Grizzly Thermals - Spring in New England

Yesterday I went ten rounds with a Grizzly Bear, or at least I feel that way.  I drove to West Rutland and met up with the other pilots in the LZ.  Allen Ahl, PK, Pete Judge, John Sillero, Bob Reynolds, Jim Georg, Al Ahl, and myself all piled into the 4WD's and head up the mountain.  We arrived at the top to have it blowing in 10 to 15 and less than predicted.  

John Sillero on launch.

Pilots began launching before 1:30pm.  John went first in his Freedom and wasn't really skying out.  I pondered for a bit why we had winds and no ridge lift to speak of.  I continued setting up and prepping my harness while PK and then Pete went next.  The rest of the guys helped wire me to launch (much appreciated).  


I waited for a bit trying to get a good cycle as the other pilots were staying up but not doing spectacular.  A thermal started coming in and after a few tries to get the wings level, I was finally able to hurl myself into what I was soon to find out - was the washing thrashing machine in the sky!


I cruised along the ridge not really gaining or losing and then turned back toward launch and started to lose altitude.  I made one pass in front of launch, back to the spine, and was not making progress - I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get flushed.  As I approached launch again, I snagged a thermal right below and spun it up to 1000' over launch.  A couple more gliders quickly jumped into the air after that and the fun began.

Peter Judge getting ready to go.

I had grand plans of trying to go XC yesterday after looking at the forecast, after the second thermal, I knew I was NOT going XC, and quite possibly was going to go land just to get out of the 'bear air' as it is so aptly named up here in the spring.  I was thermalling at 400fpm up and would hit a core screaming at 800 to 1000fpm or more up.  My glider was getting rocked everywhere and me with it.  I went slack wired twice (weightless) and thought I was going to tumble 3 or 4 times.  


There were some thermals I encountered that after getting a taste of them, I flew away and said "no thank you, you can keep that!"  There wasn't a lot of workable ridge lift so it was mostly finding thermals (one's you were willing to play with) and getting some altitude to glide around for the next one.  Periodically through the flight I considered going in to land, but wondered how volatile the LZ's might be.  Twice I attempted to go in for a landing and about 700' off the deck I hit a thermal and climbed back out...couldn't help myself.


After a little over 2 hours of getting spanked, some high cirrus came in and dampened the sun.  This took some of the bite out of the thermals and smoothed conditions out a bit, temporarily.  PK was off to the West a few miles climbing out and I decided to try a glide from the same altitude to get to him.  As I arrived under him by 100' or so, everything over there died off.  He headed back to the mountain and I followed.  As we approached the westerly spine he hit some lift and passed it up so he didn't turn into me.  I flew into it and found the nasty bear lurking in there again.  I watched as PK went into the bowl and getting slapped around like a fresh school boy.  I opted not to follow.

Combat GT 13.2

I ventured over to the next spine to the East and hit a nice climb all the way to 4200' again.  Across the valley resides Bird's Eye, a really cool looking peak (I would post pictures but I didn't dare take my hands off the bar the whole flight) that is not the easiest to get to as it is upwind and a few miles away.  I've never made it over there and decided to try.  I found a nice line and followed it, losing only 300' the whole way till I reached the base of the ridge.  PK was following me over and stopped for a climb halfway there.  I lost another 1000' making it to the cliffs on the other end but still had plenty of altitude to make it back to the mountain downwind.

I headed back toward launch and on the way decided to go land...again  Hit another thermal at 700' and climbed out...again.  After cruising around a bit, enjoying the lack of a beatdown as I skated through the atmosphere, I felt my stomach requesting some input, and my body requesting a reprieve.  I flew out in the valley and just kept climbing and climbing.  

Corn being planted in the LZ.

One can spend hours meditating on the reversal of fortunes and the complexities of the human mind and emotions.  How two opposing outcomes can produce the same emotional state.  When you want to go up, and you can't find lift, you get frustrated, impatient, angry; when you want to land and you can't get down, you seem to experience the same exact emotions.  Just an observation I had of myself as I ineffectually attempted to get back on the ground.  I then flipped a switch in my head and started to solve the problem. 

My last glider, under 900' you were pretty much dropping out of the sky.  You'd be on the ground and the whole thing would be over in a minute and a half.  THIS thing, I've found it difficult to get down when I want to more often than not.  One could read this and say - "what are you complaining about?", but we're back to the previous observation again - when you want to get down, you want to get DOWN!  Nuff said.  I won't be complaining about this at other times.   

I flew up the valley finding batches of sink, usually followed by more lift...then more sink, and finally, enough sink that I could go back a couple miles and try to land.  As soon as I turned to go downwind, my vario started chirping and I began climbing again.  I shook my head and remained patient.  I made it back to the LZ and tried to burn off altitude with slow progression.  As I did this, the bears came back and started clawing at the air around me once more.

Looking back at the mountain.

I set up my final approach, rocked up early, kept my speed up, transitioned to the downtubes with plenty of time, and then the wind sent me off course enough that I was heading straight for a small treeline along a stream.  I did not have enough altitude to make any sudden moves with the wing so I put in slight roll input and was able to correct my courseline.  

Shortly thereafter I was nearing my flare window.  As I pushed out and flared, I was still too high off the ground. The weight of the glider bearing down on my recently rubberized arms was too much.  I came down hard, went to my knees, chest, then face, and watch the nose of the glider follow.  Another landing that didn't go so well.  Really hope the training hill opens up soon so I can get this problem resolved.

PK asking how much VG I had when we glided to Bird's Eye.  :-)

Total airtime: 3 hours

Total airtime feeling: 8 hours


**Note - despite the negatives, it was a valuable learning experience and I had some good smooth climbs that made me think twice about going in to land.  Good day overall.