Big A Struggle

I imagine standing on the top of the mountain, taking it in, looking for a sign of a good cycle to run off the rock. Glider pulls me up, wind picks us both and we float up toward the clouds... Ah, dreams...

Friday

Ilya Rivkin and I exchanged a few emails about possibility of flying Ascutney at the end of the week. Neither of us wanted to hike half a mile of a mountain trail with 80 pounds of gear. And it wasn't even the weight that bothered me, but 17 foot long glider that I had to balance on my shoulders. I could do it, but it would kill all the joy of getting there to fly. Ilya felt the same way, so we agreed to share the load - make two easy hikes instead of one overloaded.

A forecast for Thursday looked good earlier in a week, but eventually got way too breezy. Friday, July 3rd, looked promising, though.

I've met Dave Park and Ilya at the park entrance at 9:30am on Friday. All gliders were loaded on Ilya's truck, and we stopped by ranger's office to sign in... where I discovered that I've forgotten my USHPA and VHGA cards. The ranger didn't care for electronic forms of identification, so he called Jake, the site director, and I had to clear it with him. Eventually, the ranger let me through.

While I was trying to convince Jake and the ranger that I am a legit Ascutney pilot, Jeff Curtis pulled in, looking for a ride up the mountain. Sometimes a delay is a good thing. We loaded his glider up. Jeff and I climbed into the back of the truck and we all finally drove to the top.

A ride to the top

I dreaded the hike to the launch, with all that gear, but surprisingly, two of us carrying a glider, made that hike almost an enjoyable workout. It took us 20 minutes to hike the first glider and our harnesses. Then we went back to get the second glider. The second hike was very easy. That was a good start.

Hike to the launch

Conditions, however, were way lighter than forecasted a day earlier. By 1pm air was very still, with occasional weak cycles trickling in. Around 2PM, Jake told us that waiting any longer might not be a good idea. Jeff was eager to launch first. I watched him to go on a long glide away from the mountain, losing altitude, but then he found something and was working it for quite some time. I wasn't sure I could successfully climb out, but I couldn't change the weather, so I suited up, and got ready.

Ilya launched before me and was maintaining altitude around 200' below. I launched in a complete no-winder. Air was not moving at launch at all. I had a good run and floated away without an issue, except I was losing altitude rapidly.

Running off the rock

Seeing that Ilya was slowly climbing, I glided toward him, hitting some bubbles on the way there, but turning in them didn't produce much result. It also didn't help that terrain seemed a bit too close for a comfortable 360. It was my first mountain flight on Sport 2, and I wasn't going to do anything extreme.

I got where Ilya was, but 100 feet below him. I tried to maintain altitude while searching for any signs of lift,  but with not much luck.

When I got 600' below launch, I decided to play it safe and look for more lift on the way to the LZ.

Nothing happened on the way there. I came over the LZ with 700' to spare. Boxed the field, made a nice DBF approach, and executed a decent landing right in the middle of the LZ. 8 minutes airtime - first mountain flight of the season, and the first mountain flight in the new glider. I wasn't too upset how short it was.

Others were doing much better than me, though. Ilya climbed all the way back to the launch level, but then lost that climb and could not find anything else. He landed a few minutes later. Then Dave joined the group. Mike Holmes was way above launch, maybe a thousand feet, but eventually lost it as well.

Ascutney LZ crew

LZ

Jake and Jeff B, both on topless gliders, launched last. Jeff climbed right from launch, and Jake, lost that climb at first, but then found another thermal not too far from the LZ. As we started to think he would land here with us, he climbed out, and went all the way to the cloudbase. It was humbling to see that kind of flying. I got a lot to learn. But hey, at least my landing was good... this time.

Saturday

Saturday, July 4th, it was raining most of the day. But the weather cleared up in time for BBQ and fireworks. It was a lazy day, to take some rest and prepare for another Ascutney hike on Sunday.

Ascutney in the clouds. Getting ready for tomorrow.

