After a second disappointing day, I was determined to fix it. I wasn't sure how, but I gotta do it. Well, at least I would integrate thermalling suggestions that I got from day before.
Our team in setup area
We launched and I got established in a nice thermal. At least I thought so. But it took me to 3500 feet, and then it turned into zero. Jeff Curtis had a better luck elsewhere, he soon was at cloudbase and went on course.
Meanwhile, everyone else, including other teams, joined me. Our new mentor, Michael, as well. He directed us a few times trying to optimize the climb, but we couldn't punch through 4k. I remained on the top of that gaggle.
Michael joining thermal below
Gaggle
Our mentor, flying topless glider, went exploring farther away, and he found 600 fpm thermal. He called to join him there.
Since I was at the top, I figured I might be able to reach it. The truth was, if I didn't get that radio call - I wouldn't have went. Use the force, Luke!
And, predictably, I didn't make it into that thermal. As I was on a glide, I saw Michael going up like a rocket, but I wasn't even half way there. Too late to the party...
And, just like a day before, I was presented with a choice - keep exploring farther away (clouds too far for me to glide to at that altitude), or go back.
I looked back, and the airport was still in my reach. I opted for that. I'd rather try again from higher altitude. While gliding to the airport, I got under my old gaggle - not a beep. Sigh. Over the airport - there was plenty of thermal activity, and I played with it for a few minutes, hoping to get out on my own. It didn't happen.
Circling low over Quest
I landed in a few minutes. Turned my radio off as that chatter wasn't relevant to me anymore. Another tow. Another scratching at 3k. And suddenly I realized that I enjoyed this flight way more. I was on my own. I wasn't rushed or distracted by all that radio noise. I started flying much better.
After an hour and 30 min, a couple of trips to cloudbase, one low save, and 16 miles - my patience finally disappeared, and I went for something that wasn't there. There was a big overdeveloped area farther south. I was a bit too low to look for anything there, but I went anyway. At least I registered that I was making this mistake while I was making it... Progress, right?
Then just for fun of it I picked a very questionable lz. Landed ok.
Where is he going to land?
Not a very prudent decision. I promise not to do that on purpose anymore... maybe.... Anyway, it was a most fun day in the comp so far.
...
A few discussion with mentors definitely improved my flying. Just a tiny bit. I didn't enjoy competition part all that much, and wasn't not doing well points wise, but flying with a purpose was pretty cool.
...
Here is a video of my landing https://youtu.be/R3MccZ8WSyM
Day two was starting pretty much the same as day one. Early lazy morning. Natalia and I went for a breakfast to a local restaurant, and were back to Quest before 9am, leaving enough time to setup the glider before pilots meeting at 11am.
Set up and ready to fly
My anxiety was dramatically reduced after day one, but it wasn't completely gone. I needed a few more launches to get into the groove (note to self: if I do a comp event again, I should come a couple of days earlier for practice runs). Plus, my poor performance of day one was still fresh in my mind. Not from points perspective, but from self-reflection - it went wrong somewhere for me, and I still had no idea how to fix it. I got no in-the-air help, and I felt that this kind of help wouldn't really work for me. I just couldn't see how someone would be able to tell me what to do in the air. Things happen too fast, and I am the one that has to make the decision anyway...
Eventually it was time to launch and put all those self-reflecting thoughts aside.
Launch went ok, and I got dropped in a decent thermal. I started circling left (my preferred direction), and realized it was a right-turn day (everyone should turn right inside of the start circle). While changing the direction, my teammates were climbing through me. I turned around, and couldn't climb as high as they were. After a few circles, I got frustrated. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working for me. Thing was, there was no rush to start flying to the goal in this particular competition as my time starts when I cross the start circle - 3 kilometers radius. But instead of waiting and looking for better lift, I went after my teammates from much lower altitude. I saw a few gliders circling a mile away, much higher than me, and I started chasing from below. It's never a good idea as lift can be long gone by the time you get there.
Impulsive and stupid decision. It was just one glide, and I landed in a field a few kilometers away. A very short XC.
