Finally, I got to fly at the Cape again. 2 other attempts this year didn't bring anything but hang waiting. The last one was a week ago and I couldn't even assemble my glider - the wind was that strong. The leading edge on my glider is full of sand now.
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This time, Natalia and I got to White Crest beach in Wellfleet around 11AM. Vitaly Pogrebnoy was already there assembling his glider. Tom Lanning pulled in as well. Since it was Friday, it looked like only 3 of us were going to represent hand gliding that day. There were quite a few paragliders already in the air, or ready to launch, though.
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The wind was rather light, and, remembering my first launch at the Cape, I was worrying I wouldn't be able to fly.... and somehow, my worry materialized itself by my first flight being, again, a sledder. I self-launched at the cape for the first time, and I didn't do it right. I ended up launching in a not a very strong cycle, losing altitude immediately. I landed a quarter of mile later and was faced with a decision - breakdown the glider, or carry it back to the launch in hope that someone would help me to bring it up. I chose the second option.
Self-launching... (photo courtesy of Natalia K)
...and not flying far
It took me a while to walk the glider back, but when I got to the walkway that led to the top of the dune, Tom Peghiny saw my predicament, and he helped me to carry the glider up. I couldn't thank him enough. He also gave me some pointers on how to self-launch from the dune. I waited for a few paragliders to clear the launch and gave it another try.
Before my second launch, Tom and I talked about turning south (wind that day had some southern component to it), but when I started to launch, wind lifter my right wing, turning me to the north. I went with it, opting for a quicker turn in hope that it would position me closer to the ridge. And it worked. I glided away. I couldn't have been happier.
Tom P. assisting me on the second launch (photo courtesy of Natalia K)
...much better this time (photo courtesy of Natalia K)
When I finally got into the air, it was at least 40 minutes since Tom Lanning and Vitaly launched. A mile or so down the shore, I saw that Tom was already on the ground, packing his Falcon.
Tom Lanning packing his Falcon.
I also saw Vitaly in the distance, still in the air. When I got to the gap where Tom had landed, wind seemed to picked up, and I had enough altitude to cross the gap. After crossing, I joined Vitaly on the next section of the dune.
I greeted Vitaly enthusiastically. It made me happy that we could share this experience. We had a couple of miles of that dune to ourselves.
Greeting Vitaly
We had a couple of miles of the dunes to ourselves.
I was able to cross another, a much wider, gap to the north.
Crossing...
Most of the time when I turned around, I ended up below the ridge. With some difficulty, I was able to make my way back to the ridge level.
Turning around often put me below the ridge.
Barely making it back to the ridge level, while Vitaly had plenty of altitude flying other direction.
Crossing wide gaps upwind was a challenge, too. A few times I had to turn around and wait for a better cycle, hoping it would bump me higher.
Crossing the gap again. This time upwind.
I played with that section of the shore for maybe 15-20 minutes and, to make things more interesting, decided to see if I could fly it all the way to the southern lighthouse.I crossed all the gaps toward the launch, sang a song for Tom Lanning while flying over him, and set toward the lighthouse.
Over the launch. Going south.
Over the launch. Going south.
All was going rather well for a few miles, but while flying over Marconi beach, I suddenly started losing altitude and barely had time to get my legs out of the harness.
A few miles south. Positioned nicely over the ridge.
40 seconds later - flushed
The ground is coming up fast
I only made it halfway to the lighthouse and just like that my flight was over. Good thing I landed only a couple hundred yards from the Marconi beach parking. If I could get a ride, I wouldn't had to walk too far.
The next order of business was to get me that ride back. I tried to call Natalia on the phone and over the radio. No signal on the phone. No reply over the radio. I had to go all the way up and then I was able to call for help. Natalia picked me up soon after.
Eagle has landed. Calling for help.
Going to Marconi beach parking. (photo courtesy of Natalia K)
Not a bad day on the beach. Not bad at all. Considering that it was December in New England - I had nothing to complain about.
Morningside was celebrating its 40th anniversary on Columbus day weekend. Plenty of activities were planned including some friendly competitions. I am not into competition much, but I decided to give it a try. The first one was a spot landing competition, and one can always use more spot landing practice. Another part of the competition included a "bomb" drop. I signed up for that as well.
On Saturday, I got one flight off 450 just to practice. Then there was a Plaque Dedication ceremony (more photos from the event -> Columbus Day Weekend at Morningside)
And then the competition started... Spot landing got combined with a bomb drop competition. And to make things go faster, or make it harder, not sure which, we had to do it all from 250 foot launch. Basically - launch off 250', drop a "bomb" on some spot marked at 150' launch (a bomb is a small toy with a competitor's number on it) , proceed to the LZ and land in the bullseye... on your feet. Easy... not. It actually looked pretty intimidating to me as there was not much altitude for any variation.
