Hang Gliding Moments of 2015

This season was awesome! And this is an understatement. I don't have enough skills to express in words how intense and real this was.

New glider was all I expected it to be and then some. My airtime increased dramatically. And hopefully my thermaling skills, too.  I know that intensity of experiences wears off as you get better, but flying is a such dynamic ever-changing adventure that I hope to keep thing fresh for long while. And of course, friends that fly and share after flight time with me, they make this all even better.

Here is me looking back at awesome flying season of 2015.

Come fly with us!

Scratching Greylock

Mount Greylock is one of my favorite flying sites. This place feels like it was put there for us, free fliers, to have some fun. It has a very easy access to the launch, huge and grassy setup area, 2800 feet vertical drop to the LZ. There is only one problem with that site - it faces east, and predominant winds are from the west. That means we don't get to fly here nearly as often as I'd like to. Combine that with the fact that not all easterly days are happening on weekends - and I might not fly Greylock for the whole season. Work gets in the way of flying... sometimes.

Forecast for the last weekend of September was aligning to the east perfectly. It was on a light side, but I was eager to go. I wanted to fly my Sport 2 there, at least once this season.

I still have H3 rating and, to fly at Greylock, I needed an official USHPA observer. I posted a message to a local email list asking if any observers were going and would be willing to help me out. John Musto volunteered to help. Great! I was all set.

I texted Ilya a night before to see if we could combine forces for easy vehicle retrieval. We agreed to meet at Gould farm LZ at 9am. Then Tom L and Jeff C expressed interest in carpooling. I changed the plans to go with them, but the communication that night seemed to be broken as all we could agree on that we meet at Tom's place in the morning, but not on the time we meet.

I was so eager to get going that I didn't sleep well, and got up really early. I was texting Tom before 6am asking if he was ready. I was under impression that we had to get to Greylock as early as possible, but Tom was not in a hurry. Apparently, on a light day like forecasted, there was no reason to be too early. All we could count on were thermals (no ridge soaring) and this time of the year it takes longer for things to warm up... if at all.

Eventually, by 8:30am we all got loaded on Tom's car, and were ready to roll. All that was a couple of hours later than I expected, but I trusted Tom's experience in the matter.

A two and half hour trip felt much shorter in a good company. We got to the parking lot at the top of Greylock around 11am. No one was flying yet. Tom immediately proceeded to temper our enthusiasm by saying "Does it look soarable to you?". It didn't. Almost no wind. Tom chuckled and said "I am just keeping our expectations low".

It didn't matter at this point - we were here, and I was ready for a nice sledder to the LZ... if that was all I could get.

Tom was right. There was no reason to rush. First paragliders that could stay up launched around 1pm. And some of them were struggling anyway. Then things started slowly to improve. Paragliders were consistently surviving down cycles. One HG pilot on a Falcon launched, and didn't stay up. He was taking every little hint of a thermal, but slowly descended into the LZ.

The second HG pilot to take off was Jeff. He had a great run, and stayed at the launch level for a few passes then climbed out. At this point people couldn't climb higher than 200-300 feet above, but I saw a paraglider going into the valley, and climbing there as well. There was nothing else for me to wait. I was ready. Plus I had to launch before my observer anyway, so waiting more meant holding John up.

I suited up. Put my Green Lantern shirt on (every little bit help, ya?), got into my harness and done the rest of the pre-launch ritual. I got delayed a few minutes by paragliders launching in front of me, but eventually I made it all the way to where hang glider pilots usually starting their run.

Moving to the launch through spectators and paragliders

PGs are launching in front of me

In position

There was some wind lazily trickling straight in, but remembering my experience at West Rutland a few weeks back, I wanted to make sure I wasn't launching in a flush. I couldn't see any markers from where I was standing, but John confirmed that paraglider in front were still climbing.

I picked up my gliders and off I went.

Take off!

That thing about keeping expectations low totally worked. I settled in a zero-sink on a non-existent ridge for a few passes, and then seeing where PGs were climbing out, found a weak thermal to the south of launch. I was totally happy with that - my flight was already a few minutes longer than expected.

First thermal

I spent 5 minutes climbing in that first thermal, observing a gaggle of PGs and a lonely Jeff on his Sport 2, above the mountain. They were doing better than me, but I couldn't get where they were. In those 5 minutes I gained only 300 feet. Then it was over and I lost 300 feet in the next 30 seconds. It was time for me to shop around, recharge, survive.

I flew back in the direction of launch, but was losing altitude rapidly. Plus, there was already some light HG traffic close to the mountain. I remembered that a few PGs were finding lift away from the mountain, so I flew NE, totally expecting to land.

