remarked, "That's quite different from the regular 'fiberglass' cloud that you normally see." Indeed.

I'm working out there Friday and will try to take some pics for the blog.

Back in the Saddle

After some thought and analysis, I knew I couldn't let too much time go by before flying again, so I headed out to Harris Hill on Wednesday.

The conditions were perfect for ridge soaring with about 10 knots of wind right down the runway. However, that wind direction is also conducive to causing sink on the southern end of the runway. Just like what happened when I landed out. I made myself go and fly anyhow even though I had some minor butterflies before takeoff.

There was no reason for this, of course. I can handle the airplane in these conditions and I have many times. I know what to look out for, what type of approach to fly and why. If I waited any longer, I would be making it into a much bigger deal than it really is.

Everyone has been very supportive and complimentary of my decision to land in the emergency field. I talked over the events with several of our instructors and the main feedback I've gotten from pretty much everyone is, "Been there, done that, had it happen to me before. Glad you didn't wreck".

So, I saddled up and took off for a 30 minute flight over the hills, staying unusually close to Harris Hill the whole time and anxiously watching the variometer for unusual sink. I finally relaxed after about 15 minutes and soared the ridge for awhile until turning into the downwind for landing.

I told myself I would learn how to land with the pattern a little tighter than I'd been flying it and with more altitude on final than I had been carrying. I completed my turn to base leg before cracking the spoilers and I was pretty high. I put then all the way out and made my turn to final. With full spoilers out, I was able to descend to precisely the spot that I was aiming for, touching down and rolling out as I had planned.

It was a good confidence builder and I'm ready to soar again - maybe Saturday. Dr. Jack says it may be a good day...

First land out.

This weekend, I went up to Harris Hill to practice flying the ASK-21. It wasn't a great soaring day with the weather 'okay' but predicted to cloud up and shower some in the afternoon.

That's exactly what it did and we were watching the radar pretty closely. Some showers and cells of intense rain were on the display but they kept missing us. I finally decided to go fly with the full expectation that I would come right back down again. And that's what happened. The air was glass smooth with virtually no wind. I decided it was a good time to try and practice landings in the 21.

On my second flight, I realized that there was warm air pushing up out of the valley and you could maintain a zero sink rate if you flew back and forth in it. I flew minimum sink rate and would lose altitude only when I made a turn. If I was gentle enough, I could keep that to about 50 feet.

Even thought it had completely clouded over, the lift was there. You could see rain to the west but all we got were light sprinkles that would pass over. I decided to take one last flight just to 1,000 above the field and make a last landing before the rain arrived. As I closed the canopy and the tow plane pulled the rope tight, it began to sprinkle lightly. I figured I needed to get u p and get back down real quick unless I wanted to get wet. I thought for a second about not taking off, but the air had been so smooth. There didn't seem to be an approaching thunderstorm and I'd flown in rain before. I continued with the takeoff.

Many times, accident prevention seminars talk about 'breaking the chain' that can lead to an accident. In this case, as you will see, there was no accident, but the chain could have easily led to an accident and in my case, the opportunity to break it was on the runway. I should not have taken off. But I did.

The takeoff roll was normal but as we cleared the end of the runway, a cross wind required quite a bit of correction to stay behind the tow plane. As we towed out over the valley, some gusts and turbulence indicated that something unusual was going on. The still overcast day had some teeth in it. I remember thinking, "I need to get back on the ground before this gets worse."

I dropped off the tow line at 2,600 feet and circled twice with the spoilers out to get down to 2,500 for approach. I did the second circle to let a 2-33 that was above me move into the pattern ahead of me. Knowing that it was one of our most experienced pilots, I decided to follow his lead and land to the North.

As I flew into downwind, I was about 100 feet high and cracked the spoilers to get to 2,300 feet abeam my intended touchdown point. I realized that the 2-33 was moving MUCH faster than normal and it looked like it was struggling to stay aloft. I turned base and the bottom fell out. I hit a very high rate of sink.