While I was on my terminal glide, Richard radioed that he was at cloudbase and he was starting on course. As I landed and carried my glider toward the edge of the field, I heard someone landing behind me. I looked over - it was Richard. I was very surprised. Apparently he got into the same sink as I did, and even though he had another 1500 feet over me, it didn't help much. I guess, things can go wrong quickly no matter your altitude...
...
I felt like I needed to take a step back and figure out what was happening. I was pretty confident in my thermaling skills, and I wasn't happy they failed to deliver. There was something else at play - my head wasn't in the game, I guess.
In the evening, I talked to our next day mentor Michael Williams. We discussed thermaling techniques. Especially, for broken lift with small strong cores. Always good to get a different perspective on what can be improved. Tomorrow is another day... We'll fly again.
For sometime now I wanted to try competition flying. Not so much for competition itself, but to have a target to fly to, some kind of measure of progress, and people to help me figure out how all that is done.
I originally wanted to go to ECC (East Cost Championship), but that got terminated together with Highland Aerosports that was running it. Then I learned about Green Swamp Sports Klassic that was twice as far, but still reachable in one day of driving. Plus, I've already flown at Quest Air a few times.
And so I decided to give it a try. It was going to be at the end of March. Florida has pretty good flying weather this time of year.... and it is not super hot yet either. Natalia went with me, and graciously agreed to retrieve me when I needed it.
Driving to Florida
I didn't know what to expect exactly. Not knowing rules of the game, I was a bit anxious. But the atmosphere was pretty laid back, and from morning to launch I had plenty of time to do everything without rushing.
At Quest. Camp Skymax.
...
The way this event is organised is that all participants are split into teams, and each team is assigned a mentor. Each team is assigned a radio frequency, and mentor then provides in-flight guidance - whatever each team member needs help with.
From points in the competition, the teams are not really teams - each participant is scored separately. So team members do compete against each other, but then again, this competition is not a part of larger Hang Gliding championship, so if points all you care about - these ones don't go anywhere else.
I wasn't too concerned about points, I just wanted to get my flying to the next level. For a year I got stuck in that 1-2 thermal mode that would get me to 10-15 miles range. I wanted to break that loop.
By the way, any type of glider is welcome in this training competition, but you will have either a penalty or handicap comparing to a baseline sport class glider that is WW U2). Since I was flying a WW Sport 2 - I got 6% handicap.
Also, the cost of this competition is really low comparing to "real" ones, - you pay a small entry fee, you pay for tows ahead of time, and you take care of your own retrieve. There were a few people doing retrieve for a small per-pickup fee.
Flying the course part is pretty straight forward, but does require an instrument with GPS and ability to set waypoints. I bought Flytec Element last year. It is a very basic competition vario. It doesn't have sophistication of more advanced models (like route optimization, speeds to fly, etc), but it get the job done. It beeps, points to the right direction, and plays happy music when you reach the waypoint.
So, with organisational details out of the way, how was my first day?
It was pretty good, but not better than all my XC flying I've done last year.
I was dropped in a good thermal, and got to the cloudbase pretty quick. One of my teammates (Richard) was already there. He radioed that he was going on course. OK, I guess, I was going, too.
We hit pretty significant sink, and Richard turned 90 degrees off the course line. Hm... I figured, I'd keep going. There was a chance I would lose altitude either way. But there was a chance another thermal was ahead of us.
A few minutes later, I was at 2K MSL, and when I looked back, Richard was doing much better, he was in a climb. Damn! I should pay more attention where the clouds are, I guess.
I didn't give up. I found broken, weak lift, and started working it. Being rather rusty (I haven't flown for the last 3 months), I kept losing those elusive upward air streams. But I kept flying... I saw a highway going in downwind direction, I instinctively started flying along this road. It kept me afloat for a few kilometers (all competition distances are in kilometers, but hang glider pilots in US still measure lift in foot per minute... it's as confusing as it gets).
While flying along the road, I noticed that waypoint arrow was slowly moving to 90 degrees. I wasn't flying toward my target. Without any additional information or experience, turning now was as good as ever, and started flying crosswind toward the turnpoint.
I didn't make it too far. Another weak thermal, another glide, and I was on a ground. Right next to a pilot from another team (Sara Weaver).
