Southern Drift

Planning

After my last flight in January, the winter settled in and I didn't feel like flying. What can I say, I am not a fan of cold weather. A break from intense activity is a good thing, though. It allows to keep things fresh when you get back.

While not flying, I was planning my next flying adventure, and the next gear update. A part of it was a trip to Wallaby Ranch in Florida. At the end of flying season of 2015 I felt like I was ready to try something new, a topless glider maybe. Wills Wing demo days were coming to Wallaby in April - the perfect opportunity to go away from cold New England, and try those new gliders.

Even better, the week after WW demo days at Wallaby, Wills Wings guys were going to Tennessee Tree Toppers. TTT was running Team Challenge 2016 event the same week. I went there for the last two years, and weather wasn't cooperating much. I hoped that different time of the year, in spring,  conditions would be much better and stronger.

I also wanted a single suspension harness for a while. My current harness didn't quite fit me right, and it was pretty beat up anyway. I liked the idea of something more efficient and comfortable. I ordered Aeros Myth 3 - an entry level single suspension harness. As little as I knew about those things, I figured that would be sufficient for me, especially the price was hard to beat - $1200 for a custom made, single suspension harness.

New harness

The harness arrived just a week before the trip. Highland Aerosports,  I ordered it from, sadly was busy with going out of business... That put a wrinkle on the whole plan. I wanted to tow, and adjust the harness with the dealer.  Now that wasn't possible. Oh well, I was going to Wallaby where plenty of hang gliding knowledge was concentrated, too. We would figure things out. But it raised my level of anxiety somewhat.

Getting there

The trip to Florida was uneventful. Natalia and I decided to do it in one day. And even though we had to switch drivers every 2 hours at night - it was the right decision.

We arrived to Wallaby Ranch around 1pm, right on time for lunch at the ranch.

Entering Wallaby

We ate, and had plenty of time leisurely set up our tent while there was still plenty of daylight.

Camp

Around 4PM every pilot at the ranch was suiting up to fly. I wisely decided not to fly after the whole night/day of driving. The evening turned out to be pretty good for flying - everyone logged 2+ hours.

Harness test

The next day, I got up early for a morning towing session to test my harness. Early, but not early enough. I launched close to 9AM, and air was already moving. This wasn't a problem on tow. It was bumpy, but I knew how to handle it even with the new harness. I had to make a few adjustments, but different harness design didn't surprise me on tow in any way.

The landing, on the other hand, was plenty exciting. It had nothing to do with the harness, though. Things just didn't get to it. I didn't evaluate air conditions on the ground properly, and flew right into a rotor. I had plenty of airspeed, started rounding out for ground effect. Almost got there... and suddenly, the world was spinning. My right wing dropped like there was no air at all, right side of the basebar hit the ground, and I wend through the downtube.

In retrospect, it could have been much worse, both for myself and the glider, but some luck has been had, and the lesson has been learned.

Malcolm had another downtube for me. After excellent Wallaby breakfast, I quickly replaced the downtube, double checked everything for damage, and decided to have another go. This time all went without a problem. I stayed away from rotor. Now, evaluation of possible rotors was in my landing approach decisions. I am not totally sure why it wasn't there before.

On my second attempt, I landed ok. I missed the downtube on transition, and didn't flare. Muscle memory got in the way on this one. No damage was done, though.

At the end of that flight I had some rough idea what I didn't like about the harness. It mostly had to do with the hang angle for thermaling. I had no idea what needed to be done to adjust it. The manual was too brief to be helpful. Tom Lanning came to my rescue. He never dealt with Aeros harnesses before, but he knew exactly how they worked, and what needed to be adjusted. After all those adjustments the harness felt great in flight. Thanks Tom!

Flying  Somewhere

For a couple of days after we arrived, more New England denizens were showing up at the ranch. First, Dave and Jennifer rolled in. And the next day Crystal and Ilya.

The forecast for that day looked pretty good for serious cross country flying. Ilya and Crystal went for an early test flight. By the time Ilya launched it was already pretty buoyant. After seeing Ilya's tow, Crystal decided to wait. Ilya, on the other hand, was finding thermals everywhere, and he wasn't coming back down. The day was working early.

