When Spiders Soar...

After a disappointing first flight, that ended with 40 minutes of air time and a few close saves.  I was charged to get back in the air.  Rodger F. and John Z had launched, climbed to cloud base, and were already heading to Newport going XC.  I knew I was unlikely to catch up to them, but I wanted to get in the air ASAP.  Dennis was also itching to go back for a second flight, and I figured we could head out together.  Sean was up next in the launch queue, but Rhett had two tandems to tow up and Sean waited on the edge of the runway.  I decided to suit up and get on standby, so Rhett could possibly tow up two of us in between tandems.

Pete J. was back on the ground helping on the runway after hitting 7700' and getting flushed with the rest of us.  Dennis was giving the CT boys a hard time.  They were over the back at 7700' and complaining that it was all sink back to Morningside.  "Why did you come back?" Dennis asked.  If they hadn't come back, they'd be at I-89 by now.  I chuckled as Dennis said - "that's what we're TRYING to do!!!  That's the point!!"

As luck would have it, for me anyway.  Sean broke a weak link about 50' off the deck.  He floated down and landed safely at the end of the runway.  Out of Sean's misfortune, was born my chance to get in the air and redeem myself from the earlier defeat.  I jumped on the cart as Dennis retrieved it, and off I went, airborne once more.

Rhett landing and Dennis burning off altitude for his approach.

Rhett waved me off at 2600' in a nice thermal (I waited a little longer on tow after the first flight ended quickly).  I snagged the thermal and rode up to 3500'.  I had trouble breaking through that altitude and couldn't figure out why.  In review, I was falling out the back side of the thermal.  I tried to jump to a cloud out in the valley where there should have been lift - nothing.  I tried going back to where I snagged the first thermal, to see if another was lifting off - nothing.  I sunk to just under 700' and found a thermal on the northwest side of Morningside.

I latched onto it, and rode it up to 4200' MSL.  Dennis was out front and above me at this point, and I left my thermal and searched for what he was in, hoping for a better climb.  But I couldn't find it, and instead went back to my own.  I drifted over the back of Morningside at 4500' and headed toward Claremont.  I found another thermal over South Claremont and rode it up to 4900'.  At this point, I knew I had Newport Airport, barring any unforeseen 'demon sink'.  I went for it.  As I traveled, I went for the high ground, like Tom said in his XC seminar over the winter.  A mistake I made last weekend with following the valley instead of the high ground on either side.  Sure enough, I found a thermal over the cell tower and I climbed, riding it further west, closer to Newport. 

I lost the thermal (again falling out the back), and decided to jump the valley to the north and position myself better for the airport.  I went to the green on the north side and got lucky.  I should have gone directly to the knob north of Claremont, or further west from my location to the higher ground - closer to Newport, and where a sailplane had been soaring a few minutes prior.   I found a piddly thermal by Sullivan and took a few turns, fell out, and abandoned it afraid I would lose too much altitude trying to find it again.

I found a few small pieces of lift to turn in on the way to the airport.  By now, I knew I had the knob, known as Colt Mountain, on the other side of the runways.  I flew over the airport and sure enough, Colt Mountain was working.  I followed a small thermal that built into a larger thermal after I gained a higher altitude.  I followed the thermal over the quarry, and closer to Forbidden Field, now knowing I had that as an LZ, and could get an ice cream. 

Been a busy flight.  First chance to take a photo.

For a while I thought about landing there (ice cream is a convincing argument), but then in the back of my head, I heard John from earlier in the day saying, "people are going to do amazing things today".  So I ponied up, and went toward the north end of Lake Sunapee, further away from Forbidden Field.  I had an ice cream there last weekend anyway.

There were a few bailout LZ's I could get into if needed, but what I really wanted - was to jump the lake.  As I hit the north end of the town of Sunapee, I found another thermal and rode it up to 4500'.  I could not break out of the 4500' ceiling in any of these thermals, and began to think there was a layer keeping me down.  I was getting frustrated after hearing that others were hitting 7700' to 8000'.  I have not been that high, and I was hoping to break that personal record today.  Onward I went, further north.

Forbidden Field in the distance.  I decided to leave her behind and go over the lake to the North.

Now I was on a mission.  I wanted to beat Rodger's flight distance, beat my personal best (set the previous weekend at 13 miles), and break out of the '0 to 25 mile' class for the XC competition.  So I took the plunge and jumped the lake.  I found some lift over the water, took a few turns, then decided I should stop playing in something too small to turn in, and get on toward my new destination - New London.  As I reached the intersection of I-89 and Route 11, I found a strong thermal and tore up at 600fpm to 800fpm.  The average was 400fpm, but I was happy with that.  So far through the flight, I had been working solely 50fpm to 200fpm.

