Big part of cross-country free flying is psychological. It's all in pilot's attitude. If you don't think you are going to make it to the next cloud, or find that invisible thermal - you are not going to. Of course, the other way is not guaranteed either. Meaning, if you think you are going to make it, it might be not so. And yet, leaving safety of a familiar site behind is always the very first step. No XC flying is going to happen without it.
Do I have enough altitude? Is the cloud I flying toward to going to work when I get there? Is there a bailout LZ? Those things that are running through my mind when I am about to make that decision. However, my observational/analytical skills are still rather rudimentary, and a final decision is often simply impulsive... hopefully based on some experience, but impulsive nevertheless.
...
Friday, August 5th, 2016
After taking another morning test flight on my speedy Combat, I started breaking the glider down with intention to take an afternoon flight on my Green Sporty. It's nice to have a few gliders to choose from, I guess.
It was Friday. I was pretty much alone at the setup area. But soon Ilya showed up and Mike Holmes as well. The more the merrier.
I wasn't particularly planning on any XC adventures. Didn't even check weather carefully. Just wind direction and speed. I'd get whatever was there, or just boat around. It's Friday, and I am not working. Win-win either way.
By 2pm my Combat was in the bag, and Sport was all setup and ready to fly. Ilya launched first. He optimistically reported that lift was everywhere. Well, great, return the tug ASAP, please.
When I launched, the ride wasn't as bumpy as I expected. Not too promising. Nick Caci was towing. We pulled through some lift over the sandpit south of Morningside. It wasn't anything crazy, so I stayed put. Plus Nick didn't try to circle in it. I mentally marked the place - might come back to it later.
But Nick turned around and towed me back north-east, missing that lifty area all together. Oh well. I pinned off in zero sink, and considered flying upwind to the sandpit, but saw Ilya circling NE of the hill. He was reporting some weak lift. I set on a glide toward him.
By the time I got there, it wasn't working. Ilya was in full search mode, 500' below me. 3000' MSL doesn't give you a lot of time. All I was getting was zero sink. Not a single complete turn in lift. Lift was indeed everywhere, just not big enough.
The sky, on the other hand, looked much better farther downwind. The closest cloud street was a couple of miles away, and, for all I knew about the clouds - it was working much better over there.
Since Ilya and I were flying together, I should have broadcasted my intentions, but that thought didn't even cross my mind. I was about to commit to a very questionable thing, with very questionable landing options below me... I guess, I wasn't completely sure in my decision so I kept quiet.
Ilya noticed that I was gone by the time I covered half the distance. He was lower than me, and decided against following.
As for myself, there was no turning back at that point. 3 miles later, I lost only 900 feet. Flying downwind is much better for glide ratio. There was no way I could have made it back upwind, though. 2100 MSL, probably ~1500 AGL. I was looking at a couple of tiny fields to land in. There were a few big fields too, but it looked like they had full size corn in them.
Before I could contemplate my willingness to land in tiny fields - I felt air shaking my glider. The vario confirmed as much - we were going up. Slowly. A few turns in 100 to 200 FPM, then it turned on to 400FPM. Phew! My landing options just expanded.
While climbing, I was also drifting NE. I crossed route 12 while still working that thermal. 4500' MSL. Not too bad all things considered.
Climb was fizzling out. Clouds were another 500' above me. I decided to glide under clouds, while still in lift. That's where my observational skills malfunctioned.
Looking at the tracklog, I didn't go directly downwind, effectively falling out of that cloud street. But I saw another one, and I was hoping to find lift there as well. And there was some, just for a few turns. I lost it... and I lost that confidence that took me thus far.
Just like I mentioned before, the big part of XC flying is psychological. Again, checking the video and the tracklog, I gained 300', lost the thermal, and instead of working on finding that thermal, or another one - I started to panic - "getting low, a lot of forest around. Oh look - an airport! Let's go there". Interesting part was though, I was at 3200 MSL, 200' higher than my previous 'no return' decision.
And (no surprise there) just like magic, my XC flight was done. I did make it to the airport. It was east of my position, so I had to fly crosswind to get there. I arrived with ~800' AGL to spare (1300' MSL but the ground kept raising up). There was some thermal right above the airstip, but it was only good for 400 feet. I landed. Broke down the glider, and waited in a nice air-conditioned room (pilots lounge) for my rescue to arrive.
Ilya picked me up. Very much appreciated, brother! His flight was over soon after I left. There was just no strong lift over Morningside.
...
To conclude - I got another one-and-done XC. I didn't expect to have an XC flight at all, so I wasn't too upset. The flight was plenty exciting! But it was short. 44 minutes total flight time. 10 miles point to point distance. I just hope that I started noticing what my decision making process was lacking. I am pretty sure, I could have covered more distance if I was more observant and less panicky. But, I made a safe decision to get to a nice LZ. I live to f(l)ight another day. No shame in that.
