Saturday forecast didn't look too exciting. 90% cloud cover, chance of rain. Winds aloft were forecasted on a strong side as well. But hey, if I don't go - I don't fly, so marginal forecast was gotta do. Plus, Tanner-Hiller was just an hour away.
I called up Rhett, and he was there for the weekend. I was on my way. I put all my camping gear in the truck so I wouldn't rush and have time to take an evening sledder. or two.
Rain didn't materialize, but strong winds were as predicted. I had to wait until 5pm to launch. And my wait was rewarded. Rhett towed me to 7000 feet AGL. We went between cloud streets at 3000', and spent another 15 minutes in smooth air getting all the way to 7K, where Rhett waved me off. That was going to be a majestic sledder for sure. I watched Rhett disappear behind the clouds below. I wasn't worrying too much about finding the airport, but it was unusual for a hang glider pilot to look at the clouds from above.
- Tow above the clouds
- High in the sky
I enjoyed the view for a bit, and then started to experiment with VG, different speeds to fly, and with stall at different VG settings. I expected no possibility of lift until I got to the cloud level, so nothing much there was for me to do for a few minutes.
- Stall practice
- Stall recovery
I found some lift when I got at the cloud level, but got too close to the clouds on every turn, so I bailed and glided away. I tried to find more lift below clouds, but with such low cloudbase didn't have much luck. I found some weak lift, gained another 300 feet and that was it - not much after that all the way to the ground.
Landing was less than graceful. I made a nice downwind-base-final approach, but misjudged my altitude and turned too low on final. In the video below, you can see I started transition my left arm to the downtube while I was still turning. Good thing it was an evening flight, and there was not much wind/turbulence. With all that excitement, I missed a flare window. Glider didn't have enough energy left to flare, and it piled on top of me, hitting the ground with the base bar. Not good, but wheels worked... this time.
....
This year Rhett had another tandem instructor to help Nick Caci. Anna Eppink drove all the way from California to take this job. Rhett wanted her to take a couple of tandem flights with a test dummy, er, I mean, another hang glider pilot. I was more than happy to be a tandem passenger again. And it was fun flying even though I wasn't the one controlling the glider. Rhett gave Anna a nice workout - tight turns, prop wash, boxing. She handled it like she was flying tandems all her life. Way to go, Anna!
180+
I camped at Tanner-Hiller, and spent next morning just relaxing and doing nothing. My glider was already set up, and I was just waiting for conditions to improve.
The day was progressing nicely, and by 12 o'clock cummies were everywhere. I saw Nick Caci gearing up for a launch, and I hurried to get my gear as well.
I launched 15 minutes behind Nick. Rhett dropped me around 2000' AGL in a nice thermal. It took me all the way to 3500'. But that was it. I just couldn't find anything else that was going up. Plenty of sink though. In 20 minutes - back on the ground.
I was about to beat myself up about my thermaling abilities, but then I saw that Nick landed as well. Ok, so it wasn't just me this time :-)
I immediately went for another try. Sky just looked too good to wait any longer. And again, Rhett dropped me off at 2K in a nice fat thermal. That took me to all the way to 5000' AGL. I was delighted. I didn't quite make it to the cloudbase, but I was climbing.
What comes up, must come down. Very soon I lost 2000 feet, but found another climb that took me all the way to 6000'. And that was how I spend the rest of my flight. Spinning up, gliding down. Weak lift, strong lift, strong sink. I didn't set myself a goal to fly anywhere, so I was just practicing finding lift, and staying in it.
It also gave me an opportunity to experiment with thermaling at different VG settings. In one thermal, I was well centered and climbing with full VG on, banked at 45 degrees, making very tight circles. That was not something I could do in a Falcon.
Overall, it was a lot of fun. Good practice for sure. However, in 2 hours, I was really tired, and ready to land. Later, when I checked my tracklog, I counted 180+ circles in 2 hours. That is a lot of spinning, and it was my longest thermaling flight so far 2:07.
Everyone who launched after me had great long flights. With the sky looking as it was, I was surprised that only a few people showed up. Only 5 of us were flying.
Flights: 3; Duration: 3:36
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