Putting the spoilers in, I put the nose down and tried to accelerate out of the lift while abandoning the base leg and aiming for the runway's edge direclty. The only appreciable effect was that the trees at the edge of the runway seemed to be getting closer MUCH faster than they should. At this point I had very serious doubts about being able to make it to the field.

Recalling all of the safety articles I had read, if the outcome is in doubt, change what is happening. I looked over my left shoulder and saw that I still had A) maybe enough altitude to clear the ridge and land in the emergency field; B) there was a semi-open field behind me that I had contemplated landing in under these exact circumstances in the past. The semi-open field is not a "good" choice because it is both downhill and uphill with bushes at irregular intervals but it was a MUCH BETTER choice than landing in the trees. Did I mention that the glider I was in is the newest one that Harris Hill Soaring, Inc. owns? Less than 8 months old and worth $117,000 dollars.

I did a hard 180 and put the nose down to gain even more speed. I'm not exactly sure how fast I was going, but I think it was over 80 knots. I realized almost immediately that I wasn't sinking nearly as fast and the drama was over just that quick. I pulled the nose up, slowed to 65 knots and cleared the ridge easily, out over valley with around 800 feet to the floor and the emergency field.

I took a couple of deep breaths and remembered what I had read from Kai Gertsen's "Off Field Landings". There are two types of glider pilots. Those who have landed out and those who will land out. This was my land out and I intended to make it a good one.

I easily lined up on base leg with the rain coming down a bit more steadily and worked my way through some gusts and turbulence. The airspeed indicator bounced around as I set up for the landing. I turned final with an extra 5 knots to compensate and everything smoothed out nicely. No push to the left or right, easy does it, when I get on the ground, nail the spoilers full and stop as quick as I can. Don't let the wing drop and ground loop.

For a moment, the thought flashed through my head "I wish I was not in the brand new club glider" and I pushed it aside as I concentrated on putting the glider in to the middle of the field. Touchdown! I yanked the spoilers hard from about 1/2 out to full out and engaged the brakes hard. I bounced to a stop and the only noise was the rain on the canopy. Holy crap, I did it!

After a few seconds to calm down, I called Harris Hill flight center on the radio but they didn't have it on. I used my cell phone to call and tell them I was at the emergency field and everything was fine.

A few minutes later, Uwe Zink, one of our club members showed up in his car and we pushed the glider off to the side. Sean Murphy, my flight instructor showed up with a rope and we pulled the glider to one end of the field while checking for woodchuck holes. He went up and got the tow plane, landed on the field and Uwe flew it out and back up to Harris Hill. I probably could have done it, but I thought it was best that my flying was over for the day!

Lessons learned - A) I probably shouldn't have taken off. Knowing that the rain was coming, I should have just let it go at that. I was lulled into thinking that it would be okay since it wasn't convective and the air had been so smooth. I knew the conditions were dynamic but now I really know what that means! B) Having taken off, I should have flown a closer downwind leg. If I'd been closer to the runway when I turned base, I would have made it with no sweat and wouldn't be writing this post. Period.

I *am* pleased I made the right decision to discontinue the approach when it didn't look viable anymore. However, I still think luck played a big part. I THINK what happened with the sink was that the wind blew up and over the north end of the ridge and was descending as sink right where I turned base leg. I know this because the 2-33 pilot did NOT encounter sink at all and winds were calm on the field after landing, he said.

That means I turned base in sink. PROBABLY if I'd continued towards the runway end I would have flown out of the sink and made the field. Certainly that is the reason I cleared the ridge. I must have flown out of it or I wouldn't have cleared it. I would have landed in the semi-cleared field and almost certainly damaged the glider or maybe even been injured or worse.

What if the sink had been pervasive along the downwind? I might have encountered it sooner and turned base and final sooner, but what if it moved across my base and kept moving toward the ridge? I would have done a 180 and kept flying the sink. If I'd been closer to the runway, I could have made a beeline for it and landed safely.