One of the local residents came out to greet us. He was very friendly. We chatted for a bit, and then he helped Sara to move her glider from the far end of the field (she landed far from the road).
So it was a pretty good XC day. Flight time 1 hour.
What about mentored part of competition? I wasn't sure how that would work when I signed up. And aside from one thermal location broadcasted on team's radio, I didn't get any decision making tips, so I flew the way I knew how, and got similar results.
We discussed my flight with my mentor in the evening, and he gave me a few good pointers on how the day went, and decision process for the conditions. I guess, this is the way mentoring would work for me, but I was still willing to give it another try the next day. Maybe I'll get some in-the-air help.
“An adventure is never an adventure when it happens.
An adventure is simply physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquility.”
― Tim Cahill
Ready. Set. Go!
If a year ago our trip to Florida was more or less a spur of the moment thing, it was such a nice trip that I wanted to do it again. I now had a new glider. I needed more practice and, maybe, fly XC. This time I took a couple of weeks off so I wouldn't have to be stressed about not flying if weather turned bad on some of those days.
We made trip to Florida a few times by now, and the best way it worked for us was driving in one go. 20-22 hours of driving then rest for a day. Two days are lost to travel no matter how you slice it but we'd rather spend second day relaxing under Florida's sun than doing yet more driving.
We left on a rainy afternoon a day before Christmas.
Ready to roll
Our first destination wasn't even a hang gliding one. We wanted visit friends down in Florida that we haven't seen in 10 years. The drive was uneventful. We pulled into our friend's driveway the next morning and got greeted by a couple of horses.
After spending a day with our friends, we left in the morning and headed for Quest. It was just an hour away. We set our camp, and I assembled Sport2. I wanted an easy glider to fly first. However, the day was too windy for my liking. I had to wait till next afternoon to spread my wings again.
Camp Skymax. Sport2 edition.
Beautiful but windy day
Tandems are always going
We spent that day relaxing and watching sunset at a local restaurant. Not a bad way to spend a day...
Sunset
The next day looked great. No wind, plenty of sunshine. I launched around afternoon but cloudbase was very low - 2400' MSL. I was flying too close to the clouds. Lift was everywhere though and I stayed up easily for 40 minutes. Eventually I started gliding to other clouds and, with only 2000' to play with, I couldn't get another thermal, and had to land.
As day progressed, cloudbase lifted up. I launched again around 3PM. This time day really worked. Nice big thermals taking me to 4500' MSL. I boated around, making a triangle. The day started to shut down early. It's winter after all, so just another 40 minutes of easy flying.
Not a bad start of my flying vacation. At the end of the day I broke down Sport with intention to fly Combat the next afternoon.
Adventure
I was a bit anxious flying Combat. I had a dozen flight on it and about 12 hours of soaring. Not enough to be really in-tune with this high performance glider. A good level of anxiety is healthy, though. It keeps one focused and alive... maybe...
Rhett towing at Quest
I launched around afternoon. Rhett was towing. I set angle of attack lower than I did for Sport, but there was not much wind on the ground, and the glider didn't come out of the cart the way I expected it. I probably pushed out a bit too early, too. Should have waited a second longer. Glider popped out of the cart pretty high. I thought I was fast on the controls trying to get it back down... but Combat doesn't handle the way Sport does. Weak link snapped.
That was the first time I snapped a weak link on that glider. My initial reaction was to belly it in, but with no wheels on the basebar, I changed my mind. I popped high enough, and this glider retain energy really well, so I had time to get my feet out and start running. It all ended well, and it gave me a false sense of security (more on this later).
Here is a video of this incident:
Spinner helped me to adjust the cart, and I went for another launch. This time everything went smoothly. Very soon Rhett pulled me into a thermal. I could feel the lifting air but decided not to pin-off until Rhett waved me off. I needed more towing practice.
We barely made a complete circle as Rhett waved me off. I went up at solid 200-400 fpm. This was gearing up to be an awesome soaring day.
A few minutes later I made it to cloudbase. 4500' MSL. Great! Now what? Wind was very light. Drift was taking me south-east. With a day like this - I couldn't resist. Let's start with a trip to Wallaby, eh?
