Showing posts with label West Rutland VT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Rutland VT. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Dogfighting Hawks & Spanking Vultures
Thurday night the buzz started. Weather forecasts were still changing so making a fixed decision on where we were going was not going to happen, but West Rutland, VT seemed to be the place. Many pilots were planning to be there the next day. I loaded my car and put all the equipment on chargers. Tom was interested, Kip was in a holding pattern in Peterborough (from Maine) waiting to hear where we were going in the morning, and Jeff said he was interested as well.
The issue with West Rutland is the need for a 4WD vehicle to get to the top. Since most of the people who have said vehicles, want to meet early at the base, those with long drives have to leave super early in order to get a ride up, this puts some pressure to get out the door at a reasonable hour in the morning - by 8am at the latest.
7am came quick and the cat herding began. By 7:19am, Tom said he was going but no one else had sent word. He couldn't reach Jeff and I couldn't reach Kip. By 7:37am I asked Tom if he was committed to going, or if he was still talking to everyone else about why THEY didn't want to go. He sent word back that HE should be 'committed'. To what institution I'm not sure. :-)
3 Minutes later he was trying to load his glider to meet me but everyone kept interrupting him, making the job difficult. I stuck to text messages to keep things simpler. Tom asked me to call Jeff - No answer. "We got to go" I said.
Tom responded and said Peter Judge wanted to go but he was still at home close to Boston. He didn't want to hold us up. I offered to meet them enroute in Keene but Tom opted to meet me off Route 2 and ride up together. We met at 8am and hit the road. About an hour into our trek, Jeff finally woke up and called us as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He overslept thinking he was going to be towing closer to home. Jeff said he would meet us there. Kip got in touch and said he was enroute to Rutland.
Tom and I spent the ride talking about our plans to fly XC that day, and try to get to the Canadian border. We noted the lack of clouds in the forecast and talked about flying on Blue Days. He drove and I looked at google maps to scout out the route he wanted to go. We had a lengthy discussion about Lake Dunmore and having to pass that spot which would come in handy later in the day.
We arrived at the pit to find everyone loaded up and ready to go. We threw on with Kip and headed up the mountain. After setting up the wings and cramming down lunch, things seemed pretty good. John Sillero jumped into the air along with a couple other pilots soon to follow. We watched from launch noticing how slow John was flying in order to milk the lift. Things didn't look good. John managed to squeeze out an hour or more from his flight as the other pilots ended up on the ground. I felt like waiting so I closed my eyes and rested a bit from the short night's sleep and early rise.
As the valley heated up, and 3:00pm was fast approaching, I decided to suit up and go. I climbed in my glider and went out to launch. I waited, watched, and waited, for some sign of lift. There were no birds, no trees moving in the valley, nothing. The sock was blowing in but it was light and insubstantial.
Suddenly the wind picked up and the air started to move with purpose. I picked up the wing, setting it back down a few times before finally getting the wings level. Once level, I charged forth and leapt into the air. My left wing started to drop on my run so I had to do a little zig zag on the ramp to try and keep under it. All worked out well but when I went into the air I had a heading I didn't want. I shifted around to the right correcting course, and headed toward the higher ground. I wasn't losing a ton of altitude, but I certainly was gaining.
I passed by launch about 50' below and felt my wing lift and heard my vaio chirp. I cranked it around and banked up in a nice thermal taking me up and over launch to 3000'. Tom had launched quickly after me and started to climb, and then Jeff, and Kip. I saw people struggling as I climbed but Tom made it to the bowl and seemed to be well established. My thermal topped out at an inversion layer at 3000' and I was looking for something else.
I cranked on the VG and started heading for Tom, who was doing the best of everyone else. I passed through a ton of sink and by the time I reached the bowl, I was below the ridge again. I scoured the hillside looking for lift but didn't find anything. I went back toward launch where I could see trees rustling in the hopes there was another climb there. No luck.
I turned back along the ridge and proceeded to the bowl. As I entered, I had small amounts of lift, nothing major, but certainly better than sink. I looked ahead and saw a Red Tail Hawk coming toward me, head on and at the same altitude. I expected her to veer off, but we kept drawing closer and closer. I continued forward in the lift band and she still did not waiver. She was just about to collide with the nose of my wing when she suddenly, cast open her wings, and beat the air into submission, climbing above my airship. For a brief moment, I thought she was going to land on me.
