Had a nice little Eight Hour flight on Tuesday.
It seems to me that the appropriate response to that news might be "Why?". Well long ago (we'll just leave it at that) I had an eight-hour flight in a hang glider. I made it as a record attempt, as I was quite sure no one on the east coast had flown for that long. I had only clamed this endurance record only as an east coast record, as I had assumed somebody out west would have tied on a Barcalounger and flown through the night. As it turns out, my flight stood as the continental record for about 1.5 years. Note that above I refer to the record as an endurance record. During the planning I thought of it as a duration record, after accomplishing it, I felt endurance was a more descriptive term. None of this really mattered, as the world record had been set in Hawaii by some guy who had done the Barcalounger thing, and flown for over 24 hours.
So that's why. I'd done it before in a hang glider and I wanted to do it again in a sailplane.
Although the physical challenge was greater in the hang glider, the flight was made in ridge lift and the only real challenge was to pick the right day. This more recent flight was all in thermal lift, and well actually, the only real challenge was to pick the right day.
And the day was perfect. The first few Cu's were visible at 8:45. Seeing Cu's that early had me slightly concerned that it might over develop, but then the early clouds disappeared. I was reluctant to ask Dick Usen to get to the field early to tow, as the last few good days didn't develop until later in the day. This was only a personal goal, not anything official. He had said that he would get there by 10:00 and we could be flying by 11:00. I figured if the day was as good as I thought, an 11:00 takeoff would work with a 7:00 landing. The next Cu's appeared just before 10:00 and I was wishing I had bothered Dick, but too late now. I just made sure I was first in line. We were locked out of the FBO so I couldn't get the golf cart, undaunted I pushed the glider to the grid myself. I put 76PS in the front of the line and got my stuff together. We finally got into the FBO where I found out that the battery for 76PS was dead. I had my own handheld radio, but I really didn't like the idea of flying all that time without an audio vario. I ended up using the 1-26 battery. No one was flying the glider, and I knew it would work.
Off shortly after 11:00 into a gorgeous day. The cloud bases started at ~6000 ft, but ended up almost 8000 after 5:00. Didn't go far (I'm not checked out for XC yet), but I had fun bouncing around within a 10/1 glide of Sterling. About 6 hours into the flight I was wondering if I would want to continue, and I stumbled onto some great 8-knot lift. That raised my spirits, as well as the glider and I decided it was worth a try. I tried to stay as high as possible for the rest of the day, and took the last good-looking cloud to ~7000 ft at about 6:15. I figured I probably had it made, but I tried to stick around in the best "lift" I could find, mostly zero sink to slightly down.
Around 6:30 I got a call on the radio from Desi: "Seven Six Papa Sierra, where are you, and what are your intentions"? I told him that at 7:00 I would have flown 8 hours and it was my intention to do so. He graciously offered to stick around and help me put the glider away, so I continued to drift down in the light lift and smooth conditions. Around 7:00 at about 3500 ft I headed over to the airport (I had been a few miles to the SW), I couldn't help myself and I went looking to see if the quarry was still working, but nothing better than 0. So about 2200 ft and ~ 7:15 I decided Desi had waited long enough and I pulled the spoilers and headed in. It took a little time to extract myself from the glider and my legs were noticeably shaky, but I regained my land legs and put away the glider. Desi's parting comment was "If you write this up for the soaring report, make the story shorter than the flight"!
Rick Roelke
Flight plan: Sterling, Fitchburg, Brookline, Jaffrey, Gardner, Sterling. 70 miles total.
Try #1: over-optimistic release at 2k AGL a minute or so after flying through wide area of strong lift. 25 minutes later, on the ground after battling from 800 to 1200 AGL 4 times. Drag it back for a relight. (Next time, if I'm going to release at 2k, it's going to be IN the lift, not a mile after it!)
Try #2: I release in good lift, climb to 6k MSL, hop cloud-to-cloud all the way to Brookline. Climb to 7.2k. Problem: Jaffrey is 15 miles west of Brookline, and there are no clouds in that direction. The tow pilots have left Sterling; if I can't get back to Sterling in the glider I'm flying, I'm stuck where I land unless I can cajole someone to drive an hour to pick me up; the glider is stuck there longer. Hmmm. A wisp appears a few miles west. I fly out to it, catch a bit of the thermal. It's a bubble; the cloud is already gone. Fly back to the big cloud near Brookline, hang out for a while, watching the line of cloud shadows. I'm on the western edge, and it has moved east in my little 10-minute jaunt. If I wait around much longer, I may have a hard time returning to Sterling. Phooey.
I cloud-hop back, arrive at Sterling around 6 pm, climb back to 5k south of the field just to prove to myself that I was too conservative, throw away the rest of the altitude exploring the sink around the lift (pilots who do spins to throw away altitude have fun, but they don't learn anything), do a "low" (500') pass at 120 mph to amuse my friends on the ground, and land at 6:30.
