Today was a pretty cool day of flying with a couple of new 'firsts'.
Nath and I were playing around Mystic for a while with a bunch of others and eventually drifted over to Goldmine. We didn't do so well there, Nath headed over the back (we'd climbed out of Mystic over the back) but didn't find anything and landed on the Mt. Beauty road. I headed back towards the landing paddock and soon landed. I got a lift up the hill and re-launched to find that the air above Mystic was a lot rougher so as soon as I could I headed over towards Clearspot.
Flying in to the top of the hill I started to go up and as I explored the thermal I found it was huge - air all around the top of the hill rising into a super smooth, nice strong climb. I topped out here and headed down towards Blackfellas - didn't get a climb from it but had a pretty lifty glide. Flying out over the valley I aimed for a spur comming off Mt Porepunkah and, despit some qualms about flying that far into the ridge, I followed my head and connected with a nice climb that took me up the spur and eventually up to just over 3,000m!! Climbing out above the top of the hill was awesome because Mt Porepunkah is one of the largest hills in the area and from above it I had a fantastic panorama. The climb was really smooth too - which meant I was able to enjoy it and take photos as well. From here I headed into the Happy Valley and down the road towards Mudgegonga. I cut the corner at Mudgee and although the day was getting well on was able to make it as far a Bruarong.
Over half way back to the farm - I'll manage it one of these days!!
Funny thing, the farmer who owns the paddock I landed in came down to give me a lift back to the house (and BBQ!) and it turns out we're vaguely related!! It's a funny old world!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
livin' & learnin'...
Two flights today - with very different excitement levels
The second flight was basically a sleddie - there was a light drift over the back (sometime a light breeze swinging NE or NW) and I waited for awhile before finally front launching with a light downhill tailwind drift. Lots of running, lost a fair bit of height before getting clear of the hill but once clear the air was very buoyant. I still haven't figured out the Aspen in microlift condition - but this flight was a good on for getting a bit closer. I managed to maintain a sink rate of around 0.2-0.7m/s most of the way to above the house (although dropping out of it to one side or the other several times) - so I am improving but there's still a long way to go before it's instinctive. Approaching the house the sink increased but there was a super light thermal rising above the house. Even with the flattest turns possible I was only able to reduce my sinkrate to 0.1m/s for a number of turns before it passed through and I landed.
The first flight was the exciting one - although not much longer. Launch conditions at 5pm were similar to the later flight but I the lift was better. I swooped in and out of a light bubble of lifting air near windsweeps before heading out over the key plantation. The air felt a bit funny and I kept looking up to check that the wing was ok. There was a climb over the key plantation, but it was really small and I couldn't get a full turn in it. Still, by getting half of each circle in the core and swooping around quickly I was at least climbing and I knew if I could just keep this up I'd soon be able to do a full circle in the core and then I'd be beepin' my way outa the paddock.
It was as I approached launch height that I got the collapse, and I wonder if it was caused by the thermal meeting the light prevailing wind blowing over the back. Anyway, it was a big collapse and I'm not wildly happy with my initial response to it. Sure I weightshifted, but not enough and I didn't maintain my heading. I'm guessing most of the wing was folded under because we were dropping out of the sky and pumping the other side didn't seem to be doing anything. When a rotation started to develop I pulled down both brakes (my first stall for real, I guess) and looking up at the wing it soon popped back into basically the right shape (although pulled back in the stall) so I released, controlled the surge and flew back towards the key plantation. I'd lost stacks of height though, and didn't find any lift strong enough to encourage me to circle in it so landed a minute later.
In retrospect (that wonderful thing!) I think the air felt funny because I was flying in the lee-side of the hill -even though the prevailing wind was quite light. I've re-evaluated my thoughts on the safety of launching in those conditions, and I also feel that if I were more experienced with collapses and in-touch with the wing I could have prevented or minimised the drasticity (nice word, that :-) of the situation.
We live and we learn.
The second flight was basically a sleddie - there was a light drift over the back (sometime a light breeze swinging NE or NW) and I waited for awhile before finally front launching with a light downhill tailwind drift. Lots of running, lost a fair bit of height before getting clear of the hill but once clear the air was very buoyant. I still haven't figured out the Aspen in microlift condition - but this flight was a good on for getting a bit closer. I managed to maintain a sink rate of around 0.2-0.7m/s most of the way to above the house (although dropping out of it to one side or the other several times) - so I am improving but there's still a long way to go before it's instinctive. Approaching the house the sink increased but there was a super light thermal rising above the house. Even with the flattest turns possible I was only able to reduce my sinkrate to 0.1m/s for a number of turns before it passed through and I landed.
