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

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'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.