Talk about missed opportunities! I was supposed to head out to the club last Saturday, December 29th, but had my Dad come down from Karratha to stay with us for a couple of days. I declined to head out gliding in favour of hanging out with him - I should have taken him out there with me!! The day was shaping up very nicely in the morning and I was kicking myself that I wasn't up in the air, by lunchtime it looked like thermals would be heading upwards of 10,000'. Oh well, I don't get to see my Dad much so I guess that's fair. But just to rub it in, Vic called me late in the afternoon to report that I had missed a boomer of a day and that he had topped out at 12,500' in the Jantar. Good thing that by that point I had a nice cold beer to cry into :,(
Anyway, back on track. It's been hot here in the west. Bloody Hot. The past couple of weeks including Christmas and New Year has seen Perth in the grip of a heat wave, with most days going northwards of 36C, and many of them well over 40C. Today was no different as I was driving out to Cunderdin, at 0800 it already felt well over 30. Arriving at the airfield I was greeted by a hot and humid Nor'Easter that was ominously promising a hot day with potential thunderstorm activity. The morning briefing met report confirmed this, with a forecast of isolated thunderstorms penetrating from the north by 1400 or so. Good thermal activity though, with expected tops of 10 - 11,000' by the mid afternoon. There were a lot of members at the club today, many of them still on holidays and taking every opportunity to fly. Several of them decided on a task to fly and headed out to prepare their machines. They're all practising for the State Championships, which the club is hosting next week. More after the jump...
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Cross Country!
I was eagerly anticipating today's lessons as I was rostered to fly lessons with John Orton again, and I had so much fun with him last time... learned a lot too! I did not anticipate just how awesome today's flying would be though :D Continue after the break for more!
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Back behind the stick
Well now, after 6 weeks away from the club I was keen as mustard to get back up in the air again and learn something new. Driving out to Cunderdin it was apparent that Summer was coming... I was no longer leaving home in the dark and the landscape was beginning to show more yellow than green once I was past the hills. Arriving at the club I found I would have a new instructor for the day - John Orton. I had met John early on in my membership, having assisted him with rigging gliders and doing a weight and balance assessment on a Nimbus, but this would be my first opportunity to fly with him. Everyone speaks highly of John as an instructor, especially when it comes to learning cross-country flight, and while I'm not even flying solo yet - let alone cross-country - I was sure I would learn plenty today. I was not disappointed. Not by a long shot :)
I left my camera at home gin this trip so couldn't take any photos beyond a couple of awful shots taken on my phone - which got promptly deleted. The morning briefing was held, and it was good to see more members there today - the warmer weather and improving conditions had all the regulars getting their gliders out for some cross country work. I was the only student, and there was only a single AEF booked for the day, so it was looking like I would get some good flying in. Thermals were expected to go to about 7,000' today with a moderate breeze from the SW later in the afternoon. Start of flying was fairly late, as there was a fair bit of maintenance to be done that John was involved with, so I spent a good chunk of the morning cleaning down the PW-6U and helping with its DI.
Before heading out to the lineup, John sat down with me in the clubhouse and quizzed me on my progress. After checking my logbook and verifying that I knew what I was talking about, he decided it was time to start working on the mechanics of staying up in the air rather than basic flight skills. So, it was out with the whiteboard and I got a nice lesson in thermal entry theory, and also on thermalling in the presence of other gliders. John also had me sketch out and narrate a full landing circuit and approach, identifying all the key points and checks that needed to be done. Satisfied that I was up to the task, it was out to the lineup and into the Peewee for the first flight of the day. By the time we got airborne there were already a few other gliders up, so I had plenty of opportunity to exercise good lookout practice - good thing I have good eyes!
After a 2,000' tow John checked out my handling skills then it was off to find some lift. Picked up a solid 4kt thermal, and John demonstrated how to correctly enter the thermal and when to tighten or loosen the turn to stay with the thermal core. He had me practice steeper turns than I had done before, with attention on maintaining bank angle and constant speed in the circle. After a bit of practice with this it was back down to pattern height and time to land. I messed up the landing badly, completely failing to control my approach speed and glidepath... I was focussing way too much on the aiming point and what I was doing with the spoilers. John had to take over and get us down safely, I was pretty disappointed with myself as I had been getting better at landings.
