Advance into Advanced

Rankings, ratings, markings, grading... Why do I even care about rating? Just fly, be safe, have fun. Right? Maybe passing the test shows to your peers that you care enough about the sport? Maybe it is a way to prove to yourself that your skills advanced far enough that you can do things on demand, or under pressure? Whatever it is, I am not a rebel enough to ignore it completely.

...

I set a goal for myself to get H4 this year (advanced hang gliding rating). I thought, I would do it in the beginning of the season, but I had so much fun flying that rating-shmating didn't seem to matter at all. I got what I needed. Why care about some labels?

I dunno. As I was more and more comfortable with XC flying, and landing in some tiny obscure fields, I started thinking about passing the H4 test. Plus, Crystal was shaming me into it the way only Crystal can. I am too soft. Cannot handle peer pressure.

Anyhow, this Sunday (August 29th), I gave up. The day was gearing up a bit windy. I didn't really want to go anywhere, so H4 test seemed like a good idea. More challenging conditions even better - go big or go home.

H4 test consists of 2 parts - a spot landing test, and a written test. Spot landing always made me nervous. I never could hit a bullseye no matter how hard I tried. For this test, I had to hit the spot 3 times with average distance of 25 feet from the target (75, 0, 0 is acceptable :-) ) There was only one way to find out if I could.

The easiest way to do it was from aerotow. Eric towed me to 800' AGL so I had plenty of time to execute a proper approach. As soon as I pinned off, I felt a thermal picking me up... I made a couple of turns - yup, going up. Focus. Focus. Spot landing, not thermaling.

I left the thermal, and went to asses conditions on the ground. Wind direction, the best approach, etc. All went well, and I landed about 25 feet from a cone that Ilya set in some random place on the runway. Not too bad. Needed another 2 - the same or closer.

The second flight was even better. Thermals were trying to distract me again, but I stayed on target. Good approach... getting short again. Milked it, late of the flare, but a good landing about 10 feet from the cone! I can do it! I couldn't believe it myself, but I was getting what I needed.

Before the last flight, Eric, who was also rating me, told me not to try to land on the top of the cone, but rather show that I was in full control of the aircraft and execute my best landing, no matter the target. You got it, boss!

With the headwind I was getting, I was coming up yet short again. I could have milked it another 20 feet to be closer to the target, but if my rating official wanted me to do the best landing I could - this was what I was going to do... And I nailed a perfect no-stepper landing!

Thank you, Ilya, for filming all of this.

So this was done! Phew!

The conditions looked pretty good for a nice thermaling flight, but I opted to take a written test, just to be done with all of that rating nonsense.

In a couple of hours this was completed as well. Eric and I  had a nice discussion on the questions I got wrong. Then he filled the paperwork for USHPA. I was officially an advanced hang gliding pilot! Thank you, Eric!

I am glad I went through this, and it is behind me now. Not a fan of any kind of tests and examinations, but I admit, this has some value.  I want to thank every pilot I've met along the way - I learned from you, you made me a better pilot. Huge thanks to all my NE pilot friends - you gave me a lot of help and support over the years, and I wouldn't be where I am now without you

...

Now, a couple of new flying sites opened up for me. The one I really want to go to - Mt Washington. Hey, Weather Gods, can we have a nice easterly day soon?

Cloud Street

Another weekend - another 10-ish miles XC flight. Me from 2015 would feel strange to say it, but it seems silly to keep writing about those short flights. And even more interesting question is - why write at all. I am not entirely sure. I find it interesting to reflect on my new experiences. It's a place to put my "flight afterglow" energy.

Back to short flights. So far, each of those short flights is different. I learn and experience something new every time. This flight wasn't an exception.

....

Saturday, August 20th, 2016.

I haven't flown at Tanner-Hiller in more than a month. The forecast for Saturday was nothing exciting, but decent for August in New England - SE wind in the morning switching to S later in the day. 7mph on the ground. Low cloudbase (below 5K), and no strong lift.

My ultimate goal was to fly to Morningside (~67 miles straight line), but a more modest one was to make it to Orange airport (Orange, MA) - ~16 miles. I thought it was doable... if I could get to the cloudbase.

What I like about Tanner-Hiller is that this airport is just an hour away from my house. I can have a late lazy morning, and yet make it to the airport for an afternoon flight.

I was hoping that Crystal and Ilya would join me this time, but they bailed, claiming the wind direction was too cross. It was true, but the wind was light. I have flown at Tanner-Hiller a lot (80+ tows so far), so my tolerance for cross winds there is higher. Plus, I didn't think 5-7mph would make much difference at that location (in my experience anyway). But it is a longer drive for them, so they took an easier option. I can totally relate.

XC wise, I was on my own this time. Less fun, but if day worked - I was game.

When I pulled into the airport, the conditions were indeed too cross to launch safely:

Fine, fine. No more sarcasm. Conditions were perfect. Very light wind, or no wind at all on the ground. Decent looking clouds... maybe a bit overdeveloped so early in the afternoon. Looked like a pretty good day.

