Friday looked pretty good. Lighter winds with more north component in them. That meant we could fly past Wallaby Ranch and make some distance... but the day was again a blue one. No clouds to mark the lift. And top of lift was forecasted yet again pretty low - 3500'
Our mentor for the day was Dave Lopez, flying T2C. We discussed our strategy before we launched, but got hit by radio problems... Again! Dave's PTT got stuck (the channel was constantly open), he couldn't talk and guide us in the air. Oh well, all we could do was to learn to help each other. That's the best way anyhow...
I launched first, then Crystal and Ilya. I struggled right off the start. No thermal off tow. Searched for a few minutes with net-negative result. I was floating toward south end of the airport, expecting to land for a relight in the next few minutes. Meanwhile, Crystal and Ilya were circling together going up steadily.
Around 1000' AGL I found some lifting air, but lost it very shortly, dropping even lower - 900' AGL. Frustrating. I started making wider circles, and finally found that lift again. All while slowly drifting south. This time I didn't lose this elusive thermal. It took me close to 3000' MSL. I almost caught up with Ilya who could barely break 3000' himself. Crystal made a decision to search upwind a couple of times, and started lagging behind. By the time I caught up with Ilya, Crystal was at TOL, but a couple of miles back. We all were on the course line, and were exchanging information - position, lift rates, decision points. Good practice for our future New England XC flights.
Ilya and I made a few short glides downwind as we reached TOL. Otherwise, we were mostly drifting down the course line. It was acceptable progress for now. We would have to go crosswind to hit second turnpoint at some point, but for now - it was all we needed - patience.
We made a longer glide toward Seminole Lake gliderport, and struggled for a bit north of it. There were a bunch of other gliders in a similar situation. Air was getting crowded at times. I got myself out of a thermal to avoid another glider or two, but I also used other gliders to get back into the lift band. Rather new experience for me.
Crystal almost caught up with us, but then lost lift and couldn't recover. Ilya and I continued on, just two of us now. We got to our highest climb as we passed the gliderport - 3500' MSL. Life was improving. Excited we went on another glide. Until I heard on the radio "Max, which way your turnpoint arrow showing?". It took me a while to process what Ilya was asking... OMG, we missed the first turnpoint! It had only 400m radius, and we were too busy surviving. Now we had to fly back to tag it. Thank you Ilya for staying on top of things. I would have totally missed that part otherwise.
Fortunately, we were just 500m away from the edge of the turnpoint's cylinder. We tagged it and continued on. The next turnpoint was more to the east, crosswind.
We didn't have enough altitude though. The course line was going through some forest, with lift most likely broken over it. I radioed that I was going to explore downwind. Ilya decided against venturing that far away from the course line. I went alone.
I struggled for a bit, but found another thermal to 3500'. At this point my concentration was failing. I forgot that I needed to monitor my instrument, to see what direction I needed to fly. I just didn't want to land.
There were only 2-3 gliders with me at this point. I recognized Icaro Orbitter that Christian Ciech was flying (our mentor from day one, and a hang gliding world champion). He was below me, but climbing fast toward where I was.
"Hm, I'll just follow him", I thought. He climbed to my altitude, and set on a glide. I set on a glide behind him. After 3 km, he turned around and went back. I wasn't sure what to do. I should have had a plan, but my brain refused to form it. I stumbled into a climb but left it as soon as it got soft. If I started following Christian, I guess, I should follow him. I turned and went back to highway 33.
Now I was even farther downwind. Not much of a problem if you have altitude. I was only at 1300' MSL and didn't feel any confidence that I could stay up.
That's where it all fell apart. I put myself in unnecessary dangerous situation. I left zero sink area over nice big fields, and went searching downwind, flying over highway 33. It worked before... why not now?
The problem was, there were no good LZs reachable from that altitude. Another problem with that decision was - it didn't get me any closer to the second turnpoint. I already got as close to it as I could while on a glide behind Christian.... Oh well. Mistakes were made.
I saw some construction site, with a warehouse. It had a dirt parking lot I thought I could land in. I would have to slip a turn though. I remained amazingly calm for the rest of the process.
I circled the parking area. Checked for obstructions. Checked for lift... (never lose hope) Made another S-turn and dove in. Slipped right where I wanted to be, but recovered fraction of a second too late. My ground effect glide was taking me 60 degrees away from my initial plan. I managed to adjust the path while in the ground effect, and then flared hard to stop before the trees. Glider stopped on a dime, but went up pretty high. I held the flare like my life depended on it... which it was... Parachuted down and landed on my ass. It felt like a jump from 5-6 feet. My left ankle wasn't too happy with the impact, but it wasn't too bad... you know, just a notion of an injury. It was fine the next morning.
I carried the glider out of that parking lot, closer to the highway. Chatted with a nice gentleman who saw me fly over his house, and was curios to see if I landed. Then my rescue arrived. Natalia already picked up Ilya, and Tom tagged along just for fun. They helped me to breakdown the glider and we were back at Quest in 20 minutes.
Here is the video of the end of the flight showing the decision point, and the landing:
My friends forced me to put some ice on my overworked ankle... and then gave me a safety talk.
I agreed, I was frustrated with my bad in-flight decisions... On the other hand, I was pretty happy that I could pull this landing off. I have a soft spot for tiny LZs. Tom Lanning approved LZs confuse the hell out of me.... they are just too damn big.