After a short break and some discussion about what I needed to watch on landings, John elected to get me up for a short flight to just do the circuit and landing, so we towed up to 1,000' and released right into downwind. I was pretty tense after the last landing, but managed to get down safely, if not gracefully. Speed control was still wavering, but I didn't get too slow and my round out and flare were better.
I didn't even get out of the seat this time, we were hooked straight back up to the towplane and heading for 2,000' before I knew it. I'm finding flying a safe Aerotow to be pretty easy now, and John started coaching a bit to make my tows better from an efficiency perspective... staying right below the wake of the towplane and following it in turns more skillfully. Anyway, immediately after release we were into a decent thermal and climbing at a decent rate. There were half a dozen other gliders in the air around the airfield, and close by was a lovely ASK-21mi self launcher that had launched ahead of us. The K-21 was circling in what looked to be a pretty nice thermal only a few hundred metres away, and John directed me to leave our thermal and go join the K-21 so I could demonstrate what I'd learned earlier about joining other gliders in thermals. The other glider was thermalling in a left circle so I aimed for his tail as he headed away, then entered the thermal in the same circle, but on the opposite side... in the few seconds it took to get into the thermal, the K-21 had flown half a turn. Being a heavier glider he was flying quite fast and a bit wider circle than we could do in the Peewee, so I had to speed up a bit and broaden the turn to stay safely ahead of him. We were outclimbing the K-21 so John had me tighten the circle and slow a little, getting closer to the core and maximising the climb. It felt fantastic to be zooming around in the thermal only a few hundred feet away from another glider, and outclimbing it to boot!
At 6,000' we headed out to the West, while the K-21 departed North. With plenty of height and good thermals to play with, John had me fly from thermal to thermal, keeping our altitude up towards the top end of the thermal range. He began to quiz me on the landmarks that we could see from the air. My familiarity with the area paid off here as I could easily spot and name the nearest towns, point out the highway and some other more visible landmarks. We drifted slowly SW with the thermals and crossed GE H'way heading for a large rocky outcrop. Near the outcrop we experienced some really heavy sink but no corresponding lift, it was getting down to around 12kt down at some points. John advised I accelerate up to about 80kt and head back to the North, and began to explain the theory behind Speed-to-fly for cross country soaring - flying faster the heavier the sink and slower in lift or still air. Back over the town of Cunderdin we picked up a bit of a boomer (relatively speaking from my experience!!) with 6-7kt up indicated. This took us to 6,500' close to the airfield. Just as we were heading North we got a call over the radio to land back at the airfield, as an AEF customer had arrived for his flight.
We were high up with a lot of altitude to lose before circuit entry so John announced it was time to learn how to do spins - entry and recovery so I could get myself out of trouble if it ever happened to me. After doing the mandatory pre-aerobatic HASLL check, John demonstrated the first spin - very exciting! The rapid nose drop and entry into the spin was surprising. After recovery, John commented on my resilience - he reckons most new pilots would have lost their lunch after the amount of circling we'd done in the thermals, let alone the spin! All those years of sailing must have something to do with that ;) Anyway, now it was my turn. Ease back the stick as for a stall... kick in left rudder as the stick comes fully back and give it some opposing aileron and WHAM! The nose drops sharply to the left and we're falling nose down, stalled and spinning left. Apply right rudder to slow the spin and ease the stick forward to increase the nose down attitude and we're flying again, albeit downwards, so time to level out. My first recovery I hauled back on the stick way too hard and really felt the G's pile on as we levelled out... have to be much more gentle next time. John had me do another one for good measure then we were down to less than 3,000' so John showed me another way to lose altitude quickly without using the spoilers - he demonstrated a side slip. I followed this with one of my own and it was time to land... for good measure John showed how to use the sideslip on approach as a means of controlling descent rate, then we were down for the day. My last landing was passable, certainly better than the other two.