I took my time setting up, then went for a sandwich to Cloverhill Country Story (nice place, good people, good food). And finally launched around 1pm.

I stayed with the tug all the way up. With forecast like this, I wanted to have some altitude to play with. Rhett dropped me off at about 4K MSL. Very generous of him. There was lift, but I only made it to 4200 before it disappeared. A bit lower than forecasted, and way lower than the cloudbase.

The day was gearing up to be very challenging. Staying in lift was a lot of work. For the next hour I was jumping from cloud to cloud trying to work my way to at least 4500' MSL before making a go/no-go decision. It was exhausting. I got as low as 1700 MSL twice, and got back up to 3000 MSL. I was not in a mood going anywhere. I actually flew back to the airport for easy and fast landing option.

Meanwhile, south of the airport, dark clouds were forming. I didn't like the look of them, but a couple of other pilots were still under those clouds, I just took a mental note of it - "pay attention. no flying in rain, please".

In the previous post I mentioned that often my go/no-go decisions are impulsive. This time, I pretty much decided that I wasn't going anywhere... until I noticed a "strange" thing. Each time I would turn downwind, I'd get into better lift. Then, slow me (took just an hour), noticed that there was a pretty long cloud street, and I was trying hard to stay on a very edge of it. Interesting... What if try to fly under - it might work. So what if I was low, if this cloud street kept me there, I might even be able to come back if I didn't like it.

I was very tired trying to get to the clouds above me. I didn't like the darkness coming at me from the south, and so at 3500 MSL I set on a glide under that long cloudstreet pointing north.

Tom Lanning told me once that flying under a cloud street it's like riding waves. You go up and down, but on average you either climb or maintain. Indeed. it was just like that. For 4 miles I was flying straight, and slowly climbing up. By the time this cloud street stopped working I was at 4300 MSL, and no silly circling was needed. Way less tiring!

The street continued for a half more mile, and then there was a gap over the forest. I have crossed that forest before, but with much more altitude. I was confident I could cross it again. Wind helping me and all. In retrospect, I am not sure it was the best course of action. That forest below was obviously interrupting the lift line, maybe flying east was a better option. Tunnel vision took over, and I continued straight.

I made it under the clouds on the other side of the forest, but there were only hints of lift. Certainly nothing I managed to stay in. I could see my intermittent goal - Orange airport. It was still another 6 miles away, and even if I was at 4500' MSL, I would need fly over/around yet another forest with no LZs.

A few minutes later, I landed in the exact same spot where Jeff Curtis landed last time. 11 miles point to point. Not too bad...

XC Dance or something...

I carried the glider to the edge of the field I landed in, and barely had a chance to get out of my harness as my phone rang. Rhett was calling to ask how I was doing. A gust front hit Tanner-Hiller 20 minutes after I disappeared, and Rhett was worrying if I got hit by that. All pilots that stayed at the airport scrambled to land. There were some exciting landings. With winds hitting 25mph, 2 pilots on Falcons couldn't make it back to the airport. Everyone landed safely, no serious damage was done. I missed that whole thing completely. The gust front never caught up with me. That's because my Green Sporty is super fast! Right?

Rhett asked me if I needed a retrieval. Of course! Apparently Jeff Curtis also got to the airport after I already launched. He was safely on the ground and more than willing to drive and get me. Awesome! I just finished breaking down my glider as Jeff already pulled in.

What a day! I couldn't have planned it any better, and as usual, I haven't planned it at all. I just wished there were a few more people flying XC with me...

Flight time: 1h 34m
Flight tracklog:

PS

This flight put me over 100 hours of total flight time. It doesn't sound like a lot especially divided by number of years I am flying, but for a weekend flying warrior - it is a pretty good number. 60 of those hours are in the last two seasons. Oh, and every minute in the air feels like an adventure. Immediate. In the moment. Real. 

Don't look back

Big part of cross-country free flying is psychological. It's all in pilot's attitude. If you don't think you are going to make it to the next cloud, or find that invisible thermal - you are not going to. Of course, the other way is not guaranteed either. Meaning, if you think you are going to make it, it might be not so. And yet, leaving safety of a familiar site behind is always the very first step. No XC flying is going to happen without it.

Do I have enough altitude? Is the cloud I flying toward to going to work when I get there? Is there a bailout LZ? Those things that are running through my mind when I am about to make that decision. However, my observational/analytical skills are still rather rudimentary, and a final decision is often simply impulsive... hopefully based on some experience, but impulsive nevertheless.

...
Friday, August 5th, 2016

After taking another morning test flight on my speedy Combat, I started breaking the glider down with intention to take an afternoon flight on my Green Sporty. It's nice to have a few gliders to choose from, I guess.

It was Friday. I was pretty much alone at the setup area. But soon Ilya showed up and Mike Holmes as well. The more the merrier.