I radioed to Natalia that I was going to attempt Wallaby. There was a pretty big blue hole south of me, and a nice looking set of cloud streets to ESE. I set on a glide in that direction, around the blue hole.
First glide
4 miles later I reached the set of clouds I was going after. A thermal was where I expected it. Good! I got to 3800' MSL and lift became very light. I was right in the middle between route 33 and route 27 with other clouds SE of me. I had at least another 1500' to play with before I should start worry. Back on a glide I went.
For the next 7 miles or so I was gliding between cloud streets toward route 27. I took time to recharge each time I felt air coming up. Never got higher than 3700' MSL but never got lower than 2500' MSL.
Then I finally flew into a stronger thermal that took me back to the cloudbase - 4400' MSL. But it was too early to celebrate. As I set on a glide to the next cloud, that cloud started to disappear as I was about to reach it. I corrected the course, and hit a lot of sink. My altitude dropped to 2000' MSL. As I was considering my landing options, I reached another, very strong, thermal. Back to 4500'MSL. This day and this glider were working marvelously!
At this point terrain below me started to look vaguely familiar. I've flown here only twice before, and I wasn't sure how close I was to Wallaby. I didn't have its waypoint in my instrument. I thought, I might have Wallaby on a glide now, but as I stumbled into yet another thermal I took it anyway, just in case.
Very soon I saw the ranch and other gliders flying around. I arrived with 4K feet MSL to spare. Not very efficient, but then again, I wasn't racing.
Hello Wallaby!
I flew to the south end of the ranch, circling with other gliders for a bit. I was trying to figure out what to do next now that this goal was obtained. Keep flying south? Land at the ranch? Go back?
I decided to fly back. The day was still working, and even though I thought I might not have enough time to get back before day shuts down, I went on that mission.
Away from Wallaby
Blue skies widened to the north of my position, but west side, over route 33, looked much better. There were a couple of other gliders in the direction, so I went there with intention to fly parallel route 33 when I reach it.
I think, I spent too much time trying to climb as high as I could. Another glider that was constantly outclimbing me, was a distraction. In anycase, when I was just a couple of miles from route 33, I couldn't find another climb. Other gliders most likely returned back to Wallaby.
Last climb of the day
I started looking for a good place to land. A few big fields with cows in them. Another field next to the road, with a cow far away from where I intended to land. Ok. That one will do. I completely ignored the fact that there was no fence between the field and the road. My lack of XC experience didn't trigger a warning. In retrospect, it is kind of obvious - cows in a field with no fence... fence it somewhere else, probably far, far away, so no retrieve vehicle can get to me.
As I was boxing the field, I saw a couple of vultures circling below me. I tried to get what they were getting, but it was only good enough to prolong my decent. Vultures just climbed through me, probably laughing at that heavy oversized bird.
Final, ground effect, early attempt to flare, hold it, whack. Dammit! I left some VG on and I didn't have much experience landing this glider with VG. Oh well, everything seemed ok. I missed all cow dung piles.
LZ
Cows in the LZ
As I carried my glider to the road, trying not to look at a very curious bull 100 yards away, a realization that I landed far, far away from a real road started settle in.
I sent my location to Natalia and started breaking down the glider as fast as I could. Fortunately, the bull lost all interest in my activities and didn't come to investigate. A few minutes later, 3 donkeys showed up from another part of the ranch. They were very curious and stopped just a few feet away from me.
Curious donkeys approaching
Attack Asses
The white one was the most curious. He was standing just 4 feet away from the glider for 10 minutes, but eventually moved onto more interesting, donkey appropriate, activities.
Natalia texted me that she was at a closed gate. We exchanged our positions again and, as I was suspecting, I was far, far away from the rescue. A 1.6 miles hike to the gate.
Well, this wasn't time for self pity. You do what you gotta do. With a harness backpack on my back, and the glider on my shoulder, I set toward the gate... I managed 100 yards maybe... Combat is 80 pounds, harness is another 20 or 25, but the biggest problem was that Combat is very long and wide. It doesn't simply fit on my shoulder the way Sport does, especially with harness in the way...
