Southern Drift

Planning

After my last flight in January, the winter settled in and I didn't feel like flying. What can I say, I am not a fan of cold weather. A break from intense activity is a good thing, though. It allows to keep things fresh when you get back.

While not flying, I was planning my next flying adventure, and the next gear update. A part of it was a trip to Wallaby Ranch in Florida. At the end of flying season of 2015 I felt like I was ready to try something new, a topless glider maybe. Wills Wing demo days were coming to Wallaby in April - the perfect opportunity to go away from cold New England, and try those new gliders.

Even better, the week after WW demo days at Wallaby, Wills Wings guys were going to Tennessee Tree Toppers. TTT was running Team Challenge 2016 event the same week. I went there for the last two years, and weather wasn't cooperating much. I hoped that different time of the year, in spring,  conditions would be much better and stronger.

I also wanted a single suspension harness for a while. My current harness didn't quite fit me right, and it was pretty beat up anyway. I liked the idea of something more efficient and comfortable. I ordered Aeros Myth 3 - an entry level single suspension harness. As little as I knew about those things, I figured that would be sufficient for me, especially the price was hard to beat - $1200 for a custom made, single suspension harness.

New harness

The harness arrived just a week before the trip. Highland Aerosports,  I ordered it from, sadly was busy with going out of business... That put a wrinkle on the whole plan. I wanted to tow, and adjust the harness with the dealer.  Now that wasn't possible. Oh well, I was going to Wallaby where plenty of hang gliding knowledge was concentrated, too. We would figure things out. But it raised my level of anxiety somewhat.

Getting there

The trip to Florida was uneventful. Natalia and I decided to do it in one day. And even though we had to switch drivers every 2 hours at night - it was the right decision.

We arrived to Wallaby Ranch around 1pm, right on time for lunch at the ranch.

Entering Wallaby

We ate, and had plenty of time leisurely set up our tent while there was still plenty of daylight.

Camp

Around 4PM every pilot at the ranch was suiting up to fly. I wisely decided not to fly after the whole night/day of driving. The evening turned out to be pretty good for flying - everyone logged 2+ hours.

Harness test

The next day, I got up early for a morning towing session to test my harness. Early, but not early enough. I launched close to 9AM, and air was already moving. This wasn't a problem on tow. It was bumpy, but I knew how to handle it even with the new harness. I had to make a few adjustments, but different harness design didn't surprise me on tow in any way.

The landing, on the other hand, was plenty exciting. It had nothing to do with the harness, though. Things just didn't get to it. I didn't evaluate air conditions on the ground properly, and flew right into a rotor. I had plenty of airspeed, started rounding out for ground effect. Almost got there... and suddenly, the world was spinning. My right wing dropped like there was no air at all, right side of the basebar hit the ground, and I wend through the downtube.

In retrospect, it could have been much worse, both for myself and the glider, but some luck has been had, and the lesson has been learned.

Malcolm had another downtube for me. After excellent Wallaby breakfast, I quickly replaced the downtube, double checked everything for damage, and decided to have another go. This time all went without a problem. I stayed away from rotor. Now, evaluation of possible rotors was in my landing approach decisions. I am not totally sure why it wasn't there before.

On my second attempt, I landed ok. I missed the downtube on transition, and didn't flare. Muscle memory got in the way on this one. No damage was done, though.

At the end of that flight I had some rough idea what I didn't like about the harness. It mostly had to do with the hang angle for thermaling. I had no idea what needed to be done to adjust it. The manual was too brief to be helpful. Tom Lanning came to my rescue. He never dealt with Aeros harnesses before, but he knew exactly how they worked, and what needed to be adjusted. After all those adjustments the harness felt great in flight. Thanks Tom!

Flying  Somewhere

For a couple of days after we arrived, more New England denizens were showing up at the ranch. First, Dave and Jennifer rolled in. And the next day Crystal and Ilya.

The forecast for that day looked pretty good for serious cross country flying. Ilya and Crystal went for an early test flight. By the time Ilya launched it was already pretty buoyant. After seeing Ilya's tow, Crystal decided to wait. Ilya, on the other hand, was finding thermals everywhere, and he wasn't coming back down. The day was working early.