I wasn't particularly planning on any XC adventures. Didn't even check weather carefully. Just wind direction and speed. I'd get whatever was there, or just boat around. It's Friday, and I am not working. Win-win either way.

By 2pm my Combat was in the bag, and Sport was all setup and ready to fly. Ilya launched first. He optimistically reported that lift was everywhere. Well, great, return the tug ASAP, please.

When I launched, the ride wasn't as bumpy as I expected. Not too promising. Nick Caci was towing. We pulled through some lift over the sandpit south of Morningside. It wasn't anything crazy, so I stayed put. Plus Nick didn't try to circle in it. I mentally marked the place - might come back to it later.

But Nick turned around and towed me back north-east, missing that lifty area all together. Oh well. I pinned off in zero sink, and considered flying upwind to the sandpit, but saw Ilya circling NE of the hill. He was reporting some weak lift. I set on a glide toward him.

By the time I got there, it wasn't working. Ilya was in full search mode, 500' below me.  3000' MSL doesn't give you a lot of time. All I was getting was zero sink. Not a single complete turn in lift. Lift was indeed everywhere, just not big enough.

The sky, on the other hand, looked much better farther downwind. The closest cloud street was a couple of miles away, and, for all I knew about the clouds - it was working much better over there.

Since Ilya and I were flying together, I should have broadcasted my intentions, but that thought didn't even cross my mind. I was about to commit to a very questionable thing, with very questionable landing options below me... I guess, I wasn't completely sure in my decision so I kept quiet.

Ilya noticed that I was gone by the time I covered half the distance. He was lower than me, and decided against following.

As for myself, there was no turning back at that point. 3 miles later, I lost only 900 feet. Flying downwind is much better for glide ratio. There was no way I could have made it back upwind, though. 2100 MSL, probably ~1500 AGL. I was looking at a couple of tiny fields to land in. There were a few big fields too, but it looked like they had full size corn in them.

Before I could contemplate my willingness to land in tiny fields - I felt air shaking my glider. The vario confirmed as much - we were going up. Slowly. A few turns in 100 to 200 FPM, then it turned on to 400FPM. Phew! My landing options just expanded.

While climbing, I was also drifting NE. I crossed route 12 while still working that thermal. 4500' MSL. Not too bad all things considered.

Climb was fizzling out. Clouds were another 500' above me. I decided to glide under clouds, while still in lift. That's where my observational skills malfunctioned.

Looking at the tracklog, I didn't go directly downwind, effectively falling out of that cloud street. But I saw another one, and I was hoping to find lift there as well. And there was some, just for a few turns. I lost it... and I lost that confidence that took me thus far.

Camera points in the downwind direction. I picked cloud on the very right. Probably missing the whole cloud street opportunity.

Just like I mentioned before, the big part of XC flying is psychological. Again, checking the video and the tracklog, I gained 300', lost the thermal, and instead of working on finding that thermal, or another one - I started to panic - "getting low, a lot of forest around. Oh look - an airport! Let's go there". Interesting part was though, I was at 3200 MSL, 200' higher than my previous 'no return' decision.

And (no surprise there) just like magic, my XC flight was done. I did make it to the airport. It was east of my position, so I had to fly crosswind to get there. I arrived with ~800' AGL to spare (1300' MSL but the ground kept raising up). There was some thermal right above the airstip, but it was only good for 400 feet. I landed. Broke down the glider, and waited in a nice air-conditioned room (pilots lounge) for my rescue to arrive.

Happy pilot at a proper LZ. The best LZ a free flier can get.

Obligatory XC dance

Ilya picked me up. Very much appreciated, brother! His flight was over soon after I left. There was just no strong lift over Morningside.

...

To conclude - I got another one-and-done XC. I didn't expect to have an XC flight at all, so I wasn't too upset. The flight was plenty exciting! But it was short. 44 minutes total flight time. 10 miles point to point distance. I just hope that I started noticing what my decision making process was lacking. I am pretty sure, I could have covered more distance if I was more observant and less panicky. But, I made a safe decision to get to a nice LZ. I live to f(l)ight another day. No shame in that.

Here is the recording of this flight:

Combat Challenge

Need for Speed

Higher performance machines. It's hard to resist the lure. It's not like Sport Class gliders don't offer enough free flight fun, but the next shiny thing is out there. It calls my name.

...

I wasn't completely sure why I was coming back to the subject of topless gliders. I didn't really need one. Not yet. I still had too much fun with my Green Sporty.... but I test flown a T2C. I handled it. I wanted to challenge myself. Plus, of course, all top dogs are flying those wings. It's irresistible. It's inevitable.

T2C flight at Wallaby earlier this year, left me a bit indifferent. So that thought came and went. Tom Lanning, however, planted a seed in my hang-gliding-brain that I might like Aeros Combat better. Randy Brown was selling his, and he was brave enough to let me test fly it. The price was right, too, and the colors... the colors were right in my green color scheme! I couldn't resist. Gotta get that bug out of my brain!