I started to hike just the glider for 100 yards, and then come back for harness, and hike harness for 200 yards. Come back for the glider. Hike glider for 200 yards. Rinse and repeat. The only problem - my progress was very slow and sun was setting in an hour.
I made just over a quarter of mile when I saw a pickup truck driving in a distance. Phew! I felt physical relieve. I knew the rancher wouldn't be happy with me, but then again, I hoped, he would want to get rid of the problem on his property as fast and as trouble free as possible... meaning, give me a ride.
I started apologizing way before truck stopped. Rancher was an old guy, I would say in his late 70s, chewing a cigar. He just asked where my airplane was, and then said, "load it on the truck. I'll give you a ride". Yes, sir!
I threw glider on the back of the truck, resting it on the top of the cabin and the gate then got next to my glider so I could hold it. Rancher turned truck around, and we were at the gate a few minutes later.
Natalia ran toward the truck as it was clearing an automatic gate, with intention to stop it and ask for help. Then she saw me happily riding in the back. As soon as we unloaded the glider and harness, I went to offer this nice rancher $20 or something for his troubles. He declined, and actually smiled at that point. Asked where I was flying from.... Life was good again. Thank you mister rancher. I promise not to land on you property ever again.
Later, I learned that this ranch is hang gliding infamous. They never were excited for us landing there. Even if we landed close to the gate/fence... All is well that ends well.
"Anything I got ain't worth your life"
Now, back to my flight, this was my best XC flight to date. 36 miles. Combat makes thermal jumping is so much easier. Total flight time: 2h18m.
Also, in just 2 flying days, I exceeded airtime I got last year in Florida from 7 days of flying. I could drive back home now. It was a good adventure!
In over my head
About that false sense of security I mentioned.... When I handled an emergency landing well, I figured, I was close to finally figuring out landings on a Combat. All I had to do was to experiment with different settings. Like - slightly more VG on landing for flare authority. I also started to tow with half of VG. All was going well.
The weather for the next week was all windy. And I was taking pattern tows on Combat early morning and late at night. Take off and land. 6-9 minutes per flight.
A couple of flights went well. I figured that more VG on landings doesn't help me yet. OK, let me try it again without VG. That worked better. Let's go again! Next take off... and I snap a link again. I wasn't sure why. I was doing something differently than I used to, and maybe not paying as much attention to it as I had to.
Anyway, link snapped, I tried to do exactly the same thing I did the last time - pull in, legs out, quick transition, run. But something went wrong. Either I pushed out too early, or glider didn't pick up as much speed as the first time, or I got hit by prop wash... Or a combination of all of the above... Left wing started to drop...
I know it sounds silly, but before that moment, difference in handling between kingpost and topless, was mostly a theoretical thing. Yes, I could feel harder handling at lower speeds, I could feel adverse yaw, but all those things didn't affect the result of my flying much. A dropped wing on a topless on landing... no recovery from that. On a Sport, I could shift all my weight to one side while in ground effect on final as a matter of last second recovery. Topless glider didn't care to react. I hit ground with a corner of the control frame and cartwheeled. Glider stopped. I stopped. Quick check. Nothing hurts. Good.
The only thing that saved me from more damage to myself was that vertical speed was close to zero, and horizontal speed was pretty low too. Otherwise, it could have been much worse.
But there was some damage to the glider.
It's repairable... And I have a spare aluminum basebar, too. The crash was hard enough that I would need an inspection on the glider before I fly it again.
As I was contemplating my poor landing skills, Mike Barber magically appeared at Quest. Talking to Mike was very therapeutical. It didn't cancel the fact that I was trying to take things a bit faster than my skill level progressed, but it helped to map certain things. Like very obvious ones that weren't obvious to me for some reason - when aerotowing, launch with VG you want to land with. I had too much VG on. Great at 200' and up, but not so great when link snaps right out of the cart.
Also, Mike said he doesn't try to save a snapped weak link launch (get his feet out and flare), he just bellies it in. In his experience, trying to save it works 50/50. Too many things can go wrong (as being hit by prop wash), and once wings are not level, there is no recovery. So just pull in hard, and belly land. If you are lucky/good, basebar will slide on the grass. If not, you will whack, but it will be way gentler than what I did.