The first flight was the exciting one - although not much longer. Launch conditions at 5pm were similar to the later flight but I the lift was better. I swooped in and out of a light bubble of lifting air near windsweeps before heading out over the key plantation. The air felt a bit funny and I kept looking up to check that the wing was ok. There was a climb over the key plantation, but it was really small and I couldn't get a full turn in it. Still, by getting half of each circle in the core and swooping around quickly I was at least climbing and I knew if I could just keep this up I'd soon be able to do a full circle in the core and then I'd be beepin' my way outa the paddock.
It was as I approached launch height that I got the collapse, and I wonder if it was caused by the thermal meeting the light prevailing wind blowing over the back. Anyway, it was a big collapse and I'm not wildly happy with my initial response to it. Sure I weightshifted, but not enough and I didn't maintain my heading. I'm guessing most of the wing was folded under because we were dropping out of the sky and pumping the other side didn't seem to be doing anything. When a rotation started to develop I pulled down both brakes (my first stall for real, I guess) and looking up at the wing it soon popped back into basically the right shape (although pulled back in the stall) so I released, controlled the surge and flew back towards the key plantation. I'd lost stacks of height though, and didn't find any lift strong enough to encourage me to circle in it so landed a minute later.
In retrospect (that wonderful thing!) I think the air felt funny because I was flying in the lee-side of the hill -even though the prevailing wind was quite light. I've re-evaluated my thoughts on the safety of launching in those conditions, and I also feel that if I were more experienced with collapses and in-touch with the wing I could have prevented or minimised the drasticity (nice word, that :-) of the situation.
We live and we learn.
Flying Report: "Get me to the church on time..."
The day started off looking promising. The winds were light, the skies finally blue after rain earlier in the week, and Nath and I went over our plans. Nath had organised drivers, we'd bought food the night before, and once we got up to launch we did a final run through the checklist! It was definitely looking promising!!
We were up on the hill early, and as we arrived we saw a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles near the top...
... they are such magnificent creatures!! I've always been slightly awed by the size and grace of these birds, but since I've had the privilege of flying with them on different occasions my appreciation of their skill has jumped ten-fold!!
After finishing breakfast...
...Nath and I launched... 
...and both flew out into light but plentiful lift.
It was a slowish climb for the first bit, but improved with height. I managed to catch a good bubble and was soon well above launch. I left this and pushed out towards the hills across the valley but flew into another climb only 400m away! I played around in that for a while... 
...before spiraling down to where Nath was circling a bit below me. We had a plan, you see, and it involved sticking together at least until things improved a good bit...
There was a great line of developing clouds over the Indigo Valley / Chiltern Valley hills that was a couple of easy glides away and there was no danger of over development.
I was puzzled as I spiraled down to join Nath, as I just wasn't getting any closer to him- until I straightened out and realized that not only was I trying to spiral down a thermal but he was also spiraling down, not thermalling up!
"Oh yes!" I thought as I remembered our plan for the day, stopped just messing around in the air and got serious about working out just where the best lift & sink was. Soon I found a nice sinky patch of air and worked it persistently until I landed in front of the house a minute or so after Nath. We got cleaned up, chucked our best duds on, and drove off to the church. The bride was beautiful, Nath (the groom) was great, the service was lovely - and a day that started really well just continued to get better... 
...and better
..and better!!!
We were up on the hill early, and as we arrived we saw a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles near the top...
... they are such magnificent creatures!! I've always been slightly awed by the size and grace of these birds, but since I've had the privilege of flying with them on different occasions my appreciation of their skill has jumped ten-fold!!After finishing breakfast...
...Nath and I launched... 
...and both flew out into light but plentiful lift.
It was a slowish climb for the first bit, but improved with height. I managed to catch a good bubble and was soon well above launch. I left this and pushed out towards the hills across the valley but flew into another climb only 400m away! I played around in that for a while... 
...before spiraling down to where Nath was circling a bit below me. We had a plan, you see, and it involved sticking together at least until things improved a good bit...
There was a great line of developing clouds over the Indigo Valley / Chiltern Valley hills that was a couple of easy glides away and there was no danger of over development.I was puzzled as I spiraled down to join Nath, as I just wasn't getting any closer to him- until I straightened out and realized that not only was I trying to spiral down a thermal but he was also spiraling down, not thermalling up!
"Oh yes!" I thought as I remembered our plan for the day, stopped just messing around in the air and got serious about working out just where the best lift & sink was. Soon I found a nice sinky patch of air and worked it persistently until I landed in front of the house a minute or so after Nath. We got cleaned up, chucked our best duds on, and drove off to the church. The bride was beautiful, Nath (the groom) was great, the service was lovely - and a day that started really well just continued to get better... 
...and better
..and better!!!
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