First Combat

Randy came to Morningside on Sunday night. We waited for conditions to calm down. I wasn't really nervous, but a bit anxious. It is a mean looking glider after all.

Rolling to the starting position (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

6PM. Winds mostly died down. I rolled to the starting line. The tug waved its elevators at me. Ready to roll! "It's just a glider", I kept reminding myself. Liftoff - all was well. 50 feet up... Geez! Why am I going sideways to the left? I gave the glider some input to the right. Now it was sideways to the right. I was PIO-ing like crazy!

I thought I had a pretty good handle on that towing thing. Nothing should have surprised me anymore, but this glider have. It was way too sensitive for my rough inputs. I couldn't get it under control... Well, I eventually did, more or less. But PIO-ing hasn't stopped all the way up.

As I released from the tug, all senses too rattled to enjoy the rest of the flight. I kept thinking - "I don't need this glider. It's too much".

But, after all, I was flying a new very cool looking machine, and I managed to pay some attention to how this super-ship handled. I played with different VG settings and speeds. The glider flew well, and responded to my inputs without an issue.

The landing went well, too. I overshot the target by 100 yards, and almost ended up in a ditch, but flew over it, flared still a bit high, and parachuted down. The glider settled on top of me, and I dropped the basebar. No whack though.

On final (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

I carried the glider back to the breakdown area, and Randy asked me how it was. I just said "Sorry, this is too much for me. Not buying it". That's how I felt at the moment, still trying to get over (in my mind) disastrous tow.

A few days later, I couldn't get that flight out of my mind... I handled the tow even though I PIOed. I knew I could tow well. I knew I could do much better. It was just a question of adjusting my technique. I landed it OK. It's a very unique glider. It flies well. The price is right. And it's a challenge. Challenge accepted! And, of course, the colors match my theme pretty close. The only reservation I had was about not having a dealer near where I live (Highland Aerosports, official Aeros dealer, went out of business). But then again, those things can be resolved. I was sure.

Combat Training 

The following week I drove to MFP Friday night with intention to take an evening flight. Nick Caci was towing. He told me that he would tow me after tandems were done around 7:30pm. Perfect.

When I was finally ready to launch, the conditions were ideal for my second do-over flight. No wind on the ground at all.

Focus! (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

Ready to roll (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

Takeoff. I kept reminding to myself - "small inputs. let the glider fly". All was going well for the first 50 feet, 100 feet, 300 feet. I didn't PIO! If anything, I was happy that I got my towing mojo back.

Liftoff (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

Towing (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

Now that I had towing under control. I concentrated on flying the glider. I flew toward the river, then made a high speed jump downwind, flying over route 12. My vario was showing 60mph ground speed,  and 160 FPM sinc rate. Awesome!

I landed, but that didn't go exactly well. Something was different when I felt it was time to flare. I was a tad late, but the glider started going up. The only problem was - right wing dropped, and I whacked. Damn!

Whack! (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

I took another flight, and then another one in the morning. Both landings weren't good. Other pilots gave a lot of input on what I was doing wrong. The consensus was that I was rounding out too high, and as a result flying too slow by the time I got into the ground effect.

I also got into a habit of pumping the bar, feeling how glider responded. That wasn't an issue on a Sport, but I would lose flaring authority on Combat by doing that.

Never Ending Combat...

This is an ongoing process. I am not in a rush to fly this glider the way I fly my Sport. By now, I had a few more flights on Combat - landings are still a challenge. The good thing, I started noticing what I am doing wrong on the Sport as well. That is the first step to make my landings better.

Done for the night

My tows also improved on my trusted Sporty. I don't try to over control it anymore. Sporty never cared that much either way, but it's better to do things right. I also experimented with towing and landing Sporty at full VG. That was pretty easy, actually. Midday conditions and all. Sporty, even at full VG is a very forgiving and easy to fly/land glider...

Anyway, I am glad I have an opportunity to fly this super-wing. Learning more about flying different types of gliders is a fascinating and a very intense process. I hope, eventually, I get comfortable enough with the Combat to turn it into an ultimate XC machine. The way it was with its previous owners. Not setting any time frames, and I will keep two gliders for a long while. Still plenty to learn on The Green Sporty, too.

Getting ready (photo by Crystal Wolfe)

Team Pilot

Soaring

One of the goals I had set for myself was to skyout from 450 foot launch at Morningside. This is not an easy task, and it requires conditions to be just right - a combination of wind and thermals to push you high enough to leave the hill.  Some luck is required, too.

A prize for the lucky ones who gets higher than 1000' from 450' launch - Morningside Team Pilot status... and a t-shirt. Bragging rights - priceless.

...

I got to Morningside Friday morning, July 15th. The wind was blowing straight in at around 10mph. It certainly looked like a day to perform that feat. An hour later, I was at launch with Ilya as my wire crew, ready to fly.