I feel I learned a huge amount today, and have a lot to digest between now and my next lesson. While I learned a lot about the mechanics of soaring flight - good thermalling, spins, stalls, etc - perhaps what I found most interesting was the reasons for staying up. John had given me a lot of info and advice which pertains to flying cross country... areas likely to produce good lift, landmarks in the area, which fields looked landable and which looked dangerous. I'm now feeling the desire to get away from the airfield and see what I can do in a cross country flight. First things first tough - I have to get to solo!
The day wrapped up nicely with a quiet beer and sitting around chatting until it was time to drive home. I'd had my longest flight to date today - 1 hour 52 min, with my previous flights all being less than half an hour, and had climbed higher than ever before as well, so I felt pretty content driving home.
Can't wait till next time.
I left my camera at home gin this trip so couldn't take any photos beyond a couple of awful shots taken on my phone - which got promptly deleted. The morning briefing was held, and it was good to see more members there today - the warmer weather and improving conditions had all the regulars getting their gliders out for some cross country work. I was the only student, and there was only a single AEF booked for the day, so it was looking like I would get some good flying in. Thermals were expected to go to about 7,000' today with a moderate breeze from the SW later in the afternoon. Start of flying was fairly late, as there was a fair bit of maintenance to be done that John was involved with, so I spent a good chunk of the morning cleaning down the PW-6U and helping with its DI.
Before heading out to the lineup, John sat down with me in the clubhouse and quizzed me on my progress. After checking my logbook and verifying that I knew what I was talking about, he decided it was time to start working on the mechanics of staying up in the air rather than basic flight skills. So, it was out with the whiteboard and I got a nice lesson in thermal entry theory, and also on thermalling in the presence of other gliders. John also had me sketch out and narrate a full landing circuit and approach, identifying all the key points and checks that needed to be done. Satisfied that I was up to the task, it was out to the lineup and into the Peewee for the first flight of the day. By the time we got airborne there were already a few other gliders up, so I had plenty of opportunity to exercise good lookout practice - good thing I have good eyes!
After a 2,000' tow John checked out my handling skills then it was off to find some lift. Picked up a solid 4kt thermal, and John demonstrated how to correctly enter the thermal and when to tighten or loosen the turn to stay with the thermal core. He had me practice steeper turns than I had done before, with attention on maintaining bank angle and constant speed in the circle. After a bit of practice with this it was back down to pattern height and time to land. I messed up the landing badly, completely failing to control my approach speed and glidepath... I was focussing way too much on the aiming point and what I was doing with the spoilers. John had to take over and get us down safely, I was pretty disappointed with myself as I had been getting better at landings.
After a short break and some discussion about what I needed to watch on landings, John elected to get me up for a short flight to just do the circuit and landing, so we towed up to 1,000' and released right into downwind. I was pretty tense after the last landing, but managed to get down safely, if not gracefully. Speed control was still wavering, but I didn't get too slow and my round out and flare were better.
I didn't even get out of the seat this time, we were hooked straight back up to the towplane and heading for 2,000' before I knew it. I'm finding flying a safe Aerotow to be pretty easy now, and John started coaching a bit to make my tows better from an efficiency perspective... staying right below the wake of the towplane and following it in turns more skillfully. Anyway, immediately after release we were into a decent thermal and climbing at a decent rate. There were half a dozen other gliders in the air around the airfield, and close by was a lovely ASK-21mi self launcher that had launched ahead of us. The K-21 was circling in what looked to be a pretty nice thermal only a few hundred metres away, and John directed me to leave our thermal and go join the K-21 so I could demonstrate what I'd learned earlier about joining other gliders in thermals. The other glider was thermalling in a left circle so I aimed for his tail as he headed away, then entered the thermal in the same circle, but on the opposite side... in the few seconds it took to get into the thermal, the K-21 had flown half a turn. Being a heavier glider he was flying quite fast and a bit wider circle than we could do in the Peewee, so I had to speed up a bit and broaden the turn to stay safely ahead of him. We were outclimbing the K-21 so John had me tighten the circle and slow a little, getting closer to the core and maximising the climb. It felt fantastic to be zooming around in the thermal only a few hundred feet away from another glider, and outclimbing it to boot!
