Monday at Quest in central FL was forecast to have lift of between 4-5 hundred fpm, but it proved to be a disappointment. The early fliers experienced no lift and turbulence; the later ones were luckier. They also had no lift, but not such ass-kicking conditions.
I nabbed the FOD with 20 minutes, but decided not to rest on those gigantic laurels and work on my skills with a pattern tow. I have towed my Litespeed perhaps 15 times since starting flying (after surgery) a month ago, so I’m a tad rusty still. The Falcon has been sold (Angel is delighted she doesn't haven't to share a rack with that slow bitch anymore, colored those disgusting girly-shades, or listen to crap about how forgiving she is).
13 of the 15 landings have been better than ever, rock star landings where I end up in the field, heart pounding, breathing in the quiet air that is lightly perfumed with oranges, realizing that I nailed it, and that I am actually on my feet. Then, as the geese wing their way across the sky, I smell the gin, beckoning me to come, have a sit and relax. Okay, I might be off subject...
I had one "crasher", to mar my record, when I decided to attempt a 90 degree cross landing because I should possess the skill to make use of all available fields. (Bob screamed at me later WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, IN A TOPLESS! Only I think he’s wrong, I should be able to pull it off). I bent a down-tube, bruised myself not only purple but also black and magenta, which is really not so cute on a leg. The worst part is I tweaked my knee and it is still filled with its own large water-bag, after 2 weeks. I put the crash off to conditions though I certainly could have done better.
I had another crasher Monday, on that second flight I took just-to-practice. No crosswind, just threw it early, climbed, stalled spectacularly, and made the right leg a twin of the left one. I figured out what I did wrong, though. I was just confused by switching back and forth from the Falcon to the Litespeed, and was hurrying to transition to the down-tubes and losing pitch and directional control. The Falcon rewarded very quick reactions. You could, literally, almost not flare too early. I was lucky getting all those landings good on the Litespeed, lucky when the glider got soft or ballooned up a little. Now I remember. Stay low, stay fast. Don’t let loose of the glider. WAIT. Then throw it like I mean it.
We used to see it all the time with clients who came to try our horses. They could ride their own beasts, but were hopeless on a new one. Ours were more sensitive, or duller, or moved differently. I could swap effortlessly; they were lost.
So it is with me and gliders. I don’t have that vast experience. I am good on whatever I am flying, but not so good on adapting to new ships. So it was a good, though rather painful, learning experience.
I flew a 3rd time Monday and had a good landing, staying really tight to the ground and in control. I guess I believed I could get away with not flying for so long without having to relearn stuff. I was wrong.
Tuesday ROCKED! Much windier than predicted, with the dreaded west cross, I nevertheless eventually launched. I got off tow in nothing at 2500 ft, plummeting to 1400 feet before finding some LOVE! I climbed to 5500, startling some swifts circling as they swallowed bugs. My eyes teared from the cold; my vario reported as much as 500 fpm steady lift. I flew until my arms begged for mercy, wrestling my friend Angel when the thermals gagged on us and spit us out. My whole body eventually shook from the cold, and I told myself I needed to land while I could function. I WAS dressed, in 5 layers, but it wasn’t enough. I tried Kevin’s trick of humping the glider but all I did was look silly.
Had a great approach and landing, plus a dumb smile plastered across my face for the rest of the day, and did not even squash the ants that deserved killing. Pathetic, what an air slut I am.
I was too tired to fly today, and eventually it got strong from the west, which is bad. Tomorrow I will try again, and resume the best thing of all, XC, the endless adventure, with the best of our best friends, and always engaging. I am ready.
BTW, I only include my failures is because it is unrealistic to expect just successes. I much prefer my victories, but want to point out, if I can learn to do this, so can anyone.
Lauren
a painful lesson, and then some fun
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
-
Flying Lobster
- Posts: 1042
- Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:17 pm
Very nice account--I always love reading your stories Lauren, and I like the "getting back on the horse" analogy.
I have a somewhat similar story. I flew my Talon a couple of weeks ago on a booming day at Lookout and ended up staying up for the better part of three hours--but not because I wanted to, necessarily.
I had a slowly worsening problem of yaw-oscillations when flying fast--say vg 3/4 or better and 40 mph or better. I figured the best solution was to remove some twist out at the tips and did some minor tweaking by batten tightening and string-pulling at the jam-cleat.
That problem disappeared--but the glider now had a heinous bad roll-in to the left whenever I slowed down to below 25. After launching at Lookout I turned back near the road gap and very nearly lost control of the glider and barely kept the glider for rolling all the way into the ridge. Since it was strong I thought initially that I just got hit by turbulence--but as the flight continued it became obvious that I had a real bad turn whenever I slowed down. The LZ was active with tows--and is a rock-and-roll affair even when conditions are ideal--so I thought I'd stay up till sunset when things calm down. I ended up electing to land in a clear field down the road a bit, and sure enough as I slowed down on final the glider rolled hard--basically turning 180 and ending up going downwind. I leveraged as best I could on the right side of the control bar and actually got a high speed downwind flare off which very nearly pulled it off, I just barely beaked it. I was VERY happy since I had previously been thinking a bad crash was a distinct possibility.