Back to the "ridge"

Sinking out

The mountain already looked huge and imposing behind me... and then in happened... 1000 feet below launch level I felt some texture.

1000' below

Then vario confirmed with silence that we weren't losing altitude anymore. I started a wide circle, and found what I was looking for. Vario confirmed my good fortune with with happy beeps. The thermal was initially slow, but it was getting better and better as I was continuing to climb. I centered in it pretty well, and climbed all the way to 4000' MSL.

Back in the game

Above launch

I boated around at that altitude for some time, but at this point - everyone started to launch, and the place became a bit too crowded. Another downcycle came, and I was constantly concentrating on other HGs. Working lift became a background task, and it wasn't performing well.

Ilya zooming by

Thermailling with Peter

I stuck to it for a bit, working through on expanding my comfort zone and situational awareness. I saw Pete Judge circling half a mile ahead, so I tried to get under, and work the same lift, if I could. Thermal was there but it was too weak. Pete lost some altitude, and we were passing each other in rather close proximity. Nothing extreme, but it was taking too much of my attention. I moved on.

I hoped to find something away from the mountain again, but it was not the case this time. All I could get was zero-sink 700' above LZ. I spent a couple of minutes  floating there while observing what wind on the ground was doing.

Perfect landing

And wind was doing something weird. Wind sock in the middle of the field was turning 90 degrees every minute. When I got low enough to setup my approach, I picked a direction and committed to it. I could have ended up landing in crosswind, but it didn't worry me that much - winds were very light.

And somehow, I executed the best landing of my flying season. That was an icing on the cake for this awesome day. Of course, I could attempt to stay in the air much longer, but I made a choice to get away from the traffic, and I had a good flight before that. I was definitely a happy camper.

46 minutes total air time, but it felt like a couple of hours.

...

unfortunately, the day ended on a sour note. John Musto had a hard landing and got a ride in an ambulance. Fortunately, he is expected to recover fully.

...

Invisible Awesome

For the long Labor Day weekend, I was thinking to drive 4 hours to Ellenville NY for USHPA National Fly-in day. On the way there I planned to stop by Tanner-Hiller airport for afternoon towing with Hang Glide New England. I wasn't counting on any long flights so I should have had plenty of time getting to Ellenville afterwards.

While driving to Tanner-Hiller, I was looking at the completely blue sky with not a single cumulus cloud in it, thinking that my timing should work fine.

When I arrived around 11am, I saw John Minkle on his new Sport 2, soaring in the blue sky above the airport. It looked like the day was going to be much better than expected.

By the time I set up, John landed after an hour of soaring, and he was going for another flight. There was also another pilot, but I don't remember his name.

Anyway, three of us launched one after another, and everyone was climbing out. My first climb, north-east of the airport, took me to 4K MSL. It wasn't strong, so it took awhile. Then it was gone, and I went shopping, losing altitude rapidly. I figured, on a blue day like this, a sandpit on the other side might have something.

On a glide to the sandpit

I got there with only 1000' AGL to spare, and was relieved that it indeed was working.

In a thermal over the sandpit

30 minutes later, after a few ups and downs, I got to 5K MSL. It helped to have other pilots in the air to see where the climb was the strongest.

Flying together

At the top of the lift, I had a close encounter with John, where our gliders were maybe 50 feet apart, so I decided to spend some time away from everyone, exploring.

In the last couple of years, I attended a few cross-country flying training sessions with Tom Lanning, Mike Barber and a few other folks at Team Challenge. I remembered that the main hurdle in cross country flying was psychological - staying in a vicinity of known landing field, limiting options to find better lift and flying to new places. I figured, it was a good day to work on this aspect of flying. I set a waypoint in vario to Tanner-Hiller, mentally took Tanner-Hiller out of my primary landing fields, and set on a long glide toward Worcester.

My plan wasn't really to fly cross-country, but rather to glide away as far as possible looking for lift to get back. I was monitoring my vario to see if that little computer "thought" I could make it back. It was a bit unnerving to see my required glide ratio going up and up, but since I mentally was prepared to land out, I stopped worrying about it very soon.

A few minutes later after I set on my first glide, I stumbled into some lifty air. By that point I was at 2000' MSL and would barely make it back to the airport. I climbed back up to 4K MSL and decided that this was too much fun to stop. Worcester airport was in plain view, I was still too far from it to violate its airspace, but I didn't want to test my luck in that direction either - my vario still didn't have promised airspaces. Come on, Flytec, I need it now.

...

Anyhow, I turned to the north-east, making a large triangle around Tanner-Hiller airport.