Meanwhile, at the breakfast, Tom suggested that we should fly somewhere today, like Quest Air, for example. The wind direction was suitable for that. I was all for it.

We launched at 11am. I went first, and Tom right after me. Ilya was still up, enjoying nice flying weather.

I had a good tow, and got off in a good thermal that took me to 3000MSL. Tom however, pinned off low. He was struggling to stay afloat. It took him good 30 minutes to find a climb. He said on the radio that he finally found a strong climb, and I scooted over to join him. It took us both to the cloud base.

Tom radioed if anyone was up for a cross country trip. Ilya, Pete Judge, and I - said yes. And off we went. Dave and Crystal were still on the ground at that point, but we hoped they would join us as soon as they could.

On a glide

My first glide was just 4 minutes. I lost only 600 feet, but I stumbled into another lift, and I was taking it. I transmitted that I was recharging, and started circling. It took me back to the cloudbase around 4600' MSL. I went on another glide. For the next 30 minutes I was gliding, stopping to recharge, bouncing between 2.5K and 4K feet, never getting back to the cloudbase. And we all were drifting NE, too. The goal was in NW direction.

At some point, around 2000' MSL, I was in zero sink above a very smelly field. Things didn't look too good at that point. Eventually, zero transformed to a very weak lift. I wallowed in it for a while, looking at Ilya and Pete struggling below me as well. We went up and down, while drifting downwind north-east, toward Orlando, away from our goal.

I was around 3200' MSL. I didn't feel like leaving what little I had. Not until Tom gave a little push - "If you are still climbing, keep climbing, if not - let's move on".  I wasn't really climbing anymore, just maintaining. We were 1h 40m in our journey, and the day wasn't getting any better. I started a glide WNW, losing altitude pretty fast. I was looking at possible landing options already, just in case.

And yet again,  I stumbled into some lift. First, into some weak one that took me back to 3000' MSL. When this one was over, I started gliding away from it, and very soon got into a much stronger thermal. This one was sweet - 500 feet per minute. I called it out. Pete and Ilya found it as well, just a few hundred feet below me. That thermal was on the other side of that smelly manure field. Smell of lift, as Ilya called it.

Just in a few minutes I went from 2000' to 4600', all the way to the cloudbase. Tom was already on a gide to NW, and I went on a glide behind him. I could see his glider getting up while gliding straight. I was getting some leftovers from that lifting line, but not much. At that point, Tom decided to explore west, but instructed me to keep gliding north-west, toward Quest Air. I kept going.

After 15 minutes on my glide, I was getting low, 1500' MSL, and I heard on radio that Tom was already landing. He couldn't find anything to the west. Well, I was on my own now. I was still hoping for a good lift ahead, but all I was getting was little bumps. I circled some field from 900' up. Didn't like it, uneven, cows on one end of it. Saw a better looking one just a bit farther to NW. It was closer to a paved road, too. I went for it.

I got there with 500' to spare, made a few circles to determine wind direction, and landed as close as I could to the road. My landing was perfect, new harness and all, but I forgot to switch my camera on to have a prove.

I carried my glider closer to the road just to find that I was behind a barbwire fence with no gate. I called Tom, and he reminded me how to deal with those things. Sliding glider under the barbwire, not touching the fence, and climbing over at the post. Got it.

Breaking down in my new LZ

Getting out of the LZ

I sent my location to Natalia and got an immediate reply - "On my way. 31 minutes". Thank you, Natalia! You are the best!

By that time everyone was already on the ground. I collected all location information, so Natalia and I could pick everyone up. Pilots were also texting some essential information about things they saw around them:

Tom: On a hard pack dirt road.  Lots of bovine friends.

Tom's LZ

Ilya: Me too.  And me too.

Ilya's LZ

In an hour or so we all were in my truck, gliders loaded. Natalia was driving us back to Wallaby.

Ilya

Amazing day! At least for me. My personal best - XC flight 14 miles straight line, point to point. Flight time: 2h 33m. Thank you, Tom, for making it happen, and being such a great mentor.

