After 3 years of flying, landings are still something I am not 100% sure about. While I practice - I land ok. When I land after a long flight - it's still rather a stressful thing. By now, I know what I need to do, but on landings things happen very fast, and there is no slowing down, or going for another pass. Add that to a decision process - wind direction, LZ conditions, and altitude for final approach... yes, still pretty stressful. So when I saw email about Mitch Shipley hosting Surface Tow/Landing Clinic at Morningside, I was first to sign up. I heard a lot of good things about that clinic from many people. Plus, trying another method of getting off the ground should also be fun. 3 days of practice - perfect! And some aerotowing after morning session could be a bonus too.
Winch
Mitch designed and built his own static towing system. It is an electric one, and it works amazingly well. Here is a short video of how the whole operation looks:
I learned to fly from aerotow, so the process of learning to static tow went really quick. On my third tow, I had all the differences between aerotow and static tow under control. I relaxed, and experimented how high I could get from this setup. Of course, it all depended on how long the runway/line was, but I could tow high enough to make a couple of 360 turns, or a nice DBF approach for landing. I really liked that electric winch contraption. It would be interesting to see it working with a much longer runway. I could probably get a nice soaring flight then.
Landings
Mitch had another pilot (Kevin) helping him with the operation. He was on the other side of the runway, filming our landings, and driving us back to the starting line. (Thanks Kevin!)
Then, later in the afternoon, Mitch was reviewing with us all videos, and critiquing our landing technique. That way we all could see what needed to be changed/improved. The next day we worked on those things, and then reviewed our flights again. From practice perspective, this was super helpful.
I forgot to mention that clinic's goal was to work on a no-stepper kind of landings. Those are nice to have in case you are landing in a small field, or a field with uneven ground, where running it out might not be an option.
I often do run out my landings, so for me it was invaluable practice. I don't think I got the technique down by the end of the clinic, but I know what I need to work on. And as usual, the main thing is to be relaxed enough to feel what glider is doing... and "fly the flare". Here is one of my best landings... still needs some work:
Soaring
We were done with the video reviews around noon. That left the best part of the day open.
On Friday afternoon there was not much going on in the sky, but I wanted to fly anyway, and I hoped I might find something going up. That didn't happen. I logged 2 flights, 20 minutes each. My landings were not great - I was still consistently late to flare. On the first landing I also turned on final very low, aborted the turn and landed about 45 degrees to the runway, in the middle of unmowed field. I saved my late flare my punching it hard, that swung me under the glider in the last second, and all was well. That one would be hard to run out for sure. Phew!
On Friday afternoon there was not much going on in the sky, but I wanted to fly anyway, and I hoped I might find something going up. That didn't happen. I logged 2 flights, 20 minutes each. My landings were not great - I was still consistently late to flare. On the first landing I also turned on final very low, aborted the turn and landed about 45 degrees to the runway, in the middle of unmowed field. I saved my late flare my punching it hard, that swung me under the glider in the last second, and all was well. That one would be hard to run out for sure. Phew!
Ilya Rivkin got almost an hour flight that day, showing what patience can do on a marginal day. It is interesting how we encourage each other to get better even if not intentionally. I saw Ilya soaring, and I went for a second flight. I wanted to find that magic, I wanted to get better at finding it, too. Maybe some other day...
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A Saturday afternoon was slightly better. I got one 20 minutes sledder, and then the second flight was almost an hour. The sky looked pretty good, but thermals were small and not easy to center in. It was a challenging, tiring, but a fun exercise.
In the evening that day, David Park went for his first "pro-tow". I was so enthusiastic about pro-towing for the last 2 weeks, and that convinced Ilya and Dave to try pro-towing also. Ilya already was pro-towing in midday conditions a few times, and he loved it. We all were wondering why didn't we switch earlier.
Dave handled his first pro-tow like, well, a pro. You should have seen the "after glow" when he landed... I know the feeling - you worry if you can do something, but when you finally do it - it's actually "easy" because all your previous training kicks in. Anyway, nice conclusion to a nice day.
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| David P. First protow |
Sunday forecast was marginal, with 80% cloud cover and a low cloudbase. But wind had plenty of East in it, and that little Morningside valley usually works well on the days like these... for aerotow that is.