The launch was quick and easy, and the Green Sporty was instantly floating 500' above the launch. Great feeling that was... for a minute or two. Unfortunately, there was no passage to higher levels. The next 30 minutes were spent by diving at the trees, bouncing back up, staying between 50' below and 200' above the launch.

Above 450' launch (photo by Ilya Rivkin)

That was my best flight off that little hill since I started flying! However, the hill didn't let go of me this time.

Flight recording (click to play)

Later in the day, I tried my luck with an aerotow. Thermals were elusive, and a 22 minutes sledder was all I could get.

---

Skying Out

On Saturday morning, after a breakfast, I took a nap, and finally wandered outside around 11AM. A hang glider was already soaring 1000' above launch. It was Mike Asle in his Falcon. Damn! What was I still doing on the ground?

The Green Sporty was all set up since yesterday, preparation time was short, and we were at the top in no time. That's where things got a little out of hand.

I was standing on launch trying to pick a good cycle, but the flow was a bit cross. Without letting the wing to settle completely, I started running. The left wing dropped. It wasn't flying! I was going for the trees on the left. No time to contemplate the reasons. "Oh, SHIT!", I said once, and instantly switched into a full recovery mode. Pulled nose down more, kept running, trying to get the left wing to fly. Sporty left the ramp, pulling me up just enough, but still moving toward trees on the left. With just enough airspeed the glider finally responded, and rolled to the right.

I lost plenty of altitude, and the next obstacle was a tree line in front of the launch. Pull in more, pull in! I dove at the tree line, got close to it, pushed out, and safely got away from the hill. All that training paid off (diving at the obstacle for airspeed wasn't my natural reaction a few years ago). I was slapping myself for being complacent on launch, and not waiting for the wing to settle.

Here is a video from a camera that was mounted on a downtube. From that angle, the whole thing doesn't look like anything dramatic, and it was certainly very quick.

Anyway, what's done is done. No reason to pile in a poor flight on top of a poor launch. I filed launch technique review for later, and started concentrating on ridge soaring. Going south over 250 launch - nothing. Going back north - maintaining. Turning away from the hill - going slowly up, but not enough to make a 360 deg turn.

After a few minutes of that, turning again away from the hill, I hit something strong. It pushed me right up, 200' above the hill. Outstanding! I made a few complete turns, falling out of the thermal as I was turning back upwind, and finding it again on the downwind side.

I gained 300', and then lost 200', maintaining 100' over the hill. It wasn't a thermal after all, just a bubble.... Back into a search mode.

After searching for a while, I finally hooked a thermal to 1000' above launch. I was all alone now. I wasn't sure where Mike went. Below me, a few other gliders launched, but couldn't get up. It looked like the get-me-out-of-here window has closed. Right place, right time.

I kept going up. Around 2000' MSL air wasn't going up anymore. I set on a glide upwind, in hope to find a stronger thermal, and also to make sure I didn't drift too far behind the hill at low altitude. There are no landing options east of Morningside.

My first attempt didn't produce any result. I lost a few hundred feet, and instead of continue searching to the north-west, turned around and headed for the last known thermal location. It was still there. The same, or a new one. I recharged to 2500' MSL, constantly falling out of the thermal on upwind leg. This thing was tiny.

Another glide. This time going west. Again, no thermals. And again, I turned around as I started losing altitude. I came back to recharge, but found nothing over the hill either. I still had 1000' over the hill, so I figured, I needed to take a longer glide this time. What I got to lose? I had ~1500' above ground level, and I had lower saves than that here. I already had a good flight. Let's go!

I went beyond power lines to the west, with 1000' AGL to spare, I finally hit a thermal. The drift was pretty strong, so I got back where I started in just a couple of minutes, but I also got back to 1500' AGL. Behind the hill, the thermal stopped working once again.

With new found confidence, I again started on a longer glide to north-west. I made it almost all the way to route 12. Getting a lot of zero-sink and some bubbles, but nothing substantial to turn in.

At 1500' MSL, I turned back, but explored to the east first. And I was rewarded with another thermal. This flight already felt like a flight I would have from an aerotow. I was just looking for an elevator up.

This thermal certainly was the best I found so far. I got to 4000' MSL before it started fizzling out. And it made me realize - I was underdressed for this kind of flight. I didn't put any layers on, and my t-shirt wasn't keeping me warm at all. To add insult to injury, my vario started beeping at me sounds I never heard before - LOW BATTERY. Oh, that's nice. It was showing 60% on the ground. <sarcasm>Thank you, Flytec, for such precise battery indicator on your next generation instruments.</sarcasm>

So I wasn't feeling like going on XC, but I wasn't feeling like giving up on this flight either. I had a follow cam to experiment with, so I started playing with that, while gliding back to MFP, and looking for another thermal. The cloudbase was above 5K... I could get a bit higher...

Follow cam shot (or rather dangling camera that is)

I flew over route 12, going as far upwind as I could. At 2000' MSL I found another ride up. This thermal had a chance to warm up a little longer. It was strong and fat. I wasn't falling out of it all the way to 4800' MSL! Mission accomplished!