At 6,000' we headed out to the West, while the K-21 departed North. With plenty of height and good thermals to play with, John had me fly from thermal to thermal, keeping our altitude up towards the top end of the thermal range. He began to quiz me on the landmarks that we could see from the air. My familiarity with the area paid off here as I could easily spot and name the nearest towns, point out the highway and some other more visible landmarks. We drifted slowly SW with the thermals and crossed GE H'way heading for a large rocky outcrop. Near the outcrop we experienced some really heavy sink but no corresponding lift, it was getting down to around 12kt down at some points. John advised I accelerate up to about 80kt and head back to the North, and began to explain the theory behind Speed-to-fly for cross country soaring - flying faster the heavier the sink and slower in lift or still air. Back over the town of Cunderdin we picked up a bit of a boomer (relatively speaking from my experience!!) with 6-7kt up indicated. This took us to 6,500' close to the airfield. Just as we were heading North we got a call over the radio to land back at the airfield, as an AEF customer had arrived for his flight.
We were high up with a lot of altitude to lose before circuit entry so John announced it was time to learn how to do spins - entry and recovery so I could get myself out of trouble if it ever happened to me. After doing the mandatory pre-aerobatic HASLL check, John demonstrated the first spin - very exciting! The rapid nose drop and entry into the spin was surprising. After recovery, John commented on my resilience - he reckons most new pilots would have lost their lunch after the amount of circling we'd done in the thermals, let alone the spin! All those years of sailing must have something to do with that ;) Anyway, now it was my turn. Ease back the stick as for a stall... kick in left rudder as the stick comes fully back and give it some opposing aileron and WHAM! The nose drops sharply to the left and we're falling nose down, stalled and spinning left. Apply right rudder to slow the spin and ease the stick forward to increase the nose down attitude and we're flying again, albeit downwards, so time to level out. My first recovery I hauled back on the stick way too hard and really felt the G's pile on as we levelled out... have to be much more gentle next time. John had me do another one for good measure then we were down to less than 3,000' so John showed me another way to lose altitude quickly without using the spoilers - he demonstrated a side slip. I followed this with one of my own and it was time to land... for good measure John showed how to use the sideslip on approach as a means of controlling descent rate, then we were down for the day. My last landing was passable, certainly better than the other two.
I feel I learned a huge amount today, and have a lot to digest between now and my next lesson. While I learned a lot about the mechanics of soaring flight - good thermalling, spins, stalls, etc - perhaps what I found most interesting was the reasons for staying up. John had given me a lot of info and advice which pertains to flying cross country... areas likely to produce good lift, landmarks in the area, which fields looked landable and which looked dangerous. I'm now feeling the desire to get away from the airfield and see what I can do in a cross country flight. First things first tough - I have to get to solo!
The day wrapped up nicely with a quiet beer and sitting around chatting until it was time to drive home. I'd had my longest flight to date today - 1 hour 52 min, with my previous flights all being less than half an hour, and had climbed higher than ever before as well, so I felt pretty content driving home.
Can't wait till next time.
Monday, 22 October 2012
2012 Ride to Conquer Cancer
Well, today I'm very sore and very tired! I spent the greater part of the weekend in the saddle taking part in the 2012 Ride to Conquer Cancer, Perth - a two day, 209km cycling event organised to raise funds for Cancer research in Western Australia. Each of the 1,200+ participants was tasked with raising a minimum of $2,500 for WAIMR, the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, located at the University of Western Australia.
I have to say, we did very well. The total raised was just over $4.7million, far exceeding the minimum contribution of $3million. And, as a bonus, we had a great time too. I rode with two of my work colleagues, and frequently also with Peter Klinken, the head of WAIMR. We didn't press too hard, but still managed good times.
Day one was a 96km leg from Perth to Pinjarra along the base of the Darling Range. It was warm and there was very little wind, a most pleasant ride in fact. There were frequent rest stops, wonderfully managed by the Ride organisers. Saturday night was spent at the campsite in Pinjarra, and was a pretty big party, with great food and music. My companions and I opted not to partake of the free beer though... Day two still lay ahead!