Motorized paraglider with Ascutney in the clouds in the background

4th of July Sunset

Pixie

BBQ

Music

Fireworks

Sunday

Sunday forecast looked much better than it was on Friday, and many people expressed interest in joining the fun. Ilya and I paired up again for two hikes. Kevin Webb and Dave Park followed the same routine.

One of the advantages of caring only a half of a glider is that I could switch shoulder without stopping or dropping a glider. I would do that a few times every minute. And of course, maneuvering between rocks and trees was a breeze.

Max and Ilya

...

While waiting for the mountain to start working, Tom Lanning gave us a guided tour of the South launch. I don't know if anyone would risk launching from there, the trees in front are too close.

Tom is showing us the South launch

...

When we carried my glider to the site (we got it first), I put it as far from the launch as possible, so I wouldn't be in anyone's way. That came at a price of launching very last. Remember that imaginary perfect launch I dreamt of? The rest of the launch scramble was anything but that...

Nice cycles started to come in around 2PM. By 2:30, wind was a almost a constant flow at ~10mph. Nick Caci launched first and climbed right up... I started to regret that I put myself last in line :-)

Jon Atwood launched second, and also climbed right up. Tom was next, but he didn't like anything that was coming his way, and after 10-15 minutes, he pulled away from launch letting a next pilot in line to try for it.

Since I was last anyway, I picked the wire crew place from Ilya, and worked together with Peter Cassidy to launch Mike Holmes, Jake, Jeff B, Tom Lanning, Dana Harris, and Dave Park. That went pretty fast, everyone was launching just after a few seconds, and climbing right up.

Then it was Peter's turn to launch. To keep a wire crew going, we asked one of the spectators to help out. I worked with him to launch the rest of the pack - Kevin Webb, Peter and Ilya.

And, finally, it was my turn. I asked yet another spectator to help. I tried to the best of my abilities to explain what needed to be done, but very soon I realized that it might be too much for them to get everything right, so I concentrated on most important thing - do not grab the wires. I repeated it a few times while we walked to the rock. And then again at the top.

One of the spectators is helping with the launch

In the video below you can see that my wire crew pushed on the wires a bit too much, but for my first experience organizing and doing that kind of launches - it wasn't too bad. They kept their hands open as I asked them to, and I was able to float away without an issue. Thanks guys, for all the help!

The rest was a struggle for me. I didn't go up as I hoped, and, by the time I launched, the nearest glider was at least 300 feet above me. In a couple of passes, I managed to get above launch. 100 feet or so. But that was it, I just couldn't figure out how to stay afloat.

above launch

I looked up - everyone was to the north of the launch, circling together. I scooted there, and it was the beginning of the end for me. The gaggle was simply too high up to use it as a marker. I should have worked in front, or to the west, of launch, until I got something better. Oh well.

I didn't go down without a fight. For 20 minutes, I tried every possible knob on the mountain that might trigger a thermal. The best I could do however, is to prolong my decent. Sometimes, I scratched the mountain as close as I dared (not as close as I've done on a Falcon though, to leave a good safety margin), and that was another mistake as I was explained later. On a light winds day, thermals don't stick close to the mountain, so that only reduced my chances.

When I got 800' below launch, I was tired and frustrated. And my biggest mistake was my inability to relax. I was, as I often do in unfamiliar situations, too tense, reducing my chances to feel anything even more .

I came over the LZ with 500 feet of altitude. Then my brain played a joke on me, instead of executing another perfect DBF approach that I got pretty good at, I fell back to a dive landing that I've done plenty of times in a Falcon. I had plenty of space for that, and I wasn't worrying about hitting the trees in front, but ... 1) it wasn't necessary, and 2) I learned what a rotor does to you on landing (I got too close to the tree line). The result - a bent downtube. I want to say - a lesson learned, but I am not sure, yet. I know what I need to do, I know how to land well, but any stress completely messes with my ability to process situation efficiently. It almost like everything gets delayed. Anyway, it was just a downtube. I know I will do better... eventually.

A few minutes after my landing, more pilots joined me at the LZ. They all got an hour or more of airtime. All landed in the same direction that I did, but with less speed, and farther away from the tree line .