I was pretty cold, and I was a couple of miles  east of MFP, over the forest. I either had to fly to NE, to have a safe LZs, or come back. Since I decided already that I wasn't going on an XC, I turned back.

Over MFP, with 20% of the battery left, my vario finally shut off. Thanks, Flytec.

It was interesting to discover that all my senses were expecting confirmation from a beeping vario. I was in yet another thermal, but after a few turns, I could tell that I lost it. There was no way for me to stay in it. Oh well, I guess that was it. I boated around for a few minutes, trying to pretend that I could fly up without a vario - I couldn't.  I landed just a few minutes later.

Before I could even get out of my harness, Josh already brought a couple of Morningside Team Pilot t-shirts for me. Then he snapped a picture of a happy pilot. Thank you, Josh!

Happy Team Pilot

What a day!

--------

Here is a recording of this flight

Tradition

There is an old Morningside tradition - after you fly from Ascutney to Morningside for the first time, your fellow pilots throw you into the pond. I had nothing against the tradition, but when I landed on my flight from Ascutney to Morningside back in May, it was rather cold. I was "spared" at the time. Which I didn't mind either - I just do not like cold weather at all.

So, fast forward to July, for one reason or another,  Max dunking never happened... until now, July 4th. That's the way to celebrate Independence Day!

Dunked. (photo by Mariyan Ivanov)

And here is a video, also shot my Mariyan.

Still flying...

For the rest of the weekend I stayed dry. Got a nice flight from aerotow. The conditions were light and we didn't go anywhere. But I boated around for 1:40. Flew to Claremont and back. Sharing thermals with Crystal and Ilya was fun, too.

Here is the recording of that flight (Davidson Tarufly, a paraglider pilot, also in this recording. He launched from 450 and went on XC flying far).

I also got a chance to try a new camera mount. A follow cam. The video didn't come out the way I expected, but I still have a few ideas on how to improve things.

Camera dangling below me

a snapshot from swinging camera

Thermalling with the follow cam. Needs angle adjustment.

And of course, some fire burning commenced after dark. Tradition, you know...

XC Weekly

It's been only one year as I started flying my Sport 2. The last year was amazing - learning new glider, really learning to thermal, taking all the skills I learned on my Falcon to a new level...  But as far as cross country flying was concerned - I had not done much. I landed out once while doing a triangle. And that was it.

So a "sudden" abundance of cross-country flights, especially in New England, really makes me happy. It's like if, very slowly, I was building something, and then they came, eh?

I got a lot of help from other pilots, of course, and this makes the whole experience even more gratifying. We all share something very special, and having too much fun in the process.

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Ok, now, with self reflection out of the way, I got another awesome cross-country flight. Again from Tanner-Hiller airport.

Another high pressure weekend. On Saturday, Nick Caci,  Jeff Curtis, and I were at the airport, ready for some XC action. Very good forecast for the day (if you believe those things) and cummies were popping up above our heads around noon. The winds were SSE so after a brief discussion, Jeff and I decided to attempt a flight to Morningside - 67 miles away. The wind was very light, below 10mph, so we wouldn't get much help, but if thermals were good - it was doable. The first goal was to get to Orange Municipal Airport (Orange, MA), and then make our way to Connecticut river. After that we could follow the river all the way up to Morningside. There are more landing options (fields) along that route.

Mike Abdullah, who wasn't going to do any XC this day, launched first. When Rhett came back from that tow, he was like "A lot of lift up there. What are you waiting for?". We didn't need anymore encouragement. Jeff launched first, and pinned off rather low, so my wait wasn't long. Very soon I was in a booming thermal myself, pinning off at 1600' AGL.

I saw Jeff getting into my thermal above me. Vario was excitingly beeping at 700 FPM, and clouds were getting closer and closer. Around 6K MSL, I asked Jeff if we were going as planned. Jeff enthusiastically confirmed that he was at cloudbase at 6500, and he was going.

I was still climbing, but decided to fly after Jeff anyway. I left the climb at 6200' MSL and went on a glide slightly below Jeff.

Leaving the cloud. Jeff is ahead of me and 500' above.

Initial glide was still in a climb, but that didn't last long. After losing a couple of Ks, Jeff "stopped" to  recharge, and I also stumbled into a climb just a mile into a glide.

My climb was very weak, but it was there. On the other hand, I saw Jeff climbing much better just a quarter mile away and another 500' above me. I pushed in that direction, hoping that the thermal was still there at lower altitude. And it was there, good and strong. This time I took it all the way to the cloudbase. Jeff left that climb a few minutes before, but I could still see him.

When I left that climb everything was lining up really well - I had altitude, good non-sinking line, and a cloud far ahead.... A few miles later, I had 3000' less of altitude, no lift, and some stretch of forest to cross. While on a glide, I felt a few bumps and my vario beeped at me. I tried to turn in those bumps, but only lost altitude. So when time came to decide if I was up to the task of flying above that forest, I was really hesitant. While there was a bailout field to the right of my course, it would leave very little safety margin if I took that option.