As I continued on, she rose up above me and started to dive at my glider. Now I was concerned. Normally we fly with hawks and they actually enjoy it and get close to us, but sometimes people have irritated them on purpose and I have heard stories of them diving down and shredding their sails with their talons. I wanted no part of that, and figured if she wanted the lift that bad, she could have it. I turned around further up the ridge and she was gone, the air was clear. Of course, by this time, Tom, Kip, and Jeff were all on their death glides to the LZ.
I turned again and decided to head across the first gap in the ridge. As soon as I passed over and started to turn back, I hit a climb that took me through the first inversion (3000'), then the second at 4500'. As I was climbing, PK launched and climbed out as well. I kept getting stuck at 4500' and PK caught up to me. Minutes later, we rose up through the inversion and eventually merged into the same climb to 5700'.
I thought PK wanted to go XC, as that was the plan earlier and he mentioned he had found us a driver. He headed off North along the ridge and I went after him thinking we were going. We barely left Hanley Mtn. before I passed by him and kept on going. I saw him take a turn, thinking he just wanted to top off before we went, nope, he left me by myself and watched me fly off into the blue all alone, to what he thought was my imminent doom. Bastard! ;-)
I made it to the end of the ridgeline in Pittsford and needed a climb. The terrain dropped off ahead of me and I was in a position where I was going to have to cross the valley, but didn't have the altitude to do it on one glide. I was not doing well, now back down to 3000' and losing. I looked for landing options in the valley as I scoured the hillside for lift. Suddenly I felt a bite. A lee-side thermal that was a broken and gnarly, but I was able to stay flat and milk it for a few hundred feet while slowly drifting out into the valley. This brought me close enough and high enough to get me the glide I needed.
Pulling on the VG and the CG, I left the lift I had and shot for a small ridge at the foot of the greens on the east side of the valley. My path was taking me right over the field Tom landed in on our flight from Equinox, so I had a huge bailout field if things didn't go my way.
As I reached the foothills, I found no lift where I expected it. I looked for fields to the north and went on glide to try and get further north before landing. As I passed along the ridge, I felt another burble and picked up a decent enough climb. It didn't take me very high, but it gave me enough altitude that I could work a little further north on the ridge. I stumbled into another weak thermal close by and took that for all it had as well.
Gliding crosswind, and moving north along the hillside, I tried to conserve as much altitude as I could on glide. Roughly every 1 mile, I would find a climb and take it up in it's WSW drift. After doing this 3x, I finally found a more substantial climb and took that up a little further into the greens east of Brandon. This climb brought me to 4800'! I now had Middlebury Airport on glide by 300'. I wasn't too happy about that small margin, especially given that what lied between myself and my destination, was two lakes and a HUGE amount of trees.
Again I reached for the VG and CG and took off on my glide right between Goshen and Leicester, keeping ample room to bail into fields if needed. As I approached Lake Dunmore, I recalled the conversation I had with Tom on the ride up. He had talked about passing the lake on the east side and how it was a bit of a nail biter. I still wanted one more climb to get me to the airport, my goal for the day.
I crossed the gap south of Fern Lake flying through a small burble of lift. It was barely enough to register on my instruments and I decided to pass it up. As I glided away, something in my entire body screamed at me to go back. I fought the notion, not wanting to give up my precious altitude taking a turn in crap. Intuition eventually won out and I cranked around to go back to the burble of lift, resigning myself to the fact that I wasn't going to make the airport now; since I would lose precious altitude in the maneuver.
I approached the burble I had so eagerly left behind and, BOOM!!! up I went like smoke in a chimney. I took one turn and then spied a hawk slightly below me in the climb. One turn later and it was gone. I grinned from ear to ear as I climbed back out to 4200', giving me ample altitude to make the airport (now 1300' after glide according to instruments). I cranked on the VG/CG and headed north toward my destination, my course taking me behind Lake Dunmore and directly over the cliffs above the lake.