Here is recording of this flight: http://doarama.com/view/710406

Winds of Winter

January...  back in cold Massachusetts. Warm Florida is a fading memory... but El Niño was still keeping weather unseasonably warm. Not anywhere close to 90°F Florida way, but still manageable 45-ish. Pretty good for January in New England.

Yet another storm was pushing winds from the east. 20-30mph winds were forecasted for Friday, January 8th, and lighter winds on Saturday but with a chance of rain. I have never flown in stronger winds, so I decided to take a day off, and try it out.

Natalia and I got to Wellfleet around noon. A few people were already flying. High tide was an hour ago. Four more people were setting up their gliders. 2 behind the dunes, and 2 behind restrooms across the road. I didn't want to be close to the sand, so I started setting up behind the restroom building as well. Since I was farther away, I turned the glider away from the wind. That didn't help too much as the wind was gusting from 25 to 30mph. With Natalia's help I was able to set the glider up though. I also got 2'x2' rubber mats under each wing and a couple of buckets with sand on the hang strap. All of which helped somewhat, but wings got away from me once for a second, and that was enough to put a small hole on the wing tip. Sigh. Nothing structural, but still, my poor bird... That is one of the problems with flying at Wellfleet, no good place to set up, and gliders always gets some beating.

Anyway, I got it all under control. and asked Natalia to help me with the nose wires while I was going to carry the glider the the launch. We walked very slowly and actually managed most of the way there. Then Lee Minardi, who was helping Keith to launch, took over the nose wires, and he also organized another spectator on my wing. That wasn't really necessary as the wind was straight in, but my brain capacity was exhausted trying to keep glider under control in unfamiliar conditions, so I didn't argue.

The one thing I knew from my previous trip to Wellfleet was I wanted to launch from the basebar, and I wanted to be in the middle of the dune. I watched the video of Jeff's launch from that trip several times, trying to figure out what I should do (none of us flew that day after seeing his launch). 

I thought, I analyzed it enough, and I could do it right. The wind was straight-in this time, so that was going for me as well.

Standing on launch I encountered a problem. I couldn't feel my glider at all. People on my side wires were pulling it down too much that I couldn't feel what glider was doing. I asked Lee to let go off the nose wires a bit so I could transition to the base bar. That worked fine. The wind wasn't gusting, so I shouted "clear". It was a good call. The glider remained under my control pointing straight in, but I wasn't lifting off. What the heck? I glanced left, and saw the guy on my left wing still pulling the wing down. Eventually, after a few shouts, he understood he needed to let go. And my glider took off, gently lifting me straight up. That was easy!

With winds around 30mph, I had to pull-in some amount trying to stay above the dune and not be blown back. I found that with strong wind, the lift band had extended in front of the dune all the way to the ocean. It was interesting to fly over the water, 300' above the surface.

The flight wasn't as relaxing as my last flight at the Cape in much lighter winds (https://skymax.fomac.net/2014/12/dune-bouncing/). I was cruising around 28mph for the whole time I was flying. That meant I had to pull-in, not a dramatic amount, but after 2 hours of that - I was pretty tired anyway.

Even though I eventually found a way to relax, and still being pulled in (forearms worked great for that), it only worked in smooth air high above the ground. But often times, air was far from laminar, bumpy and rough.

I flown all the way to the south lighthouse, then made a couple of attempts to cross huge gap to the north one. I didn't feel like I had enough altitude to cross it. The day was winding down anyway, clouds moved in, sun was gone, temperatures dropped. I wasn't too cold, but wasn't comfortable either... I turned around, and played with the wind close to the launch instead.

My landing was perfect, if I do say so myself. It took some effort to cut through the lifting air though. The glider just didn't want to land :-)

My camera died 25 minutes into the flight. Probably because of cold temperatures. The non-gopro branded batteries hold less charge, but I tested them at home, and they got 1 hour 10 min with wifi on, so the temperature was the only explanation I got as I charged them the day before. GoPro bacpac is on order. I need longer video running time...

Here are a few photos from the LZ.

