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.
...
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.

---

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...

---

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:

...

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.

---

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

---

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.

...

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.

...

Invisible Awesome

For the long Labor Day weekend, I was thinking to drive 4 hours to Ellenville NY for USHPA National Fly-in day. On the way there I planned to stop by Tanner-Hiller airport for afternoon towing with Hang Glide New England. I wasn't counting on any long flights so I should have had plenty of time getting to Ellenville afterwards.

While driving to Tanner-Hiller, I was looking at the completely blue sky with not a single cumulus cloud in it, thinking that my timing should work fine.

When I arrived around 11am, I saw John Minkle on his new Sport 2, soaring in the blue sky above the airport. It looked like the day was going to be much better than expected.

By the time I set up, John landed after an hour of soaring, and he was going for another flight. There was also another pilot, but I don't remember his name.

Anyway, three of us launched one after another, and everyone was climbing out. My first climb, north-east of the airport, took me to 4K MSL. It wasn't strong, so it took awhile. Then it was gone, and I went shopping, losing altitude rapidly. I figured, on a blue day like this, a sandpit on the other side might have something.

On a glide to the sandpit

I got there with only 1000' AGL to spare, and was relieved that it indeed was working.

In a thermal over the sandpit

30 minutes later, after a few ups and downs, I got to 5K MSL. It helped to have other pilots in the air to see where the climb was the strongest.

Flying together

At the top of the lift, I had a close encounter with John, where our gliders were maybe 50 feet apart, so I decided to spend some time away from everyone, exploring.

In the last couple of years, I attended a few cross-country flying training sessions with Tom Lanning, Mike Barber and a few other folks at Team Challenge. I remembered that the main hurdle in cross country flying was psychological - staying in a vicinity of known landing field, limiting options to find better lift and flying to new places. I figured, it was a good day to work on this aspect of flying. I set a waypoint in vario to Tanner-Hiller, mentally took Tanner-Hiller out of my primary landing fields, and set on a long glide toward Worcester.

My plan wasn't really to fly cross-country, but rather to glide away as far as possible looking for lift to get back. I was monitoring my vario to see if that little computer "thought" I could make it back. It was a bit unnerving to see my required glide ratio going up and up, but since I mentally was prepared to land out, I stopped worrying about it very soon.

A few minutes later after I set on my first glide, I stumbled into some lifty air. By that point I was at 2000' MSL and would barely make it back to the airport. I climbed back up to 4K MSL and decided that this was too much fun to stop. Worcester airport was in plain view, I was still too far from it to violate its airspace, but I didn't want to test my luck in that direction either - my vario still didn't have promised airspaces. Come on, Flytec, I need it now.

...

Anyhow, I turned to the north-east, making a large triangle around Tanner-Hiller airport.

A couple of miles later, I didn't fly through any lift whatsoever. I started wondering if I should have deviated from a straight line to look for lift. I noticed a golf course with some hills next to a forest. I thought that this spot might be a good place for thermals. I turned in that direction and, amazingly, there was a nice 200 ft/min thermal.

I spent a few minutes getting my lost altitude back, and got all the way to 4600' MSL. That felt great!

I didn't recognize right away that thermal was gone, and I lost a couple hundred feet before setting on another glide, but still, I was pretty happy with the way the day was progressing.

Not willing to stop there, I set toward Barre downtown. I recharged again a mile and a half away from the downtown, right above a nice flat building with a large parking lot. When I first got to that building - my vario was showing that Tanner-Hiller was too far, and I couldn't make it back from that altitude. My home airport "tether" has snapped... Soon after I was back at 4K, and again I could glide back home... but no way! I wasn't going to stop, not yet.

I got to downtown Barre at 3200' MSL, hitting some sink on the way there. I was hopping that all those buildings and roads would give me some boost. I was wrong. Nothing was coming up anymore. The day was getting weaker.