Meanwhile, at the breakfast, Tom suggested that we should fly somewhere today, like Quest Air, for example. The wind direction was suitable for that. I was all for it.

We launched at 11am. I went first, and Tom right after me. Ilya was still up, enjoying nice flying weather.

I had a good tow, and got off in a good thermal that took me to 3000MSL. Tom however, pinned off low. He was struggling to stay afloat. It took him good 30 minutes to find a climb. He said on the radio that he finally found a strong climb, and I scooted over to join him. It took us both to the cloud base.

Tom radioed if anyone was up for a cross country trip. Ilya, Pete Judge, and I - said yes. And off we went. Dave and Crystal were still on the ground at that point, but we hoped they would join us as soon as they could.

On a glide

My first glide was just 4 minutes. I lost only 600 feet, but I stumbled into another lift, and I was taking it. I transmitted that I was recharging, and started circling. It took me back to the cloudbase around 4600' MSL. I went on another glide. For the next 30 minutes I was gliding, stopping to recharge, bouncing between 2.5K and 4K feet, never getting back to the cloudbase. And we all were drifting NE, too. The goal was in NW direction.

At some point, around 2000' MSL, I was in zero sink above a very smelly field. Things didn't look too good at that point. Eventually, zero transformed to a very weak lift. I wallowed in it for a while, looking at Ilya and Pete struggling below me as well. We went up and down, while drifting downwind north-east, toward Orlando, away from our goal.

I was around 3200' MSL. I didn't feel like leaving what little I had. Not until Tom gave a little push - "If you are still climbing, keep climbing, if not - let's move on".  I wasn't really climbing anymore, just maintaining. We were 1h 40m in our journey, and the day wasn't getting any better. I started a glide WNW, losing altitude pretty fast. I was looking at possible landing options already, just in case.

And yet again,  I stumbled into some lift. First, into some weak one that took me back to 3000' MSL. When this one was over, I started gliding away from it, and very soon got into a much stronger thermal. This one was sweet - 500 feet per minute. I called it out. Pete and Ilya found it as well, just a few hundred feet below me. That thermal was on the other side of that smelly manure field. Smell of lift, as Ilya called it.

Just in a few minutes I went from 2000' to 4600', all the way to the cloudbase. Tom was already on a gide to NW, and I went on a glide behind him. I could see his glider getting up while gliding straight. I was getting some leftovers from that lifting line, but not much. At that point, Tom decided to explore west, but instructed me to keep gliding north-west, toward Quest Air. I kept going.

After 15 minutes on my glide, I was getting low, 1500' MSL, and I heard on radio that Tom was already landing. He couldn't find anything to the west. Well, I was on my own now. I was still hoping for a good lift ahead, but all I was getting was little bumps. I circled some field from 900' up. Didn't like it, uneven, cows on one end of it. Saw a better looking one just a bit farther to NW. It was closer to a paved road, too. I went for it.

I got there with 500' to spare, made a few circles to determine wind direction, and landed as close as I could to the road. My landing was perfect, new harness and all, but I forgot to switch my camera on to have a prove.

I carried my glider closer to the road just to find that I was behind a barbwire fence with no gate. I called Tom, and he reminded me how to deal with those things. Sliding glider under the barbwire, not touching the fence, and climbing over at the post. Got it.

Breaking down in my new LZ

Getting out of the LZ

I sent my location to Natalia and got an immediate reply - "On my way. 31 minutes". Thank you, Natalia! You are the best!

By that time everyone was already on the ground. I collected all location information, so Natalia and I could pick everyone up. Pilots were also texting some essential information about things they saw around them:

Tom: On a hard pack dirt road.  Lots of bovine friends.

Tom's LZ

Ilya: Me too.  And me too.

Ilya's LZ

In an hour or so we all were in my truck, gliders loaded. Natalia was driving us back to Wallaby.

Ilya

Amazing day! At least for me. My personal best - XC flight 14 miles straight line, point to point. Flight time: 2h 33m. Thank you, Tom, for making it happen, and being such a great mentor.

Here is recording of this flight: http://doarama.com/view/710406