A couple of miles later, I didn't fly through any lift whatsoever. I started wondering if I should have deviated from a straight line to look for lift. I noticed a golf course with some hills next to a forest. I thought that this spot might be a good place for thermals. I turned in that direction and, amazingly, there was a nice 200 ft/min thermal.

I spent a few minutes getting my lost altitude back, and got all the way to 4600' MSL. That felt great!

I didn't recognize right away that thermal was gone, and I lost a couple hundred feet before setting on another glide, but still, I was pretty happy with the way the day was progressing.

Not willing to stop there, I set toward Barre downtown. I recharged again a mile and a half away from the downtown, right above a nice flat building with a large parking lot. When I first got to that building - my vario was showing that Tanner-Hiller was too far, and I couldn't make it back from that altitude. My home airport "tether" has snapped... Soon after I was back at 4K, and again I could glide back home... but no way! I wasn't going to stop, not yet.

I got to downtown Barre at 3200' MSL, hitting some sink on the way there. I was hopping that all those buildings and roads would give me some boost. I was wrong. Nothing was coming up anymore. The day was getting weaker.

I didn't see any nice landing options going farther north, so I decided to turn around and glide back to the previous thermal. There was a nice, freshly cut, hay field right next to that "thermal" building. I could use it as my landing zone. I also hopped that I could get back up and glide back to the airport.

In retrospect, I should have probably explored in the other directions - hopping that a thermal was still there wasn't the best idea. And indeed thermal wasn't there anymore. At that point, at 1500' MSL, I explored around the area just a bit, not going too far away from the field I picked. I couldn't find anything that would save me... so I landed. I had enough altitude to pick a direction and chose a spot.

The landing went fine, although, I did turn on final a bit too low. It didn't matter much as there was almost no wind on the ground and the field was huge.

Hay field next to Stetson school, Barre MA

I broke down my glider and called Rhett. Told him where I was and that I was doing great. John Minkle, after 3 hours in the air, landed back at the airport by that point. He agreed to drive my truck to pick me up. Thank you, John!

So the end result - 4.2 miles straight line from the airport. 60+ miles GPS track. 2 hours 25 minutes total airtime. It was an amazing, blue, dry thermals day. It couldn't have been better if I planned it :-)

...

By the time I was back at Tanner-Hiller, it was 5:30PM. I figured that going to a new site that late wasn't the best option, so I went to Morningside instead. I just installed a new HAM radio headset and wanted to test it with Ilya and Crystal (we all ordered headsets at the same time). Maybe Morningside would treat me to a nice flight as well...

Invisible Awesome Extension

Sunday at Morningside was gearing up to be very similar - not a single cloud, hot, blue day. And it proved to be a perfect day to test radio communication. The day wasn't as easy for me as at Tanner-Hiller though.

On my first launch, I got dropped off not too far from where Ilya was already circling. I couldn't get anything though. Ilya confirmed that he lost thermal as well. A point for radio communication - I didn't waste more time in that area. Ilya said he was going over the MFP hill to check if that was working. I set in that direction too, but turned toward the trailer park to check if there was anything there. I got saved by thermals in that general area before... not this time. By the time I got to the hill, I was just 200' over. I couldn't get anything and landed.

Ilya, however, arrived there with 1000' over, and found a 400 ft/min thermal. It was small, but sufficient. Another point for a radio com - I knew exactly what was going on, so I went for another tow.

My plan for the second tow was to fly over the hill right away. I was worrying a bit that by the time I got there, there would be sink instead.

Eric towed me to the south of Morningside. Crystal and Dave Park were circling there already. I joined Crystal for a bit, but all I was getting was zero-sink. I wanted something better, and Ilya was still reporting lift over the hill. I set on a glide over there while I still had some altitude to play with.

A half way to the hill, I saw Ilya flying in the other direction 1000' above me. I was about to ask him what was going on, as I stumbled into something bouncy. I turned aggressively, and soon was rewarded with 200 ft/min lift. Centering in it was a lot of work, but I stuck with it, recharging my altitude.

After that, drifting over the hill, I got plenty of lift to play with, getting to 4100' MSL at one point. Ilya and I kept communicating, trying to help each other staying afloat. It wasn't always working for us as thermals were very small, but at least we knew exactly what was happening.

Other gliders look great from the top

Flying together

In a thermal. Ilya below is trying to join.

In a steep bank over the hill. Milking a small thermal.

The lift was very localized though, nothing was really working but that area. I tried to leave it a couple of times, and couldn't find anything but sink. Eventually, when everyone landed, I went north exploring, and all the potentially thermal spots were not pushing any air up.

