What Harris Hill looks like this Spring

  That picture pretty much sums up what has to be the worst and soggiest Spring I've ever seen.  I've only lived here for 5 years so I can't really speak to what Spring normally looks like around here -except for my recent experience.  However, old-timers say it's nothing like this.  Spring usually arrives with clear skies, moderate temps and the promise of outstanding soaring - day after day.  We do get the rains, but they come and then they go.  They don't hang on for a week at a time!

It's getting downright disheartening to look at the weather forecast these days.  Right now, the last good, flyable day we had was the middle of last week.  Naturally, I was on a business trip and couldn't be here for it.  I tried to check in on the webcam but it was mysteriously down for two days then fixed itself before I could head out to the Hill to see what was the matter.

Outlook for the weekend is similar to this week - cloudy, rainy.  We've got a regional contest coming up in June and I'm wondering if the weather is going to cooperate!  Here's hoping the weather breaks - SOON.

A day on the hill

Galo Grijalva shows how you have to keep
flying it until it stops

Actually, this post should probably be titled "A day without rain," with a tip of the hat to Enya's album of the same name.  April has been a miserable washout with just two flyable days for me!  It took me all month just to get in my three takeoffs and landings for currency this season.  It is one of the coldest and wettest months on record around here.  Lovely.

But the skies did part and the sun came out last weekend and I made sure to take advantage of it by heading up to Harris Hill for the better part of a rather eventful day.  The skies started out dotted with small cumulus clouds, indicating thermal activity, but by the end of the day, they dried up leaving just a blue soaring day.

Finally, a clear, sunny Spring day.

Whether you fly or not, just being up at Harris Hill is fun.  Today, there was plenty of activity as private club gliders were pulled out to be flown for the first time this year while the regular club gliders also got a full workout.  The 2-33's, the 1-34, the 1-26 and of course, our ASK-21's were all out on the flight line awaiting their turn in the air.

I took the 1-34 up for a pleasant one hour flight to remind myself that I actually can find and center thermals and to work on my steep turns.  At first, I thought I would be the only one to head up and come back down - after release, I headed into a gaggle of gliders circling a few hundred feet above me, hoping for a quick climb above release height, but today the thermals were more like bubbles -if you didn't get in as it was rising, there was no lift underneath them.  As I passed through the center of the thermal, below the climbing aircraft there was no lift at all, so I headed over towards the ridge searching for thermals that were being blown up the hill.

Flying is coming to an end as the club and
private gliders wait their turn to be put away

No luck.  I'm getting down to decision time to begin my entry into the landing pattern, so I lined up over the hang glider field and suddenly felt the whoosh and saw 2 knots of upward lift with signs that it was stronger than that.  I calculated what would happen if I circled and lost 100 feet of altitude and decided that wouldn't be a problem.  I turned sharply and was rewarded with 3...4...5 knots of vertical speed!  I feebly tried to ascertain where the lift was strongest and weakest the last time around and moved my circle slightly...6 knots of lift!  After just two circles, the field was looking LOT smaller than it did when I was contemplating landing.

I stuck with the thermal and really concentrated on centering it and getting as much lift as I could out of each circle and pretty soon I was climbing through 4,400 feet after starting at 2,500.  The thermal topped out with a nice 2,000 foot altitude gain.  I headed off to search for more thermals, fat, dumb, and happy.

Andy and Stefan preparing to search for lift

They were out there and an hour later, after a number of climbs and descents, I decided to open the spoilers and come down so others could enjoy the flying.  It was actually a little difficult because that same thermal was cycling again in the same spot, so I had a chance to see what happens if you get caught in an updraft underneath a thunderstorm - full spoilers, still climbing.  Pointing the nose down fixed that and I was back on the ground in a few minutes.

What do you do up there besides fly?


Often, when I'm up at the hill for quite awhile, I get that phone call asking me, "What are you doing up there?"  There's all kinds of stuff that just burns up the afternoon.

First of all, there's something about Harris Hill that is a little bit like a time machine.  You get out of your car and you enter a DIY world where it's up to YOU to take care of everything.  Launch, retrieval, even routine maintenance is all up to you.  I think it is related to the fact that most pilots aren't required to assemble their aircraft before they fly them!

