photo album -> 2015.06.06-08 – Tanner-Hiller/Morningside
I have not flown for the last 2 weekends, so this time, seeing that the weather was going to be marginal yet again, I took a half day off Friday, and headed to Tanner-Hiller.
The day wasn't great. Sky didn't look promising, but it was sunny, warm, and I wasn't in the office. Good enough.
My tow was bumpy but uneventful, except when Rhett started making very tight turns, around 3K AGL. All thermals he could find were rather small, so he was trying to show me that. I guess, I wasn't paying attention, and found myself sinking way below the tug, with no way to recover. I didn't wait for what could happen next, and pinned off.
Finding only little bumps, I decided to head away from the airport toward nice looking clouds. A few minutes later, when I reached those clouds, I only found more of the same - little bumps and plenty of sink. At that point I was around 2400' AGL. I looked back at the airport, and all I could see was a notion of clearing in the trees far away. Hm... Now, I wasn't sure I could make it all the way back. I quickly checked bailout landing options - there were a few. Then I pulled VG, and set on a glide back. In a couple of minutes, I calibrated my visual "glide-o-meter", and I could see that I should make it... unless some major sink was in my way.
2.5 miles later I was at 700 feet above the airstrip. I really liked the glide ratio on this glider comparing to Falcon.... as long as I don't get carried away too much, and keep bailout landings in a view.
Against the Wind
For the next couple of days I went to Morningside. Saturday didn't work out well. It was too windy. But there was a friendly BBQ competition in the evening, so no matter what - it was good to be outside with friends.
- Dave
- Ilya
- Yum!
Sunday looked to be a much better day, and the question was to either stay at Morningside and tow, or go to West Rutland. West Rutland forecast looked marginal, so a few pilots decided to stay. Dana H, Ilya R, Dave P and me set up gliders and waited for better conditions to roll in. The sky were hazy in the morning, but radar map showed that it would blow by in a couple of hours.
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| set up and ready to go |
We waited until 2PM. Dave launched first even though sky still didn't clear up. He just wanted to get some sledder in for a practice run.
Dana launched around 3PM and I went right after him. The tow was bumpy, but not too bad.
- Ready for take off.
- Ready for take off.
- In tow
Eric towed me to the south of Morningside, and I released around 3K AGL, first in zero sink, and, soon after, it was all just sink.
- pin off
I saw Dana farther to the south, searching. He was about 1500' below me and it didn't look like he was climbing, yet. I went away from him to the east. Dave and I talked about strategy before launch, and he suggested that with winds like they were, a better lift could be found behind the hill. On the way there, while searching, I lost 1000 feet, and didn't think I was going to get anything at all. But finally, I felt some turbulence, and vario beeped to confirm - I was in a weak climb. I started to make wide circles, trying to see if it was just a bubble. After a few circles, I was sure I had something, but it was smaller than my circles. Glider was constantly kicked out of it. I decided to pull 1/2 of VG to see if that would help. And it did. I narrowed my circles enough to center on a thermal for the next 3000 feet up. It took me all the way to 5000 MSL, while drifting downwind toward Claremont airport.
A mile from the airport the climb was over, and I had a choice to make. Fly back upwind, while I still had the altitude, or keep going downwind. Since the airport was so close (a nice landing option), I went there, hoping to find something that would keep me afloat. I got to the airport, but lost 500 feet. No lift, just sink.
- Flying toward Claremont airport
Morningside looked pretty far, and I would have to fly upwind to get there, but I got curious. Can I make it back upwind?
I pulled full VG and went for a long glide. Most of the time, it looked like I would have just enough altitude to get to Morningside, but a few times, I'd hit big sink, vario started wailing, and my faraway marker would start rising - not good. Then I was out of a bad patch of air, and all was good again - I was still on target.
Eventually, making a very slow upwind progress, I made it to the airstip. I went through some less sinky air, and arrived to the hill with 500' to spare. I made a pass over it to see if anything would keep me up - nothing was there. So I made a nice DBF approach, and landed.
- on the final
Landing was a bit bumpy. I had to correct aggressively until the touchdown. As a result, I didn't even try to flare, although there was ~5mph wind to help me. I also ran like a wind, and all was well. Exciting!
My total flight time that day was around 35 minutes, but because it was so intense - it felt much longer than this. This is probably the best thing about flying - I learn something new every time. Every flight is different. And real time decision making is exhilarating. No brakes, no engine. No opportunity to stop on a side of the road to look at the map, or take a nap. It seems that all things that scared me about free flight when I started out, excite me now.
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