The Games We Play

Abandoned but not forgotten 

Hello my little blog! It's been awhile. I did not forget about you. I simply had nothing exciting happening worth of blogging about.

Morningside Flight Park in October 2018

Reflections of 2018

The flying season of 2018 in New England was underwhelming to say it lightly. It actually was the worst flying weather since I started flying. Then other things also put a toll on the level of energy I had... things that happen to all of us, but taxing nevertheless. On the positive side of things, I have a super interesting work that takes a lot of my time and attention. All of that put together didn't help my flying though. On each flight, I noticed,  I was looking for excuses not to fly XC. My landing started to suffer, and I wasn't a happy camper. By the end of the season, I wasn't too excited about flying in general. My friends helped me to keep going, otherwise, I was very close to taking a long break from flying.

I had a couple of micro XCs from Morningside, almost forcing myself to go. The decisions I made in the air weren't great, and I was landing just a few miles downwind. It was almost like I haven't learned anything in the last few years.

Trying to keep the level of interest up, I started working on my paragliding skills. I even bought a brand new wing - Ozone Mojo 5. It had all the right colors. I enjoyed the new learning process while it lasted, but even here the weather eventually said - enough. I only managed to get my P1 rating

Picking new custom color. Skymax color scheme

Kiting my new Mojo

With all of that, the season was over, and I found myself not missing flying at all. It didn't upset me either. Maybe it was time to move on. Some of us get bored too damn easy.

Into the New Year

The company I work for was taking a Christmas break. A forced vacation. Just out of a habit, and out of a dislike for the cold weather, I decided to spend that break in Florida. At Wilotree park, former Quest Air. I enjoyed staying there before, so I figured, I'll give this hang gliding thing one more try.

I took both gliders with me, thinking that I might spend some time practicing on the Combat. The weather should be perfect for practice in December... I didn't even bother checking the weather. If I didn't fly - so be it. At least it should be warmer that in New England.

Almost ready to roll with my new mobile home in tow

...

When we arrived and set our camp up, I finally checked the weather. The forecast wasn't great, but a few flyable days were possible. Low cloud bases and weak thermals. Just as expected with this year's theme.

camp skymax

Wilotree park at night

At the end of the first day I took a "sled-fresher" just to see if I still remembered how to fly. I did. Surprisingly to me, I actually still enjoyed it! The next day, with suddenly rejuvenated will to fly, I couldn't wait to launch again. The day was weak as forecasted, but I soared above the airport for 35 minutes, and even took another flight at the end of the day to practice my landings.

End of flying day at Wilotree park with Mr Green parked on my front lawn

Since my landings weren't going great this season, I decided to stop worrying about a perfect flare, and do a variation of a "moonwalk" landing instead. It worked fine. No drama, no stress of trying to "feel" that flare window. I know, a perfect flare is a handy skill for XC flying, in case you land in a "no-stepper LZ", but I decided to worry about this later. We were in Florida where plenty of perfectly flat hay fields exist.

By day three, I found myself enjoying the warm weather too much and wanting to fly even more. That made me happy. Not all was lost. I also found myself not wanting to fly my Combat. I just couldn't see myself carrying that heavy machine around, setting it up, and dealing with trickier handling. I enjoy easy and familiar flying of Sport 2. It fits like a glove. I just don't need all the complexity that a higher performance glider would bring. Not now at least. I might re-evaluate that thinking in a couple of years, but for now the Combat must go. I lowered the price and posted it for sale.

The next flyable day didn't have much promise - pretty low cloud base, around 2500-3000' MSL. If thermals were consistent though, I could have flown for a few miles. It was time to play with XC flying. As I launched and got established in a thermal, I didn't hesitate - I flew downwind, north of the airport. The fact that I had a retrieve taken care of (thank you Natalia!) made that decision easier.

With weak conditions and not much altitude to play with, I bounced off a couple of thermals, and found myself around 1500' MSL eight miles downwind. I worked the weak lift for a few minutes got to 2000' MSL, and my patience misfired. I tried to find something better - bad idea at that altitude. Something better never materialized. I landed shortly after. 58 minutes total flight time. I didn't care! I felt great! I felt alive! How little one sometimes needs to get back on the horse.

Another thing I was happy about on this flight, I was picky about my potential LZ. I wanted it to be large and easy to land in. At some point, I even flew back because the landing options were better. I am glad I developed the skills to land in tiny LZs. I might even have to call upon those skills someday, but only if there are no other options. Flying in Florida, I should always have other options. A nice wide DBF approach into a nice large, preferably flat field. Sounds like a plan for all my future flights.

For the rest of our stay, I was flying XC on every flight. I even got way too eager once. Failing to observe the ever-changing conditions, I set on a glide right from the top of my first thermal. ~4K MSL that day! I got altitude! And straight to the next line of clouds I went.. without paying attention to how fast I was going down. I made it to those clouds rather low, and got not a beep under them. One glide, 6 miles out. I landed and broken down as fast as I could. Natalia picked me up, and I went for another flight. This time I was carefully watching my progress when trying to leave the thermal producing spot. I turned around while I had altitude if it wasn't working out on a glide. I tried a couple of upwind directions. It didn't work, but airspace over Wilotree was still full of thermals, allowing me to recharge back to 4000' MSL. Eventually, I got bored with that and flew downwind NW, got another thermal, much weaker, flew a bit more and got too low to get back. My last low save fight was from 800' AGL for 18 minutes trying to get back up. Short winter days didn't help the matters, and I eventually landed. Two XC flights in one day. How awesome is that!?!

I flew on the Christmas day. I flew on the New Years day. I flew with the birds, and touched the clouds. I logged 6 hours over 5 days of flying. This was a pretty damn good vacation!

....

We stayed for 10 days at Wilotree park, and it was time to go home. Back to the cold of New England. At the end of this trip, I was glad we went. I was happy to fly yet again, and I was hopeful for the new season to be slightly better than the last one. Only 3 months till I go back to Florida...

I have some flying activities planned for 2019 already.
- Crystal, Ilya and I are taking a clinic with Mike Barber just before Wills Wing days in April at Wallaby Ranch.
- Taking some new gliders for a spin at the demo days. I don't plan on taking a demo on a topless glider though. I don't need it at the moment.
- Then, there is a 2019 Quest Air Nationals competition. I wasn't planning on participating, but this trip warmed me up to the idea. The competition is two part - week 1 and 2. I am taking only the first week. I don't care about points. As always, it would be nice if I do well, but I am there to fly, fly with a purpose. When someone else is setting the goals - it's a different kind of flying challenge, and I enjoy it. Being a sport class pilot, the rules are simpler and tasks are shorter. I am also thinking to fly as far as I can (unless it's a triangle task) on each day. You don't have to land at a goal, you tag it and keep going. We shall see how all that works out. Can't wait!

Me with Wilotree resident cacadu