As I climbed up, I tried once more to reach someone on the radio after having communication gear malfunctions the entire flight.  I was able to get enough chatter out to reach John.  I heard him come back over the radio that he was approaching the border of Maine at 8000ft.  This fueled my desire to go further, and I rode the thermal up to 6100', and began setting my sights on Kearsarge.  I fell out the back side of the thermal again (need to fix that).  As I soared over New London, trying to make myself as small and low drag as possible, I spied two golf courses I could use as LZ's.  I headed toward the one furthest away, and began preparations to scope it out and get my landing mode on.

Lake Sunapee.  Getting ready to cross.

I hit the foothills of Mt. Kearsarge, silently hoping to find a thermal as I approached my landing zone.  As I glided along, descending further and further, I snagged a 50fpm thermal about 1700' AGL off the deck.  I turned and turned, committed to climbing over Mt. Kearsarge.  It was my next mission.  I rode the thermal higher and higher, and eventually it turned into a 250fpm up.  Sweet!  I soared up and up, and pretty soon I was over and above the mountain.

Another shot of the lake with Mt. Sunapee showing at the top.

Now I began looking for LZ's over the back that I could head towards.  I was focused on where to go, seeing limited options, and fell out the back of the thermal (again, I really need to fix that), thinking at the time that I had reached the top since it was getting late in the day.  I tucked, making myself tiny, pulled the bar in, and made a run over the back toward Andover where I saw a field in the center of town.  Hoping the lush green color was not 'over my head' corn!  If so, there was a baseball diamond nearby I could stuff into.  Not ideal, but given no other options.

Sunapee Golf Course in New London.  A possible LZ if I don't find lift soon.

I hit sink over the back of Kearsarge, that pushed me down quite a bit, and then I realized my altitude was  even with the summit.  I was soon going to be, or already in, the rotor from the mountain.  I decided to get the hell out of there and scooted NW.  I was now close enough to see my primary LZ was a soccer field.  I approached Ragged Mt. and began scoping out the LZ in more detail - wire locations, obstructions in the field, and then looking for flags or wind indicators as I hit 1000' AGL.  I originally intended a cross wind landing, the longer direction of the field, but after getting lower, I realized I could land sideways and directly into the wind.  So I set up for that approach, and burned off my altitude. 

Mt. Kearsarge

I scooted over some rooftops and between some tree tops, and punched down through ground effect for a smooth landing in a nice field.  Luckily, well away from the hyper active sprinklers that were spraying water akin to fire hoses. Although that would have been interesting, I would not have minded too much at that point.  However, later in the evening, when the sun was setting, and it started getting down in the high 50's, as I sat waiting for my ride, I would have been quite chilled to say the least. 

Nice turf.

It was a very active flight, the thermals were tough to stay in, and there was barely time to take pictures; never mind eat a snack, and empty the bladder.  First thing on the ground; I snapped a few photos, unsuited, ran naked through the field (joke), emptied the bladder, ate a protein bar, drank a bunch of water, texted Tom the good news, then called Rodger for a ride home.

The after party:
Rodger was back at Morningside with my car, after landing in the Forbidden Field.  Dennis, thinking the day was going to end short, decided to land back at Morningside to keep his still healing ankle, safe.  I gave Rodger the coordinates to my location, as well as an update on John's last known location, so they could get a retrieval vehicle en-route to him.  Once they were set, I started breaking down my glider.  As I finished packing up, a call came in from Rodger asking if I had maps in my car - he still hadn't left (insert sad clown frown).  Lucky for me, he turned down Dennis' request that they go for pizza, and make me wait an extra hour or two for my ride (with friends like this...).  Thanks Rodger!  Screw you too Dennis!  :-D  In all fairness, Dennis called me later to say congratulations on a great flight.

Welcome to Proctor Academy

The time passed slowly as the temperature dropped, and hunger began to set in.  Rodger picked me up around 8:15pm to 8:30pm.  After a quick congratulations, we headed to Concord for a late dinner at 'The Common Man', and shared stories of the days flying.


Total Distance: 29 miles (new personal record)

Total Airtime: 3 hours and 1 minute. (second flight of the day)

The title:  As we were sitting on the runway watching the days flights begin, a small spider came flying, that's right, flying, over our heads, on his silky strand that stretched 10' up above him in the air.  There was nothing for him to be attached to unless it was a cloud.