| Session 12 |
|---|
WHEN
: Sunday 25th June 2000
WHAT
: Too bad I had to come down!
WHO
: 2 solo flights.
HOW LONG : 1hr 16 minutes in 2 flights
Things looked GOOD this weekend for soaring. Pity it didn't look good for our old Cessna 140 - the engine decided to lose power on takeoff, causing me to abort a takeoff at about 30' AGL on Saturday (the problem: a sticking valve). So I booked the club's 170 to go up to the soaring club. But the C170 broken too (broken tailwheel steering horn). Fortunately, the club's venerable Cessna 150 was available. I took the I-10 corridor through Houston to get to the club, rather than my normal scenic route around the south side. Surprisingly, the C150 is 10 mph slower than the C140, despite having 15 more horsepower...but it does climb a lot better!
Things weren't looking good for power planes at the soaring club either. One of the towplanes was broken too! So we only had one and it was very busy. Amazingly, I managed to get airborne in the Grob only half an hour late, despite the extra time it was taking to launch due to only having one towplane. Since the day looked good, I brought my Camelbak along (a small backpack with half a gallon of water which was designed for cycling). I've noticed that I get thirsty flying the gliders.
I released at 2,000 ft. The conditions looked strong, and the grid had quickly cleared, so people were staying up. However, I was soon getting down to 1,400 ft. having only found dismal patches of zero sink here and there. I continued heading towards a big cumulus cloud near the field, and all of a sudden, the vario flicked up briefly...I kept going for a couple of seconds, then the vario was indicating 6 up! I started to turn, keeping the Grob going as slow as I could make it, so I could try and core the thermal - and I had it! The altimeter started going up! I held the bank angle, and was climbing in a 6 to 8 knot up thermal. The Blanik saw what was happening and joined me, about three or four hundred feet below me. Soon I was watching the altimeter go through my release altitude. I had now bettered my release height for the first time whilst solo (and the first time since Feburary!)
The thermal kept going like this. The Blanik also had it cored well, and we were both going up. I kept an eye out for the Blanik below me. At 4,200 ft. above the ground, I was getting close to the cloud base, so I decided to come out the thermal and see if I could find another one.
I started going upwind towards Waller. I kept finding patchy bits of lift, but nothing worth writing home about. I had to occasionally speed up to penetrate some sink, but I found a longish line of lift, and held about 3,800 ft for a while. Since I'm still a student, I didn't fancy landing out, so having found no lift by the time I was close to Waller, I decided to point towards the glider field to make sure I didn't get too far away. I got quite close to the field without finding any lift of significance - just a little here and there to maintain altitude every so often. I was down to about 3,000 ft when I saw the PW-5. The lady flying the PW-5 is a very experienced glider pilot, and I suspected she would be able to find some lift. So I followed the PW-5 for a while! It was fun - every so often, I would see the PW-5 suddenly start to climb. A couple of seconds later, I would too...so I followed her around. However, we still weren't in a lot of lift, and it looked like the other ship was about to head off on a cross-country, so I moved back nearer the field, heading for a convenient cumulus.
I could see the Blanik above me - the same one which had followed me into the first thermal. The Blanik was occasionally circling, flying straight...circling a bit - under a large cumulus cloud. Sure enough, I found some weak lift - about 2 up. I saw the Blanik circle under the opposite end of the cloud. I decided to investigate and see if he'd found anything worthwhile. He had! Once again, I was in 6 to 8 knots up...and the altimeter was climbing. We were both circling, and other gliders saw us. I saw three others join below. Keeping a look-out was a lot of work. The Blanik, being above, was the easiest for me to see. I was a bit worried about the ones below though, since they were a lot harder to keep an eye on. I was also catching up with the Blanik. I was careful to keep my distance as I flew through his altitude. It looked like one of the higher performance machines was catching up with me! I decided to leave the thermal as the cloud bases were coming up, and I really didn't want to accidentally catch the base of a cloud with so many other ships being close by. I found some other lift soon afterwards. Sadly, I had to land, since someone else had the Grob after me.
I used my descent to practise a few manuevers - steep turns, general coordination, that sort of thing. I also tried flying fast. The Grob can pick up speed quite quickly. It's a good machine. Soon I was back in the pattern for landing. I landed after remaining aloft for 1 hour and 5 minutes from a 2,000 ft tow. A "B" badge effort and then some ;-)
Since the Schweizer 2-33 was going begging, I decided to get a second flight in. The second flight really gave me an appreciation for a ship that can penetrate. There was some quite strong sink to go with the strong thermals - and I hit the sink in the 2-33. In the Grob, you can speed up quite a bit and zip right through the sink. I hadn't quite got to appreciate this...but when a brief piece of sink wiped out my altitude in the 2-33, forcing me back to the field, I really appreciate how the Grob handles it! My second flight was only 11 minutes, but it's another solo towards the rating...
I flew home to Houston Gulf feeling very satisfied. Hopefully the next session will be good too! It's such a great feeling remaining aloft for an hour, powered only by the currents of the Earth's atmosphere.