The rest of the group fought their way to the cloudbase, and went to Morningside. Congratulations to Dave Park and Jon Atwood on their first Ascutney to Morningside flight. I hope I'll join the ranks next time.

...

Conclusion?

Even with all the troubles I had this weekend, I learned a lot, and yet again, experienced something new. This what keeps me going - every flying day is like no other day. The whole weekend was so intense for me that it felt like a two weeks vacation. So I couldn't stay upset with  myself for long. I'll work it through, I'll make it better. Fly high. Keep learning.

Planting a seed

I try not to force any relatively dangerous activities on friends and family. Sure, I talk about how much I enjoy doing things, and I do suggest for them to try it, but as no interest is expressed - I shut up. So imagine my delight when my son, Ivan, expressed interest in trying hang gliding without me even asking.

Since I started learning hang gliding from aerotow, I suggested that this was the best option for him as well. Experience a flight right away, and then decide if it is something to dedicate more time to. So one Saturday morning we went to Hang Glide New England.

After Rhett towed them up, he quickly came back to pick me up to I could take a few photographs and videos while high in the sky. Awesome! I totally enjoyed that experience. Taking photos of another moving aircraft from a small airplane is not an easy task. For one, it was really hard to compose a shot and get everything in focus. I took a dozen of pictures, hoping that autofocus would do the job. Then I switched to video.

Anna also was shooting a video with a gopro mounted on a hang glider. I combined those two footages into a small video. The whole flight was around 25 minutes, but experience is so intense and out of ordinary that it feels one with energy for the whole day, and hopefully, motivates one to learn how to fly. I hope this video reflects the joy of flight. You can try that too!

Tow me up

Another great day at Tanner-Hiller with Hang Glide New England. 10 pilots showed up, and even though sky was mostly empty (no cumulus clouds), everyone was finding lift everywhere.

I launched after Tom Lanning. Pinned off around 3300 MSL. That first thermal was pretty good. It took me all the way to 6000'. On the way up, I got to the altitude where Tom was circling and passed him. But then he zigzagged in and out a few times, and that was the last time I saw him from the top. I don't know how he does that magic.

I tried to follow Tom and Peter Judge a couple of times, but couldn't quite make it to the same thermal they were in, settling for something I was hitting on the way there. I never reached 6K' for the rest of the day, topping out first at 5K and then 3500', but I was finding lift when I needed it, and climbing up.

Overall, I found a bit hard leaving whatever lift I had, still worrying I wouldn't find anything else. But with this glider, I was finding lift more consistently. So far, this year, my average flight time is 3 times of flights in previous years. I hope, I can get over those little fears in my head, and start exploring farther away on my own. But even without that, I had my longest thermal flight today - 2 hours 24 minutes. Now I need to find time and get some mountain flying as well.

 

Short but Sweet

photo album -> 2015.06.06-08 – Tanner-Hiller/Morningside

I have not flown for the last 2 weekends, so this time, seeing that the weather was going to be marginal yet again, I took a half day off Friday, and headed to Tanner-Hiller.

The day wasn't great. Sky didn't look promising, but it was sunny, warm, and I wasn't in the office. Good enough.

My tow was bumpy but uneventful, except when Rhett started making very tight turns, around 3K AGL. All thermals he could find were rather small, so he was trying to show me that. I guess, I wasn't paying attention, and found myself sinking way below the tug, with no way to recover. I didn't wait for what could happen next, and pinned off.

Finding only little bumps, I decided to head away from the airport toward nice looking clouds. A few minutes later, when I reached those clouds, I only found more of the same - little bumps and plenty of sink. At that point I was around 2400' AGL. I looked back at the airport, and all I could see was a notion of clearing in the trees far away. Hm... Now, I wasn't sure I could make it all the way back. I quickly checked bailout landing options - there were a few. Then I pulled VG, and set on a glide back. In a couple of minutes, I calibrated my visual "glide-o-meter", and I could see that I should make it... unless some major sink was in my way.

2.5 miles later I was at 700 feet above the airstrip. I really liked the glide ratio on this glider comparing to Falcon.... as long as I don't get carried away too much, and keep bailout landings in a view.

Against the Wind

For the next couple of days I went to Morningside. Saturday didn't work out well. It was too windy. But there was a friendly BBQ competition in the evening, so no matter what - it was good to be outside with friends.

Dave

Ilya

Yum!

Sunday looked to be a much better day, and the question was to either stay at Morningside and tow, or go to West Rutland.  West Rutland forecast looked marginal, so a few pilots decided to stay. Dana H, Ilya R, Dave P and me set up gliders and waited for better conditions to roll in. The sky were hazy in the morning, but radar map showed that it would blow by in a couple of hours.

set up and ready to go

We waited until 2PM. Dave launched first even though sky still didn't clear up. He just wanted to get some sledder in for a practice run.

Dana launched around 3PM and I went right after him. The tow was bumpy, but not too bad.

Ready for take off.

Ready for take off.

In tow

Eric towed me to the south of Morningside, and I released around 3K AGL, first in zero sink, and, soon after, it was all just sink.

pin off

I saw Dana farther to the south, searching. He was about 1500' below me and it didn't look like he was climbing, yet. I went away from him to the east. Dave and I talked about strategy before launch, and he suggested that with winds like they were, a better lift could be found behind the hill. On the way there, while searching, I lost 1000 feet, and didn't think I was going to get anything at all. But finally, I felt some turbulence, and vario beeped to confirm - I was in a weak climb. I started to make wide circles, trying to see if it was just a bubble. After a few circles, I was sure I had something, but it was smaller than my circles. Glider was constantly kicked out of it. I decided to pull 1/2 of VG to see if that would help. And it did. I narrowed my circles enough to center on a thermal for the next 3000 feet up. It took me all the way to 5000 MSL, while drifting downwind toward Claremont airport.

A mile from the airport the climb was over, and I had a choice to make. Fly back upwind, while I still had the altitude, or keep going downwind. Since the airport was so close (a nice landing option), I went there, hoping to find something that would keep me afloat. I got to the airport, but lost 500 feet. No lift, just sink.

Flying toward Claremont airport

Morningside looked pretty far, and I would have to fly upwind to get there, but I got curious. Can I make it back upwind?

I pulled full VG and went for a long glide. Most of the time, it looked like I would have just enough altitude to get to Morningside, but a few times, I'd hit big sink, vario started wailing, and my faraway marker would start rising - not good. Then I was out of a bad patch of air, and all was good again - I was still on target.

Eventually, making a very slow upwind progress, I made it to the airstip. I went through some less sinky air, and arrived to the hill with 500' to spare. I made a pass over it to see if anything would keep me up - nothing was there. So I made a nice DBF approach, and landed.

on the final

Landing was a bit bumpy. I had to correct aggressively until the touchdown. As a result, I didn't even try to flare, although there was ~5mph wind to help me. I also ran like a wind, and all was well. Exciting!

My total flight time that day was around 35 minutes, but because it was so intense - it felt much longer than this. This is probably the best thing about flying - I learn something new every time. Every flight is different. And real time decision making is exhilarating. No brakes, no engine. No opportunity to stop on a side of the road to look at the map, or take a nap. It seems that all things that scared me about free flight when I started out, excite me now.

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Here is a photo album from this weekend -> 2015.06.06-08 - Tanner-Hiller/Morningside

Windy Break

Memorial Day weekend wasn't going to be a flyable one. All forecast websites were pretty much in sync, showing high winds on the ground around 15mph and 30-40 mhp at 3K and 6K. Not good for towing, not good for foot launching, questionable for practicing.

I went to Morningside anyway in hope that I could play just for a bit. When I got there, it was the most depressing picture of the site - not a single glider set up, and not a single student practicing. Oh well. Hang-waiting it is.

I spent time walking around, taking pictures, and, later in the evening, flying kites.

A couple of people, who set up their gliders at 450, launched around 5-6pm. Wind was still pretty strong, and required extra confidence and skill to fly. I wasn't even going to try. Maybe next week.

...

This (next) weekend didn't cooperate either. High winds and thunderstorms... * Sigh *  ... I need to make some room for flying midweek, relying on weekends only, has a higher chance of staying on the ground.  That thing called work consistently gets in the way...

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A few photos from last week: 2015 Memorial Day Weekend At Morningside

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180+

Saturday forecast didn't look too exciting. 90% cloud cover, chance of rain. Winds aloft were forecasted on a strong side as well. But hey, if I don't go - I don't fly, so marginal forecast was gotta do. Plus, Tanner-Hiller was just an hour away.

I called up Rhett, and he was there for the weekend. I was on my way. I put all my camping gear in the truck so I wouldn't rush and have time to take an evening sledder. or two.

Rain didn't materialize, but strong winds were as predicted. I had to wait until 5pm to launch. And my wait was rewarded. Rhett towed me to 7000 feet AGL. We went between cloud streets at 3000', and spent another 15 minutes in smooth air getting all the way to 7K, where Rhett waved me off. That was going to be a majestic sledder for sure. I watched Rhett disappear behind the clouds below. I wasn't worrying too much about finding the airport, but it was unusual for a hang glider pilot to look at the clouds from above.

Tow above the clouds

High in the sky

I enjoyed the view for a bit, and then started to experiment with VG, different speeds to fly, and with stall at different VG settings. I expected no possibility of lift until I got to the cloud level, so nothing much there was for me to do for a few minutes.

Stall practice

Stall recovery

I found some lift when I got at the cloud level, but got too close to the clouds on every turn, so I bailed and glided away. I tried to find more lift below clouds, but with such low cloudbase didn't have much luck. I found some weak lift, gained another 300 feet and that was it - not much after that all the way to the ground.

Landing was less than graceful. I made a nice downwind-base-final approach, but misjudged my altitude and turned too low on final. In the video below, you can see I started transition my left arm to the downtube while I was still turning. Good thing it was an evening flight, and there was not much wind/turbulence. With all that excitement, I missed a flare window. Glider didn't have enough energy left to flare, and it piled on top of me, hitting the ground with the base bar. Not good, but wheels worked... this time.

....

  This year Rhett had another tandem instructor to help Nick Caci. Anna Eppink drove all the way from California to take this job. Rhett wanted her to take a couple of tandem flights with a test dummy, er, I mean, another hang glider pilot. I was more than happy to be a tandem passenger again. And it was fun flying even though I wasn't the one controlling the glider. Rhett gave Anna a nice workout - tight turns, prop wash, boxing. She handled it like she was flying tandems all her life. Way to go, Anna!

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180+

I camped at Tanner-Hiller, and spent next morning just relaxing and doing nothing. My glider was already set up, and I was just waiting for conditions to improve.

The day was progressing nicely, and by 12 o'clock cummies were everywhere. I saw Nick Caci gearing up for a launch, and I hurried to get my gear as well.

I launched 15 minutes behind Nick. Rhett dropped me around 2000' AGL in a nice thermal. It took me all the way to 3500'. But that was it. I just couldn't find anything else that was going up. Plenty of sink though. In 20 minutes - back on the ground.

I was about to beat myself up about my thermaling abilities, but then I saw that Nick landed as well. Ok, so it wasn't just me this time :-)

I immediately went for another try. Sky just looked too good to wait any longer. And again, Rhett dropped me off at 2K in a nice fat thermal. That took me to all the way to 5000' AGL. I was delighted. I didn't quite make it to the cloudbase, but I was climbing.

What comes up, must come down. Very soon I lost 2000 feet, but found another climb that took me all the way to 6000'. And that was how I spend the rest of my flight. Spinning up, gliding down. Weak lift, strong lift, strong sink. I didn't set myself a goal to fly anywhere, so I was just practicing finding lift, and staying in it.

It also gave me an opportunity to experiment with thermaling at different VG settings. In one thermal, I was well centered and climbing with full VG on, banked at 45 degrees, making very tight circles. That was not something I could do in a Falcon.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. Good practice for sure. However, in 2 hours, I was really tired, and ready to land. Later, when I checked my tracklog, I counted 180+ circles in 2 hours. That is a lot of spinning, and it was my longest thermaling flight so far 2:07.

Everyone who launched after me had great long flights. With the sky looking as it was, I was surprised that only a few people showed up. Only 5 of us were flying.

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Flights: 3; Duration: 3:36

Yaw, yaw, PIO

PIO - Pilot Induced Oscillation 

This weekend I finally understood why Sport2 was not a novice glider. I obviously accepted that fact from the beginning, but when I started flying Sport2, everything was relatively the same. Even adverse yaw on landing that I experienced right away, wasn't too bad... until I flew in thermal, midday conditions. Holy smokes!

Let's start with the tow. It was a rather windy day. I picked a mild cycle, and coming out of the airport at Tanner-Hiller wasn't a problem. I kept glider in position and everything was as usual. Then, we cleared the trees, and a rollercoaster started. While I was trying to keep behind the plane in proper position, the glider would get away from me and oscillate from side to side. Then I remembered to relax, and everything would going smoothly for a second or two... and then another bump hit, and everything would start again. At 1600' AGL, I felt, it was going only worse - larger oscillation cycles, and more effort to fall in line and stay there. I got so frustrated, I released.

When I got back on the ground (no, I couldn't find anything that would get me up from that altitude), Rhett told that I was actually doing ok, and I should have stayed with it, and practice. He was pretty amused that I got pissed at myself and released off the tow. Well, at least I made someone to smile :-)

On the second tow, I stayed with it, trying not to overcontrol, and figuring out how to deal with yaw. Before my second launch, Nick told me to try changing pitch a bit to break oscillation. I tried that, and it worked. It also allowed me to relax more when things were going sideways. Rhett gave me a ride to 5K AGL. I kept PIO-ing and recovering until air became very smooth around 4K. In smooth air, towing was super easy. Glider was practically flying by itself.

On landing, I had a similar issue, I wanted extra speed for bumpy conditions, but as soon as I started speeding up, oscillation would start as well. I had to slow down to break the cycle. Touchdown was still amazingly easier than on Falcon, even with a bit of crosswind and thermal activity.

Overall, a great weekend of flying with Hang Glide New England. I learned a couple of things, and had fun. Later in the day, we also got a robotics demo, and one of the pilots was doing BBQ for everyone at the airport. BBQ after a day of flying - life is good.

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Here is a video (with robot demo at the end):

And a few photos

Hey you, Robot. Don't touch my glider!

RAD - stupid name for a robot

Hello Sporty!

photos

Tanner-Hiller

Start of 2015 flying season was really slow for me. And by slow, I mean,  I haven't flown since December. First, it was the weather, then it was a new job, and then just me not really wanting to fly my Falcon anymore. I got that crispy new Sport2 sitting in my garage. That was what I wanted to fly.  But I wanted to take it to a training hill first... common sense and all.

And yet, finally, flying season opened up. May 1st was an opening day at Morningside,  and Rhett (Hang Glide New England) was also at Tanner-Hiller preparing for Sunday's tandems.

May 1st was forecasted as a complete overcast with possible rain. But I didn't care. I was going to Tanner-Hiller airport on Friday with my new Sport2. Evening tow in calm air sounded like a good idea.

I got there around 1PM. Rhett and I had a lunch at Clover Hill Country Store and I started to assemble my glider. I always take my time even with Falcon, and Sport2 requires more time. Some things, like curved wingtips, are really tricky to set up for an untrained individual.

Nick Caci also came to get ready for tandem operation. He flies Sport2. He gave me a lot of good advice on assembling and breaking down this glider. Thank you, Nick!

By 5:30PM, my glider was all setup for a tow. Nick test flown it for me to make sure I wouldn't get any surprises. Now it was my turn.

Rhett made me to put a fin on the glider to make sure I handled the tow on a new glider well. Safety first. And here I was on the cart, under my new and very colorful wing... thinking... - "What the hell am I doing here? Am I sure I need this at all?". I took a few deep breaths, recalled how much fun it was when I was flying high in the sky, and yes, I was sure, slightly anxious and excited, but sure.

The tow was pretty uneventful. It was like riding a bike. My body remembered what to do. Towing my new Sporty was not harder than a Falcon. It was slightly different from my experience at Wallaby Ranch last year, though.  There was more bar pressure and I had to work harder to keep glider behind the plane.

As the rest of the flight was concerned - it was a nice evening sledder in the gloomy skies. I experimented with VG,  made a few turns, took a couple of glides, and I was ready to land. I setup my DBF approach, turned on the final... and realized I was still way too high. I made a few S-turns trying to lose the altitude. Nick on the ground was waving, trying to convey something to me. Later he explained, he was trying show me that I needed a couple of 360 turns there. That's how high I was. Out of practice... yes.

Coming in for landing

I saw that I was going long no matter what, so I accepted that, made a last S-turn and set the course on the final. I was a bit surprised when glider didn't want to point its nose straight. It felt like I was fighting turbulence that,  I knew, wasn't there. Then I remembered - adverse yaw. All gliders exhibit this, but on Falcon it is barely noticeable. Eventually, glider dampened oscillation, and I landed well. This glider is so much easier to land (except for all that extra glide).

Overall I was happy - new glider worked well. I still remembered how to tow, fly and land. Perfect. Training hill and aerotow without fin was my plan for tomorrow. The weather was supposed be perfect, too.

Morningside

Natalia and I got to Morningside around 10am. By the time my glider was ready, conditions were very switchy, and no one wanted to fly. I definitely wanted something much easier to launch and land in. With the new glider I was worrying about a couple of things - how easy is it to launch in no wind, and how to land close enough to the bullseye.

Around 4pm things slowed down enough that I decided to give it a try. Josh gave me a ride to the top, and stayed with me to watch me launch. I took my time watching cycles. Thermals were still going through, and I wanted something more benign.

After sitting there for 10 minutes or so, off I went. Amazingly, Sport2 was super easy to launch. Even though I popped the nose a bit, recovery was quick, and the glider responded happily to my inputs. One thing less to worry about.

A spot landing, on the other hand,  needed a lot of adjustment. I was landing from the south, and even though I made a turn on the other side of the pond, yet, I was still too high to hit the bullseye. Good thing there was a whole other field on the other side of the ditch. I landed well, but the field was super wet. Oh well, it's just water... um, I mean, mud.

An hour later, I went for a tow with Eric. No fin on the glider this time. Eric flies a faster tug, and I had to work harder to stay in position. I PIOed  a couple of times, but recovered fast enough not to worry about a need for premature release. The flight was pretty good, too. I caught a weak thermal, and played with it for a few minutes. So far so good. I really enjoyed that glider.

For the landing I picked the airstip. I started setting up too high yet again, and noticed that steamers in the field were not showing the direction I wanted to land in. Since I still had plenty of altitude, I made a 360 above them, and at that point streamers were showing 90 degrees. So I proceeded with my original plan. When I was in the ground effect, I could see that I was landing downwind. Oh well, I was late with my flare, got pushed by downwind, and dropped the basebar, somewhat gently, on the ground. Good thing I had wheels. No damage done. At least, with all that circling, I landed close to the target.

...

We spent the rest of the evening socializing, and then went for a late dinner to Common Man Restaurant, where I took a few pictures of a nice sunset over the river. A fine conclusion to a nice day.

Common Man Restaurant, Claremont, NH

The next day I took another flight off 450'. Early in the morning, with no wind at all. This time I launched well, no problems. All felt great. Landing was from the north, and I allowed myself more room for the approach, so I wouldn't run into hard objects like other gliders or cars. I overcompensated, however, and barely made it over the ditch.

That was it as far as flying was concerned. I was considering to tow again, but the skies looked scary, and radar didn't look promising. Some other time... I hope.

Overall, very easy and relaxing weekend. I put a lot of my worries to rest about me not be able to handle this new glider. I really enjoyed a few short flights I already got on it. Sorry Falcon, you were good to me for a few years, but it's time for you to move on :-)

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Here are a few photos from this weekend.

and a short video http://youtu.be/5z6WcfuA0eQ