Louis and Bryan replace a flat tailwheel

Our club ships stay put together in the hangar, although they can and do come apart for transportation or maintenance.  But the private gliders are stored in trailers, which means each time they are flown, they are put together by their pilots.  Wings are attached to fuselages, horizontal stabilizers are connected to tails, controls are connected to control surfaces each and every time they are flown and the whole process is reversed after flight to store them safely in their trailers afterwards.

Naturally, it helps to have some assistance to assemble and disassemble, so we all get familiar with the process.  That seems to breed the DIY mentality that permeates the atmosphere up there.  Tailwheel on the tow plane is flat?  Replace it.  Tow rope needs swapping out?  Go ahead.  Need a little lubricant on the hinges?  It's over there, go get it.  Add oil to the engine?  Okay.

Chris Butler tows in the Super Cub

Now, to be clear, we don't do anything that isn't allowed under the Federal Air Regulations.  Several of our members are mechanics and they do the inspections and maintenance that can only be done by mechanics.  But the DIY spirit is prevalent everywhere on the hill and it's something that I really appreciate -especially around an airport.  Most people are used to the commercial airports where passengers are routed like cattle through the terminal and onto the aircraft and restricted areas and special badging requirements abound.  Not at a private airport like Harris Hill.  I like it, and it contributes to the free and easy atmosphere that makes it fun to be there even if you aren't flying.

The unexpected


Sometimes you end up doing a little DIY duty for some unexpected tasks as well.  After my first flight, as I got back to the flight line, several members were watching a glider as it sank out of view below the ridge line over the valley.  After a few minutes, it was obvious that this glider was not climbing back up in a thermal which meant that the pilot must have landed in our alternate field in the valley below.

A call on the radio revealed that he was in the field and okay, having been out to test his sustainer engine but had been unable to start it and was forced to land in the field below.  The alternate field is for just this purpose - if you get low out on the ridge, you can land in a field down in the valley.  I've done it, as a matter of fact, and it's a great resource to have as it gives us a 'second chance' if things don't work out the way we'd planned.

I volunteered to drive down and see about him while others hooked his trailer up to a truck and brought it down.  It is possible to tow out of that field, but the torrential rains made it soggy and we figured it was best to simply disassemble the aircraft and tow it back up to the hangar.  An hour later, several of us had managed to get the trailer into the field without getting stuck in the mud, disassembled the glider, and brought it home to Harris Hill.

Between swapping stories, hooking up gliders, making minor repairs, and even retrieving landouts, there's plenty to do up at the hilll, even when you're not flying.  The only thing there's not enough of is...time.

Back in the Saddle

Thursday evening I headed out to Harris Hill for the first flight of the season!  I took my field safety checkout with Ron Ogden and realized that while I might be a bit rusty, I still remember how to fly!

The winds were tricky, out of the East-Northeast at 8-10 knots, a little gusty.  Perfect for training.  When the wind blows out of the East, and particularly when the wind favors landing to the North, as it did today, you have to be on your toes to prevent a tricky situation from becoming dangerous.

There are a couple of things that an East wind causes.  In the diagram below, pretend that North is to the right -the direction of the aircraft labeled 'Straight out departure'.  You enter the pattern in the 45 degree entry point on the diagram and then turn parallel to the runway and fly downwind.  With an East wind, that means the wind is off your left wingtip and trying to blow you away from the runway.  You compensate by flying at an angle with your nose pointed slightly into the wind.  Although you aren't parallel, the wind blows you out as you point your nose into the wind and the result is you fly a straight line.  

You'd better fly that straight line CLOSE to the runway because as you turn left onto your base leg, your groundspeed will slow as you fly directly into the wind.  The airspeed indicator will show the same speed, but your groundspeed will slow by the amount that the wind is blowing.  So, your 60 knot groundspeed will slow to 40 knots if the wind is blowing 20 knots.

The solution is to keep the base leg short, or you'll lose altitude and not be making any progress on your pattern.  As you turn to final, the wind is now off your right wingtip and trying to blow you away from centerline.  You fly at the opposite crab angle, nose pointed slightly into the wind to compensate and track straight.

The wind was gusty and as we turned final, we encountered not just turbulence but wind shear that caused us to lose 10 knots of airspeed almost instantly.  Fortunately, I was flying at 60 knots and the stall speed of the glider is quite a bit less than the 50 knots we were suddenly flying at as we went through the shear.  The airspeed indicator bounced around wildly for a second or two, then we passed through it and I managed to touchdown pretty much where I was aiming - a little farther than I wanted but not by too much.