On my first attempt (we got 2 tries total) I turned toward 150 launch as soon as I was in the air. I ended up with probably 20-30' over the target. Dropped the bomb, but it didn't go anywhere close to the spot. No points. I didn't get any points on my spot landing either. I got too fixated on landing in the bullseye, and flared early, overshot the spot anyway, and whacked. No points.
When I got up for my second attempt, I figured, I would turn slightly away from the target first, to drop the altitude to a more manageable level where I can almost put my "bomb" into the bucket. That "almost" almost worked, except that I undershot. That wouldn't be a problem if I abandoned the bomb drop and just went on with a safe turn. But I got completely fixated on the goal. I was going to make that target, dammit! Common sense won eventually, but almost when it was too late. I was four feet off the ground when I finally threw the bomb in the general direction of the target, and initiated a turn.
The apex of the turn was just a few feet off the target. The only thing that saved me was... luck, and the fact that the target was placed close to the slope. When I turned, I got a bit more ground clearance, but my left wing was scrapping the hill. It touched the ground twice and I was totally in "I am about to cartwheel" mode. Luckily, it didn't happen. I proceeded to put more space between me and terraferma as slope was dropping away from me.
After that I was in total "just don't make it worse" mode. No spot landing - just land it safely. Since I didn't have much altitude to play with, I didn't make enough of a turn to get close to the bullseye. Rather opposite, I was landing close to all the parked gliders. I recalled all my motorcycling training - you go where you look - I was looking away from all those gliders. I didn't flare much, just ran my landing out, and was, to the last moment, concentrating to run away from the parked gliders. Amazingly, it worked. I didn't make things worse. I think, the bag with my luck just got a bit lighter... not sure if the bag with my skill got heavier, but one can hope... At least, my caution/awareness level increased - competition became secondary.
The competition continued on Sunday. The longest glide. Again, we launched from 250, had to cross the road, fly above a marker on the other side, turn down the runway, and glide along the runway as far as possible. The conditions were variable, and I could see people making questionable decisions after hitting some sink, and barely making it across the road. When I launched, I could see that my glide was not long enough to make the first turn. I abandoned the run and practiced a spot landing instead. I should have done the same on Saturday...
Here is a video of my target fixated bomb drop. Watch the glider shake a couple of times after I clear the target.... that is my left wing touching the ground.
Party
Saturday night there was a party in celebration of Morningside 40th anniversary. Rob and Sandy Jacobs organized the whole thing. They built a "coliseum" (it's on the left in the photo below)
they brought catering, music band, and finished the night with very impressive fireworks. I think, that was the best firework display I have seen.
I am not much into partying, but I had a lot of fun taking photos of everyone having fun :-) My new camera with a very fast lens performed well considering I didn't use flash, and lights in the coliseum were very dim.
Here is a couple of videos taken by the same camera:
Johnny Szarek's six year old daughter Siena sings the National Anthem
Everyone launches sky lanterns. It's magical to see so many of them to float away into the night skies
Flying season was progressing nicely. New sites, new challenges. But I haven't even thought about any sort of competition, especially not while flying a Falcon....
I don't remember already what made me look. Probably people discussing who signed up this year. But I checked the rules for Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2014 and it wasn't so much a competition, but more a training camp for wannabe cross-country pilots. They even had handicap points for single surface gliders. Hm... Why the hell not, I thought. I wanted to learn how to fly cross-country, and I wanted to have more training. I didn't care much about competition part, so I didn't mind to come back with no points at all.
And then September came fast. It was time to drive to Tennessee and get challenged.... I won't describe in all the details what days were like, and what the competition was all about. JJ had done it nicely here (and part 2 here). I'll just vent for a teeny-weeny bit about my impression of the event...
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First thing was to get there. JJ offered to share a ride. Jeff C and I joined him on the way down. JJ had a small wagon - Pontiac Vibe. Small engine. Manual transmission. This poor thing was really struggling with all the load - 3 people, 3 gliders, and a lot of camping gear. It required constant downshifting on even very slight up-hills. It was tiring. Since we left Friday evening and arrived around 10am the next morning - I personally was tired and in no mood to do any kind of flying. I mean, I could, but it wouldn't be as safe and fun. So when we got to Whitwell later Saturday afternoon, I just observed. A good thing too, because a sledder the next day required my full attention - I cleared the wires over the church LZ with only 100' to spare (you can see it in the video below). That would be a bit too much excitement for my tired brain.