I didn't see any nice landing options going farther north, so I decided to turn around and glide back to the previous thermal. There was a nice, freshly cut, hay field right next to that "thermal" building. I could use it as my landing zone. I also hopped that I could get back up and glide back to the airport.

In retrospect, I should have probably explored in the other directions - hopping that a thermal was still there wasn't the best idea. And indeed thermal wasn't there anymore. At that point, at 1500' MSL, I explored around the area just a bit, not going too far away from the field I picked. I couldn't find anything that would save me... so I landed. I had enough altitude to pick a direction and chose a spot.

The landing went fine, although, I did turn on final a bit too low. It didn't matter much as there was almost no wind on the ground and the field was huge.

Hay field next to Stetson school, Barre MA

I broke down my glider and called Rhett. Told him where I was and that I was doing great. John Minkle, after 3 hours in the air, landed back at the airport by that point. He agreed to drive my truck to pick me up. Thank you, John!

So the end result - 4.2 miles straight line from the airport. 60+ miles GPS track. 2 hours 25 minutes total airtime. It was an amazing, blue, dry thermals day. It couldn't have been better if I planned it :-)

...

By the time I was back at Tanner-Hiller, it was 5:30PM. I figured that going to a new site that late wasn't the best option, so I went to Morningside instead. I just installed a new HAM radio headset and wanted to test it with Ilya and Crystal (we all ordered headsets at the same time). Maybe Morningside would treat me to a nice flight as well...

Invisible Awesome Extension

Sunday at Morningside was gearing up to be very similar - not a single cloud, hot, blue day. And it proved to be a perfect day to test radio communication. The day wasn't as easy for me as at Tanner-Hiller though.

On my first launch, I got dropped off not too far from where Ilya was already circling. I couldn't get anything though. Ilya confirmed that he lost thermal as well. A point for radio communication - I didn't waste more time in that area. Ilya said he was going over the MFP hill to check if that was working. I set in that direction too, but turned toward the trailer park to check if there was anything there. I got saved by thermals in that general area before... not this time. By the time I got to the hill, I was just 200' over. I couldn't get anything and landed.

Ilya, however, arrived there with 1000' over, and found a 400 ft/min thermal. It was small, but sufficient. Another point for a radio com - I knew exactly what was going on, so I went for another tow.

My plan for the second tow was to fly over the hill right away. I was worrying a bit that by the time I got there, there would be sink instead.

Eric towed me to the south of Morningside. Crystal and Dave Park were circling there already. I joined Crystal for a bit, but all I was getting was zero-sink. I wanted something better, and Ilya was still reporting lift over the hill. I set on a glide over there while I still had some altitude to play with.

A half way to the hill, I saw Ilya flying in the other direction 1000' above me. I was about to ask him what was going on, as I stumbled into something bouncy. I turned aggressively, and soon was rewarded with 200 ft/min lift. Centering in it was a lot of work, but I stuck with it, recharging my altitude.

After that, drifting over the hill, I got plenty of lift to play with, getting to 4100' MSL at one point. Ilya and I kept communicating, trying to help each other staying afloat. It wasn't always working for us as thermals were very small, but at least we knew exactly what was happening.

Other gliders look great from the top

Flying together

In a thermal. Ilya below is trying to join.

In a steep bank over the hill. Milking a small thermal.

The lift was very localized though, nothing was really working but that area. I tried to leave it a couple of times, and couldn't find anything but sink. Eventually, when everyone landed, I went north exploring, and all the potentially thermal spots were not pushing any air up.

That warehouse might have something for me... nope.

I turned around, and soon after, landed at the airstrip. The way this day was working wasn't inspiring me for another x-country adventure.

Home sweet home

---

...

'Twas Invisible Awesome weekend in a great company of friends! I added another 3.5 hours of airtime toward my H4 goal. I don't think I am going for H4 rating this year as I need more practice with spot landings. But I have only 7 hours of flight time left off H4 required airtime. I'll try completing it this year.