That warehouse might have something for me... nope.

I turned around, and soon after, landed at the airstrip. The way this day was working wasn't inspiring me for another x-country adventure.

Home sweet home

---

...

'Twas Invisible Awesome weekend in a great company of friends! I added another 3.5 hours of airtime toward my H4 goal. I don't think I am going for H4 rating this year as I need more practice with spot landings. But I have only 7 hours of flight time left off H4 required airtime. I'll try completing it this year.

New Flying Gear

One of my teammates at Team Challenge, David Johnson aka Captain America , sent me a present - my new flying gear.

I think, I like it. Now I am going to fly super fast. Thank you, Dave!

Team Challenge 2015 - Conclusion

First thing first, I finally got around to processing photos and videos from the trip

Here is the video :

And a link to a photo album -> Team Challenge 2015

---

So, about that whole experience the second time around.... It actually was plenty of fun despite all the rain we got, and all the light/challenging days. I also was worrying how I would handle the whole thing going there alone (long drive and all that), but it wasn't that bad. The trip back was harder because I left in the evening, but having living quarters in the back of my truck helped. I pulled over to a rest area and got a few hours of sleep...

As to the cross-country flying/learning... it was tough. I didn't get to complete a task, but I definitely felt more confident in decision making process. Not that I made perfect decisions, or executed them well, but repetition helps. Overall, the whole week was an exercise in how to survive on a light scratchy day. And, as Randy Brown told me - that is cross-country flying - surviving in the light conditions. People who have that skill - fly far and they fly when everyone else is on the ground. I have seen people do that. I watched them skying out while I was sitting in the LZ. Epic conditions are not guaranteed.

Of course, comparing to the last year, this time we got a nice day of ridge soaring. I really enjoyed it. As I get more confident with the glider and flying in general - more and more, I like flying with other pilots, sharing the experience.

It is too early to say what is going to happen next year, but at this moment, I want to get back to TTT. It is a fun place to fly and learn. It's great to meet new people and see people I've met before.

... A fun fact -- we named our team 'Thermal Thugs'... later when we were talking, we found out that we could have a much better name - everyone on the team was 47 years old. Nice coincidence, huh? Despite our team's flying results - we had fun together.

I hope to be back next year. Oh, and I want to hit ECC next year as well. Do I have enough vacation days for all that?

TC-2015 - Day 7

Once more mother nature decided differently from the forecast. Morning met us with more cirrus clouds.

That meant - not enough heat for a strong thermal day. Sigh. It looked like I, yet again, wouldn't get much as far as cross country training was concerned. Another day of learning how to "survive" on a marginal day.

A task for the day was set just to fly over a couple of markers in front of launch and then spotland in the main lz. Second marker required some thermaling.

I launched at 2pm. Initially, I wanted to go close to the ridge on the right, where I saw birds earlier. By the time I got my turn to launch, nothing was to the right, no thermal markers. People were circling a couple of miles west, so I went in that general direction. I hit a few hot spots, tried to turn in them. Even gained a few feet. But it didn't really work. I moved on and arrived over LZ at 800 feet. Hit a small thermal and worked with it at full VG for 5 minutes. Gained 300 feet. And then the thermal was gone.  I  landed a couple of minutes later.

Total airtime - 12 minutes. The day was done, the competition was done. I am heading home tonight so I can have better rest before returning back to work. There will be a band playing tonight at Henson's, but I'd rather get home earlier. 

I took a bunch of pictures. I will post them later. Gotta conclude this write up with some video too...  maybe...

Last day: set up and read to fly at Henson's

TC-2015 - Day 6

Sun was finally out.

Sunny Friday

But thermal forecast for the day wasn't too optimistic. The day was going  to be light, more suitable for paragliders. But one can hope...

Task for the day was set  to fly to Galloway airstrip. For C-pilots (me) just fly there, for B return back to the main LZ, and for As to make that trip twice.

Galloway is about 5 miles away, should be easy enough. Launch window was set from 11am to 5pm.

Pilots meeting

After pilots meeting where Ollie pointed out possible bailout fields, and the way the day was going to progress (from his experience), our team decided to launch later in the day, when sun had a chance to work its magic. But we were still monitoring progress  of paragliders and brave hang glider pilots that launched early.

A few paraglidets were able to get 1000' above, and a couple of hang gliders managed to join them. Everyone was struggling, climbing very slowly.

Struggling paragliders

Many pilots landed in the main LZ. I didn't have enough confidence to work these conditions, so I was definitely waiting for something better.