Anyway, what's done is done. I broke down Combat, trying to find any other obvious damage. Everything else seemed to be ok, but still need to pull the sail off to be safe.
Then I assembled Sport and took a nice evening sledder. Ended it with a perfect and easy no-stepper landing. That reminded me why I thought I was ready for a topless... Anyway...
The next day, I thought I noticed something on the Sport wire. I took it out of the down tube, and there was a slight kink. I couldn't see it on normal preflight inspection. I decided not to test my fate any longer. Sport was overdue for annual inspection anyway. Time to learn how to do that thing.
kink
While showing Rhett this damage, he pointed out that I had more damage on that glider that I missed earlier. This was from a crash at Wallaby in April. It shows how well those gliders are built, and how one can get away with lack of maintenance. Once I knew the damage was there, I couldn't claim ignorance anymore. I packed the gliders, and we drove home the next day.
This trip was a mixed bag. A super awesome flight, a crash... It was educational as always.
A few photographs from the trip:
Useless End Of The Year Statistics
2016 was my best flying year so far. I got most airtime, got new rating, got new glider, new experiences, plenty of XC flights, my personal best for distance... I hope the next season will be even better!
Total Hours : 43h 38m Total Flights : 60 Longest Flight : 2h 48m Longest XC distance: 36 miles
Pretty much the end of the flying season in New England. September and October. No XC flights but I got a new glider. A super ship. A rocket! And I flew the hell out of it. And of course, my trusted Sport got some mileage, I mean hours, too. Awesome flight at Cape Cod was a nice addition to the end of the season.
So, what's now? I got just one flight in November at Tanner-Hiller, but I plan to drive to Florida in a couple of weeks. Not sure if it all warrants another episode, but who knows...
For the last two seasons, I was doing flying season compilation videos. I wanted to make something different this year. When I started putting a video together, I quickly realized that I had so much video footage that even with creative cutting I couldn't fit everything into one song.
Not that it is a requirement, but a length of a song is a good measure. No one wants to watch 15 minutes of boring flying clips. So, what should I do? How about a several episodes? Hm, not a bad idea, I thought. And I'll make it chronological too. This way several episodes would make more sense... maybe.
And so, SkyMax Studio proudly presents - the first episode of "Max Gone Flying 2016" series.
This episode includes January to part of June. I also coupled month and location. Take a look. I hope you enjoy it
There are certain things you want to see and do for no particular reason. For me, one of those things was to fly into sunrise at Wellfleet, Cape Cod. The idea had a good romantic feel to it, plus, an excellent photo op. The downside - it's 2 hours 40 minutes drive and one hour setup time. With sunrise at 6:40 AM, I had to leave my house at 3 AM....
I posted on a local email list that I was going to do this crazy thing. Ilya decided to keep me a company. Such an early trip wasn't his idea of fun, but I guess, my enthusiasm was contagious. Having another pilot to help me launch was very much appreciated. Thank you, my sky brother!
But not everything was going smoothly. I got sick just a couple of days earlier. No matter. I was going. Flying at the Cape doesn't happen often, and forecast was too good to skip it. I knew I could focus and just do it. It would be much easier if I wasn't sick, but hey, gotta suffer a bit to have some fun. Right? Maybe? No?
Getting ready
Natalia and I left our house as planned - 3AM. It helped that we went to bed early, but I don't think we got more than 4 hours of sleep anyway.
Drive down the Cape was pretty easy. Empty roads and all. I didn't feel too bad. We arrived to White Crest Beach a bit later than planned, around 5:45 AM. Along the route there was a road construction going on, and we had to take a detour. Anyway, still plenty of time to set up... Except, setting up in the dark was not all that easy. It took me way longer than I expected.
By the time, I was ready to take off, sun started to light up clouds on the horizon. I was late by a few minutes, but the view was still pretty nice. I didn't really have time to enjoy it yet - take off is a serious business.
Ilya was helping me on launch, holding nose wires down. Natalia, reluctantly, helped us to cross the road (is that a set up for a joke?), and carry the glider toward the launch line. I thinks, it was the last time she would do it for me. It was more stressful for her (she is not a pilot) than it was for us.