So, for the first part, a few things that I would have done differently the next time around - I should leave early morning, and have a full night sleep before flying. Take an extra day off...
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The other thing, this year competition was later in the year than usual. The conditions were very light. To stay afloat required skills I didn't have. Having a single surface glider made things even more challenging. People were struggling even with topless gliders. I couldn't have known that before I signed up as I had no experience with the site, but... having sledders only, killed a lot of enjoyment of the event. I didn't care much about points, but I didn't expect not to be able to get above the ridge even for a minute or two.
What else?... My expectations of "training" camp was naively optimistic. I guess, as a freshly graduated H3, I expected more handholding, but in reality it was just normal flying days - with a task at hand if you could do it. If not, well... not.
Tom Lanning signed up as well. He's done this event for many years, but he enjoys it anyway. He was the obvious choice for our team captain. Tom put a lot of effort in making us to think for ourselves. In my case, I only started to appreciate what he was doing when we were done flying. Yes, I am a slow learner, and remember that part about handholding expectation? :-)
I am not sure if I can do better next time, but at least, now I got some idea on how to improve things... at least I hope so.
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As to the event itself, it was not very smoothly executed. It felt more like a relaxed flying party than a competition/training event. A few old timers mentioned that it wasn't always so. It all worked out in the end though. And maybe next time it will be improved.
Team Critical Mass (photo courtesy of Lee Minardi)
Tom Lanning, Vitaly Pogrebnoy, JJ Cote, Max Kotchouro, Jeff Curtis
If, after reading all that venting above, you want to ask "So, Max, was it all just a waste of time?". No! Not at all.
I had an opportunity to learn from people who achieved a lot in hang gliding. You hear those names from the day you start learning how to hang glide - Dennis Pagen, Mike Barber, Mitch Shipley and many others. A couple of lectures were particularly useful. Also, I got to fly two new sites. I wish those flights were longer, but the experience of learning a new site and launching from it - it is a very valuable thing for a pilot.
And of course, non-flying fun made it a great vacation. Great food, great company, amazing nature. Every morning I would wake up to a new shapes of clouds filling the valley. Great place to be for an aspiring photographer :-).
Anyway, I hope to do it again someday, or just spend a week of flying at TTT with no competition involved. It is an amazing place.
I spent Labor Day weekend at Morningside. I got there Saturday afternoon hoping for a tow or two, but it was too windy for any kind of flying. Some people went to West Rutland, and it was pretty windy there as well. A few people who launched earlier did fly, but reported rather rough conditions and high winds. Not a good weather for flying, especially for a "Falconer" like myself ... so I hanged out at Morningside, just relaxing, socializing, taking photos. A welcomed break from my daily office routine no matter how bad the weather could get.
Having non-flying fun
Sunday wasn't flyable either, so I spent more time doing nothing. Well, and Ilya promised to cook steak tips for all hungry pilots Sunday night. He is an excellent cook, I wouldn't miss it.
Steak Tips Sunday Night - Thank you, Ilya!
Here are a few photos from Saturday and Sunday -> Labor Day Weekend 2014 At MFP - having non-flying fun at a flight park :-)
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Monday (Labor Day) forecast was much better though. West Rutland looked particularly good. I had only one flight from West Rutland this year, and it was a sledder. I wanted something better, and I was really happy to see a possibility of a great weather.
Ideally, we try to get to the pit (parking place on the other side of route 4 across the launch site) around 11AM. This way we can minimize amount of cars going up, and get ready to fly around 1PM. People also were looking to carpool from Morningside. I was going home after West Rutland, but it's only 20 minutes detour for me if I swing back to Morningside, so David Baxter and David Park joined me on the ride up.
When we got to the pit, things got hectic. I got there last, and people were already leaving. We still managed to get a ride up though. I didn't have to take my truck up this time.
Paragliders started to launch around 1:30PM and a couple of hang gliders launched as well. They all soared, and went north, to the bowl. I geared up, and got in line behind Tom Lanning. Tom was on launch for a few minutes. Then he finally saw what he wanted to see, and ran off. I moved into position on the ramp, observed Tom slowly climbing up above the ridge line. Good sign. I looked for a consistent cycle and launched. Just a minute behind Tom.
I launched and turned north along the ridge. No wild lift, but I was slowly climbing. and when I turned around I was flying 200' above launch, looking at all pilots lining up. This was going to be a good day.