After the flight, we all went to a nearby restaurant to get some dinner and talk about flying. Nice ending to a good day of flying in a good company.
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I was thinking to fly the next day as well. The winds were supposed to be much lighter, although, the temperature as low and complete overcast. After 2 hours in the cold air, I wasn't in the mood for more winter flying. I got new experience with higher wind launch, and I was happy the way I handled it, even with my left wing being stuck on launch for a bit.  I didn't enjoy the flying as much as I thought I would, though. I'd rather have higher temperatures for beach flying. Higher winds also means more work. The air was too rough and gusty. I think, if I decide to fly again in such conditions, I will do better, as I know what to expect now, but I wait till temperatures are in 50+F range for sure.

And of course, all that sand in my glider... I don't think I can shake it all out. I tried...

 I also tried to patch the holes with transparent gorilla tape. It worked well for a small wing tip rip I got at Ascutney, but the tape needs to be applied when it's warm outside. It just doesn't want to stick to the surface much at all when it's cold.

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Total air time 1:58 ...  That puts me over my goal of 75 hours, and now I qualify for H4 test.  I'll get the testing done some time in May... hopefully. Still gotta work on hitting that spot on landing...

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Lee posted video of his flight as well

Can't let go!

Is flying season over?

As Christmas was as approaching fast, I learned that the company I started working for in September had a Christmas break. The company basically shuts down for a week between Christmas and New Year day. That unexpected vacation was certainly welcomed, and the first thing I thought of - where can I fly this time of the year. I don't want to let go of flying.

I would loved to go to Mexico, but it required a bit more planning and resources. The next logical destination was Florida. Close enough to get there by car in one day, and sunny/warm enough to have a possibility of soarable days in December.

The long term forecast wasn't too optimistic, though. High winds aloft, and some rain. But hey, it supposed to be very warm, hot even - much better than cold New England.

Natalia and I decided to drive early in the morning on Christmas day to cover as much distance as we could. Maybe even stop somewhere to do touristy things. Otherwise, not much planning went into this trip. Except I had just enough time to order a new tent - instant cabin from Coleman, and it was delivered to our home just a couple of days before the trip.

We threw all the clothes, we thought we would need in Florida, into the back of the truck (shell that I installed last year makes things so much easier), loaded the glider, and off we went.

Unfortunately, we didn't start early enough. Christmas day had a lot of traffic (I thought everyone would be celebrating!) and we also hit some very heavy thunderstorms. As the result, it took us 2 days to drive down with not much touristy things done.

We got to Quest Air Hang Gliding around 7pm. It was already dark, but fortunately Spinner was still in the office. He showed us where we could set up our tent, and where the clubhouse was.

The instant tent was really instant. Easy and fast to setup even in the dark. Very spacious, too, and good quality. Recommend.

instant cabin

In 15 minutes we unloaded the truck, and drove into the town to have a dinner. The evening was very warm and pleasant. The food was good. Not a bad start of an unexpected vacation.

Flying

The next morning, December 27th, - forecast turned out to be right on the money - 15-20mph at 3k. Low cloud base. 10-15mph on the ground.

Quest folks were still running tandem operation, but solo flight wouldn't be much fun in those conditions.

By 4PM winds quiet down, and I went for my first tow with Joel Froehlich, tug pilot.

The tow up was easy and uneventful. My last tow was just 3 weeks ago at Tanner-Hiller, so I didn't get rusty.

The flight, however, wasn't long. I released around 3200' AGL and couldn't find anything that would keep me up. Even though sun was still picking through the clouds, the air was super smooth. Oh well, I expected as much, and it was nice to be in the air nevertheless.

On tow over Quest Air

Florida below

Landing soon

The landing went OK, except I flared a bit too much for the conditions (there was still some wind around 5 mph) and glider stopped on a dime while I kept moving. It put me on my ass. But it didn't matter, I felt that I got the flare timing just right.

The rest of the flying days were very similar. I launched at different times on different days. Some tows were pretty bumpy indicating thermal activity, but the flights weren't much longer. 20 minutes on average. My longest flight was 32 minutes. My thermaling skills weren't good enough for weak December lift. Many pilots were struggling, but some were able to stay up for extended periods of time. So there was lift to be found. It was just very small and weak, requiring a lot of patience.

