Recent Experiences at Dickey Ridge

[mcgowantk]

While my memory is still relatively fresh, I thought I would expand on my approach and landing at Dickey Ridge last Sunday and share some of my thoughts on this experience. Things turned out fine, but I did learn some lessons.

First, some background on the day and the site. The day looked WSW for sure. Winds looked possibly strong for Dickey Ridge. I prefer 5-10 from WSW to W at Dickey Ridge, but it was forecast to be 10-15. Anything much stronger than 10 mph at launch and the 700 foot mountain immediately upwind of the LZ starts to create unpleasant rotors. The LZ is very contoured and generally slopes downhill into the wind. We either land along a WSW spine where the ground is relatively level or dive into a gully and land up hill to the south (ending up at the same spot on the WSW spine as you would land using the spine approach). My understanding is that Pete Schumann and Mitch Shipley found this LZ when flying Dickeys and the wind turned NW. They dove into the gully and landed up hill headed to the north. It is one of the more challenging LZs we use, but because we fly there in light winds, I have always landed on the spine or across the gully to the south without a problem.

Last Sunday, the winds were west at launch and light. Pete waited for a while before a good cycle came through and I had to wait about 10 minutes for the great thermal that took me to base. After flying for about an hour, I had sunk down to launch level. When I tried to ridge soar, there was no lift to be found. I fact, I was sinking out quickly with the winds being so cross from the north they seemed to be from over the back. I even had trouble finding lift on the NW facing part of the mountain.

When heading out to land, I kept thinking about whether I should try the WSW spine because it would be less cross to the wind or land up the gully to the south like Pete did an hour earlier and plan on winds being very light. I never felt like I had a good plan but had run out of air, so I started the traditional DFB approach and set up to land along the spine. I could see leaves moving on the trees surrounding the LZ but not well enough to see the direction. As I started on final, it quickly became clear that I could possible overshoot the field and that I had a very fast ground speed. At the last opportunity, I turned 90 degrees to the north. I was able to turn low only because I could put my right wing into the gully. I quickly leveled off and was right at ground level. I flaired almost immediately and had a non-eventful landing in very tall grass (head high but thin above the knees). After landing, I estimated the wind at 10 mph blowing straight down the spine, so if I had kept to my original plan – a 10 mph downwind landing.

I picked up a couple of important lessons/reminders from this. First, I need to evaluate the conditions in the LZ based on what I observe at that time. Conditions for my last 30 flights there were not much help on Sunday. It was very difficult for me to accept that winds were strong from the north and not WSW as forecast or west as we saw at launch, even though I had flown for the past hour and noticed the unusual winds. I even thought about how Pete and Mitch first landed to the north there. But landing in the opposite direction that we typically use was very difficult for me. I think days like Sunday are the types of days when you can get hurt. Conditions can be very different than what we would expect and it is hard to believe your eyes. It reminds me of the pilot who said he landed downwind because he thought the windsock was just wrong. I need to have sufficient confidence to base my flying decisions on what I observe not what I expect (and that can be hard to do!). I would say that I was very lucky that day because I delayed so long in making the correct decision.

Another lesson is that back when I flew all the time, I would drill myself about how I would handle unusual situations. One drill that I used to mentally rehearse was landing to the north at Dickey Ridge. I also used to consider how I would land at all our LZs with unusual conditions and what I would do if I found myself too high or too low at any particular point in my approach. If I recently had done a few more of these mental exercises, it may have been easier for me to adapt my approach to the actual conditions because I would have a “plan in the can” on how to land to the north. So another lesson is that I need to spend time thinking about different scenarios so the unexpected is not quite so unexpected.

I am sure there are other lessons that could be learned from this too. I thought that in an effort to do more as safety director, I would share this experience with the club in the hope that others would benefit from my mistakes.

Tom McGowan

[RedBaron]

Thanks for sharing Tom. I'm glad nothing bad happened. Just reminding everybody how happy I am with my WW drogue chute. I use it for challenging fields only, it seems to be very reliable and effectively turns my Litespeed into an Eagle glidewise. Even downhill landings are no problem with it. The most important thing though is that it allows me to fly a very steep and fast approach eliminating turns close to the ground or trees.

[theflyingdude]

Perhaps taking the opportunity to put a windsock or some streamers in the LZ before the flight would be a good investment of time and resources?

[stevek]

There are some houses with flags along the road to the north but they are hard to find if you don't know where to look. We don't tend to put up streamers in the LZ because it is usually unnecessary -- it is either totally dead or light south. Unless it isn't. I took out a DT there years ago when it wasn't. If you are unsure of the direction, site protocol is to let somebody else land first and watch what happens.

If it is blowing out of the north I think it is better to land Rudacilles -- the field just to the south.

[Lauren Tjaden]

"If you are unsure of the direction, site protocol is to let somebody else land first and watch what happens." Gawd, I have missed your posts, Kinsley!!!
Lauren

[tdilisio]

Good information, Tom. Thanks for sharing that with us. Being a newbie, I try to soak up anything that helps. Good story, too. Should be in the USHPA magazine.

[KirkLewis]

Be careful with that drogue Janni. I was reading about them on hang gliding.org and some people posted some videos of people more or less falling out of the air after deploying them. Here's an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgWdQljmccI

I saw another video where the guy was on his final turn (he had deployed earlier) and again... he just sort of fell out of the air. It looks like they make stalling much easier and they take longer to recover. I'm sure you're aware of this I just couldn't help but say something as after I saw those videos drogues scare me

[stevek]

ok. I just made a weighted windsock/streamer for Dickeys. It will live up by the gate at the southwest corner where we breakdown.

[Lauren Tjaden]

Hey Tom,
I didn't say how well thought out your post was and that I'm glad you're okay. Thanks.
Steve, it occurred to me that you thought I was being sarcastic when I said I missed your posts. I meant it. You always had the driest, best sense of humor. Paul and I were rolling on the floor reading your post. I was just worried since the meaning of things sometimes is lost on the listserv...
Lauren

[eggzkitz]

Tom,

Glad you landed OK, and it sounds like you made a good last minute judgement.
I think I landed before you, five miles to north in Front Royal school.
I had north winds in Front Royal when I landed. I didn't believe my vario when it started showing north winds but then I noticed the ground speed was showing the same thing and the flags told the same story.

There was a lot of leef peeping low traffic that day. I had 3-4 light aircraft pass below me and one commuter jet cross the ridge just inside cloudbase above me. Critical to stay 500' below cloudbase as required when flying that ridge.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Joe Schad]

Tom,

Thanks for making a thoughtful and great summary of factors for making an approach in general and specifically at Dickey's. The mental detailed thinking about how you might fly an approach in various conditions makes for a person a better pilot and a safe one. I appreciate you taking the time to pass on your good judgement for the rest of us.

Joe

[stevek]

Yeah. Thanks Tom. I had somewhat the same experience there -- clearly remember thinking I am going to overshoot and realized I was downwind. I had no inkling of a problem until I turned final . Dove further into the gully and dragged my feet coming up. Took out a dt. With the tailwind everything happened so fast --surprised you were able to get a turn in.

I think it is time to abandon tradition and put up a windsock when we fly there. I have made one and will leave it next to the gate

Lauren; 'course not. Never occurred to me to take it as anything but a compliment. Thanks