....
Competition results:
I got third sport for the day with total distance of 33.14 km.
https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3113/day/sport-class
My overall result was pushed into 4th place.
https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3113/comp/sport-class
Here is the visualization of our tracks (Crystal, Ilya, Max)
http://doarama.com/view/1970337
Video clips of the whole flight:
 |
| Task 3 (photo by Willie Van Caulart) |
 |
| Task 3 |
I launched first, then Crystal and Ilya. I struggled right off the start. No thermal off tow. Searched for a few minutes with net-negative result. I was floating toward south end of the airport, expecting to land for a relight in the next few minutes. Meanwhile, Crystal and Ilya were circling together going up steadily.
Around 1000' AGL I found some lifting air, but lost it very shortly, dropping even lower - 900' AGL. Frustrating. I started making wider circles, and finally found that lift again. All while slowly drifting south. This time I didn't lose this elusive thermal. It took me close to 3000' MSL. I almost caught up with Ilya who could barely break 3000' himself. Crystal made a decision to search upwind a couple of times, and started lagging behind. By the time I caught up with Ilya, Crystal was at TOL, but a couple of miles back. We all were on the course line, and were exchanging information - position, lift rates, decision points. Good practice for our future New England XC flights.
Ilya and I made a few short glides downwind as we reached TOL. Otherwise, we were mostly drifting down the course line. It was acceptable progress for now. We would have to go crosswind to hit second turnpoint at some point, but for now - it was all we needed - patience.
We made a longer glide toward Seminole Lake gliderport, and struggled for a bit north of it. There were a bunch of other gliders in a similar situation. Air was getting crowded at times. I got myself out of a thermal to avoid another glider or two, but I also used other gliders to get back into the lift band. Rather new experience for me.
Crystal almost caught up with us, but then lost lift and couldn't recover. Ilya and I continued on, just two of us now. We got to our highest climb as we passed the gliderport - 3500' MSL. Life was improving. Excited we went on another glide. Until I heard on the radio "Max, which way your turnpoint arrow showing?". It took me a while to process what Ilya was asking... OMG, we missed the first turnpoint! It had only 400m radius, and we were too busy surviving. Now we had to fly back to tag it. Thank you Ilya for staying on top of things. I would have totally missed that part otherwise.
Fortunately, we were just 500m away from the edge of the turnpoint's cylinder. We tagged it and continued on. The next turnpoint was more to the east, crosswind.
We didn't have enough altitude though. The course line was going through some forest, with lift most likely broken over it. I radioed that I was going to explore downwind. Ilya decided against venturing that far away from the course line. I went alone.
I struggled for a bit, but found another thermal to 3500'. At this point my concentration was failing. I forgot that I needed to monitor my instrument, to see what direction I needed to fly. I just didn't want to land.
There were only 2-3 gliders with me at this point. I recognized Icaro Orbitter that Christian Ciech was flying (our mentor from day one, and a hang gliding world champion). He was below me, but climbing fast toward where I was.
"Hm, I'll just follow him", I thought. He climbed to my altitude, and set on a glide. I set on a glide behind him. After 3 km, he turned around and went back. I wasn't sure what to do. I should have had a plan, but my brain refused to form it. I stumbled into a climb but left it as soon as it got soft. If I started following Christian, I guess, I should follow him. I turned and went back to highway 33.
Now I was even farther downwind. Not much of a problem if you have altitude. I was only at 1300' MSL and didn't feel any confidence that I could stay up.
That's where it all fell apart. I put myself in unnecessary dangerous situation. I left zero sink area over nice big fields, and went searching downwind, flying over highway 33. It worked before... why not now?
The problem was, there were no good LZs reachable from that altitude. Another problem with that decision was - it didn't get me any closer to the second turnpoint. I already got as close to it as I could while on a glide behind Christian.... Oh well. Mistakes were made.
I saw some construction site, with a warehouse. It had a dirt parking lot I thought I could land in. I would have to slip a turn though. I remained amazingly calm for the rest of the process.
I circled the parking area. Checked for obstructions. Checked for lift... (never lose hope) Made another S-turn and dove in. Slipped right where I wanted to be, but recovered fraction of a second too late. My ground effect glide was taking me 60 degrees away from my initial plan. I managed to adjust the path while in the ground effect, and then flared hard to stop before the trees. Glider stopped on a dime, but went up pretty high. I held the flare like my life depended on it... which it was... Parachuted down and landed on my ass. It felt like a jump from 5-6 feet. My left ankle wasn't too happy with the impact, but it wasn't too bad... you know, just a notion of an injury. It was fine the next morning.
I carried the glider out of that parking lot, closer to the highway. Chatted with a nice gentleman who saw me fly over his house, and was curios to see if I landed. Then my rescue arrived. Natalia already picked up Ilya, and Tom tagged along just for fun. They helped me to breakdown the glider and we were back at Quest in 20 minutes.
Here is the video of the end of the flight showing the decision point, and the landing:
My friends forced me to put some ice on my overworked ankle... and then gave me a safety talk.
 |
| I said - Safety first! |
....
Competition results:
I got third sport for the day with total distance of 33.14 km.
https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3113/day/sport-class
My overall result was pushed into 4th place.
https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results/task3113/comp/sport-class
Here is the visualization of our tracks (Crystal, Ilya, Max)
http://doarama.com/view/1970337
Video clips of the whole flight:
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