Crossing the road
On launch, winds were around 20mph. It wasn't too bad, but something wasn't working. I couldn't feel the glider. It slowly occurred to me that I had to talk to Ilya and tell him what I needed. I was amazed at the realization that since a pilot was helping me, I expected him to know what to do. Ok, I gotta stop it, I am the pilot in command - communicate with my wire crew.
One of the problems was that Ilya was holding nose wires too tight/low. We don't fly at the ocean too often, and all our reactions are based on mountain sites, where a thermal can roll through at any moment and pick you up. It is different at the ocean - laminar airflow makes things easier.
I asked llya to let the glider slide up. Now I could feel it. I switched to the base bar - the glider still didn't feel the way I wanted it. I remembered, an incident last year where Jeff Curtis had a wing lifted at launch, and he barely recovered.
I also remembered what Tom Lanning said after that day - point the glider perpendicular to dune, even if wind is crossing. Wind deflecting from the dune rises straight up, and you want to be straight into THAT flow.
Into Sunrise
Wind was slightly crossing from north, and that's the way my glider was pointing - into the wind. I asked Ilya to turn until I felt we were in the right position. All felt good now, I yelled "Clear", Ilya let go and done some crazy ninja dive to get out of the way. Glider started to turn into the wind slightly, I got it under control and floated up above the dune.
Phew! All was well now. Most stressful part of Cape Cod flying was behind me. After being so focused, I could finally relax and enjoy the view.
Launching into sunrise
Trip to Nauset lighthouse
While waiting for Ilya to launch, I decided to do the easy trip to south lighthouse. Probably 40 minutes round trip. There are no big gaps to cross, and it's a good way to adjust to dune flying.
My trip there was indeed pretty easy and uneventful. The view was pretty nice with sun rising slowly above the ocean. I didn't set my camera the way I thought I would, but it still took some nice shots:
Sunrise flying
I was flying "downwind" so it didn't take too long. Nauset lighthouse, my first destination, - tagged!
Nauset lighthouse
Speedflying
While flying back to launch, upwind, the progress was slow. I got bored crabbing, and started experimenting with flying faster. I pulled VG to half, and started diving at the dunes. Wind deflecting from the dunes was providing a nice cushion. Instead of diving into the ground I was accelerating along the dune!
Speed flying
When I was flying here in January I couldn't do the same. Flying in a straight line at full speed was still a challenge at that time. Now, after ~60hours on this glider, this was a breeze. I loved it! Higher VG settings also meant lower bar pressure and less effort required to fly faster.
Trouble at launch
Very soon I was back at launch. A few pilots pulled in since I left. I saw Ilya finally getting ready to launch. He had a full wire crew.
Ilya with his wire crew
I decided to wait for Ilya so we could fly together. I was hanging out a hundred yards south of launch, doing figures 8s. Waiting. A sudden motion attracted my attention and, with a stomach sinking feeling, I saw Ilya's glider flying in a wrong direction toward utility polls. It happened so fast...
The glider hit a pole and stopped. Everyone was running toward it. A few long seconds later, a very pissed off pilot emerged from under the glider. The way he walked indicated no damage to the pilot. That was a relief. The last thing you want to see is someone getting hurt. Glider can be fixed... As much as the whole incident sucked, a major disaster was miraculously avoided.
I boated for a bit around the launch, contemplating if I should land. Seeing that Ilya was fine and going about his business assessing the damage and disassembling the glider, I decided to keep flying.
Crossing the Gap
In all my previous flights at the Cape I never crossed the big gap north of launch. Never flown to north lighthouse (Highland lighthouse). Today could be that day. I should go for it, or landout trying.
I remembered Jon Atwood's advice to open harness before attempting to cross and be ready to land. That was exactly what I've done. Also, with my newly obtained skills of speedflying, I dove in for speed while I had the altitude.
Accelerating toward the gap
Beginning of the gap - still flying fast
Middle of the gap - slowing down to stay on the top of air going up
End of the gap - task completed. Dunes start to rise again.
As I got the the lowest part of the dune I started slowing down, modulating my speed to keep me off the ground. Very quickly I was on the other side. That was fun!