Here is the recording of this flight:
Do I have enough altitude? Is the cloud I flying toward to going to work when I get there? Is there a bailout LZ? Those things that are running through my mind when I am about to make that decision. However, my observational/analytical skills are still rather rudimentary, and a final decision is often simply impulsive... hopefully based on some experience, but impulsive nevertheless.
...
Friday, August 5th, 2016
After taking another morning test flight on my speedy Combat, I started breaking the glider down with intention to take an afternoon flight on my Green Sporty. It's nice to have a few gliders to choose from, I guess.
It was Friday. I was pretty much alone at the setup area. But soon Ilya showed up and Mike Holmes as well. The more the merrier.
I wasn't particularly planning on any XC adventures. Didn't even check weather carefully. Just wind direction and speed. I'd get whatever was there, or just boat around. It's Friday, and I am not working. Win-win either way.
By 2pm my Combat was in the bag, and Sport was all setup and ready to fly. Ilya launched first. He optimistically reported that lift was everywhere. Well, great, return the tug ASAP, please.
When I launched, the ride wasn't as bumpy as I expected. Not too promising. Nick Caci was towing. We pulled through some lift over the sandpit south of Morningside. It wasn't anything crazy, so I stayed put. Plus Nick didn't try to circle in it. I mentally marked the place - might come back to it later.
But Nick turned around and towed me back north-east, missing that lifty area all together. Oh well. I pinned off in zero sink, and considered flying upwind to the sandpit, but saw Ilya circling NE of the hill. He was reporting some weak lift. I set on a glide toward him.
By the time I got there, it wasn't working. Ilya was in full search mode, 500' below me. 3000' MSL doesn't give you a lot of time. All I was getting was zero sink. Not a single complete turn in lift. Lift was indeed everywhere, just not big enough.
The sky, on the other hand, looked much better farther downwind. The closest cloud street was a couple of miles away, and, for all I knew about the clouds - it was working much better over there.
Since Ilya and I were flying together, I should have broadcasted my intentions, but that thought didn't even cross my mind. I was about to commit to a very questionable thing, with very questionable landing options below me... I guess, I wasn't completely sure in my decision so I kept quiet.
Ilya noticed that I was gone by the time I covered half the distance. He was lower than me, and decided against following.
As for myself, there was no turning back at that point. 3 miles later, I lost only 900 feet. Flying downwind is much better for glide ratio. There was no way I could have made it back upwind, though. 2100 MSL, probably ~1500 AGL. I was looking at a couple of tiny fields to land in. There were a few big fields too, but it looked like they had full size corn in them.
Before I could contemplate my willingness to land in tiny fields - I felt air shaking my glider. The vario confirmed as much - we were going up. Slowly. A few turns in 100 to 200 FPM, then it turned on to 400FPM. Phew! My landing options just expanded.
While climbing, I was also drifting NE. I crossed route 12 while still working that thermal. 4500' MSL. Not too bad all things considered.
Climb was fizzling out. Clouds were another 500' above me. I decided to glide under clouds, while still in lift. That's where my observational skills malfunctioned.
Looking at the tracklog, I didn't go directly downwind, effectively falling out of that cloud street. But I saw another one, and I was hoping to find lift there as well. And there was some, just for a few turns. I lost it... and I lost that confidence that took me thus far.
 |
| Camera points in the downwind direction. I picked cloud on the very right. Probably missing the whole cloud street opportunity. |
And (no surprise there) just like magic, my XC flight was done. I did make it to the airport. It was east of my position, so I had to fly crosswind to get there. I arrived with ~800' AGL to spare (1300' MSL but the ground kept raising up). There was some thermal right above the airstip, but it was only good for 400 feet. I landed. Broke down the glider, and waited in a nice air-conditioned room (pilots lounge) for my rescue to arrive.
 |
| Happy pilot at a proper LZ. The best LZ a free flier can get. |
 |
| Obligatory XC dance |
Ilya picked me up. Very much appreciated, brother! His flight was over soon after I left. There was just no strong lift over Morningside.
...
To conclude - I got another one-and-done XC. I didn't expect to have an XC flight at all, so I wasn't too upset. The flight was plenty exciting! But it was short. 44 minutes total flight time. 10 miles point to point distance. I just hope that I started noticing what my decision making process was lacking. I am pretty sure, I could have covered more distance if I was more observant and less panicky. But, I made a safe decision to get to a nice LZ. I live to f(l)ight another day. No shame in that.
Here is the recording of this flight:
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