But not all was lost, even though my flights weren't long enough to keep me soar-happy, I found a new skill I was trying to get for long time - no stepper landings. I finally adjusted my technique and timed my flare just right. After I got the first one, I consistently landed with either a good flare or just a couple of steps (when it was still windy on the ground). Here is my first good landing at Quest Air.

Needless to say, I was pretty happy about that. Let's just hope I don't forget how to do that next season...

I also experimented with different VG setting on tow. I tried no-VG tow, 3/4 VG tow, and full VG tow. I didn't experienced any difficulties at any of those settings, and settled for towing at full VG for the rest of the week.

Here is a video compilation of my flying at Quest:

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What else?

We spent 6 days at Quest and all 6 days I was flying. That was a nice break from winter blues.I've made new friends, and I've met old ones. I flown on the last day of the year, and I flown on the first day of the year. Awesome!

We dined at different restaurants every day to make it more vacation like for Natalia as well. She is not a pilot, but she enjoyed warm weather and not doing anything for the whole week. A few mornings we also made orange juice from fresh oranges that we picked ourselves on Quest's property. Can't beat that!

I also done a bit of photography. Not much comparing to other tips, but here are a couple of samples:

December in Florida

This is my spot!

Overall, an excellent trip. Very relaxing. I totally see doing it again in a couple of years.

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Quest Air Flying stats: 8 flights, Airtime 2 hours 46 minutes.

2015 Season stats: 70 flights (40 of those are from aerotow), 41 flying days, Total airtime - 30:02

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This was the best season for me so far. Here is again the video compilation of my season (without Florida trip as it was totally unexpected, and the video was done before that)

Hang Gliding Moments of 2015

This season was awesome! And this is an understatement. I don't have enough skills to express in words how intense and real this was.

New glider was all I expected it to be and then some. My airtime increased dramatically. And hopefully my thermaling skills, too.  I know that intensity of experiences wears off as you get better, but flying is a such dynamic ever-changing adventure that I hope to keep thing fresh for long while. And of course, friends that fly and share after flight time with me, they make this all even better.

Here is me looking back at awesome flying season of 2015.

Come fly with us!

Scratching Greylock

Mount Greylock is one of my favorite flying sites. This place feels like it was put there for us, free fliers, to have some fun. It has a very easy access to the launch, huge and grassy setup area, 2800 feet vertical drop to the LZ. There is only one problem with that site - it faces east, and predominant winds are from the west. That means we don't get to fly here nearly as often as I'd like to. Combine that with the fact that not all easterly days are happening on weekends - and I might not fly Greylock for the whole season. Work gets in the way of flying... sometimes.

Forecast for the last weekend of September was aligning to the east perfectly. It was on a light side, but I was eager to go. I wanted to fly my Sport 2 there, at least once this season.

I still have H3 rating and, to fly at Greylock, I needed an official USHPA observer. I posted a message to a local email list asking if any observers were going and would be willing to help me out. John Musto volunteered to help. Great! I was all set.

I texted Ilya a night before to see if we could combine forces for easy vehicle retrieval. We agreed to meet at Gould farm LZ at 9am. Then Tom L and Jeff C expressed interest in carpooling. I changed the plans to go with them, but the communication that night seemed to be broken as all we could agree on that we meet at Tom's place in the morning, but not on the time we meet.

I was so eager to get going that I didn't sleep well, and got up really early. I was texting Tom before 6am asking if he was ready. I was under impression that we had to get to Greylock as early as possible, but Tom was not in a hurry. Apparently, on a light day like forecasted, there was no reason to be too early. All we could count on were thermals (no ridge soaring) and this time of the year it takes longer for things to warm up... if at all.

Eventually, by 8:30am we all got loaded on Tom's car, and were ready to roll. All that was a couple of hours later than I expected, but I trusted Tom's experience in the matter.

A two and half hour trip felt much shorter in a good company. We got to the parking lot at the top of Greylock around 11am. No one was flying yet. Tom immediately proceeded to temper our enthusiasm by saying "Does it look soarable to you?". It didn't. Almost no wind. Tom chuckled and said "I am just keeping our expectations low".