Same flight plan, try #3. While waiting to launch, a strange thing occurs; I am joined by two other pilots: a chicken and an eagle. They take up positions in the cargo space behind my head. It is clear they intend to advise me during the course of the flight. (I don't want the help, but allow them to stay when they agree that pecking a PIC is illegal and dangerous.)
We release at 1 pm in good lift; climb to cloud base at 5.5k MSL directly over Sterling airport. Hmmm, ground wind gusting to 15 and other clues confirm the Albany balloon data: 20+ knots at 5k. The chicken speaks in my left ear: "You have never succeeded at going anywhere in this much wind, except Moore once when you were supposed to return to Pepperell. The eagle speaks in my right: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You've got 5k underneath you and you've barely started. It's early; the day will get better."
Eagle wins. Set out for Fitchburg at 55 mph. 4 miles take 10 minutes, and cost 1500 feet. Lotsa strong sink near the clouds. Next cloud base is higher, 5.5k. The lift is strong low, but above 5k there's vicious turbulence. The chicken starts clucking. The eagle says, "So? Correct for the wind. Turbulence is just an annoyance as long as you can keep control of the glider."
Eagle wins again. Set out for Fitchburg at 70 mph, reach it at 5k. Hey, weird, flying fast can be a _good_ thing! There are two other gliders with me; we climb to 5800.
There are clouds in Jaffrey's direction; screw Brookline, I'm heading direct. As I fly 70 mph, I notice smooth air and reduced sink. I slow to 45: +100 fpm. Locals on 123.3 are blathering about wave. Make sense; the strong turbulence is wave rotor. TI forecast shows stable air starting at 7k. GPS says I'm doing 25 mph ground speed; seems good enough, since it's not costing me any altitude. Neat, I can see the top of the flat cloud in front of me. Chicken is delighted; eagle is nocommittal. Whoops, wow what sink, 500' gone, since I was flying so slow when I hit it. Continue west, fly under the cloud I was above a moment ago. It takes a while to find the lift; in the 10 minutes I use up finding it, I drift halfway back to Fitchburg. So much for using the wave on this flight.
There's a street forming that goes over Zim and continues north; it looks like it points straight to a high foothill past Peterborough. Could work... cloud-hop to Brookline. OK, now jump to the first cloud west a couple miles. Eeek, forgot to fly fast; down to 3.5k without reaching it. Brookline is not the best landout; it is tilted, narrow, there's a crosswind... Start to head there anyway, getting slowly more frantic. Chicken panics: "Bawk, bawk!". Whoosh, there's 8 knots of lift, we're quickly back to 5k; the eagle is doing the crowing now.
Ride the bubbles through more nasty turbulence, back to 5.5. Surprise, I'm back under the original street. No other gliders as far as I can see, though there's a big jet going by a few miles south at 5k. Smart move: stay below the turbulence.
There's a big sand pit of some sort just short of Petersborough; it appears the street might have started from that, rather than the hill. Maybe they're working together? It's well north of my course to Jaffrey, which is due west, but the cloud shadows indicate well-developed clouds just south of it, above the hills. Sure enough, there's -100 to +600 fpm all the way to Peterborough; arrive at 6600. Turn south, blam, back down to 5.5 after only a few miles, though I've been under clouds for most of it. Clearly the lift is very narrow here. I try left, I try right; finally I find it again; back to 6k, balancing on the incredibly narrow line of lift, but now drifted 5 miles east of desired course. Well, gee, I'm only a couple miles from the street again...
The chicken speaks: "It's 3 pm, you've been up 2 solid hours, you're 30.5 miles from Sterling, the day is still OK, but how long until it's not? You are over unlandable terrain. You're fatigued from fighting turbulence. You need some reserves of strength to fight your way back home. This street is still working back to Fitchburg; you can flat-glide home from there."
The eagle is silent. The chicken wins. Begin flying toward Fitchburg. Fly over Greenville, all the way to Ashby. The street is working, altitude is around 6000, speed is 70+. The eagle sees an opening. "Look, there's a big cloud over Monadnock, with a trail of cloud that reaches more than half way to here. When you tried going west before, and blew it, you reached the lift well west of the street, coming back. This street has been here 2 hours, it hasn't moved much, it'll be here for you; give Jaffrey one last shot. Fly fast this time!"
The eagle wins. The chicken is horrified. Climb as high as possible under the street, nearly 6500 feet under a concave part. Accelerate to 90 mph in the strong lift, dive through the tendrils hanging down at the upwind edge. The vario pegs down for nearly a minute in the clear. Down to 5500 and ready to murder the eagle. Then, it changes to -400, normal for that speed. Slow to 70, it's just -250. Keep speed 70 all the way to Jaffrey. There's a little lift above the lakes just east, probably bubbles coming off the airport; not enough to slow down for, going west. 4.5k over the airport, the cloud from Monadnock is still at least a mile away, no other clouds in other directions for 10 miles. Turn 180 and slow to 45. Gee, the street looks pretty far away. "It's downwind", says the eagle. "Land here", says the chicken, "it's nearly 4 pm, how long do you think your luck will last?". "60 mph, heading 90 degrees" says the GPS. Float back toward the lakes. The bubbles from the airport occasionally push the vario positive, the rest of the time it says -100. Two miles from the street, +800 lift again; the eagle crows triumphantly as I just turn right and ride it to the south. The turbulence at 5000 greets me by knocking my GPS out of its mount to the floor; out come the batteries. Keep battling the turbulence and climbing; at 6000 it's smooth enough to gather the parts and re-assemble the GPS.
The cloud base rises, but the lift weakens as I go south; at 6750 I find the street is petering out. I'm exactly 15 miles from Sterling. "Game for your first LP-49 final glide?", asks the eagle. "Climb if you hit lift along the way" advises the chicken. "Find out what you and your glider can do in real conditions", advises the eagle. "Yeah, find out the hard way", worries the chicken. "There is no easy way", counters the eagle.
I have a mile+ of altitude, this is a 35-to-1 glider at best L/D, and I have a 20 mph tailwind, right? A very conservative estimate (no wind, half L/D) says I need 4525' to make Sterling. 1715' AGL to spare; this seems enough for a first try. There are some nice fields the last few miles... What the heck, I made it to Jaffrey after having given up. I decide to experience a real final glide in the LP-49. Being an engineer after all, I enter a GPS waypoint; I leave the thermal at 6700' MSL, 15.0 miles from Sterling, at 4:10:00 pm.
I fly 55 mph; the vario reads between -150 and -200, the GPS says I'm doing 60 (huh?) and I'll be at Sterling in 15 minutes (duh). The chicken points out that the 20 mph tailwind is now 5 mph. The eagle counters that my calculation didn't count on it anyway.
A mile past the end of the street, sink: the vario says -500; the chicken begins flapping his wings, and looks at Fitchburg several miles southeast. I resolutely stay on course and hold 55. The sink lasts for only a minute; maybe 325 extra feet lost, so the margin is now 1390'. I notice I'm always making a slight correction to the right; the wind has shifted from northwest to west. The GPS now says I'm going 55. With no tailwind component, the crosswind at the lower altitude is a negative. The chicken pessimistically mutters that the wind will probably continue to shift further south as we descend, becoming a headwind. The eagle answers that if we're going to bother with "probablys", it will probably also weaken as we descend. South of route 2, downwind of a landfill, the vario says +500, and the chicken wants me to slow down and turn, but I'm at 5625 MSL, 10 miles out; I know I have the field made if I continue. The eagle points out that I'm tired, and might not be able to work the thermal, or that it might be a bubble. (I disagree, but don't argue). The vario stays +500 for almost 30 seconds (big bubble!); my guess is 325 gained compared to glideslope, thus cancelling the earlier sink.
The GPS says 0.0 miles to Sterling at 4:26:00; altimeter says 4300' MSL. So, used up 2400', for an actual L/D of 33. Not as good as I'd hoped, but not bad. The slight crosswind, and sticking with 55 through sink and lift, certainly didn't help. But the key fact, after all, is that I arrived over 3800' AGL.
Descend, land, roll to a stop near my tiedown, and open the canopy. My consultants had gone quiet around the time I put the gear down. The chicken hops out, pecks at a bug (or maybe kissed the ground), and stomps off. The eagle says, "Jaffree would have been far easier Tuesday, you know" and is gone.
Ahhhh, what does HE know about needing a car to get home?
Actual flight: Sterling-> Fitchburg-> Brookline-> Peterborough-> Ashby-> Jaffrey-> Ashby-> Sterling, about 97.5 miles.
Gary
After launching at Noon the first 90 minutes were a struggle just to stay up. Finally I set out on a mini-task of Fitchburg, Spencer and back. The completion of that task brought much improved conditions and I set out again to fly Brookline, Southbridge and back. The conditions were really good North of Fitchburg. My flight log shows achieved climb rates of 3.5 to 4 knots and the lift seemed very predictably under well spaced clouds. After turning Brookline and heading South past Sterling the cu's ended. I pushed into the blue about 4 miles past Spencer but found only weak lift and turned back 6 miles short of Southbridge. After climbing again near the edge of the cu, the flight continued with a remarkable 15 miles of dolphin flying with no height loss. Being a stranger to 40:1 this was new to me and a beautiful thing. Finally I turned around 4 miles North of Fitchburg and continued the straight glide home to end a fun flight of zigzagging North and South of Sterling.
Mark Koepper
PW-5 3K
After a brief check out by Shawn Broeder (it is a power craft after all) I soloed the tractor at Sterling. After countless low speed taxis up and down the runway, I finally decide it was time to give it a go. Shifted to 7th gear, throttled up all the way, but even with all 4 rotors going at full RPM, couldn't get it off the ground. I think it must have been a span-loading thing. I guess that rotorcraft rating will have to wait. But at least the grass is a little shorter.
Rick Roelke