Just Drop The Bomb

Competition

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.

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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

A night to remember!

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Here is an article posted on Morningside website -> http://flymorningside.kittyhawk.com/events/40th-anniversary-celebration/

A complete photo album from this weekend can be viewed here -> Columbus Day Weekend at Morningside

Critical Mass

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...

....

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...

...

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.

Here are a few, mosly non-flying, photos -> TTT Challenge 2014 Photo album

And a video collage of my flying TTT frustration:

Whitwell launch (video courtesy of Lee Minardi)

Launching from Henson Gap ramp (video courtesy of Lee Minardi)