Gliding over the cliffs, with mountains and trees, a small lake, and more mountains and trees on my right, and trees and a large lake on my left, I was very much aware of the 2.5 mile glide I had to my nearest LZ's. I cruised over the cliffs and hit some ridge lift, but nothing substantial enough to make me want to give up my glide. I took one 360 in something on the north end of the lake, but carried on after insubstantial gains.
A mile north of the lake, and 3.6 miles south of my goal, I found a nice climb that brought me back up to 4400'. Topping out the climb I passed over the gap in East Middlebury, and right south of the airport on the high ground I found another late day thermal. A group of vultures were flying in this thermal, but they are rather dumb birds. I was climbing like a rocket compared to them, while watching them struggle in meager lift. In a phrase - 'I spanked em!' :-)
This climb gave me enough lift to take some pictures and boat around, something I had little luxury for the whole flight. I snapped some shots and scouted out the airport, planning my approach.
After some consideration on heading further north to Bristol, I decided to park it at the airport where I knew they had some services if I had a lengthy wait for my ride. On my approach, I had a long final set into mid field but hit a ton of lift on the north end of the runway. I had to take a couple 360s in sink to bleed off the extra altitude. I finished out the final and landed with a nice flare at the close end of the runway.
The post flight workout began, with hauling my gear across the field to a spot I could break down. I climbed out of my harness, looked around taking in the scenery, and then retrieved my cell phone from my storage pocket.
Knowing Tom would not be too enthused to hear how great my flight was after he landed shortly after take-off, I sent a text saying - "Middlebury Airport." "I promise not to talk about my flight on the way home if you buy me an ice cream and give me a ride...not in that order." He was a good sport and congratulated me on a great flight.
He arrived 25 minutes later and we loaded up the glider and talked about what happened to everyone else on the mountain. As we passed through Brandon, we found a cool little ice cream place and I treated to a pre-meal dessert. This place is definitely worth stopping at if you are going through Brandon, VT - The Inside Scoop.
We managed to get back home at a decent hour after stopping for some dinner in Keene, NH. All told, an extremely challenging flight but rewarding and highly educational in the end.
Total Distance: 33.7 miles (26 miles straight line)
Total Airtime: 2hrs 22min
Max Altitude: 5700'
The issue with West Rutland is the need for a 4WD vehicle to get to the top. Since most of the people who have said vehicles, want to meet early at the base, those with long drives have to leave super early in order to get a ride up, this puts some pressure
7am came quick and the cat herding began. By 7:19am, Tom said he was going but no one else had sent word. He couldn't reach Jeff and I couldn't reach Kip. By 7:37am I asked Tom if he was committed to going, or if he was still talking to everyone else about why THEY didn't want to go. He sent word back that HE should be 'committed'. To what institution I'm not sure. :-)
3 Minutes later he was trying to load his glider to meet me but everyone kept interrupting him, making the job difficult. I stuck to text messages to keep things simpler. Tom asked me to call Jeff - No answer. "We got to go" I said.
 |
| John Sillero |
Tom responded and said Peter Judge wanted to go but he was still at home close to Boston. He didn't want to hold us up. I offered to meet them enroute in Keene but Tom opted to meet me off Route 2 and ride up together. We met at 8am and hit the road. About an hour into our trek, Jeff finally woke up and called us as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He overslept thinking he was going to be towing closer to home. Jeff said he would meet us there. Kip got in touch and said he was enroute to Rutland.
Tom and I spent the ride talking about our plans to fly XC that day, and try to get to the Canadian border. We noted the lack of clouds in the forecast and talked about flying on Blue Days. He drove and I looked at google maps to scout out the route he wanted to go. We had a lengthy discussion about Lake Dunmore and having to pass that spot which would come in handy later in the day.
 |
| The Sport 2 Squadron |
We arrived at the pit to find everyone loaded up and ready to go. We threw on with Kip and headed up the mountain. After setting up the wings and cramming down lunch, things seemed pretty good. John Sillero jumped into the air along with a couple other pilots soon to follow. We watched from launch noticing how slow John was flying in order to milk the lift. Things didn't look good. John managed to squeeze out an hour or more from his flight as the other pilots ended up on the ground. I felt like waiting so I closed my eyes and rested a bit from the short night's sleep and early rise.
As the valley heated up, and 3:00pm was fast approaching, I decided to suit up and go. I climbed in my glider and went out to launch. I waited, watched, and waited, for some sign of lift. There were no birds, no trees moving in the valley, nothing. The sock was blowing in but it was light and insubstantial.
Suddenly the wind picked up and the air started to move with purpose. I picked up the wing, setting it back down a few times before finally getting the wings level. Once level, I charged forth and leapt into the air. My left wing started to drop on my run so I had to do a little zig zag on the ramp to try and keep under it. All worked out well but when I went into the air I had a heading I didn't want. I shifted around to the right correcting course, and headed toward the higher ground. I wasn't losing a ton of altitude, but I certainly was gaining.
I passed by launch about 50' below and felt my wing lift and heard my vaio chirp. I cranked it around and banked up in a nice thermal taking me up and over launch to 3000'. Tom had launched quickly after me and started to climb, and then Jeff, and Kip. I saw people struggling as I climbed but Tom made it to the bowl and seemed to be well established. My thermal topped out at an inversion layer at 3000' and I was looking for something else.
I cranked on the VG and started heading for Tom, who was doing the best of everyone else. I passed through a ton of sink and by the time I reached the bowl, I was below the ridge again. I scoured the hillside looking for lift but didn't find anything. I went back toward launch where I could see trees rustling in the hopes there was another climb there. No luck.
I turned back along the ridge and proceeded to the bowl. As I entered, I had small amounts of lift, nothing major, but certainly better than sink. I looked ahead and saw a Red Tail Hawk coming toward me, head on and at the same altitude. I expected her to veer off, but we kept drawing closer and closer. I continued forward in the lift band and she still did not waiver. She was just about to collide with the nose of my wing when she suddenly, cast open her wings, and beat the air into submission, climbing above my airship. For a brief moment, I thought she was going to land on me.
As I continued on, she rose up above me and started to dive at my glider. Now I was concerned. Normally we fly with hawks and they actually enjoy it and get close to us, but sometimes people have irritated them on purpose and I have heard stories of them diving down and shredding their sails with their talons. I wanted no part of that, and figured if she wanted the lift that bad, she could have it. I turned around further up the ridge and she was gone, the air was clear. Of course, by this time, Tom, Kip, and Jeff were all on their death glides to the LZ.
I turned again and decided to head across the first gap in the ridge. As soon as I passed over and started to turn back, I hit a climb that took me through the first inversion (3000'), then the second at 4500'. As I was climbing, PK launched and climbed out as well. I kept getting stuck at 4500' and PK caught up to me. Minutes later, we rose up through the inversion and eventually merged into the same climb to 5700'.
 |
| Launch Ramp |
I thought PK wanted to go XC, as that was the plan earlier and he mentioned he had found us a driver. He headed off North along the ridge and I went after him thinking we were going. We barely left Hanley Mtn. before I passed by him and kept on going. I saw him take a turn, thinking he just wanted to top off before we went, nope, he left me by myself and watched me fly off into the blue all alone, to what he thought was my imminent doom. Bastard! ;-)
I made it to the end of the ridgeline in Pittsford and needed a climb. The terrain dropped off ahead of me and I was in a position where I was going to have to cross the valley, but didn't have the altitude to do it on one glide. I was not doing well, now back down to 3000' and losing. I looked for landing options in the valley as I scoured the hillside for lift. Suddenly I felt a bite. A lee-side thermal that was a broken and gnarly, but I was able to stay flat and milk it for a few hundred feet while slowly drifting out into the valley. This brought me close enough and high enough to get me the glide I needed.
 |
| Lake Dunmore - where I came from. |
Pulling on the VG and the CG, I left the lift I had and shot for a small ridge at the foot of the greens on the east side of the valley. My path was taking me right over the field Tom landed in on our flight from Equinox, so I had a huge bailout field if things didn't go my way.
As I reached the foothills, I found no lift where I expected it. I looked for fields to the north and went on glide to try and get further north before landing. As I passed along the ridge, I felt another burble and picked up a decent enough climb. It didn't take me very high, but it gave me enough altitude that I could work a little further north on the ridge. I stumbled into another weak thermal close by and took that for all it had as well.
 |
| The Greens |
Gliding crosswind, and moving north along the hillside, I tried to conserve as much altitude as I could on glide. Roughly every 1 mile, I would find a climb and take it up in it's WSW drift. After doing this 3x, I finally found a more substantial climb and took that up a little further into the greens east of Brandon. This climb brought me to 4800'! I now had Middlebury Airport on glide by 300'. I wasn't too happy about that small margin, especially given that what lied between myself and my destination, was two lakes and a HUGE amount of trees.
Again I reached for the VG and CG and took off on my glide right between Goshen and Leicester, keeping ample room to bail into fields if needed. As I approached Lake Dunmore, I recalled the conversation I had with Tom on the ride up. He had talked about passing the lake on the east side and how it was a bit of a nail biter. I still wanted one more climb to get me to the airport, my goal for the day.
 |
| Sugarbush to the North |
I crossed the gap south of Fern Lake flying through a small burble of lift. It was barely enough to register on my instruments and I decided to pass it up. As I glided away, something in my entire body screamed at me to go back. I fought the notion, not wanting to give up my precious altitude taking a turn in crap. Intuition eventually won out and I cranked around to go back to the burble of lift, resigning myself to the fact that I wasn't going to make the airport now; since I would lose precious altitude in the maneuver.
I approached the burble I had so eagerly left behind and, BOOM!!! up I went like smoke in a chimney. I took one turn and then spied a hawk slightly below me in the climb. One turn later and it was gone. I grinned from ear to ear as I climbed back out to 4200', giving me ample altitude to make the airport (now 1300' after glide according to instruments). I cranked on the VG/CG and headed north toward my destination, my course taking me behind Lake Dunmore and directly over the cliffs above the lake.
 |
| Bristol to the north. |
Gliding over the cliffs, with mountains and trees, a small lake, and more mountains and trees on my right, and trees and a large lake on my left, I was very much aware of the 2.5 mile glide I had to my nearest LZ's. I cruised over the cliffs and hit some ridge lift, but nothing substantial enough to make me want to give up my glide. I took one 360 in something on the north end of the lake, but carried on after insubstantial gains.
A mile north of the lake, and 3.6 miles south of my goal, I found a nice climb that brought me back up to 4400'. Topping out the climb I passed over the gap in East Middlebury, and right south of the airport on the high ground I found another late day thermal. A group of vultures were flying in this thermal, but they are rather dumb birds. I was climbing like a rocket compared to them, while watching them struggle in meager lift. In a phrase - 'I spanked em!' :-)
This climb gave me enough lift to take some pictures and boat around, something I had little luxury for the whole flight. I snapped some shots and scouted out the airport, planning my approach.
 |
| Adirondacks in the distance. Lake George, Lake Champlain. |
After some consideration on heading further north to Bristol, I decided to park it at the airport where I knew they had some services if I had a lengthy wait for my ride. On my approach, I had a long final set into mid field but hit a ton of lift on the north end of the runway. I had to take a couple 360s in sink to bleed off the extra altitude. I finished out the final and landed with a nice flare at the close end of the runway.
The post flight workout began, with hauling my gear across the field to a spot I could break down. I climbed out of my harness, looked around taking in the scenery, and then retrieved my cell phone from my storage pocket.
 |
| Goal!!! Middlebury Airport. |
Knowing Tom would not be too enthused to hear how great my flight was after he landed shortly after take-off, I sent a text saying - "Middlebury Airport." "I promise not to talk about my flight on the way home if you buy me an ice cream and give me a ride...not in that order." He was a good sport and congratulated me on a great flight.
He arrived 25 minutes later and we loaded up the glider and talked about what happened to everyone else on the mountain. As we passed through Brandon, we found a cool little ice cream place and I treated to a pre-meal dessert. This place is definitely worth stopping at if you are going through Brandon, VT - The Inside Scoop.
We managed to get back home at a decent hour after stopping for some dinner in Keene, NH. All told, an extremely challenging flight but rewarding and highly educational in the end.
Total Distance: 33.7 miles (26 miles straight line)
Total Airtime: 2hrs 22min
Max Altitude: 5700'
Thanks Tom for chasing after me!
Friday, April 20, 2012
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.
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 thewashing 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.
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.
 |
| John Sillero on launch. |
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
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. |
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.
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.
**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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)