Jeff however, at about the same altitude, was pressing forward. Hm... So be it, I kept going as well. I was really relieved when I stumbled into a weak climb. I was drifting toward fields on NW side of that forest and my safety margin was where I wanted it to be.

I didn't gain much, maybe 600' or so, but combined with slight drift it was enough to get my confidence back. As this climb reduced to zero sink, I set on another glide going NW. It took me over some small town (Petersham, MA). I mentally marked a farm as my potential LZ, and started searching for lift.

Jeff was above me and too far away. I couldn't get into his climb, and had to find something else. However, nothing was working for me. The cloud above didn't have enough oomph to pull me up. Potential ground triggers weren't working. I was fighting until the last turn for the final approach, but it was inevitable - I was landing. Of course, the last 500 feet of my "fight" were above the farm I picked earlier. Easy to reach landing zone. Safety first.

I picked the direction for the final based on my vario information. It didn't look like there was any wind on the ground, so probably any direction would work. I landed with a perfect flare, let Jeff know that I was on the ground, and then did a little XC dance.

Happy XC dance

By the way, this time, I picked a really good field. Flat, big, recently mowed, no obstructions, easy access to a public road. At least I got that going for me.

Jeff reported that he was at 6K MSL, still flying NW. Sigh...  I yet again had a 2-3 climb XC flight that felt more like a short race - 55 minutes airtime. Jumping from a cloud to a cloud is a hard skill to master.

...

While I was considering where to break down, an owner of the farm came out to greet me. She yelled from a distance - "Are you stuck?". Hm, I never thought of out landings that way. Yes, yes, I guess, I was stuck. Stuck on the ground while others were still flying :-)

The property owners, Abby and Charlie, were very friendly and welcomed me to land at their farm anytime. I chatted with them for a bit, thanked them for their hospitality, but hopefully, I fly a bit farther next time. It's nice to meet friendly people though. It makes the whole experience so much better.

...

I picked a spot with some shade to break my glider down. There was a nice little pond too:

The next order of business was to arrange a retrieval. It is never an easy task when you don't have a prearranged driver. I called Rhett and he found a willing individual. This time it was Noel. Much appreciated!

Noel picked me up in about 40 minutes, and drove me back to Tanner-Hiller. I got into my truck, and picked up Jeff (who landed just 2 miles down the road from me) and then Nick Caci. Nick had XC flight of the day. He landed at Gardner airport, which was another 5 miles farther north. My flight was just under 10 miles. I was joking that there is a magnet installed at 15 miles mark from any launch I take, it pulls me down to the ground before I can cross it.

In any case, it was an excellent day. Not all goals were achieved, but a lot of fun has been had and in a good company too.

Till next XC time...

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Flights: 1

Time: 55 minutes

Point to point distance: 9.3 miles

Ware is my new LZ

My weather analysis for the weekend was going like this:

• Rain? No. - Check
• Wind? Under 10mph from surface to 6K. - Check
• Is Rhett towing? Yes. - Check.

Tanner-Hiller it is. I love flying there, and wish more of my XC-aspiring flying friends would come here and play with me.

If I checked forecast in more detail, I would see that it was a high pressure day. Several times already, I had great flying experience at Tanner-Hiller when high pressure was rolling through.

...

Jeff Curtis also posted that he was going. Sounded like we could get ourselves a cross country party after all.

The forecast was calling for a late day. I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere early, and rolled in to the airport around 11am. A couple of pilots were already launching... and landing soon after. The day hasn't switched on, yet.

Jeff showed up soon after. We got our gliders assembled, inspected, cameras and varios mounted. Nick Caci, Jeff, John Beckley, and I had a brief discussion on where we could fly on this sunny day. Wind was from the north, and it was supposed to switch to east toward 5pm. It was around 5 miles per hour, so a triangle was possible - easy retrieval. Or a flight to the coast - somewhere between New Heaven and New London in Connecticut.

Getting our wings ready

Not a cloud in the sky

Ok, I thought, I got this. Quabbin Reservoir is to the west, Worcester is to the east, I should start flying downwind, which is south... That is.. um, um, ... keep Quabbin to my right.... Got it.

Tiny clouds in otherwise empty sky

Noel assisting Doug on launch

Captain Rhett

Around 1PM, Doug Brown and Nick Caci launched and skyed out, even though there were almost no clouds. Okey-dokey - time to fly away.

Jeff launched first, then another pilot, then me. It was a pretty bumpy tow. Good. Thermals were there. Rhett started to circle in one around 2000' AGL. I didn't pin off. I have never pinned off without a pilot waving me off before. Rhett was making rather tight turns.  He would  tell me when, I figured. Keep going. Then Rhett done the same a minute later around 2500' AGL. I could feel the thermal bouncing the tug, and then me. Rhett was making a tight turn again. "Is he telling me something", I though. I knew the thermal was there. It was time to boost my confidence level - I pinned off without Rhett actually waving me off. Thank you, Rhett, for another lesson.