In the afternoon the sky started to look pretty good despite the earlier forecast. A lot of cummies everywhere. but east wind was creating some problems for takeoffs and landings. At times, rotor created by the hill was strong enough...
By 2pm, winds calmed down a bit, and there were cycles of no wind at all. I saw Ilya getting ready for a tow, so I started to get my glider ready as well. Flying with others is always more fun than having the whole sky to yourself.
I got ready first, so I went for it. I had to wait a minute or two for winds to die down (it was tailing for a bit) and up we went. The tow got rather bumpy when we started to hit strong thermals at 1K' up. But all went well.
I pinned off around 3K AGL and found me a strong thermal right away. It took me all the way to the cloudbase at 5200' MSL. I was hoping for a day like that, and it finally was here! I looked West. Cummies were forming a street I could probably use it for a cross country flight. Might not get far, but...
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| at the cloudbase |
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But... I wanted to wait for Ilya, as he should have been right behind me. I boated around the clouds for a few minutes and noticed no activity at the airstrip. Hm... I also noticed, that in my exploration of the clouds (and trying to avoid being sucked into them) I drifted a couple of miles downwind. Well, should I go alone? I didn't feel like it, so I decided to get back over airstip to see if anyone else would launch. I figured, that I could find another thermal while flying upwind.
15 minutes later, I found myself not far from Morningside, but at 900' AGL. Sigh... I was almost in landing mode now. I had a 40 minutes flight by that point, not too bad.
15 minutes later, I found myself not far from Morningside, but at 900' AGL. Sigh... I was almost in landing mode now. I had a 40 minutes flight by that point, not too bad.
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| Getting low... |
And then... I felt a few bumps. Turn, turn, turn!.... The thermal was small, but it had some bite. I worked patiently with it, gained 1000 feet, and the thermal was gone. At least now I had a better fighting chance. I was at 2000' AGL. I went back to where I found that thermal before, and it was there again! Now I entered it a bit higher than before, and thermal was stronger too. Instant vario reading was showing 1000 ft/min in some parts of it. This time I didn't lose it. It took me all the way back to the cloudbase.
Of course, now I was downwind again, but close to my LZ, and much, much higher. And yet, all the people on the ground, undoubtedly observing my good fortune, didn't move into a starting position. What was going on there? I wish we had radio this time.
Since their reasons were unknown to me, I decided just to play with the clouds, and not go anywhere this time. I took a 3 miles glide west to cummies on the other side of the Morningside hill. This way I positioned myself upwind, drifting toward my LZ.
I got to my target around 2400 MSL, found a weak, small thermal, and started playing with it, just like I did before. And it paid off again. As I was getting higher, the thermal was becoming stronger and wider... all the way to the cloudbase... again. I was right above the airstrip and yet, again, no one was launching.
This was getting boring, so I started doing wingovers, and gliding in different directions, losing altitude. When I got to 2500 MSL, I finally saw Ilya ready to launch. I spent hour and a half waiting for this, so I scrambled to find myself a thermal. I needed to recharge.
I found me a thermal, and then I was observing Ilya for a few minutes. He was shopping around for good lift, but it didn't look like he could find it right away. He even got under me at some point, but too low, he didn't get the same thing I was having. Meanwhile I was at the cloudbase again. And that is when my good plan to wait for Ilya and fly together fell apart.
While I got distracted by avoiding clouds and thinking where to position myself, I got back to 2500' MSL and only then noticed that Ilya was at the cloudbase, but on the other side of the valley. No problem, I thought. I'll get there in no time. Gliding downwind, after all, should be faster. I went to recharge... and all I could get to was 3700' MSL. There was no way I could glide where Ilya was circling from that altitude. I fought that battle for another 35 minutes, but all thermals I could find were topping out at 3700' MSL. And that was it. A little distraction, and all plans fell apart.
But I couldn't complain really. I landed after 2 hours and 33 minutes in the air. I was hungry, tired, and happy. This was my longest thermal flight so far, beating my previous personal best by 10 minutes. Thanks to David Baxter for explaining his thermal hacking method. I had plenty of opportunity to try it out on this flight, and make it work. I also had a somewhat low save. It felt great. It felt very satisfying.
Tennessee trip is next week. Life is grand.
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