Sunday. The first day of the competition. The morning went just like last year - breakfast, pilot meeting, setting up the glider, checking everything and getting ready to fly. No rush. Not much anxiety... yet.
The forecast for the day was WNW winds at 10-15 mph, with cloudbase below 5000' MSL. The problem with that wind direction is it pushes us, free flyers, into the Orlando airspace. To avoid that, a turnpoint needs to be set to the west, to keep people zigzagging upwind and fly clear of any restricted areas.
Here is the picture of the task. For simplicity of this training competition, we launch in the start cylinder, and just have to cross its border to start the clock.
We continued launch preparation. Our goal was to set the gliders in the launch line around 1:30 (launch window was opening at 2PM). And everything was going really well. Everyone was there on time, ready to fly.
The conditions were looking better than forecasted. Cumies were everwhere, wind was ligther - it could be a perfect day!
Our mentor for the day was Christian Ciech - hang gliding world champion. With that experience, I was curious how he would help us in the air.
As I mentioned in the previous posts, I wanted the team to fly together if possible. And I failed that task right away. I launched after Ilya and around 1200' MSL, I thought, I was being pulled through a nice thermal. I pinned off. Gained 200' and lost everything. Searched for a bit, didn't find anything either. Landed back at the airport.
From this visualization of our flights, you can see that I am lagging 30+ minutes behind. That was my second launch: http://doarama.com/view/1966948
Dana find out that his rental glider was in severe need of some adjustments. He couldn't do it before the launch window opened, so he decided not to fly.
Mike Asel launched right after me. And he also landed back at the airport. When I finally launched the second time. Mike was still in the launch line, 6 gliders behind. I thought about waiting for Mike, but lift was spotty, and drift was pretty significant. My skill level and confidence wasn't there to wait in the conditions like that. So I left as soon as the thermal I was in started to disappear.
Now the whole team was split and separated. I was flying on my own, Crystal and Ilya were flying with Christian, Mike was on his own still in the launch line, and Dana wasn't flying at all. So much for keeping it together.
I wasn't racing, or trying to catch up with my teammates. I figured, in the conditions I was in, I'd be happy if I just make as close as possible to the goal.
I took a long glide from the starting circle to the next cloud. It wasn't going well. I was losing altitude fast, and drift was pushing me too far east. Then I saw a gaggle much higher than me and way more to the west. I made a slight turn and went where the action was.
I had low expectations from that glide. I was a bit too low and would arrive under that gaggle too late. But it worked out. I intercepted that thermal and started climbing. This flight started to look better.
I soon topped out this thermal... and by that I mean - the thermal was getting too weak for my taste. The upward progress slowed down drastically. There were gliders above be, another 500 feet probably. I didn't want to wait. I pulled VG and set on a glide to the next cloud. Since I was more to the west now I had some room to be pushed east, so my over-the-ground progress was slightly faster - going with more downwind component.
That continued for another 20 minutes or so. I find a climb, top it out, and leave even though there were gliders above me. At first I was gliding toward other spinning gliders, but by the third glide, I was on my own, and other gliders started to use me as a marker.
My flight turned from "let's try not to land" to "I think, I can get to the first turnpoint". This flight was getting much better than expected.
Another 20 minutes, and I heard on the radio "Max, is that your green glider? I am right above you". I caught up with Christian. Crystal and Ilya landed by that point, and Christian was helping me now.
We were pretty close to the turnpoint cylinder. Christian helped me to optimize some decision making process. We got another weak thermal, lost it, moved closer to the turnpoint. Finally, I crossed turnpoint border, my vario made a happy sound, and I turned downwind - final glide to the goal. Christian found a thermal downwind, we climbed for a bit and lost it again. Christian radioed that he had enough altitude for the final glide. I didn't have that. But there was no lift, so I continued downwind. At 800' AGL, while working on my landing options - I finally felt upward moving air. It took me a few minutes playing at that altitude before I finally hooked it and was comfortably climbing. Now I could look at my instrument and see if I had the glide. A few minutes more, I decided I had enough, and on a glide I went... I made the goal! I couldn't believe it!
Natalia picked up Crystal and Ilya and they all came to Wallaby to pick up me. I wish we could have made the goal together... maybe next time.
Mike never left the airport, but launched 3 times. Good practice for launches/landings. Sorry Mike for the lack of XC help.
