Highland Aerosports Ridgely, Maryland - 1st Flight

Over April vacation, we headed to the Eastern Shore for a few days to see my good friend Peter.  We had an awesome time and were able to enjoy some much needed relaxation.  Peter and I started hang-gliding at the same time and quickly became friends during flight school.

We both had to stop hang-gliding for a few years due to other commitments, but in 2007 we camped out for a week at Morningside and re-entered the sport.  I stuck with it but Peter has had to put his flying on hold again while he focuses on finishing school.  I told Peter I was interested in flying at Highland Aerosports in Ridgely, MD while I was there.  He'd been talking about the site for a few years as his house is 50 minutes from there.

I called Highland before we left and spoke with Sunny the owner about renting a glider so I would not have to transport mine down there.  Sunny was extremely helpful and welcomed me to come by and try the place out.

Peter and I arrived at Ridgely on Monday, which looked to be the best day on the forecast.  I met with Sunny and he showed me the Sport 2 I would be renting, a first production model versus the second year model I have; there have been some improvements but the overall wing was what I was used to.  We were introduced to the tug pilot Zach, and Adam, another instructor at Highland and the days ground crew. 

This was my first aerotow of the season, and only about my 20th aerotow ever, so I was a bit more nervous than when I foot launch.  I waited for things to calm down a bit as gusts were rolling down the runway all morning.  I launched around 2 pm when things seemed OK, although the tug pilot had commented that things were "interesting" upstairs after tugging 2 xc pilots in their topless gliders.  I had watched their takeoffs and thought it was fairly smooth.  Since they were in topless gliders and I in a lower class glider, I thought the conditions were good for me.

I took off about 30 minutes later.  Everything seemed smooth on the takeoff run even though it was 10 to 15mph winds down the runway.  All was going well until about 100ft off the deck, a huge boomer lit off under my left wing and I got rocked all over.  I just about had things back when I was hit again and the glider careened off to the right in a hard bank.  I looked off to my right and saw the treeline getting closer and closer as I veered toward them.  I was fast approaching lockout (when the glider goes off to the side of the tug plane so far that the controls are locked out and you can't recover), and knew I had to get things under control.  I mustered everything I had and jerked the glider back to the left.  I saved it and was able to get out of all the rough air and carry on.

I towed up through more junk air till about 1000' when things smoothed out.  The rest of the climb was easy in comparison.  Zach waved me off and I released @ 2500 in a nice thermal.  I climbed to 3100' while drifting back to base.  The winds were moving me at a good clip and I did not want to end up downwind of the runway/LZ, so I left the thermal to fly upwind and find another one.  No such luck, I hit what I believe was a downdraft wave as it was massive sink for 1/2 mile with vario pegged negative.  I finally broke out of it and found two small thermals that I tried to climb back out in, but they were being sheered apart.

I ended up landing with about 20 to 25 min.  I was congratulated by everyone there for my skills, although, I did not feel it was warranted after the disappointing flight.  Everyone on the ground and the tug pilot thought I was going to lockout.  About 45min later one of the "big" xc pilots returned with a small 10miler.  He was pushed down about the same time I was.

I'm happy I got to fly Ridgley, but I was not interested in repeating that takeoff a second time, so I packed up and Peter and I headed out early so we could all go to dinner.  The flight was a nice bonus to our trip to visit a friend.  The view of the farmlands for miles and miles is an impressive sight and I only my flight were a bit longer so I could take in more of the scenery.

Tom L. and I were in touch later that day, he had gone through massive rains in Florida while waiting for the comps to start.  Everyone at Highland was extremely helpful and pleasant to deal with.  I look forward to returning in the future, perhaps for a first attempt at a comp.