It didn't matter at this point - we were here, and I was ready for a nice sledder to the LZ... if that was all I could get.

Tom was right. There was no reason to rush. First paragliders that could stay up launched around 1pm. And some of them were struggling anyway. Then things started slowly to improve. Paragliders were consistently surviving down cycles. One HG pilot on a Falcon launched, and didn't stay up. He was taking every little hint of a thermal, but slowly descended into the LZ.

The second HG pilot to take off was Jeff. He had a great run, and stayed at the launch level for a few passes then climbed out. At this point people couldn't climb higher than 200-300 feet above, but I saw a paraglider going into the valley, and climbing there as well. There was nothing else for me to wait. I was ready. Plus I had to launch before my observer anyway, so waiting more meant holding John up.

I suited up. Put my Green Lantern shirt on (every little bit help, ya?), got into my harness and done the rest of the pre-launch ritual. I got delayed a few minutes by paragliders launching in front of me, but eventually I made it all the way to where hang glider pilots usually starting their run.

Moving to the launch through spectators and paragliders

PGs are launching in front of me

In position

There was some wind lazily trickling straight in, but remembering my experience at West Rutland a few weeks back, I wanted to make sure I wasn't launching in a flush. I couldn't see any markers from where I was standing, but John confirmed that paraglider in front were still climbing.

I picked up my gliders and off I went.

Take off!

That thing about keeping expectations low totally worked. I settled in a zero-sink on a non-existent ridge for a few passes, and then seeing where PGs were climbing out, found a weak thermal to the south of launch. I was totally happy with that - my flight was already a few minutes longer than expected.

First thermal

I spent 5 minutes climbing in that first thermal, observing a gaggle of PGs and a lonely Jeff on his Sport 2, above the mountain. They were doing better than me, but I couldn't get where they were. In those 5 minutes I gained only 300 feet. Then it was over and I lost 300 feet in the next 30 seconds. It was time for me to shop around, recharge, survive.

I flew back in the direction of launch, but was losing altitude rapidly. Plus, there was already some light HG traffic close to the mountain. I remembered that a few PGs were finding lift away from the mountain, so I flew NE, totally expecting to land.

Back to the "ridge"

Sinking out

The mountain already looked huge and imposing behind me... and then in happened... 1000 feet below launch level I felt some texture.

1000' below

Then vario confirmed with silence that we weren't losing altitude anymore. I started a wide circle, and found what I was looking for. Vario confirmed my good fortune with with happy beeps. The thermal was initially slow, but it was getting better and better as I was continuing to climb. I centered in it pretty well, and climbed all the way to 4000' MSL.

Back in the game

Above launch

I boated around at that altitude for some time, but at this point - everyone started to launch, and the place became a bit too crowded. Another downcycle came, and I was constantly concentrating on other HGs. Working lift became a background task, and it wasn't performing well.

Ilya zooming by

Thermailling with Peter

I stuck to it for a bit, working through on expanding my comfort zone and situational awareness. I saw Pete Judge circling half a mile ahead, so I tried to get under, and work the same lift, if I could. Thermal was there but it was too weak. Pete lost some altitude, and we were passing each other in rather close proximity. Nothing extreme, but it was taking too much of my attention. I moved on.

I hoped to find something away from the mountain again, but it was not the case this time. All I could get was zero-sink 700' above LZ. I spent a couple of minutes  floating there while observing what wind on the ground was doing.

Perfect landing

And wind was doing something weird. Wind sock in the middle of the field was turning 90 degrees every minute. When I got low enough to setup my approach, I picked a direction and committed to it. I could have ended up landing in crosswind, but it didn't worry me that much - winds were very light.

And somehow, I executed the best landing of my flying season. That was an icing on the cake for this awesome day. Of course, I could attempt to stay in the air much longer, but I made a choice to get away from the traffic, and I had a good flight before that. I was definitely a happy camper.

46 minutes total air time, but it felt like a couple of hours.

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unfortunately, the day ended on a sour note. John Musto had a hard landing and got a ride in an ambulance. Fortunately, he is expected to recover fully.

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