Got to the field about mid-day and noticed both the B-4s were up - a good sign. But around 2:15 or so, everyone seemed to be coming down. Even Bob Salvo had a sled ride in the Genesis from 3K. That was enough indicator for me that it the air mass was cycling down -- not up. I waited till about 3 p.m. and got towed to 3K, but zippo -- nada. Came down in 15 min.
Conditions still looked good, though, and I got another tow. Second time was a charm -- Shawn's tow left me right in the middle of solid 5kt. lift, and I didn't top out till 5,300 feet -- thanks Shawn! What followed was a good 2hr 40 min. flight that ended with a gaggle consisting of Jeff Strong in the 1-26 about 400 feet above me, and Dezi in the Blanik with a passenger below. I rode that thermal from 3K to 5,900.
An observation: I use the 270-degree correction method to find the best lift, and I'm just now starting to feel like I'm doing it right. I was probably just lucky, but Saturday it worked like a charm every time. I'm packing a 20 oz. "sport bottle" of Gatorade these days, which is smaller than the 2-liter soda bottle with water. I've also got a pair of cargo shorts (big extra pockets on the side), in which I could stuff another bottle as an extra. My thinking is this: the Gatorade has salt and sugar and potassium in it, and a more carbs than water. So over all , it's a better "rehydrator" than plain water. Anyone care to differ? Let me know.
The conditions were pretty good on Saturday. I got my hour in and went to 5,990. Just could not get to 6k in the 1-26. That is a fun ship. The bases were at 6k. When you have to go back when your hour is up and you are at 5k plus, it is great fun getting down doing mild aerobatics.
Ken
Didn't get to the field until 4:15, had to work on Saturday. I don't understand why you folks think I"m retired? Bob Boyd was kind enough to come down and let me fly the B-4. I hadn't flown the B-4 since last September and felt it was time to give it and me another chance. Launched at 4:45 right behind Dezi in the Blanik. Dezi was also very kind as he let me pass him in a thermal..what a nice man he is! The best lift was east of runway 34. Cruised around the area for the next two hours and was the last one to land at 7:45. It was a very enjoyble flight, and the B-4 handled like a "Gentle Lady". Afterwards, Shawn Brown, Dezi, Todd Hyten, Renee and myself all enjoyed a nice meal at a Sterling resturant.
The Soaring forecast looked fantastic Saturday morning with high cloudbase and great instability. The winds were very light which is a good thing in a PW-5.
I declared a 300 km out and return flight with the start and finish point being the stone church where route 140 crosses the reservoir 3 miles Southeast of Sterling. The turnpoint was the covered bridge at Woodstock VT.
I took off about 11:30 and found cloudbase to be about 5000 feet. I flew over to the Church and made a start at 4500 feet wishing I were 1000 feet higher. I wished that a lot that Saturday.
Heading out on course I was hoping for the cloudbase to go up as I went Northwest and the day got warmer. I very nearly landed 5 miles Southeast of Jaffrey NH but did finally climb to 6000 feet and continued. Several large gaps really slowed me down but conditions were very good at times and that kept me going. One very good climb North of Keene was a solid 5 to 6 knots to 7000 feet. Unfortunately that was the last time I got above 6000. I got very low again North of Springfield VT, nearly going into a field and setting myself up for a long night. I turned Woodstock at 3:30 way behind schedule but thinking this was still do-able.
The trip back was much the same with large areas of dead and decaying clouds or no clouds at all. I nearly landed at Keene and eventually got to Gardner 3000 feet below glide to finish and land back at Sterlling. It was around 6:30 and I landed at Gardner after a hard fought 275 km.
