Big A Struggle

I imagine standing on the top of the mountain, taking it in, looking for a sign of a good cycle to run off the rock. Glider pulls me up, wind picks us both and we float up toward the clouds... Ah, dreams...

Friday

Ilya Rivkin and I exchanged a few emails about possibility of flying Ascutney at the end of the week. Neither of us wanted to hike half a mile of a mountain trail with 80 pounds of gear. And it wasn't even the weight that bothered me, but 17 foot long glider that I had to balance on my shoulders. I could do it, but it would kill all the joy of getting there to fly. Ilya felt the same way, so we agreed to share the load - make two easy hikes instead of one overloaded.

A forecast for Thursday looked good earlier in a week, but eventually got way too breezy. Friday, July 3rd, looked promising, though.

I've met Dave Park and Ilya at the park entrance at 9:30am on Friday. All gliders were loaded on Ilya's truck, and we stopped by ranger's office to sign in... where I discovered that I've forgotten my USHPA and VHGA cards. The ranger didn't care for electronic forms of identification, so he called Jake, the site director, and I had to clear it with him. Eventually, the ranger let me through.

While I was trying to convince Jake and the ranger that I am a legit Ascutney pilot, Jeff Curtis pulled in, looking for a ride up the mountain. Sometimes a delay is a good thing. We loaded his glider up. Jeff and I climbed into the back of the truck and we all finally drove to the top.

A ride to the top

I dreaded the hike to the launch, with all that gear, but surprisingly, two of us carrying a glider, made that hike almost an enjoyable workout. It took us 20 minutes to hike the first glider and our harnesses. Then we went back to get the second glider. The second hike was very easy. That was a good start.

Hike to the launch

Conditions, however, were way lighter than forecasted a day earlier. By 1pm air was very still, with occasional weak cycles trickling in. Around 2PM, Jake told us that waiting any longer might not be a good idea. Jeff was eager to launch first. I watched him to go on a long glide away from the mountain, losing altitude, but then he found something and was working it for quite some time. I wasn't sure I could successfully climb out, but I couldn't change the weather, so I suited up, and got ready.

Ilya launched before me and was maintaining altitude around 200' below. I launched in a complete no-winder. Air was not moving at launch at all. I had a good run and floated away without an issue, except I was losing altitude rapidly.

Running off the rock

Seeing that Ilya was slowly climbing, I glided toward him, hitting some bubbles on the way there, but turning in them didn't produce much result. It also didn't help that terrain seemed a bit too close for a comfortable 360. It was my first mountain flight on Sport 2, and I wasn't going to do anything extreme.

I got where Ilya was, but 100 feet below him. I tried to maintain altitude while searching for any signs of lift,  but with not much luck.

When I got 600' below launch, I decided to play it safe and look for more lift on the way to the LZ.

Nothing happened on the way there. I came over the LZ with 700' to spare. Boxed the field, made a nice DBF approach, and executed a decent landing right in the middle of the LZ. 8 minutes airtime - first mountain flight of the season, and the first mountain flight in the new glider. I wasn't too upset how short it was.

Others were doing much better than me, though. Ilya climbed all the way back to the launch level, but then lost that climb and could not find anything else. He landed a few minutes later. Then Dave joined the group. Mike Holmes was way above launch, maybe a thousand feet, but eventually lost it as well.

Ascutney LZ crew

LZ

Jake and Jeff B, both on topless gliders, launched last. Jeff climbed right from launch, and Jake, lost that climb at first, but then found another thermal not too far from the LZ. As we started to think he would land here with us, he climbed out, and went all the way to the cloudbase. It was humbling to see that kind of flying. I got a lot to learn. But hey, at least my landing was good... this time.

Saturday

Saturday, July 4th, it was raining most of the day. But the weather cleared up in time for BBQ and fireworks. It was a lazy day, to take some rest and prepare for another Ascutney hike on Sunday.

Ascutney in the clouds. Getting ready for tomorrow.

Motorized paraglider with Ascutney in the clouds in the background

4th of July Sunset

Pixie

BBQ

Music

Fireworks

Sunday

Sunday forecast looked much better than it was on Friday, and many people expressed interest in joining the fun. Ilya and I paired up again for two hikes. Kevin Webb and Dave Park followed the same routine.