In retrospect, I couldn't understand how the adjustments I made, minor in nature, would somehow induce an incipient stall on one side of the wing. Also, I had never noticed the problem before with the glider's handling and landings, so I assumed that the problem had to be somehow connected with the tuning adjustments I had done. I set the glider up on launch two days ago and proceeded to detune what I had done while looking for some irregularities at the LE on the left side--thinking that the airflow was somehow getting disturbed.
Lucky for me Terry Presley was there, and after describing what I had experienced he said check the sprogs. Since I had never changed them from the factory settings I had never thought to check them--and I was amazed to see that the right wing was obviously at a much lower angle of attack than the left from the inboard sprog to the tip.
I guess the moral of the story is that as a glider gets older--especially a high-strung philly like a topless, factors such as sail stretch can induce wierdness that can override what you previous thought to be perfectly symetric adjustments. From now on, I will be much more careful about preflighting the symetry of twist and AOA of the wing and at all vg settings.
marc
I have a somewhat similar story. I flew my Talon a couple of weeks ago on a booming day at Lookout and ended up staying up for the better part of three hours--but not because I wanted to, necessarily.
I had a slowly worsening problem of yaw-oscillations when flying fast--say vg 3/4 or better and 40 mph or better. I figured the best solution was to remove some twist out at the tips and did some minor tweaking by batten tightening and string-pulling at the jam-cleat.
That problem disappeared--but the glider now had a heinous bad roll-in to the left whenever I slowed down to below 25. After launching at Lookout I turned back near the road gap and very nearly lost control of the glider and barely kept the glider for rolling all the way into the ridge. Since it was strong I thought initially that I just got hit by turbulence--but as the flight continued it became obvious that I had a real bad turn whenever I slowed down. The LZ was active with tows--and is a rock-and-roll affair even when conditions are ideal--so I thought I'd stay up till sunset when things calm down. I ended up electing to land in a clear field down the road a bit, and sure enough as I slowed down on final the glider rolled hard--basically turning 180 and ending up going downwind. I leveraged as best I could on the right side of the control bar and actually got a high speed downwind flare off which very nearly pulled it off, I just barely beaked it. I was VERY happy since I had previously been thinking a bad crash was a distinct possibility.
In retrospect, I couldn't understand how the adjustments I made, minor in nature, would somehow induce an incipient stall on one side of the wing. Also, I had never noticed the problem before with the glider's handling and landings, so I assumed that the problem had to be somehow connected with the tuning adjustments I had done. I set the glider up on launch two days ago and proceeded to detune what I had done while looking for some irregularities at the LE on the left side--thinking that the airflow was somehow getting disturbed.
Lucky for me Terry Presley was there, and after describing what I had experienced he said check the sprogs. Since I had never changed them from the factory settings I had never thought to check them--and I was amazed to see that the right wing was obviously at a much lower angle of attack than the left from the inboard sprog to the tip.
I guess the moral of the story is that as a glider gets older--especially a high-strung philly like a topless, factors such as sail stretch can induce wierdness that can override what you previous thought to be perfectly symetric adjustments. From now on, I will be much more careful about preflighting the symetry of twist and AOA of the wing and at all vg settings.
marc
Great Googly-moo!
-
Lauren Tjaden
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:27 pm
Wow, Marc, glad you are okay. Looking forward to a downwind landing in a topless is enough to make anyone's butt clench. You know Kevin is a wizard at tuning stuff and since he's the WW guy Paul calls him anytime that the Talon needs work. I call Mike Barber, too - he knows so much about the Litespeed (and he's the Moyes guy).
For those of you who do not know Jim, he is the sort of guy who will support you and say what a high standard you hold yourself too -- but HE'S one of the rare birds who has that enormous skill level, to deal with all the different gliders and conditions. I have personally seen it.
Anyhow, I'd like to continue to learn, in order to fly with the highest level of confidence possible. Whacking can suck the fun right out of a flight!
Ric N is in town; we're hoping for a decent day where we can go share the sky. (Ha, we were laughing, thinking how dissapointed Karen must NOT be that it's been windy.)
Lauren
For those of you who do not know Jim, he is the sort of guy who will support you and say what a high standard you hold yourself too -- but HE'S one of the rare birds who has that enormous skill level, to deal with all the different gliders and conditions. I have personally seen it.
Anyhow, I'd like to continue to learn, in order to fly with the highest level of confidence possible. Whacking can suck the fun right out of a flight!
Ric N is in town; we're hoping for a decent day where we can go share the sky. (Ha, we were laughing, thinking how dissapointed Karen must NOT be that it's been windy.)
Lauren