Mark Koepper PW-5 3K
I've been travelling a lot this year and Saturday was only my second day out at Sterling. I had arrived the night before from Germany and had planned on visiting Sterling in order to pay obeisance to Jeff Strong, who had berated me on my missing SFO duty. Fortunately, he was not present in the morning and among the first people to greet me was Gary Helmstetter, with whom I'd exchanged a number of mails in the past on his LP-49, but which I had never seen. Very much to my surprise he offered to let me sit in it - while in the air! Although I had vague doubts that his offer was meant only as a social pleasantry along the lines of "Please drop by our house sometime for dinner" or "We'll just _have_ to get together again", I had absolutely no inhibitions regarding social niceties and immediately accepted before he could retract his offer. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for Gary, he had been drafted into SFO duty on Saturday and couldn't fly his ship on a fantastic soaring day.
I've been flying my ship out in the wilds of Arizona for the past two years. According to local lore even a rock, with suitably rounded leading edges, will soar for hours in the spring and summer thermals; and most flights won't go to the thermal base unless one carries oxygen. Although I was afraid that I had lost the ability to soar in less than 10Knots of lift I really hoped that I could honor the conditions as well as the ship and prepared myself as quickly as possibly for the flight (perhaps I had a nagging fear that Gary would regret his generosity and retract his offer). I got the ship to the staging area in record time and gave it a thorough pre-flight; then had Gary explain what all those buttons and levers and switches were supposed to do and at what speeds the LP-49 was happy. And as the stipulations of the insurance company had to be met I coerced Karel into giving me his instructor's signoff - after he had posed the standard, obligatory questions such as "Does the pointy end point forward or backward during flight" or "Should you fill it up with premium or unleaded" and I had passed the 50% hurdle I was ready to go.
Gary had informed me that the handling was similar to that of the Pilatus
B-4 (if not superior to it) and I've flown our 2 B-4's before I wasn't
particularly worried about being able to handle the ship; but I still
performed my pre-flight check 2 times in addition to the printed list in the
cockpit. I did manage a passable takeoff with only minor cosmetic damage to
the undercarriage but somewhat more major bruising to my ego. As the hookup
was forward of the wheel well I raised the gear and slid closed the gear
door at 1000' and the cockpit immediately went silent; even though I was
still umbilically attached to the towplane. Although the LP-49 has no real
trim lever there were only insignificant stick forces on tow and none at all
in the 40-60mph range. At 3000' I released in lift and climbed up to 4000'
using only shallow angles of bank. With enough altitude underneath me I got
to play with the LP-49 and started off with stalls at various angles and the
ship handled docilely throughout each exercise. Then I starting stalling
with bank and even stalls at 30 degrees were easily caught with only easily
caught incipient spins. Since I didn't have a parachute along I can't tell
you much about the rest but I think the ship recovers immediately from full
spins with mere neutral stick and it almost loops very well
Fortunately for me Gary once again broke the ice and asked if I was thinking
of starting again - he should have known that I know no shame or inhibitions
when it comes to gliding - and I nonchalantly said "yes" and, in response to
the unasked question, stated that I had too much coffee to drink in the
morning ;-)
Luckily the second tow went much better and once the umbilical cord was cut
things went much better. The first thermal took me to 5000' and I decided to
head out to Mount Wachusett at somewhat higher speed to get a feel for the
sink rate at 70Mph. Needless to say, it was somewhat higher than that of my
glass slipper but pretty good nonetheless. On my way back to Sterling I
realized that conditions had improved with cloud base having gone up
significantly and the thermal strength and reliability having grown - I set
the McReady to 3 on Gary's speed-to-fly director. After rounding the turn at
Sterling I headed for Fitchburg at 70Mph, zig zagging between the
flat-bottomed Cus and only having to circle once. By the time I was over the
field I realized that since poor Gary was stuck as SFO there was no reason
for me to return. I fired up my little GPS and took out the sectional that
Gary had providentially left in the cockpit. Already the vague beginnings of
an evil plan were forming in my subconscious; but I was loathe to admit it
to myself. I headed from Fitchburg to the old military field with X-d out
runways (Moore?) and knew that must have flown over Shirley although I
couldn't identify it from the air (I've since been informed that the road
that I saw and thought might be landable was actually the airfield). The
whole time I was getting sucked up to cloudbase in straight-ahead flight
while underneath the clouds and then cruising at high speed the 2-3 miles in
the blue towards the next Cu.
Arriving at 6400' msl over Moore I succumbed to the temptation of the plan
that had been growing in the back of mind and struck off cross country for
Pepperell. Even though Gary had not explicitly forbidden X-C flying, I felt
that it was a tacit assumption that I would be staying in the general
vicinity of the field. Being a coward at heart, I felt that it would be far
easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission and headed NNE for the
familiar Pepperell airport. Again the 5/8 cloud cover was excellent for
prolonged straight flight and showed absolutely no tendency to overdevelop
and I flew the McReady setting until just short of Pepperell. Then I
realized that I wasn't flying in a race and didn't need to fly by the
numbers and the flight immediately become a lot less busy. The return trip
from Pepperell was done at best L/D or minimum sink and offered me more
opportunities to enjoy the scenery and sensation of flying a nice ship in
near perfect conditions. And since I had already "sinned" in leaving the
general vicinity of Sterling in a loaned ship, I didn't feel any twinges of
guilt when I took a somewhat roundabout route on my way back, flying via
Groton to the 495 and following that highway to Minute Man (which I found
tough to identify until almost right over it). Unfortunately I was enjoying
the scenery so much that I went under 5000' at Minute Man and was suddenly
out of the band of lift. I did not find a another bump in the air until over
the settlement of Clinton and scraped around in mediocre lift which ranged
from +2 to -2 and netted me 100' in about 10 minutes.
With only weak lift left to be found I headed back for Sterling and made a
couple of circuits around the field to bleed off altitude until I could
enter the pattern (anyone reading this far is most likely a glider pilot and
can read between the lines on this last sentence; it really means that I
couldn't find any more lift and _had_ to land).
Cross country flying at any level or distance still remains one of the high
points of soaring for me and is what keeps me interested. Be it a race where
each decision is based only on speed and time or a leisurely stroll through
the countryside, each flight away from the environs of the home field is
inherently exciting. Every time I realize that I can't get back to where I
started from my adrenaline starts rushing, even if I'm directly over an
airport! My first landout here in the US was just such a case - flying out
of El Tiro in Arizona in a contest and I misjudged my final glide and ended
up landing 5 miles short at an airfield called Pinal Airpark; with a paved
runway of 16000' (no typo there...); I ended up parked next to one of the
747s used to ferry the space shuttle from place to place -but that belongs
in another story...
No matter what the glider technology, flying cross country is much more a
matter of using one's abilities, the glider's capabilities and the day's
weather to their full extent than it is a matter of breaking some
triple-digit distance or speed barriers. I had just as much fun flying
Gary's LP-49 this Saturday for a leisurely hop from airport to airport than
I had trying much longer flights in a 41:1 ship. Although I didn't race the
LP-49 and a pilot more competent than myself could have flown double the
distance, the memories of the nice flight will remain with me for a long
time.
(Welcome back Arnd!) ed
The Blanik was grounded on Sunday due to missing paperwork, aircraft
registration and airworthyness certificate.
Sunday I took my number four daughter for her first glider ride.
Things were going well until she informed me that she was feeling warm. So I
figured it best to come down with that clue. She is afraid of flying, but
faired very well and said she might go again. Making progress here.
Ken
While soaking up the HOT Las Vegas sunshine for two weeks I decided to
go flying on Sunday, 6/20 at the Las Vegas Soaring Center in Jean,
Nevada. Owned and operated by Jerry Marshall at the Jean Airport it's
located in the desert flanked on the southeast by small mountains. My
instructor and I flew in a Grob high performance glider. It felt more
relaxing sitting back in the Grob instead of straight up in the 2-33 in
Sterling.
We were towed to 4800'(Jean is 2800' above sea level). As we thermaled
up to class B airspace at 8,000' we figured we'd better level off as
commercial jets roared by a few miles to the southwest heading for Las
Vegas. At one point our ascent exceeded 1,000' per minute! Not much
ridge lift that day, but we had no problem finding thermals. After
reaching the state line we turned back towards the airport and I flew
for awhile. The Grob cuts through the sky like a knife through butter.
As we approached the IP we flew low over the Jean Prison probably
making some of its armed guards nervous. All in all, a great flight!
A couple of hours later while I was checking out the Nevada Landing
casino in Jean I heard there was a multi car accident on I-15 south.
Six people were killed. Made me realize how lucky we are being able to
soar to our heart's content. At least there's less traffic up in the
sky. Let's keep enjoying it until our number comes up.
I took off at 4 exactly into a large blue hole with what turned out to be a
dying cu.
I was in the 1-26 and was able to scrape my way to 4K before the cloud
melted.
The nearest cloud was about 4 or more miles away, but it was towering and
had
a nice concave base.
There was sink all the way there. I arrived in the vicinity at 2500 feet.
Several minutes later, at 2200 feet, I found the motherload of lift and
quickly climbed to over 5000 feet. Life became easier after that. I soared
around for another hour, mostly at around 5000 feet. At one point, I
ventured toward the outskirts of Worcester and noticed a cloud street
forming
heading off toward Fitchburg. Starting at 5000 feet, I turned and headed
straight towards Fitchburg. I never made a single turn and arrived at
Fitchburg at about 4500 feet. I climbed back to 6K and headed home, landing
at 5:50 pm.
Happy flying,
Terry Sweeney
Sunday I was given two Father's Day gifts from my wife and
daughter that can't be beat. First, they gave me a really
neat T-shirt with a picture on it of me walking the wing
of my glider. They had given me one a few years ago when I
soloed N1225S, with me standing proudly next to it. I guess
people probably think I'm really full of myself, when I wear
a shirt with a picture of myself on it, but it gives me a
chance to tell people about the glider in the picture, and
who among us can resist talking about a glider?
The equally terrific thing they gave me was the afternoon to
go soaring, even though I had been away the entire day before
being SFO, and had blown their plans for a nice dinner. I was
determined to put this second gift to good use, and lucky for
me the weather co-operated, clearing nicely by 1 so that when
I launched at 2 there was lift everywhere (at least, above the
pronounced wind sheer at 3k), and I easily made it to Spencer,
then on to Tanner-Hiller, achieving a goal I'd set myself only
a week earlier, for the next time the wind was from the south.
Reaching nearly 6500' MSL, I could easily see Gardner along a
street of lift a few miles away, so I followed it there. It
continued on in that direction, but I could also see Orange,
and there were some good clouds in that direction, so I flew
a few miles that way. At one point I had to choose between two
equally good-looking clouds, and, unable to make up my mind, I
flew between them. As I approached them it became obvious they
were both growing, and in fact converging. They were still
hundreds feet apart when I passed between, but there was over
10 knots of lift in that narrow passage, and I exited well
above either cloud base, at 6850 MSL, the high point of the
flight, in more ways than one. (I tried this trick on the way
back, but picked two deteriorating clouds. Sure enough, 10
knots of sink!)
The last cloud was about 9 miles from Orange, then nothing
until right over the airport. I had heard of this situation
developing before in that area, and, not sure I could make
it there and back above 3000' if the cloud dissipated in the
next 10 minutes, and not wanting to pay at least $100 for a
long aero retrieve, I opted to return to Sterling by way of
the excellent lift along route 2 and route 190. Then I spent
some time thermaling and decided to see
if I could reach downtown Worcester, as I'd never flown over
an actual city before. (Just Nashua ;-). Well, I only made it
about half way before getting down to that nasty sheer layer,
and since I'd been up nearly four hours by then, I called it
a good day and headed back to Sterling.
My thanks to the members who started asking about me after I
had been away over 3 hours; I'm proud to say that - THIS time
at least - there was nothing to worry about.
-Gary
[End of the Soaring Report]
Tom Mathews - Sunday 6/20
Ken Woodard -- Sunday 6/20/99
Jim Voymas - Flying in Vegas Sunday 6/20
Terry Sweeney --- Sunday 6/20/99
Gary Helmstetter - A Fathers day gift Sunday 6/20/99