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...
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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.
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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.
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| 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 :-)
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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.
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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.
Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream
Later in the evening, Ilya and Crystal treated me to a dinner as well. I have awesome friends! Thank you, guys!
An awesome conclusion to an awesome day. I could not have planned it better... Wait... I haven't :-)
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Here is an abbreviated video of this flight:
Flights: 2
Total Flight time: 1:15
Recording of the flight:
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