Launch and landings clinic was on 4th of July weekend. 4 days of practice and professional instruction - perfect. When I signed up, I missed that this clinic also included mountains flying. It was a good thing as we would go to West Rutland and that would be the first time for me flying in real mountains, but in the light of my recent mishaps, all I wanted was to concentrate on landings. Also, since Kari flies hang gliders and paragliders (and mostly paragliders now), clinic was bi-wingal. I wasn't quite sure how well that would work out...
Day 1
The first day, after all introductions, the whole group of about 15 people gathered at 250' launch. Kari put a cameraman in the LZ to film our landings, while she was filming our launches.
We started around 10 AM in no wind conditions. A really good run was required to launch properly. My first run immediately revealed plenty of things to work on. I got very good feedback on how to make my launches more consistent, and keep angle of attack under control. I got only 3 launches before a lunch break - it was just too many people, and a lot of waiting. Kari immediately commented on how fast I was flying. "Relax and slow down, you might enjoy it more", she told me later. But I preferred not to, not yet, my tree landing was just a week earlier.
Here is a short video of my second launch off 250 where Kari comments "you are flying like a freaking fighter pilot". I didn't care. The way I figured, fly fast - more control, less things to worry about... for now at least.
Later in the day we started the same routine but from 450' launch. With the launches, the goal was to run all the way to the bottom of the ramp, controlling nose position. I was pretty confident on launches before the clinic, but I was told that I still pop the nose up. Part of the reason was I would always have a jackrabbit start, popping nose slightly in the process, and not running all the way to the bottom of the ramp. Gotta work on that.
Here is my launch off 450. Kari was commenting on my launch so I could review the recording later. Very helpful.
- Day 1. Sunset
Day 2
For the second day of clinic, it was decided to go to West Rutland. Somehow, the group that was going there grew twice in size. Quite a few people that weren't in this clinic decided to join West Rutland trip. We got a late start trying to figure out all the logistics and by the time we got to West Rutland, walked LZs and setup - it was around 4PM. The horizon didn't look good at all and we were wondering if a wiser option would be to breakdown and do it some other day, but we stayed and played wait-and-see.
An hour in our wait that was the view from launch
An hour in our wait that was the view from launch
- Day Two. Rutland is not very friendly today.
And then it started to rain... However, it looked like all this ugliness would blow by in an hour or so. We kept waiting. By 6:30pm sky cleared enough for everyone to start gearing up and getting ready to launch. It was an overcast, no wind and no ridge lift, but flying down seemed like a better deal than driving. Obviously, we had a few people who would take the vehicles down. Mostly non-pilots, but Kari, after watching everyone to launch, drove down, as well. I don't think she was too happy about it.
On my launch, I had a good run but probably kept angle of attack too low as the glider was getting ahead of me slightly. I tripped, recovered, the ramp ended and I floated away. Not the most graceful launch, I guess.
My flight was ok. I decided that in the conditions as they were, there was no reason for me to try anything but fly straight to LZ. I arrived there with at least 800' AGL to spare. I had to make a few circles to lose altitude. Then I didn't place myself correctly for a nice final and to correct that I had to do a rather low figure-8. It's a good thing that Falcon is such a forgiving glider, I had no problem to get wings level and land. Flared too late and landed on my belly with a thump. No landing style points for me.
When everyone was done packing, it started raining again.... Last cars finally arrived when it was already getting dark, we loaded hang gliders and paragliders up and drove back to Morningside.
....
Here is a video from my first mountain launch:
And a couple of photos from that day:
- Day Two. West Rutland (photo by Vitaly Pogrebnoy)
- Day Two. Leaving West Rutland.
Overall, a long day but yet again a day where I got to try new things and meet new people. Life is good.
Day 3
After all the excitement of mountain flying, we returned back to practicing launches and landings. Again, 250' in the morning and 450' in the evening. I was working on a new technique that Kari suggested, to keep hangstrap tight on launch to minimize nose popping up. I really liked this one, it gave me a better feedback from the glider on launch. It might not work as well with more advanced, heavier gliders, but it worked great on Falcon.
In the evening, Kari was soaring in her paraglider. I haven't even attempted to do that. I left this for another day. Launches and landings were more important to me this time. You see what a little tree landing can do to a man?
I had only 6 launches that day due to increased traffic of hang gliders and paragliders. Conditions were perfect and everyone wanted a piece of that.
Day 4
We followed format of the previous day, but this time Kari was in the LZ, filming our landings and recording her feedback. I only had time for 3 flights.
Here is a video with a couple of landings. The first one from day 1, it was pretty good with a good flare. The second, flare started to fall apart as I tried to concentrate on another element. My conscious brain cannot process 2 things at the same time :-)
Kari wrapped up the clinic with a video review session in the afternoon. We all had a chance to critique each other and see what we needed to work on. This was a very useful exercise as well.
- Day 4. Review.
Conclusion
My overall impression of the clinic was very good. It was one of the most useful instruction/lessons I got since I started solo flying. I learned a lot and had fun. Kari was very helpful and approachable. She gave everyone personalized feedback and list of things to improve upon. And tips how to improve certain things. My goal for the clinic was mostly to improve my landings. I didn't think I was needed much for launches, but my launches probably benefited most. Mountain launch was also a great, comfort zone expanding, experience.
The only thing I wish was different, I wish it was a hang gliding only clinic. It would have kept things more focused, I think... Anyway, I highly recommend this clinic. Money well spent.
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More photos from this weekend can be found here: Launches and Landings with Kari Castle. Morningside July 2013.
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