I got caught out. I made the right decision, give the circumstances I allowed myself to get into, but I shouldn't have had to make any decisions and I made it worse by not flying closer in.

I'm a better pilot, but I also know that yesterday I was a lucky one. Soaring is about decision making and I could have made a better decision not to take off. I'll take my free pass and file it in the experience file.

ASK-21 Signoff!

Today was 'training day' at Harris Hill. One of the great benefits of this club is that the instructors here will come out on a weeknight and train the 'senior' members once a week. For FREE. I can't think of a better benefit.

As I've noted in my earlier posts, I've been working on flying the ASK-21 as one of the final steps up the ladder in the aircraft that Harris Hill Soaring Inc. offers to its members. Technically, we have a Duo Discus for cross country flying, but it isn't something I'll be flying this year. Instead, we have several ASK-21's.

Today, I took two flights in the 21 with Sean Murphy, the instructor that got me from solo to glider rating. I hadn't flow with him in awhile, but as always, it was great to get instruction from him. We flew a couple of flights and he signed me off to solo in the 21. I've got a little more to go, though. I need to fly it in windy conditions with an instructor to make sure I'm good to go with passengers.

That's fine with me. My soaring goal this year was to step up to the 1-34 and ASK-21 and then fly them until I was comfortable with them. I've now got the license to learn in the 21 that will let me upgrade my soaring skills this season. I intend to take the airplane out and spin circles in it to learn how to catch and center thermals with it. This is a *crucial* skill for cross-country flying -something I may try to do next year, if I'm ready.

Right now, I've got my hands full with this fiberglass beauty. Even today, a dead calm, smooth air day, I found some rising air over the valley near the Elmira drive in that kept me aloft without losing altitude. The ship I was flying is our newest bird, perhaps 6 months old and straight off the boat this past December.

I also took a turn flying it from the back seat! This is the first time I'd flown a glider from the back seat, but found it was not too bad. A little different, but once I adjusted it was okay. The weirdest part is you can't see the towplane fuselage if you are in the proper position. The passenger's head covers it up. No matter. You can see the wings on either side and maintain position that way.

The landing wasn't too bad and actually, with your head and shoulders near the leading edge of the wing, it's quite a comfortable position to be in. I managed to touch down where I intended and rolled out to a nice spot on the flight line. Sean said, "okay take it up solo," and that's all there was to it.

The sign off in my log book says not to fly without an instructor at over 15 knots head or 5 knots crosswind. I wouldn't want to do that anyhow. Not right now, at least. For now, I'm satisfied to build some experience in the 21 and I'll work towards expanding the flight envelope later.

Good stuff!

New Personal Best!

I headed out to Harris Hill this weekend looking for some instruction on the ASK-21 and hoping to get signed off to fly it. I waited until around 11am to get out there because it was a bit windy and I wanted to wait for it to calm down a bit.

When I arrived, you could tell it was a good soaring day. All the private aircraft trailers were out and some of them had already taken off. The three ASK-21's that the club owns were occupied. In addition, the 1-34 was queued up for takeoff. I decided to make myself useful and help out a bit while I waited to see if one of the ASK-21's would come available.

After about two hours, I decided it wasn't going to happen, but the weather was so magnificent I wasn't going to let a lack of high performance aircraft keep me on the ground. I preflighted one of the Schweizer 2-33's and decided I would test my skills in the trainer.

Just a minute or two before I got ready to pull it out on the line, the 1-34 returned and I zipped over to claim the next flight. Quite a bit of time passed as we had one maintenance issue after another with BOTH of our Pawnee tow planes and our Super Cub. Amazingly, I was finally airborne after 3:00pm.

I was back just a few minutes later, having found the sink but not the lift. I re-studied the sky and strapped myself back in to the 1-34. This time, I decided to release the tow line as we entered what appeared to be a very good thermal. I was about 300 feet below regular tow release height but in a matter of a minute or so I was climbing through 4,000 feet.