Now, I'm checked out for the coming flying season and I need two more flights to be 'current' and carry passengers.  I'll work on getting those next week during training as the weather is pretty iffy this weekend.  Regardless, it was great to get back in the air and I'm looking forward to the flying 2011 flying season!

Web cam updated

I updated the webcam for Harris Hill and it is a huge improvement!  It's a logitech Pro9000 and whatever they did to build intelligent optics into it, they did it right for my needs.  The old camera wasn't really intended for outdoor use and I'd put a piece of cardboard over it with a pinhole but the picture was always a bit blurry and washed out.

The new one is higher resolution and adjusts better for bright light conditions.  You can make out the cloud types, see which gliders are out on the runway and so forth.  It updates every 10 minutes, along with the weather station at this address: http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/GliderWx/1/show.html

Yawn. I hate studying for the written test.

I'm studying for the written test for the commercial glider pilot exam.  I've always done well on standardized tests and I'm taking it seriously, so I don't expect to have a lot of trouble passing it.  It's just a drag.

Not to mention I have to actually go take the test, and the testing facility isn't anywhere nearby, I don't think.  I actually don't know.  The last time I took an FAA written test, it was back in the 80's when you used pencil and paper and waited for the results for several weeks.  Now, it's computer based and you know right away if you passed - much better.

In preparation, I've attended our weekly ground school sessions at Harris Hill for the past couple of months and sat through lecture, read through Bob Wander's "Commercial Glider - Made Easy!" book and am currently working my way through the Glider Pilot's handbook.  Then, I'll use the commercial glider prep book that has actual questions in it to prep.

It's not like a lot of this stuff isn't good to know, but that doesn't mean it's not boring.  The Glider Flying Handbook is a good example.  It explains the differences between different types of hypoxia but the results are the same - euphoria, feeling that everything is fine, drowsiness, possible headache, blue lips, tingling fingers, unconsciousness, possible death either from hypoxia or accident.  Now, whether I need to know the medical differences between the various forms of hypoxia is a different matter.  Since the point is for me to know how to A) avoid it; B) Or barring that, recognize it by descending and using oxygen or both, then while I suppose it is good background, the practical aspect is what I need to know.

Anyhow, minor rants.  I'll study it, take it, hopefully pass it, and I'll be all ready for the oral portion of the flight test, so the only thing to do is get it behind me.

On a very encouraging note, I've been teamed up with Ron Ogden as my instructor to prepare for the commercial flight test and that's a good thing.  Ron is a top notch instructor and I'm looking forward to learning some good stuff from him and being an even more proficient pilot than I am.  He would like to try and get me ready for the test by June.  I'll see how I'm doing by early April and try to set a date with the local examiner so I have a hard deadline to work against.

Buff and wax of #6 ASK-21 this winter

Next week, we buff and wax the Duo Discus, our cross country trainer and our first safety meeting takes place.  We'll go over the electronic scheduling system I've worked on over the winter and will hopefully implement going into mid-summer.

In any case, the new flying season is coming and I'm looking forward to improving my skills again this year!  If things go very well, I'll also look at adding some cross country experience so I can get checked out in the single seat Discus -the last club glider that I'm not yet checked out in.

Going Commercial

The phone call from one of our instructors posed a dilemma.  "Are you going to get a commercial rating this year?"  I hadn't thought to make a decision on that question this early in the year, but as it turns out, now is the time.

To be clear, a commercial rating simply allows me to be compensated for flying passengers.  I can already fly passengers under my private pilot ticket, but am only allowed to split compensation on a 50% or less basis with the passenger.  The type of certification I must have to fly passengers for hire at Harris Hill is governed by the certification of our operation (Part 91 of the code of federal regulations) by the FAA.  If I have a commercial glider rating, I can fly passengers under Part 91 for Harris Hill, so this rating allows me to take paying passengers up at Harris Hill.

Getting a commercial glider rating involves passing a written FAA test and a practical flight exam with a designated FAA examiner.  It's not considered one of the more difficult ratings to get, but I'm always nervous about taking tests.

It's also (like other ratings) expensive to get.  The written test costs about $100 dollars and the checkride is about $400.  If you fail it, you get to keep paying until you pass.

So, it wasn't without considerable trepidation that I answered, "Yes.  Yes I will try for my commercial rating this year."  And with that, the decision was made and I've committed myself to intense study of the FAA regulations (ahem, ones that I should already know, by the way) and scrutiny of my flying by someone whose opinion carries a lot of weight.