In the next 10-15 minutes I was simply trying to stay up. Ridge lift was there but it wasn't very strong. I managed to get 500' above the launch though and maintained it comfortably.
Above launch. Observing other gliders ready to launch.
In the next half an hour, I relaxed and started to explore farther north. I lost altitude each time I got too far, there were no thermals there that I could find. But exploration was a fun thing to do, stretching my comfort zone a bit. I kept enough altitude to turn around, come back to the main ridge and recharge, sometimes scratching very close to the ridge, though. I definitely got more comfortable flying close to the terrain. My tree landing memory was wearing off, I guess. I had to remind myself to keep airspeed up.
On one of the passes, a hawk crossed toward the ridge right in front of me. He flew in the same direction as me for a few seconds, glancing back at me. I guess, he didn't feel comfortable with a big "bird" on his tail. He started to "fake" me, pretending he would turn left, but kept flying straight. I got it on the video below. When he realized it didn't work, he just turned around and went about his business. It made me smile. I felt just like another bird! :-D
After some time, I managed to find a really good thermal that took me to 3000' MSL. I saw gliders higher than that, and I couldn't figure out how they got there. I couldn't find anything going that high.... as I was explained later, there was an inversion layers at 3000' and it was possible to go higher after breaking through it. I still have much to learn....
Someone is always higher than me
Oh well, I enjoyed what I had. Exploring in different directions, along the ridge, on the other side of the ridge - it was all fun.
Everyone is enjoying a perfect flying day
At some point I lost all altitude I gained previously, and I couldn't recharge. I found myself below launch ramp... it was time to head out to the LZ. I have flown for an hour or so by that point, and I wasn't too happy I would have to land that early. But...
While flying away from the ridge, halfway between the mountain and the road, vario started to beep gently. Since I still had altitude to make it to the LZ, I started to turn - beeping continued. A few minutes later I was back at 3000' MSL. I was so damn proud of myself. I was already in landing mode, and I saved it. That was first time for me.
Time flies when you are having fun. At some point, I noticed that most of the gliders had disappeared from the air. Tom Lanning was still flying though. A thought to outfly Tom did cross my mind, but lift was getting really light, and very soon I started to lose altitude on every pass. When I got to the launch level, I called it a day. This was the longest flight I had so far already, no need to scratch the ridge when tired.
I landed and Tom landed a few minutes after me. Great day. The best flying day I had so far. No pressure to go anywhere, almost no problem to stay in the air, just relax and take in the scenery. Over three hours of pure joy.
End of the day. Last gliders being packed in the LZ.
All the time since my flight from Ascutney, I wanted to do a cross-country flight. Many hang glider and paraglider pilots fly x-country regularly, and they all rave about the experience. I was definitely getting inspired to cut the cord, to leave the fishbowl.
New pilots were joining the x-country ranks as well, like Ilya Rivkin with his recent 2 flights. I couldn't help it anymore, I needed to fly somewhere. It didn't matter why or where. Just needed a good day to get me high into the sky.
Last Sunday at Tanner-Hiller was that day. I got to the airport around 11am and I couldn't believe how great the sky looked. It was a gold mine. And many people came out to play. I don't think I have ever seen so many pilots at Tanner-Hiller.
I spent some time replacing a downtube on my glider that I have broken a day before at Burke, and I was ready to launch around 1:30PM. But the line to be towed up was pretty long. With only one tug towing, it took me more than an hour to get my glider on a cart and ready to roll.
All Lined Up
Nick was helping on launch and made the process as efficient as possible.
Nick assisting on launch
The tow was pretty uneventful. Normal thermal bumps here and there, but nothing crazy.
Takeoff
In a few minutes I released from the plane. Rhett left me in a nice thermal and I was going up 300' per minute.
Release
It took some time to get high enough to consider leaving some place. I lost a couple of thermals and found other ones, sometimes getting 600 ft/min up, sometimes getting into sink.
Climbing Up!
Climbing up with other pilots around me, made it even more fun experience.
Sharing the Sky. Lift is everywhere!
Finally, I reached 5500' MSL and was probably another 500' from the cloudbase. I decided I had enough altitude to go on a glide with no return. I picked a cloud I liked in the distance, and went for it. Obviously, I didn't picked either a good direction or good cloud, but I was too overwhelmed with the whole thing.... Gotta start somewhere, though. The one thing I was paying attention to was possible fields to land in. I saw some options in the distance I could probably use.
Leaving for another cloud.
My glide wasn't long. Falcon doesn't have a great glide to begin with, and I grossly underestimated how far those clouds were. Very soon I was at approximately 1000' above ground and started picking up landing zones. Some of the options I saw in the distance were unusable. Swamps or something like that. But there were a few field I flew over, so I turned around and went back to those. Huge hay fields. Recently mowed. Couldn't be better.