Here is a video of that crossing:
A couple of miles farther north, there was another gap. It went as smoothly. I tagged northern lighthouse and went back, crossing the gaps again without an issue.
Speeding past North Truro AFS radar station
Speeding toward Highland lighthouse
Highland lighthouse tagged!
Other activities
When I got back to the launch site a few more pilots got into the air. I chased them for a bit, sometimes passing below tops of the dunes. Here is Lee's video showing my pass:
After another 30 minutes of playing, I got bored. I landed and broke down the glider. Then I helped other pilots to get into the air and to retrieve a couple of unlucky ones that didn't cross the gap.
October is beautiful time of the year in Vermont. Many people visit the state to enjoy colorful views that nature preparing for winter has to offer. There is no better vantage point for leaf peeping than from the sky. And no better way to experience it than free flying in mountains.
...
Saturday forecast was pretty good for that kind of flying. Not a good thermal day (rarity that late in the season), but ridge soaring was a possibility.
In the morning at Morningside
With all those beautiful thoughts I still found a way to be anxious about upcoming flying day. It's not like being anxious is my favorite thing, and, if necessary, I don't shy away from experiences that require a healthy dose of anxiety. By now, I've launched hang gliders hundreds of times, but every time is different. And if there is a new element at play - anxiety level is even higher.
...
Leaf peeping flight was gearing up to be one of those new experiences. I felt I was ready to do some mountain flying on my Combat. My first foot launch, and my first mountain flight on that glider. No better place to do this than West Rutland, Vermont. It's a very forgiving site and is a go-to place for new H2s/P2s to experience their first mount flight.
Light days is when paragliders shine
I've launched at West Rutland quite a few times. I had great soaring flights here, and my longest flight was here as well. All that didn't stop me from being nervous like hell.
In the setup area
I managed to ignore most of that rattly feeling until it was time to hook-in. I paused and took a moment to breathe to calm my nerves. Then, standing on the edge of the ramp, I let a pre-launch routine to take over, pushing out the new, high performance aspect of this launch out of my focus.
Check wind direction, wait for a good cycle, balance the wing, keep the nose down.... "Clear!". I made the first step, and accelerated down the ramp. The glider effortlessly floated away from the mountain.
I turned right, flying along the ridge, keeping my airspeed up. Most likely higher than I had to. I still had rather low hours on this glider, and I wasn't going to take any chances. "Don't get too close to the terrain. You are not in your Sport", I kept reminding myself.
The day was very light. Not a high performance glider day. In fact, a few pilots on T2Cs that launched before me, couldn't stay up for long. Thus, I didn't expect much.
As I was flying down the ridge, I couldn't feel any strong lift to turn in. I was probably (and most likely) a bit tense, too. A few hundred yards later, I had a decision to make - turn around and try the ridge again, or go out and look elsewhere. I picked the latter. One step at a time. There will be another day.
Just as expected, I didn't find anything away from the ridge. Made a couple of 360 degree turns here and there, but couldn't go up. It was time to box the LZ and land.
I gave myself plenty of room so I wouldn't go too long, and as I was making my final turn, I got dumped much faster than I thought I would. I didn't make a hard slipping turn, so maybe it was just sinking air. No matter. No time to ponder - pull-in and get ready to land.... except I was going short now. I didn't think I would ever go short in that glider, but it was happening. My flight path was through a dry corn field with dry corn stalks, probably 5 feet high. Not a nice place to land in.
I slowed down for early ground effect, stayed prone, trying to extend my glide just a bit. I made it to the edge of the corn field, kicked the top of the stalks with my feet while I was transitioning, and flared hard as I was about to hit the ground. It worked. It was probably the best landing I got on this glider so far (except for going short part). The flare wasn't perfect as I dropped the bar, but I didn't whack. Good.
in the main LZ
So even though this flight was really short, I was happy with it. I am slowly gaining confidence with this high performance machine. Hopefully, in a season or two I'll get my Combat skills to the level I can be content with. Time will tell.
PS. About that leaf peeping thing... um, well, I did sort of enjoy the views from launch for a couple of hours, but my flight wasn't long enough to appreciate them from the air. Oh well, priorities, priorities.... I got what I came for. I left leaf peeping marveling to gentler souls.