One of the advantages of caring only a half of a glider is that I could switch shoulder without stopping or dropping a glider. I would do that a few times every minute. And of course, maneuvering between rocks and trees was a breeze.

Max and Ilya

...

While waiting for the mountain to start working, Tom Lanning gave us a guided tour of the South launch. I don't know if anyone would risk launching from there, the trees in front are too close.

Tom is showing us the South launch

...

When we carried my glider to the site (we got it first), I put it as far from the launch as possible, so I wouldn't be in anyone's way. That came at a price of launching very last. Remember that imaginary perfect launch I dreamt of? The rest of the launch scramble was anything but that...

Nice cycles started to come in around 2PM. By 2:30, wind was a almost a constant flow at ~10mph. Nick Caci launched first and climbed right up... I started to regret that I put myself last in line :-)

Jon Atwood launched second, and also climbed right up. Tom was next, but he didn't like anything that was coming his way, and after 10-15 minutes, he pulled away from launch letting a next pilot in line to try for it.

Since I was last anyway, I picked the wire crew place from Ilya, and worked together with Peter Cassidy to launch Mike Holmes, Jake, Jeff B, Tom Lanning, Dana Harris, and Dave Park. That went pretty fast, everyone was launching just after a few seconds, and climbing right up.

Then it was Peter's turn to launch. To keep a wire crew going, we asked one of the spectators to help out. I worked with him to launch the rest of the pack - Kevin Webb, Peter and Ilya.

And, finally, it was my turn. I asked yet another spectator to help. I tried to the best of my abilities to explain what needed to be done, but very soon I realized that it might be too much for them to get everything right, so I concentrated on most important thing - do not grab the wires. I repeated it a few times while we walked to the rock. And then again at the top.

One of the spectators is helping with the launch

In the video below you can see that my wire crew pushed on the wires a bit too much, but for my first experience organizing and doing that kind of launches - it wasn't too bad. They kept their hands open as I asked them to, and I was able to float away without an issue. Thanks guys, for all the help!

The rest was a struggle for me. I didn't go up as I hoped, and, by the time I launched, the nearest glider was at least 300 feet above me. In a couple of passes, I managed to get above launch. 100 feet or so. But that was it, I just couldn't figure out how to stay afloat.

above launch

I looked up - everyone was to the north of the launch, circling together. I scooted there, and it was the beginning of the end for me. The gaggle was simply too high up to use it as a marker. I should have worked in front, or to the west, of launch, until I got something better. Oh well.

I didn't go down without a fight. For 20 minutes, I tried every possible knob on the mountain that might trigger a thermal. The best I could do however, is to prolong my decent. Sometimes, I scratched the mountain as close as I dared (not as close as I've done on a Falcon though, to leave a good safety margin), and that was another mistake as I was explained later. On a light winds day, thermals don't stick close to the mountain, so that only reduced my chances.

When I got 800' below launch, I was tired and frustrated. And my biggest mistake was my inability to relax. I was, as I often do in unfamiliar situations, too tense, reducing my chances to feel anything even more .

I came over the LZ with 500 feet of altitude. Then my brain played a joke on me, instead of executing another perfect DBF approach that I got pretty good at, I fell back to a dive landing that I've done plenty of times in a Falcon. I had plenty of space for that, and I wasn't worrying about hitting the trees in front, but ... 1) it wasn't necessary, and 2) I learned what a rotor does to you on landing (I got too close to the tree line). The result - a bent downtube. I want to say - a lesson learned, but I am not sure, yet. I know what I need to do, I know how to land well, but any stress completely messes with my ability to process situation efficiently. It almost like everything gets delayed. Anyway, it was just a downtube. I know I will do better... eventually.

A few minutes after my landing, more pilots joined me at the LZ. They all got an hour or more of airtime. All landed in the same direction that I did, but with less speed, and farther away from the tree line .

The rest of the group fought their way to the cloudbase, and went to Morningside. Congratulations to Dave Park and Jon Atwood on their first Ascutney to Morningside flight. I hope I'll join the ranks next time.

...

Conclusion?

Even with all the troubles I had this weekend, I learned a lot, and yet again, experienced something new. This what keeps me going - every flying day is like no other day. The whole weekend was so intense for me that it felt like a two weeks vacation. So I couldn't stay upset with  myself for long. I'll work it through, I'll make it better. Fly high. Keep learning.