Hay field - my LZ of the day
On the ground
The landing was pretty good, except I flared a bit too soon. I held the flare and parachuted back to the ground. Then moved the glider to a tree line. A friendly guy from a nearby house came out to greet me. I apologized for landing on his land. He told me, the field wasn't his, but his neighbor's and they probably didn't care either. The guy was just impressed with my landing and wanted to chat. He even offered to relaunch me - "Hey, I've got a truck and a small hill. Can you launch from there?". I thanked him, but declined... He didn't offer to drive me back to the airport though. That would be much more useful.
I called Rhett and asked if he could find someone willing to fetch me. Bob Burchard, manager at Tanner-Hiller, volunteered to bring my truck down. I started packing my glider, and then waited another 40 minutes for my ride to arrive. I only flew 3.5 miles in a straight line, but I took 30 minutes of drive time to get there. Big thanks to Bob for helping me!
I was considering different options for a weekend - looking at Mohawk Trail, or maybe towing. Trail didn't look promising - too light and too cross from the north. North direction could be great for Burke Mountain in Vermont. Jon Atwood, president of MA hang gliding/paragliding club, posted that he was going to Burke, and I wanted to join him. A new site to fly!
Jon stopped by my house around 7am. We loaded my glider on Jon's truck and got on the road. No one else expressed interest going to Burke, so it was only two of us. A few paraglider pilots were going to join us there. Jon flies both wings - hang gliders and paragliders.
Drive to Burke is pretty easy (I-495 to I-93, and I-93 almost all the way there), but it is long - 3 hours. Carpooling definitely helps to save gas, and to make trip more fun.
When we got there, Burke site director, AJ, gave us an intro. We walked the LZ (you can see a video of LZ below). The LZ was going to be a challenge for sure. It was on a slope, with prevailing winds blowing uphill. Since landing downhill is never a good idea, the landing would have to be either crosswind or downwind/uphill. On a falcon, I could have tried to land crosswind, but there were a few obstacles - like a wooden walkway, and uneven ground. The best way would be not to land there at all. Get some altitude, and land elsewhere... if I could get enough altitude.
The launch is located between two ski lifts. It is a short, but a rather steep walk from the road. When we got to the launch, clouds above us were massive, indicating some serious thermal activity. Probably not something we wanted to launch in. Wind was pretty strong, too. So we decided to wait. I definitely wasn't going to risk it with rough conditions at unfamiliar site.
Around 3pm winds started to get manageable, but I still felt it was a bit strong for a Falcon. Another pilot (Art, I think) on a Sport 2, launched around 3:30pm. He went straight up. We could see him parking his glider above our heads. He could penetrate upwind, if he wanted to, but it felt a bit too much for me.
After 4pm winds started to get pretty light and I decided to launch. I didn't get any surprises on launch. All went really well. But I immediately discovered that I picked a wrong time to launch. I had a blue hole (no clouds) above me. No thermal lift, and ridge lift was pretty light. I managed to stay afloat for 15 minutes but very soon sank below the launch and had to head out to land. So that nasty LZ was my destination now.
I didn't want to deal with uneven ground and obstacles, so I decided to try downwind/uphill landing. All was going OK until I decided to flare.... apparently there was a somewhat flat spot on that slope and my flare happened right there. Glider got pushed forward, I went through the frame with enough force to completely break one of the downtubes. I would be in a better shape if I didn't flare at all. Dammit!
Jon landed his Falcon soon after me. He probably could have flown longer, but he wanted to fly his paraglider that day as well. Jon chose to land crosswind (you can see his landing in the video) and it worked great. No dropped gliders, no broken downtubes.
Jon is landing his Falcon
To add insult to injury, all paragliders that launched 30 minutes after me, went all the way to the cloudbase - 6000 feet MSL. The blue hole I launched into disappeared, and a nice set of cummies came along providing everyone with a nice evening lift to the top. Oh well...
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Overall, not a bad day, though. I got a chance to fly a new site, got to experience a different kind of landing zone. It was all good. Thanks to Jon for taking me there!
Will I go to Burke again? Sure, if conditions are right, I might. But it would be rather low on my priority list. Somehow, I wasn't particularly fond of that site, and not only because I broke a downtube there. Long drive, challenging LZ (if you don't go up), awkward launch site, small ridge... I think, for me, there are better places to fly. If I lived not too far from Burke - it would be a pretty good site, though.