As to my race result... I didn't do all that well. 7th result of the day. But I was happy I made it. Here is the result table for Task 1 : https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3104/day/sport-class
And a bit long/boring video from my flight:
David Aldrich posted this vlog about Task One
Crystal wrote about it here:
http://flyingwolfe.blogspot.com/2018/03/gssk-day-1.html
The forecast for the day was WNW winds at 10-15 mph, with cloudbase below 5000' MSL. The problem with that wind direction is it pushes us, free flyers, into the Orlando airspace. To avoid that, a turnpoint needs to be set to the west, to keep people zigzagging upwind and fly clear of any restricted areas.
Here is the picture of the task. For simplicity of this training competition, we launch in the start cylinder, and just have to cross its border to start the clock.
 |
| Task 1 |
The conditions were looking better than forecasted. Cumies were everwhere, wind was ligther - it could be a perfect day!
Our mentor for the day was Christian Ciech - hang gliding world champion. With that experience, I was curious how he would help us in the air.
 |
| Ilya (photo by David Aldrich) |
 |
| Me (photo by David Aldrich) |
From this visualization of our flights, you can see that I am lagging 30+ minutes behind. That was my second launch: http://doarama.com/view/1966948
Dana find out that his rental glider was in severe need of some adjustments. He couldn't do it before the launch window opened, so he decided not to fly.
Mike Asel launched right after me. And he also landed back at the airport. When I finally launched the second time. Mike was still in the launch line, 6 gliders behind. I thought about waiting for Mike, but lift was spotty, and drift was pretty significant. My skill level and confidence wasn't there to wait in the conditions like that. So I left as soon as the thermal I was in started to disappear.
Now the whole team was split and separated. I was flying on my own, Crystal and Ilya were flying with Christian, Mike was on his own still in the launch line, and Dana wasn't flying at all. So much for keeping it together.
I wasn't racing, or trying to catch up with my teammates. I figured, in the conditions I was in, I'd be happy if I just make as close as possible to the goal.
I took a long glide from the starting circle to the next cloud. It wasn't going well. I was losing altitude fast, and drift was pushing me too far east. Then I saw a gaggle much higher than me and way more to the west. I made a slight turn and went where the action was.
I had low expectations from that glide. I was a bit too low and would arrive under that gaggle too late. But it worked out. I intercepted that thermal and started climbing. This flight started to look better.
I soon topped out this thermal... and by that I mean - the thermal was getting too weak for my taste. The upward progress slowed down drastically. There were gliders above be, another 500 feet probably. I didn't want to wait. I pulled VG and set on a glide to the next cloud. Since I was more to the west now I had some room to be pushed east, so my over-the-ground progress was slightly faster - going with more downwind component.
That continued for another 20 minutes or so. I find a climb, top it out, and leave even though there were gliders above me. At first I was gliding toward other spinning gliders, but by the third glide, I was on my own, and other gliders started to use me as a marker.
My flight turned from "let's try not to land" to "I think, I can get to the first turnpoint". This flight was getting much better than expected.
Another 20 minutes, and I heard on the radio "Max, is that your green glider? I am right above you". I caught up with Christian. Crystal and Ilya landed by that point, and Christian was helping me now.
We were pretty close to the turnpoint cylinder. Christian helped me to optimize some decision making process. We got another weak thermal, lost it, moved closer to the turnpoint. Finally, I crossed turnpoint border, my vario made a happy sound, and I turned downwind - final glide to the goal. Christian found a thermal downwind, we climbed for a bit and lost it again. Christian radioed that he had enough altitude for the final glide. I didn't have that. But there was no lift, so I continued downwind. At 800' AGL, while working on my landing options - I finally felt upward moving air. It took me a few minutes playing at that altitude before I finally hooked it and was comfortably climbing. Now I could look at my instrument and see if I had the glide. A few minutes more, I decided I had enough, and on a glide I went... I made the goal! I couldn't believe it!
Natalia picked up Crystal and Ilya and they all came to Wallaby to pick up me. I wish we could have made the goal together... maybe next time.
Mike never left the airport, but launched 3 times. Good practice for launches/landings. Sorry Mike for the lack of XC help.
As to my race result... I didn't do all that well. 7th result of the day. But I was happy I made it. Here is the result table for Task 1 : https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3104/day/sport-class
And a bit long/boring video from my flight:
David Aldrich posted this vlog about Task One
Crystal wrote about it here:
http://flyingwolfe.blogspot.com/2018/03/gssk-day-1.html
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