flightblog@wonderwinds

Yeah yeah: in the woods (assuming aforementioned bear lives in the woods) but specifically I've learned a bear shits on the trail to launch at Nantac. I finally had a good flight, made even better given that it almost didn't happen.

Nantac is east of Globe and way off the pavement. Indian land, so where we land is limited by rules with a $160 fine for those who break the rules. Despite leaving the house at 0530 we got up there a little bit later than Rick would have liked, and it was blowing like hot snot on launch. Launch is tricky to say the least. Almost completely undeveloped, getting from the setup area to the ramp is a process in itself. I figured with the hike to the ramp and the way-high winds and my totally rusty skills I wasn't even gonna set up. Spike and Randy and Rick and Allen set up without issue. Spike and Randy got off, but Rick and Allen thought better of it and tore down. Then the coolest thing happened: it backed off and didn't switch to cross. So I set up.

By the time I got to the ramp a bit of cross had set in so it took forever to get something in that felt good. I was also having a hell of a time feeling control of the glider when it was in straight. Finally moving a step down the ramp helped with the control and it came in straight with a nice velocity, so I cleared and launched. The bit on the ramp went okay and I launched into lift, then it went to shit. Instead of flying the glider through the lift I tried to kick in. Once again I forgot to drop the string off my fingers, and this time I decided to look at it. Changing focus from launching to looking was coupled with lightening up my pull-in-ness so I popped the nose. I dropped the string and kicked in, and basically almost stalled it right off the ramp. The swooping recovery put me way close to the mountain but it was all in a straight line and I got lucky and didn't pound in.

Anyway away I go. Still getting feedback that I'm flying too fast, I figured I'd finally use the airspeed indicator to get an idea of how fast I was flying. I'm pretty sure I was flying fast because I needed it to get good control, which is the thing I've always noticed: when nearing trim it felt like the glider was flying me more than the other way around. Anyway a couple of hundred over was easy, and there was plenty of lift to be found. Working it just didn't feel good though, and I never did get a full turn in lift. Still I managed to move down the ridge without losing much altitude and finally identified the truck. I had plenty of altitude with regard to gliding to it, so I tried something different: a little bit more VG.

Holy shit the handling cleaned right up! So I tried thermaling a bit. Not totally centered on first pass, and kinda lumbering about the sky. Still, made it to 8K (about a thousand over). And started getting a bit better at coordinating turns and generally flying. So I kept working it. 9K finally showed up and it started getting really easy to go up. 10K and it started being chilly. I was above the top area at the time and pretty much inline with the over-the-back LZ but since this is a new site to me and pretty much a skill restoration flight I didn't really consider going there. Then 11K was in easy reach so I figured hit it then go find the truck again. 11,100 MSL was pretty much my max, and there was no down to be found. None. I stuffed the bar and got a bit of down happening. Glanced at the airspeed indicator: almost on 45mph. My slowest was probably 25 which I found rather nice after adding the bit of VG. Anyway a bit of down would eventually work so I kept the bar at my waist and waited. And noticed I was actually doing 200 up for half a minute or so. er... wow.

Well finally I got deep in shadows and found a nice long streak of down. 10K went away, then 9K, then the sun came back. Lots of up all over again, but down was strong when I found it so I let thermals send me away and "cored the sink" which technically can't be done but whatever. Around 7K it was normal flying again. I was no longer cold but my shoulders ached and I sure would have liked to have some water. So I kept working down until I had a rather nice landing even if it was about 100 feet short of where I wanted to be.

Then I watched as my glider flipped completely over. Twice. A truckload of Indians acting all official wanted to see my permit so I left it standing quartered into the wind, but the wind was shifting enough that it got under the glider and turned it ... then lifted it enough to flip it. Once on it's king post it flipped again (first full circle complete.) By this time I was thinking "fuck the permit" and running for the glider. It did another complete flip as I was heading towards it, then started the third as I grabbed it. Much easier to let it go over a third time than to try to stop it, so technically it did 3 complete 360s before stopping but the third was more or less under my control.

Bent the outermost battens completely and almost perfectly symmetrically so they need replacing. Saw a minor tear in the sail when folding it up so I need some red adhesive dacron. That should be easy to get online but I gotta go take a shower and go to work again, so the dacron will have to wait another day.

Flight was this past saturday. Left the house at 5:30am, got just under an hour in the air, got home at 9pm. 350 miles round trip, roughly 12.7:1 glide to the LZ. Nantac is a totally awesome HG site!