If you've read my blog, you'll know that while I am certainly a competent pilot, I'm not in the same league as some of the hotshots in our club who seem to have been born with a stick in their hands and their feet on the rudder pedals.  Probably never will be.

So, any test of my abilities is a test I approach with a great deal of preparation.  Right now, I'm attending our Winter ground school, which is reminding me how much I have forgotten and studying Bob Wander's "Commercial Glider Checkride - Made Easy!" book.  I've used the Bob Wander series since my early glider days at the recommendation of one of our instructors and they've been terrific for getting me ready for the oral exam, transition to single seat glider, learning to thermal and now the commercial test.

The benefits of getting a commercial rating are many.  First, I will be a better pilot.  The Practical Test Standards (PTS) published by the FAA prescribe the maneuvers and procedures you must know to pass a flight check and earn a commercial rating.  These standards are more stringent than the private pilot standards and thus you must be a better pilot to earn the rating.  If I pass, I'll be a better pilot.

Second, when I carry paying Harris Hill passengers, I won't pay for the flight.  All the money (and expense) goes to Harris Hill.  Which means I get to fly for free.

Third, passenger rides are limited to about 25 minutes.  That means lots of takeoffs and landings, which makes you a better pilot.  When flying on your own, you try to avoid doing 8 or 9 landings a day in the glider due to the expense of the tow fees.

Fourth, I like to share the glider experience with people.  People are alternately afraid or excited when they go for a ride and I think I'm pretty good at helping those who are afraid enjoy the ride and it will be fun to share the thrill with those who are excited.

Fifth, it's always good to have a goal for each season.  Last year I wanted to fly cross country but didn't achieve that goal.  This is one that I can reasonably expect to achieve this year.

As soon as the weather breaks and flying resumes in April, I'll start the flight training portion of my preparations.  I think I should probably get the written test out of the way by the end of April if not sooner.  That way, I've got plenty of time to practice up and get proficient for the flight exam.

The Cure for Winter Blues

Our Schweizer 1-34 awaits its Winter flight at the hill

Regularly scheduled flying takes a break over the winter at Harris Hill, but that doesn't always mean that NO flying takes place.  Today was one of those rare "Let's go flying!" days.

Thanks to Ron Ogden, the email went out to the mailing list and several member responded enthusiastically that "Yes!" we want to to fly on Saturday!

December has been a bit cold this year with day time highs in the low 20's but we've been spared that lake effect snow that Buffalo to the West and Syracuse to the Northeast have gotten.  We've had a number of light snow showers in December but they usually drop 1/2 inch or so at most.

Jeff Shingleton in his Lambada motor glider showed up,
paid a visit, and flew in formation with me at 3,000 feet.

In any case, several club members showed up at the appointed hour and Dana Smith also showed up for tow pilot duty and we all got a few flights in.  At first, I didn't think I would fly but would just help out, but as we rolled the aircraft out and positioned them, I caught flight fever and decided to take a couple of flights.

The weather was quite beautiful with clear blue and a few lower level dark but thin clouds that hinted at wave effect.  While we didn't encounter any wave, there was rather sparse and spotty weak lift that would help stretch your flight even if it didn't take you upwards.

I strapped into the Schweizer 1-34 for my two flights.  I love the 1-34.  It is easy to fly, performs fairly well and has dive brakes that can stop an out of control 18 wheeler.  I headed up to 2,000 feet above the field and let the tow rope go as I circled looking for lift.  I found a teeny tiny bit over the rock cliffs near route 352 and managed to arrest my descent.  16 minutes later I was on final for landing and a bit high.  I popped open those giant dive brakes and although I knew I would lose speed, had forgotten how powerful they were -even though I was expecting them to slow me quickly.  I stowed them again, picked up speed and landed pretty close to where I had intended to.

Bryan Reigal on final for Harris Hill in the ASK-21

The second flight was much like the first although I found a small burble of a thermal that I managed to circle in for several turns before giving up and heading back to the field.  This time I clocked in 17 minutes before landing.

It was great to get out in the middle of winter and get some flights in!  It is usually a long stretch to April and I'm glad I got to sneak some flights in before it was bitter cold.

If you want to see more, there are a few more pics in my soaring album here.  They'll be the ones at the end of the album.

Gallo Grijalva took the 1-34 for several flights

The weather was quite good - blue skies and not too windy/cold
with temps right at 32, making for good flying