Session 12

WHEN     : Sunday 2nd July 2000
WHAT     : Eagles May Soar...
WHO      : 2 solo flights.
HOW LONG : 3hr 46 minutes in 2 flights

  As is seemingly par for the course for me, on the first flight, I didn't find anything but the weakest scraps of lift. Just my luck - just when the Grob is available for the rest of the afternoon, it doesn't look like I'm going to stay up! I was towed up to 2,000, but all I found was a lot of sink then some barely rising air after I had gotten down to about 1,000' AGL. However, everyone else was staying up. Why couldn't I?

  After landing, I decided to try again. There must be lift out there, I just didn't find it. It didn't take long to get a tow since no other gliders had returned...

  Once again, I was towed to 2,000 feet AGL. However, this time I found a thermal - a strong one! Scant minutes later, I was at over 5,000 feet! Now I had some altitude to explore the air. I decided to fly upwind towards Waller and Hempstead, about 10 miles to the south. The great thing about the Grob is you can penetrate sink pretty well. As I left the thermal, and hit the sinking air around it, I pushed down the nose. Travelling at 70 knots towards the next thermal meant that it didn't take very long. The clouds marked the thermals very well - beatiful, dome-topped cumulus clouds with 4 to 6 knots of lift underneath them! I circled under a couple of them to keep my altitude up. Finally, I got to Hwy 290 just to the west of Waller, and thermalled up to 5,700' AGL, the highest I've been in a glider so far. I followed 290 westbound to Hempstead, finding thermals along the way, and then back northbound. After about an hour of flying this "box", I came back closer to the glider field. There was not a lot in the way of thermals in this direction, but even so, I was still at 4,000 AGL when I was close to home. Finding another strong thermal (plus a small gaggle of gliders) got me up to 5,500' again. This thermal was so strong it pegged the vario at 10 up a couple of times! It's a great feeling when your ears pop because you're climbing so fast...

  I decided to go north a bit, which is downwind of the field. However, with so much altitude and a glider that penetrates pretty well, this was easily possible without fearing having to struggle back to the glider port (or landing out). I followed one of the PW5s, the pilot of which had the same idea. The gaggle of gliders in that thermal made me a little cautious - it was getting hard to keep tabs on all of them.

  After about three hours of this, I had to think about returning home! I kept seeing the club's L-33 Blanik Solo out and about too - he had launched at mid-day, and now it was 6 pm. I had spent the last three hours or so at over 4,000 feet. It was turning out to be a very successful day.

  I then saw an awesome sight. A cloud street had built up between my position - about 3 miles north of the glider club, and Waller, now about 12 miles south. I had to try it out...

  It turned out that the lift was very strong under the cloud street. I got close enough to the cloud bases that I could not climb further. But now I was flying straight and level, on a heading of 150 degrees at 5,500 feet (which is even a valid VFR cruise altitude for that heading!) at 60 to 65 knots! After making Waller for the second time, I really now had to return home. I sadly left the lift, and pushed the nose over for a 70 knot return. I was still at around 4,000' AGL when I was over the IP!

  I decided to take the opportunity to practise some airwork - steep turns, coordination and that kind of thing to use up my altitude. Shortly afterwards I landed...touching down after over three and a half hours of soaring flight!

  After landing, the FOO (groundcrew chief) asked me if I had seen the Solo Blanik up there - they were worried that he'd landed out! I told them I had seen him about ten minutes ago at about 5,000 feet. I think they were a bit relieved! About ten minutes later, he returned after over six hours of flying...

  Getting up high is something that was really good. It allowed me to explore a lot more and find where the thermals were likely to be. At 2,000' AGL after the tow, you just don't have that much time to hunt the thermals. At almost 6,000' AGL, you've got quite a while longer. That really helped the day's soaring become extremely successful.