At some point all launches got delayed due to a couple of paragliders colliding above the forest 300 yards back of the ridge line. They were maybe 200 or 300 feet above the trees and barely had enough time to throw their reserves. Amazingly, no one got injured, or got stuck in the trees.  Both pilots flew again  later in the day.

Around 1pm, Ollie decided that conditions were as good as they were going to get, and his whole team launched. Only Ollie was able to get out and fly away. He didn't complete A-task though, when he came back after the first pass, he landed. 

Ollie in a weak climb with a paraglider

Our team kept waiting. Conditions didn't improve. High cirrostratus clouds were not letting enough heat to get through, and all that moisture from earlier rains was hanging in the air. Oh, well.

Our strategy changed to glide as far as we could and land out, potentially making some points. We should have checked the rules about minimum distance first...

I launched first and tried to hug ridge to the south, but quickly abandoned that idea. All lift I was getting wasn't possible to turn in. I glided out into the valley and was getting 100 ft/min down for a few minutes. I tried to turn a couple more times, but result was the same.

I got to a long mowed strip at aprox 400' AGL. Ollie told us before that this property owner was friendly to hang gliging, and owned an airplane (thus the mowed strip). It seemed like the safest option to land. I made two 360 turns to check if there was drift, made a final turn and saw my teammate, David, landing in the other direction, already low. I had enough altitude to make an adjustment, and then I accelerated toward the ground so I would not go too long. There was no wind on the ground, and I landed well.

In my new LZ

My new LZ

The property owner came out on his ATV to greet us. He was very friendly, and was really happy to help us.

Properly owner and my teammate David

His dog was also super friendly and was happy to be petted. 

Overall, long day with a lot of waiting and not a lot of flying. My time in the air - 8 minutes 20 seconds. But we made a decision as a team and executed it as well as we could. I don't think we made any points - distance aprox 3 miles, minimum required for kingposted, double surface hang glider was 3.5 miles. Oh well...  We had fun nevertheless.

TC-2015 - Day 5

Reviewing forecast in the morning showed that there was a possibility of ridge soaring in the afternoon. No sun; overcast, but wind velocity around 10mph and pretty much straight in at Henson's ramp.

Meanwhile, the morning looked pretty gloomy, with wind blowing from the south. 

Grey day - route 111

Grey day - Sequatchie Valley

Cloudbase never got high, but by 3pm there was enough sun peeking  out occasionally that we could see weak thermals rolling through. Wind was cycling between 45 degrees cross, and straight in. Velocity was nowhere close enough to soar, though.

A couple of hangliders launched, and we all watched them taking long glides into the valley without losing much altitude. Eventually, one of them lost the lift and landed, but the other one found a weak climb and went back to ridge height. Not long after that he had to land as well. Not very inspiring. I decided to wait until I saw something more substantial.

Around 4pm, paragliders started launching. They maintained at the ridge level for a while, and then started to climb toward grey looking cloud. 

My initial thought was to wait until that grey cloud rolled passed us, but it looked like the cloud was generating enough lift, so maybe even a hang glider could stay up. Decisions, decisions. I was getting a bit anxious, worrying about my soaring performance, about decision i had to make, asking myself why the hell i needed all this stress.

That convinced me it was time to launch. Anxiety is not that unusual, especially at a new site, in unfamiliar environment. I can work through this. 

I put my harness on, hooked in, got the hang check, and walked to the ramp.

The launch went without an issue. I turned south and immediately started to climb, not very fast, but I was going consistently up. After a couple of passes, I established comfortably above the ridge. This was a nice feeling, my anxiety was gone. It was replaced by joy of flying. Amazing how it works... 

In the next thirty minutes the ridge was full of paragliders and hang gliders. I was 600' above the ridge and traffic wasn't an issue at that point.

North of the launch, I made it to 3100' MSL, and was touching the cloud. I tried to use that altitude to go down the ridge to the south and attempt to cross the gap. By the time I got there, I lost most of what I gained, and  didn't risk the crossing. The day was working, but it was pretty light. 

I spent  more than an hour flying along the ridge, with occasional glides into the valley and back. When I was losing altitude, the traffic became dense, and I had to dodge gliders a few times. Soon,  I got bored with all that and went out to land. It took me another 10 minutes to decent. The air was still going up.

My approach was good, but flare timing was off again. This time, I flared too early. I made sure I was flying at trim, light touch and all that, but when I started to flare, the glider came up quite a bit. Anyway, no whack, nothing is broken, so I guess it was a good landing. 

Overall, awesome day. I got 1 hour 18 minutes in the air. After three days of no flying  - it was great. I'll take it.

In the main LZ

Captain America

Paragliders over the ridge