Monday, August 8, 2016

Combat Challenge

Need for Speed

Higher performance machines. It's hard to resist the lure. It's not like Sport Class gliders don't offer enough free flight fun, but the next shiny thing is out there. It calls my name.

...

I wasn't completely sure why I was coming back to the subject of topless gliders. I didn't really need one. Not yet. I still had too much fun with my Green Sporty.... but I test flown a T2C. I handled it. I wanted to challenge myself. Plus, of course, all top dogs are flying those wings. It's irresistible. It's inevitable.

T2C flight at Wallaby earlier this year, left me a bit indifferent. So that thought came and went. Tom Lanning, however, planted a seed in my hang-gliding-brain that I might like Aeros Combat better. Randy Brown was selling his, and he was brave enough to let me test fly it. The price was right, too, and the colors... the colors were right in my green color scheme! I couldn't resist. Gotta get that bug out of my brain!

First Combat

Randy came to Morningside on Sunday night. We waited for conditions to calm down. I wasn't really nervous, but a bit anxious. It is a mean looking glider after all.
Rolling to the starting position (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

6PM. Winds mostly died down. I rolled to the starting line. The tug waved its elevators at me. Ready to roll! "It's just a glider", I kept reminding myself. Liftoff - all was well. 50 feet up... Geez! Why am I going sideways to the left? I gave the glider some input to the right. Now it was sideways to the right. I was PIO-ing like crazy!

I thought I had a pretty good handle on that towing thing. Nothing should have surprised me anymore, but this glider have. It was way too sensitive for my rough inputs. I couldn't get it under control... Well, I eventually did, more or less. But PIO-ing hasn't stopped all the way up.

As I released from the tug, all senses too rattled to enjoy the rest of the flight. I kept thinking - "I don't need this glider. It's too much".

But, after all, I was flying a new very cool looking machine, and I managed to pay some attention to how this super-ship handled. I played with different VG settings and speeds. The glider flew well, and responded to my inputs without an issue.

The landing went well, too. I overshot the target by 100 yards, and almost ended up in a ditch, but flew over it, flared still a bit high, and parachuted down. The glider settled on top of me, and I dropped the basebar. No whack though.
On final (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

I carried the glider back to the breakdown area, and Randy asked me how it was. I just said "Sorry, this is too much for me. Not buying it". That's how I felt at the moment, still trying to get over (in my mind) disastrous tow.

A few days later, I couldn't get that flight out of my mind... I handled the tow even though I PIOed. I knew I could tow well. I knew I could do much better. It was just a question of adjusting my technique. I landed it OK. It's a very unique glider. It flies well. The price is right. And it's a challenge. Challenge accepted! And, of course, the colors match my theme pretty close. The only reservation I had was about not having a dealer near where I live (Highland Aerosports, official Aeros dealer, went out of business). But then again, those things can be resolved. I was sure.

Combat Training 

The following week I drove to MFP Friday night with intention to take an evening flight. Nick Caci was towing. He told me that he would tow me after tandems were done around 7:30pm. Perfect.

When I was finally ready to launch, the conditions were ideal for my second do-over flight. No wind on the ground at all.

Focus! (photo by Crystal Wolfe)
Ready to roll (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

Takeoff. I kept reminding to myself - "small inputs. let the glider fly". All was going well for the first 50 feet, 100 feet, 300 feet. I didn't PIO! If anything, I was happy that I got my towing mojo back.


Liftoff (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

Towing (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

Now that I had towing under control. I concentrated on flying the glider. I flew toward the river, then made a high speed jump downwind, flying over route 12. My vario was showing 60mph ground speed,  and 160 FPM sinc rate. Awesome!

I landed, but that didn't go exactly well. Something was different when I felt it was time to flare. I was a tad late, but the glider started going up. The only problem was - right wing dropped, and I whacked. Damn!
Whack! (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

I took another flight, and then another one in the morning. Both landings weren't good. Other pilots gave a lot of input on what I was doing wrong. The consensus was that I was rounding out too high, and as a result flying too slow by the time I got into the ground effect.

I also got into a habit of pumping the bar, feeling how glider responded. That wasn't an issue on a Sport, but I would lose flaring authority on Combat by doing that.

Never Ending Combat...

This is an ongoing process. I am not in a rush to fly this glider the way I fly my Sport. By now, I had a few more flights on Combat - landings are still a challenge. The good thing, I started noticing what I am doing wrong on the Sport as well. That is the first step to make my landings better.

Done for the night


My tows also improved on my trusted Sporty. I don't try to over control it anymore. Sporty never cared that much either way, but it's better to do things right. I also experimented with towing and landing Sporty at full VG. That was pretty easy, actually. Midday conditions and all. Sporty, even at full VG is a very forgiving and easy to fly/land glider...

Anyway, I am glad I have an opportunity to fly this super-wing. Learning more about flying different types of gliders is a fascinating and a very intense process. I hope, eventually, I get comfortable enough with the Combat to turn it into an ultimate XC machine. The way it was with its previous owners. Not setting any time frames, and I will keep two gliders for a long while. Still plenty to learn on The Green Sporty, too.

Getting ready (photo by Crystal Wolfe)



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