I stuck with the thermal until it petered out around 5,000 feet and headed towards Elmira. All I found was sink, so I turned back to the ridge over Harris Hill and decided to fly back and forth along it until I found a thermal. The winds were still pretty good at around 10 knots out of the Northwest and I was able to reduce my descent and gain some time. After a few minutes, I stumbled into a 2 knot thermal and began to circle. As I did, it began to strengthen and I started up slowly.

I concentrated on maintaining airspeed and circling in a coordinated fashion. I'm still not great at it, but I am paying attention. It turns out I would get a lot of practice today. The 2 knot thermal turned into a 5 knot thermal and pretty soon I was climbing through 6,000 and then 7,000 feet, eventually topping out at 7,200.

I turned and headed out towards Elmira, since there were clouds in that direction and I reckoned that there might be thermals over the city. I found a difficult to fly one over the golf course and got myself back up to around 6,000 feet and then headed over towards the ELM airport. I found a great thermal there and circled some more.

The thermals were variable in height but fairly close together this day. I was able to move from one to another fairly easily but I never found one underneath a cumulus cloud - which is quite often where you find them. But the thermals were cycling so quick that by the time the clouds appeared, the thermal had died.

I flew left hand turns and right hand turns to try and get my skills up to par. Again, I'm no champ at this, but on the other hand I WAS managing to climb and stay high. I'm sure some of our 'Aces' could have climbed twice as high in half the time, but that's the allure of the gliding experience. You have to learn how through experience.

I headed back over the ridge off of Harris Hill and decided to work the lift there. Several hang gliders were quite high over the ridge, a sign that the lift is good enough for gliders. As I entered, I saw Rolf Beyer, one of our club members, enter below me. We flew the ridge together for awhile, but I decided to circle in some weak lift at the east end of the ridge. I worked it and worked it, in the lift sometimes climbing, sometimes not. But I stuck it out and the lift improved (or my technique did) and pretty soon I was in a 5 knot thermal headed up again!

Topping out at 5,000 feet, I headed back over the ridge and found super smooth lift both over the ridge and out over the valley. I was able to fly out, back, and cruise the ridge without losing altitude and regaining anything I lost from flying out of the lift band.

Eventually, I decided it was getting late and time to come down. I put the nose down, accelerated to 80 knots and did a series of ridge runs with pull ups and rudder turns at each end for fun. After several passes, I was low enough to land and brought the plane in.

I knew I'd been up for awhile but when I checked the log sheet, I realized I had a new personal best of 2 hours and 22 minutes! I think I would have stayed up longer if it hadn't been so late, but this was a great flight in and of itself. I'm really enjoying the flexibility of the 1-34 and being able to range a little further out to find those thermals I need to stay aloft. Lovely!

Flying the ASK-21

The 1-34 has been busy over the past week or so when I've been out to fly it, so I've been taking instruction in the ASK-21. This is a 2 seat, fiberglass glider with a respectable 34:1 glide ratio. That is, it will travel 34 feet forward for every 1 foot it glides down, or to put it in easier terms, it will glide 1 mile and lose just 115 feet. 1000 feet of altitude will send you 8.6 miles. At least in still air. I use a more conservative 200 feet per mile estimate, which gives you 5 miles per 1,000 feet you descend.

In any case, it is on par with the 1-34 and is my first 'glass' ship. Everyone at Harris Hill adores the ASK-21, and I can see why. It's comfortable, capable, seats two so you can take your friends up, and has very benign stall characteristics. A perfect aircraft for us regular 'non-racing' pilots who don't need to fly bleeding edge aircraft to get max performance from the ship.

Since the 1-34 has been busy, I've almost taken enough flights in the 21 to get checked out in it. I've been flying with Ron Ogden, one of our club instructors, and a real pleasure to fly with. Nothing rattles Ron and he's extremely well versed and, importantly, able to convey the lessons in a way that makes you understand the point he's trying to get across.

Although the 21 is an easy flyer, I've still had a few things to work on. I continue to try to be aware of my weakness to lag inputting control corrections until too late - particularly on takeoff. You really have to be on the ball and get those wings level and nose pointed the right direction and keep them there or things go south quickly. Not that I've had any serious issues with this, but I know it is one of my weak areas.

In the 1-34, I noticed that I was wobbling a bit on takeoff as the wings would rock one way, then the other. I set out to concentrate on arresting this tendency as one of my highest priorities and have been making decent progress at it. Being aware of it is 80% of the solution. Doing something about it NOW is the other 20%.

It's challenging for me. On takeoff roll, the ailerons aren't that effective until you get a little bit of speed, then they're VERY effective. You have to feed in different amounts of control (more) at the beginning of the roll than after gaining some speed (less). In the 1-34, it is pretty light so you do this with as steady a hand as you can but you don't have to move the stick super far until you are now rolling over to the other side and in danger of banging the wing on the ground. Of course, there is a wheel out there to prevent damage but it's bad form not to be in control of the airplane and the wheel is there for those big wind gusts that even full control deflection can't fix. A proficient pilot keeps the wings level on takeoff.

On the 21, the glider is quite a bit heavier and the wings are heavier. You have to feed in quite a bit of control and hold it there a little longer than I'm used to in the 1-26 or 1-34.

Yesterday, I worked on that and managed to keep us more or less in the center on the second takeoff by consciously feeding in more and holding it a little longer. That worked pretty well.

On landing, Ron encouraged me to 'pick a speed brake setting and try to stick with it'. This is a little tricky, but the key to landing the 21. You have to A) look at the field on base leg; B) pick the approximate speed brake setting (1/4? 1/2? 1/8?) that you think will last all the way down base and the turn to final. Of course, you can adjust it as you go but the idea is to adjust it only in very small increments. Managing the energy in the glider to dissipate it just as you flare out and touch down is the point.

On the first flight, I was jockeying the speed brakes all around. Landing was fine, but then Ron challenged me to 'pick it and stick it'. If you can do this successfully, it removes the variable of having to continually adjust your pitch and the spoiler position to achieve the proper airspeed. A stable final approach always assures a good landing.

On the second flight, I managed to pick the right setting and keep it pretty much locked in that position all the way down to the landing. I hunted for the landing gear just a bit on the flare, but made the proper adjustments and we landed in the right attitude and pretty close to the spot I had intended to land on. Awesome!

Now, of course, the way it works with me is that I'll blow it next time out and end up sawing the spoiler handle back and forth trying in vain to get it right. Or I'll overshoot and land long. But at least I know what the right technique is. I'll need more familiarity and landing practice in the 21 to get it worked out, but I'm starting to really like this airplane.

If all goes well, in another flight or two or three, I'll be signed off to fly the 21. My goals for my flying this summer are to: A) step up to the higher performance aircraft, the 1-34 and the ASK-21; B) Become proficient at flying both aircraft in a variety of conditions. I'm making good progress towards part A of that goal and if I can get signed off on the 21, I've got a lot of summer and fall flying ahead of me to get comfortable with the 21.

I'm looking forward to a great summer in these airplanes.

Landing the 1-34

I flew the 1-34 at our training night Wednesday. The sky was overcast but we were able to get a 2000 foot tow. No lift at all, but also no wind. I took the opportunity to practice my landings in the 1-34.

It's not what I would call a tricky airplane to land, but it is a little different from the 1-26 and 2-33. Both times I noticed that just as you flare that the airspeed drops off as you have the spoilers open. I can see why I was told that most damage to this plane comes from people who drop it in on a hard landing.

It's sort of like...I'm on target, airspeed good...I'm on target, airspeed good...flare, whoa! slowing down below 40 knots...touchdown! Balancing that effect in gusty conditions could lead to a belly flop, I'll bet.

In any case, I managed my two landings without much trouble and all went well. I'm still impressed with how far this plane will go when entering the pattern at the proper altitude. You pretty much have to tell it to GET DOWN. Good stuff.