Takeoff

The thermal was indeed a yummy one. It took me to 5K without much trouble. What about XC now? I wasn't sure. A bit too low. Plus, I was north-east of the airport, but all cummies were closer to Quabbin reservoir, on the west side of the airport. I saw Jeff circling a few miles away, much farther to SW. Hm... let me get another thermal and then I'll think about XC.

I set on a glide toward actual clouds. A mile or so on the other side of the airport, I got another climb. I couldn't center on it, no matter how hard I tried. I kept losing it, making wider circle, finding it again. On average, I was still climbing, though. Not a relaxing exercise.

Finally, around 6K MSL, I gave up on this thermal. It was going up and down, like I was at the very top. I was still not sure about XC. I asked Jeff where he was. He was a mile south of me. Sometimes, I could see his glider against the sky. Maybe I could get closer to his position? I set on another glide, going SW where some better clouds were.

Two minutes later, I flew right into 500 FPM sink. Then 700. As far as I could tell I was under a cloud, but it wasn't pulling me in. I turned 90 degrees to get away from the sinking course, and get under another cloud while I still could.

I lost half of the altitude. My XC ambitions were waning, too. But just as I was about to turn back upwind, toward the airport, my vario stopped crying. Happy beeps! Very soon they turned into very happy beeps. I was going up 700 FPM. Now we are talking!

Around 7K MSL, My XC mood came back, and I asked Jeff about his plans. Jeff replied that he was at 6500' MSL and ready for some XC. Great! I was approaching 8K, and I was going, too.

At 7K MSL. Talking to Jeff

I could not see Jeff's glider anymore, and tried to get a fix on his location from the description he was giving on the radio. It worked somewhat. He was flying down the river. I could see the markers he was describing, but I never could get a visual on his glider. His new wing is simply invisible.

In my last climb, I started to get close to the cloudbase. I left the thermal, and sped up toward the edge of the cloud. Still climbing, eventually topping out at 8600' MSL. My personal best! I was slightly underdressed for the altitude, especially summer gloves didn't do anything against 40F, 30mph airflow. A few minutes later, after losing a couple of thousands feet, I was back in much warmer air.

Racing from under the cloud

I was on a glide for 15 minutes. That is when you realize how really slow a hang glider is. All your reference points are moving so slowly, and at the end of it, I covered just 5-6 miles.

I got over Ware with 3800' to spare. I saw a race track south of the town. I also picked a few fields to land in. I got into a weak climb, and for a moment thought I got this. What happened next was a combination of distracted flying, poor observation, and bad decision making. While I was slowly climbing, I asked Jeff where he was. Jeff was very low over a racetrack. Probably 1500' AGL. He was busy working a climb. I could see the racetrack with cars going round and round. So when my climb from weak became non-existent, I set on a glide toward the track.

The problem was I still couldn't see Jeff's glider, and trying to locate him was taking some processing power. I was distracted. Then I hit significant sink on the way to the race track, instead of continue going through that, I turned around trying to get back to the climb I had.

Reviewing the flight tracks later on, I never actually made it back to the thermal. I started searching around erratically, and missed it completely... again.

Why is it not working?

Nothing was working, and I was in landing mode a few minutes later.

Then there was a bit of excitement on landing. I picked a big field this time. When I got 400' over it, I realized that the field was a landfill, a dom sort of thing. Some vent pipes sticking out of the ground. Plenty of space between the pipes, but going long on this field would be deadly. I modified my approach, made an S-turn to lose more altitude, and turned on final much closer to the ground than I prefer. It worked out. I landed with plenty of distance from the slopping down edge of the field.

Big field this time

I landed ok. Not a perfect non-stepper, but safe on the ground. And of course, I was behind a tall wire fence, with gates closed.

Enjoying the fenced view

Fenced

At the gate

I walked my glider to the gate, broke it down and called Dana. He just landed back at the airport. He didn't go XC with us as his radio wasn't working. He didn't know what we were up to.

Dana drove my truck, and picked me up. He helped me to get the glider over the fence, too. Thank you, man! I owe you one.

...

When I  landed, I heard from Jeff that he saw me land. After that I had zero contact with him. Two hours later, as I was about to start worry, he texted me that he landed somewhere in Connecticut. 34 miles away. Bastard! ... I mean, congratulations, Jeff! Awesome flight.

Since I was already back at the airport, I took Jeff's car, and drove to Connecticut to pick him up. Took one hour each way.

Overall, not a bad day. Not a bad day at all.

....

Forecast for West Rutland was very good for the next day, so after Jeff brought me back to the airport, I drove to MFP to join the flying party.

West Rutland ended up being awesome. More on that some other time ...

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Flights: 1, Time: 1:20

Flight recording:

A short video: