SkyMax: June 2016

My weather analysis for the weekend was going like this:

Rain? No. - Check
Wind? Under 10mph from surface to 6K. - Check
Is Rhett towing? Yes. - Check.

Tanner-Hiller it is. I love flying there, and wish more of my XC-aspiring flying friends would come here and play with me.

If I checked forecast in more detail, I would see that it was a high pressure day. Several times already, I had great flying experience at Tanner-Hiller when high pressure was rolling through.

...

Jeff Curtis also posted that he was going. Sounded like we could get ourselves a cross country party after all.

The forecast was calling for a late day. I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere early, and rolled in to the airport around 11am. A couple of pilots were already launching... and landing soon after. The day hasn't switched on, yet.

Jeff showed up soon after. We got our gliders assembled, inspected, cameras and varios mounted. Nick Caci, Jeff, John Beckley, and I had a brief discussion on where we could fly on this sunny day. Wind was from the north, and it was supposed to switch to east toward 5pm. It was around 5 miles per hour, so a triangle was possible - easy retrieval. Or a flight to the coast - somewhere between New Heaven and New London in Connecticut.

Getting our wings ready

Not a cloud in the sky

Ok, I thought, I got this. Quabbin Reservoir is to the west, Worcester is to the east, I should start flying downwind, which is south... That is.. um, um, ... keep Quabbin to my right.... Got it.

Tiny clouds in otherwise empty sky

Noel assisting Doug on launch

Captain Rhett

Around 1PM, Doug Brown and Nick Caci launched and skyed out, even though there were almost no clouds. Okey-dokey - time to fly away.

Jeff launched first, then another pilot, then me. It was a pretty bumpy tow. Good. Thermals were there. Rhett started to circle in one around 2000' AGL. I didn't pin off. I have never pinned off without a pilot waving me off before. Rhett was making rather tight turns. He would tell me when, I figured. Keep going. Then Rhett done the same a minute later around 2500' AGL. I could feel the thermal bouncing the tug, and then me. Rhett was making a tight turn again. "Is he telling me something", I though. I knew the thermal was there. It was time to boost my confidence level - I pinned off without Rhett actually waving me off. Thank you, Rhett, for another lesson.

Takeoff

The thermal was indeed a yummy one. It took me to 5K without much trouble. What about XC now? I wasn't sure. A bit too low. Plus, I was north-east of the airport, but all cummies were closer to Quabbin reservoir, on the west side of the airport. I saw Jeff circling a few miles away, much farther to SW. Hm... let me get another thermal and then I'll think about XC.

I set on a glide toward actual clouds. A mile or so on the other side of the airport, I got another climb. I couldn't center on it, no matter how hard I tried. I kept losing it, making wider circle, finding it again. On average, I was still climbing, though. Not a relaxing exercise.

Finally, around 6K MSL, I gave up on this thermal. It was going up and down, like I was at the very top. I was still not sure about XC. I asked Jeff where he was. He was a mile south of me. Sometimes, I could see his glider against the sky. Maybe I could get closer to his position? I set on another glide, going SW where some better clouds were.

Two minutes later, I flew right into 500 FPM sink. Then 700. As far as I could tell I was under a cloud, but it wasn't pulling me in. I turned 90 degrees to get away from the sinking course, and get under another cloud while I still could.

I lost half of the altitude. My XC ambitions were waning, too. But just as I was about to turn back upwind, toward the airport, my vario stopped crying. Happy beeps! Very soon they turned into very happy beeps. I was going up 700 FPM. Now we are talking!

Around 7K MSL, My XC mood came back, and I asked Jeff about his plans. Jeff replied that he was at 6500' MSL and ready for some XC. Great! I was approaching 8K, and I was going, too.

At 7K MSL. Talking to Jeff

I could not see Jeff's glider anymore, and tried to get a fix on his location from the description he was giving on the radio. It worked somewhat. He was flying down the river. I could see the markers he was describing, but I never could get a visual on his glider. His new wing is simply invisible.

In my last climb, I started to get close to the cloudbase. I left the thermal, and sped up toward the edge of the cloud. Still climbing, eventually topping out at 8600' MSL. My personal best! I was slightly underdressed for the altitude, especially summer gloves didn't do anything against 40F, 30mph airflow. A few minutes later, after losing a couple of thousands feet, I was back in much warmer air.

Racing from under the cloud

I was on a glide for 15 minutes. That is when you realize how really slow a hang glider is. All your reference points are moving so slowly, and at the end of it, I covered just 5-6 miles.

I got over Ware with 3800' to spare. I saw a race track south of the town. I also picked a few fields to land in. I got into a weak climb, and for a moment thought I got this. What happened next was a combination of distracted flying, poor observation, and bad decision making. While I was slowly climbing, I asked Jeff where he was. Jeff was very low over a racetrack. Probably 1500' AGL. He was busy working a climb. I could see the racetrack with cars going round and round. So when my climb from weak became non-existent, I set on a glide toward the track.

The problem was I still couldn't see Jeff's glider, and trying to locate him was taking some processing power. I was distracted. Then I hit significant sink on the way to the race track, instead of continue going through that, I turned around trying to get back to the climb I had.

Reviewing the flight tracks later on, I never actually made it back to the thermal. I started searching around erratically, and missed it completely... again.

Why is it not working?

Nothing was working, and I was in landing mode a few minutes later.

Then there was a bit of excitement on landing. I picked a big field this time. When I got 400' over it, I realized that the field was a landfill, a dom sort of thing. Some vent pipes sticking out of the ground. Plenty of space between the pipes, but going long on this field would be deadly. I modified my approach, made an S-turn to lose more altitude, and turned on final much closer to the ground than I prefer. It worked out. I landed with plenty of distance from the slopping down edge of the field.

Big field this time

I landed ok. Not a perfect non-stepper, but safe on the ground. And of course, I was behind a tall wire fence, with gates closed.

Enjoying the fenced view

Fenced

At the gate

I walked my glider to the gate, broke it down and called Dana. He just landed back at the airport. He didn't go XC with us as his radio wasn't working. He didn't know what we were up to.

Dana drove my truck, and picked me up. He helped me to get the glider over the fence, too. Thank you, man! I owe you one.

...

When I landed, I heard from Jeff that he saw me land. After that I had zero contact with him. Two hours later, as I was about to start worry, he texted me that he landed somewhere in Connecticut. 34 miles away. Bastard! ... I mean, congratulations, Jeff! Awesome flight.

Since I was already back at the airport, I took Jeff's car, and drove to Connecticut to pick him up. Took one hour each way.

Overall, not a bad day. Not a bad day at all.

....

Forecast for West Rutland was very good for the next day, so after Jeff brought me back to the airport, I drove to MFP to join the flying party.

West Rutland ended up being awesome. More on that some other time ...

Flights: 1, Time: 1:20

Flight recording:

A short video:

I realize that planning your flights should give better results, but I still can't get myself to do it consistently. And when I do plan, they usually don't work out. And yet, some of my best flights to date had zero planning. So...

...

My birthday was on Friday. I don't really celebrate them. It's just another day, right? But I figured, an evening spent among flying friends was the way to "celebrate" it. I didn't even check the weather, I was simply going to Morningside no matter what.

I left work early and got to Morningside around 5pm. The little hill was soarable, and a couple of paragliders were up in the air hundred feet above the hill.

I set my glider up as fast as I could, and by 6pm I was standing on launch trying to squeeze a good run between very south cycles. It worked out, and I soared 450 for a few minutes. Made a mistake going too far north, and it put me on the ground. Conditions were not favorable for another try, but I was happy to have me a birthday flight.

...

In the morning I still didn't check the weather. I heard some pilots were going to Ascutney again. That meant conditions were supposed to be good for cross country flying, but I was not in a mood for another hike. Eric was back at Morningside, and towing seemed like an easier option. Instant mountain, Crystal calls it.

Finally, by 10am I checked the forecast, winds were forecasted WNW around 15mph at 6000' MSL. A very good thermal forecast too. Still spring conditions for going places. Hey, I might have me a birthday present!

Afternoon, however didn't look that great. Overdeveloped. A lot of clouds were rolling in from Ascutney. My optimism was waning.

Clouds moving toward MFP from Ascutney

Ilya came in the morning barely recovered from a cold. He promised me that the day was going to be epic. Whatever you say, my sky brother, I am just keeping expectations low to reduce disappointment, and increase excitement - whatever the outcome :-)

...

We had around 10 pilots setting up at Morningside for towing. With one tug - it would take a while for everyone get in the air. So I decided to launch early, and see if I could beat the crowd and stay up. After all, something generated all those clouds - there must be some lift out there.

Setup area

Eric towed me at 12pm, and I instantly knew it was a mistake - the tow was either too smooth, or we were hitting some major sink. When I released at 2500' AGL - all I got was 600 FPM down, all the way back to the flight park. A very short sledder. Tom Lanning asked me if there was some kind of emergency for me to get back so fast. Thanks, Tom. Rub it in.

...

Three hours later, the sky didn't look much better, but Peter Judge decided to give it a try. He asked Eric to tow him to 5K AGL, if they didn't hit anything good below 2500'. He wasn't on the radio, so we didn't know how he was doing. All we knew that they went all the way to 5K. It took a while, too.

Jeff Curtis launched next, and he reported good lift. Everyone scrambled to get in line. Since I had my sledder - I wasn't hurrying, and ended up being very close to the end of the line. Tom Lanning was right behind me.

Eventually, around 4PM I got into the air. This time it was indeed working great. While towing, I listed to a radio exchange between Crystal and Ilya. They both launched in front of me. They got to 7K and just took off. I was way behind, and as usual mildly disoriented. I only approximately knew what direction they could have been flying.

Anyway, I got off tow in a nice thermal. A few adjustments later - I was climbing at 900 FPM, average. That was the first time when I experienced such a nice climb. Sure, I hit some turbulence before, where instant vario readings would be 1200 FPM, but completing a circle it would read like 400 - 600 FPM. Not this time, I was in a fast lane up. It was rather smooth too. What a great feeling it was!

I got to 6500' MSL and decided that I needed to catch up to Crystal and Ilya. The problem was - I still had no idea where they were. If you remember from my last flight at Ascutney - I still struggled with identifying my position, and picking my next target. Earth always looks great from 6-7K up. It's like ... um... a satellite view in google maps but in real life. Except, no street labels option available.

When flying, there is not much time to dwell on shortcomings. You make a decision, and you execute it. I took off in general direction of where I thought my friends flew. I was flying away from Ascutney, and in the direction of the drift, more or less, - so that must be good.

My decision was reaffirmed by the fact that I was still climbing when I left the thermal. Must be a good direction. I enjoyed it for a mile or so, gaining almost 1000 feet while flying straight. I loved the way this day was working! It has already exceeded my expectations.

After a long glide, I still couldn't find any other glider in the sky around me. I asked Crystal and Ilya where they were. They said they were over a golf course. That didn't help, as I didn't see any golf courses. But I saw a big lake, I figured it was lake Sunapee. I didn't really like what I saw in the proximity of the lake though. Vast forest all over. I wasn't prepared to cross that terrain. That was where little planning would have helped, but then again - this day was already way better than any plans I had before. No complains here.

I saw that the south part of the lake looked marginally better as far as landing fields were concerned. I adjusted my flight in that direction.

At the end of my first glide I was at 3K MSL. Below me was some small air strip. Tom was asking me on the radio several times where I was. And I had really hard time to explain my position. My "3D brain" is way underdeveloped. Eventually, with Jeff's help we figured out that I was over Newport town airport (Parlin Field Airport). Tom was chasing me in a totally wrong direction based on my initial assessment of my location. Oh well, a little detour was not a big deal for the master pilot :-)

I found a nice thermal over Newport airport and climbed back to 6K MSL. I could see the golf course now, but still couldn't find any other gliders in the air.

: Low over Newport

No matter, I pressed on toward the south part of the lake. I saw some fields there. I hoped, I could land just fine.

: On a glide toward south part of the lake

I was flying directly toward ski slopes of mount Sunapee. When I got near it, I was too low to fly over. I picked a field close to the mountain that looked "decent" from 3000 feet up, and started searching for another thermal.

: Why this one? Not sure...

No thermals were found anywhere close to the mountain.

: Getting low close to the mountain

I turned around and headed for the field I picked.

: Back over future LZ

Initially, my choice of the LZ didn't trigger any alarms. It was on a smaller side, but looked adequate. When I got lower, I saw fence lines across my chosen path, dividing it in two. Terrain didn't look even either. It was too late to worry about this. I still thought I could land in a half of that field, parallel to the road.

: Boxing the field. Trying to figure out the best approach.

I didn't dare to start my approach too low over the taller trees (at the bottom right in the picture above), and I ended up too high on my final approach for the bottom part of the field. It was a good thing, though, as the field was sloping down, with a small swamp/pond at the end of it. That would have sucked big time.

: Still too high - turning on final.

I started making another S-turn and realized that the farthest (from the road) part of the field was going uphill. It had a clear path upwind (although I had to clear a barbwire fence). I modified my final, pulled in, and dropped a few feet of altitude much faster than I expected. Most likely due to a gradient. I also rounded out a bit too much. Probably, because of uphill. The ground effect was very short, and by the time I tried to check if it was time to flare, it was too late. No whack though, just dropped the control bar.

: This path looks better.

: Time to flare

: No energy left for a flare

: But... safe of the ground.

I carried my glider to the gate, sent a text with my location to Ilya (I heard on the radio that he was landing in the Forbidden field), and broke down the glider. I had to clear 2 gates to get off the property that I landed in. I probably spent 40 minutes, breaking down and hiking out - no one came out to yell at me, or ask who the hell I was, and what I was doing there. Good.

There was a small cemetery across the road. It had plenty of shade, which was nice after all that break down work. I picked a nice grave for myself, and settled to wait for the rescue.

: A graveyard across my LZ

Ilya called and said his truck was on its way to him. Jeff landed in the same field, and they would pick me up in an hour or so. Crystal didn't land with them, she was still flying somewhere. So Ilya needed to figure out the retrieval logistics.

An hour later Crystal called. She couldn't reach Ilya and thought I landed with him. She had an epic flight, and her LZ was another 20 miles away from us. Jon Szarek landed not too far from her. He had a driver. Crystal was all set with the retrieval. That simplified things significantly. Amazing how it all works out sometimes.

I got picked up shortly after. On the way back, we stopped at Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream.