Mother's day was blue with streeting lift and sink patterns. I experienced a sink street soon after release and got very low as a result. During the ensuing low save over the airport I observed four thermaling gliders that had formed a line along a lift street. After the early struggle I was wary and flew around some close turnpoints for practise. I flew the weenie triangle once (Thomas Prince School in Princeton, First Church in Sterling and the Stone Church in West Boylston). Then I gained just slightly more confidence and zig-zagged to Fitchburg, Spencer, Fitchburg and return for a total of 125 km. To me it seemed most of the lift was not worth working above 4500 feet but I did find two thermals during the day that had strong organized lift higher than that. On those occasions from higher up a haze layer became apparent. So possibly there was an inversion that only allowed an occasional strong thermal past.
Mark Koepper
PW-5 3K
The ASA race series was scheduled to fly out of El Tiro, Tucson, this weekend but they managed to run one of their tow planes through a fence (no one injured) so we changed it to Turf. There is a very stable layer of air over AZ which ruined any plans for distance flights, but we still tried for some long flights.
Saturday's task was a simple out and return from Estrella to Ryan airport (about 90 miles away) with only light winds but at most 9000' of thermal activity. We started off at 13:00 and I had the honor of being the last in line. I released at 1500' in a 5 knot thermal that quickly got me high enough to join the others circling along the Estrella mountain range. It seemed as if all 15 "a" class ships were in the same thermal. It had topped out at 7500' and all of us were at close to the top when the CD opened the start gate, and a stately procession of glass ships peeled out of the thermal and proceeded to the IP and subsequently to the top of the gate. I was somewhere in the middle and got a good start and proceeded towards the distant turnpoint. The air on the far side of the gate was very smooth and since there was little to see outside of the cockpit I watched the altimeter unwind. About 10 miles out of the gate and 1500 feet lower I caught a very tight and squirrelly thermal which smoothed out and strengthened about 6000 feet into a booming 6 knotter. A number of gliders joined into the thermal below me and I decided to head back to the gate for a second start. BIG mistake! I couldn't find any lift on the far side of the gate and spent 45 minutes reaching a high enough altitude in order to get a second start. By the time I went through it again everybody had disappeared and I headed off into the flatlands and the distant dust devils, which remained distant no matter how hard I tried to reach them. I couldn't find any lift at all and kept on veering off the course line so that I could be within glide distance of some landable field. I fought my way 40 miles towards the turnpoint, never getting above 3000' agl. I finally had to stay around a military helicopter landing field with 4 parallel (but very short) runways as I couldn't glide anywhere else. I did notice 2 military Hueys doing hovering touch and go's and hoped that their advanced electronics wouldn't identify me as the latter "F" of "EFF". Just as I was doing my upwind turn I noticed a dirt strip and decided that it might behoove me to land there. It turned out that this was an old abandoned strip called "EDS field", and the long runway had a big Palo Verde growing on it but the short one looked barely landable so I did. I landed with a bit of tailwind and had to veer around two bushes that were taller than they looked from the air. I radioed in for a ground retrieve but the soonest that they could get somebody to pick me up was about 2 hours (plus another hour drive time) so I opted for an aero retrieve. I managed to disturb a couple of scorpions while pushing the glider back to the start but they quickly scurried off and I was left to wallow in self pity as I heard other pilots calling in final glide... The Pawnee arrived within an hour and we had a long discussion on takeoff tactics (he had no radio) as we had not only the bushes to clear but there were some 1-foot steel rods coming out where I assume runway lights had once been. I had propped the wings up with some sticks and his takeoff tactics included a quick jerk to get the glider rolling. Since we were taking off from a dirt strip the first 100 yards of takeoff roll were essentially IFR due to flying dust, I popped over the dust cloud and veered to the right in order to clear some bushes; after that everything was in order. It was a bit of a thrill to be able to release the tow plane from 22nm out and actually beat him back - just about the only positive thrill of the day. I didn't even get the 50 point bonus for landing at an airfield as EDS was closed (even though the sectional has it still marked as active).
Day 2 - even more marginal than Saturday. The initial task was Estrella-La Cholla-Turnbow-Estrella for about 200 miles, but just before launch the CD ran around and changed it to Estrella-Bakers-Acres-EDS(deja-vu)-Estrella. There were bands of high cirrus moving through and some of those were thick enough to certainly cut down convection. The day's top of lift was supposed to be 1000' lower than Saturday so I approached the start line with more than the normal amount of trepidation. Once again we all concentrated in one thermal but I made sure that I was close enough to the gate when it opened so that I could be among the first through. I took a somewhat more westerly course than the day before but got the same dead air. I had flown over 20 miles before I caught the first wisp of a thermal and milked a 1/2 knot thermal only because by this time I was very low and worried (no nice airfields around this time). Another glider joined me but after a hundred feet of gain he radioed that he was going to head back and I decided to do the same, except that I peeled out going the wrong way into some heavy sink and was forced to continue straight ahead so that I could reach a distant field. About this time I heard one pilot complaining to another that he shouldn't be dumping ballast on him and the best pilot of the series, Alan Reeter, explaining that he had landed out at Potter's field - he crossed the gate and did a best L/D final glide straight into that airport. Not very auspicious. Just when I had a safe glide to the field made and was about to dump my water ballast I caught the edge of a thermal and worked on getting it centered. The vario read from -8 to +10 but soon it calmed down to a steady 7 knots and it topped out at 8500' . By this time there were 6 others in the same thermal, but they were at least 3000' below me and I knew I was in the lead. The air above 8000 was very buoyant and I made very good speed. I inadvertently powered off my data logger and had to reprogram it on fly but had it back up and running by the time I reached the turnpoint. After the logger beeped at me I did a hard turn and headed for a dust devil in the distance. This one took me to 9000' and according to my computer I was only 2500' below final glide so I cranked up the McReady and headed for Turnbow (the more observant ones will have caught on now). I had a great run along some hills that gave me a 15 mile stretch with no altitude loss even though I was going 90. I hit some heavy sink for a short stretch but only had to do one turn in a 6 knot thermal before the computer told me that I had made final glide. Only 20 miles left and I hadn't seen another ship since the turnpoint, so I knew that I was in front! I called in my 3 mile just as TS1 did, we talked together and it turned out that he was 0.1 mile closer but at the same altitude. I couldn't see him and got a bit worried. Just as I was about to cross the finish line I saw him pull up and heard the "good finished TS1 call" - but he was coming in from the opposite direction!
Well, I had programmed in the wrong 2nd turnpoint. My best racing day ever, I think I beat the Discus 2, Ventus, LS-6s and LS-8s in raw speed but I had flown the wrong #$@#$$%^%#$ task. At least I got the 50 bonus points for landing at an airfield this time.
-Arnd
GBSC Foreign Correspondent
I had my second and third flights of the season on Sunday with Nancy Lincoln and Dave Zlotek. On the first flight of the season the previous weekend, we got as high as 1500' before turning around due to turbulence. My previous 11 flights were all more than a year ago, mostly in 98. So, I was effectively starting from scratch on Sunday as Nancy and Dave will attest.
Conditions on the first flight are relatively calm with the wind almost straight down the runway. Nancy's instructions on tow are to apply a little forward pressure on the stick and keep the tow plane's horizontal stabilizer lined up with its wheels. When I feel Nancy's hands on my shoulders, I know I have the controls. About three seconds later, we're looking down at the tow plane and Nancy's hands are off my shoulders. This routine is repeated 3 or 4 times before we reach 3000' and release from tow. Nancy calls me a jerk to reinforce the fact that my control inputs are too big or jerky. (I think that's what she meant.)
(Dave Batson, my first GBSC instructor, had a simpler teaching method. He explained that following the tow plane was exactly like formation flying. Thanks, Dave. Maybe if we paint the Pawnee to look like an F4, that will help.)
After release, we do a couple of 360s before I spot the airport. This is disconcerting because I don't usually have that problem. After a few more simple maneuvers, we're in -1000 fpm sink. Nancy suggests we pick up speed to fly through it and to head for the IP. We reach the IP at about 1500', execute a conventional pattern, and land right on the new arrow (almost). As we walk the ship back to the grid, Nancy continues the reinforcement about my towing technique.
By the time Dave and I are ready to take off, the wind has shifted slightly to the West. Tom Matthews comes over as we're hooking up to offer encouragement and to advise Dave to carry a change of underwear.
Again, conditions on takeoff are relatively calm. Dave's advice on tow is to keep the horizon at a fixed position on the windshield. When we get above the tow plane, he suggests flying straight and level and letting the tow plane rise to our level. I find again that I'm not applying enough forward pressure and my control inputs are too late and too large. Dave never gathers the courage to put his hands on my shoulders.
We release at 3000' and go in search of thermals, finding a small one off the North end of the runway. We get a few hundred fpm of lift but keep flying out of it, losing more than we've gained. A Blanik a few hundred feet above us seems to be struggling as well and, at one point, passes us at the same altitude. After ten minutes of this, we are at 1800' near the Northwest end of the runway. We make one more stab toward the West, to no avail, and do a 270 degree turn to the right to enter the downwind leg of the pattern.
Back on the ground, Dave's takeaway message is that he did too much of the flying on tow. He wants me to use pressure on the stick rather than movement and to follow the tow plane with lead rather than lag. He signs my logbook and suggests with a grimace that we fly again.
How many instructors will I go through before solo?
John Fallon