Day two saw us returning to Perth via the coast. From Pinjarra we headed NW until we hit Safety Bay, and from there it was all the way up along the coast to Fremantle. This proved to be a bit of a slog, as a 16kt Nor'wester was blowing in and never swung around to the usual Sou'wester. So we had to punch into a pretty vicious headwind all the way. Turning Freo though was a joy, with the wind largely at our back all the way back to the finish line. Crossing the finish line was a joyous occasion, and I celebrated with a nice cold beer and a delicious steak sandwich with my family.
I have to say, we did very well. The total raised was just over $4.7million, far exceeding the minimum contribution of $3million. And, as a bonus, we had a great time too. I rode with two of my work colleagues, and frequently also with Peter Klinken, the head of WAIMR. We didn't press too hard, but still managed good times.
 |
| My GPS log from The Ride |
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| Our Ride team: Jessica Midjaja, myself and Don Frost |
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| Finished!! |
Looking forward to doing it again next year, better organised and with my wife Amy in tow as well!!
Now, back to the regular programming of Glider talk...
Saturday, 29 September 2012
A windy day...
It's the first day of my annual leave from work, so I decided to head out to the club for the day before going off on holiday to Augusta with the family. I arrived at my customary early time, even after getting caught behind a pair of oversize loads being towed up Great Eastern Highway and being stuck at a crawl all the way from Midvale to nearly Wooroloo. Got started with the usual duties - preparing the gliders and tug, basic maintenance etc. Had a nice surprise when it was time for the daily briefing when I sat down opposite a guy I immediately recognised as one of my high school teachers from Craigie High. I hadn't seen Bob Bignell since graduation in 1991 but we both recognised each other immediately. Bob's been a member at the club for over 15 years, and it was great to catch up with him after all this time.
The day's activities included a number of Air Experience Flights (AEF's) in the morning, and with only the IS-28 two seater available for lessons (the PW-6U was having a new wheel brake installed,) I deferred my flying till the afternoon. So, the bulk of the morning was spent helping Rob out with renovations in the clubhouse - lots of sanding! The clubhouse is starting to look really good, and it's a credit to the members who have devoted so much time to doing the work. Still lots to do though, won't be finished until summer!
Around lunch time I headed out to the lineup to help out with launch duties for the remaining AEF's. The instructor today was Kevin Saunders, who I had not previously met. Kevin is the club president, and I had a good chat with him about my progress before it was time to fly. Around 1:30pm the last of the AEF's was over so it was time to strap in and head up for a flight with Kevin.
We planned on launching to 2,000' but at 1,500' we hit a nice bit of lift so Kevin called for release. After a single turn through the thermal we lost it, and despite a quick search we were unable to regain it. Consequently, we were down to about 1,200' and had to consider entering the circuit. As I made for the circuit entry point, we crossed another weak but fairly broad thermal, and hooked into it for a brief ride up to 2,500' and some additional airtime. We used the airtime to practise control coordination, focussing on use of the rudder to counter adverse yaw from the ailerons. All too soon though, we were down at pattern height and it was time to land. I managed a passable landing, although Kevin was running the spoilers.
Upon landing, Kevin was called away to attend to some issues over at the clubhouse, and it was looking like that was it for the day - there were no other instructors around. Just as we were getting ready to pack up though, Rod Carter showed up to see how things were going today. He offered to take me up for at least one more flight as he had some spare time, so with a minimum of fuss we were hooked up and on tow towards 2,000'. I'm now confident I can handle the aerotows independently, and Rod was hands off for the entire tow. All the way up the tow, Rod was quizzing me on what I'd do if the rope broke, what options I had for landing... which paddocks ahead were usable and which weren't and at which point I'd decide to turn around and land downwind on the runway. This was very useful for me, as although I'd been briefed on what we'd do on rope break in previous flights, this was the first time I was asked to decide for myself.
On release, and after making clearing a clearing turn, we stumbled into a reasonable thermal and headed up to 4,500'. Rod had me make a number of coordinated turns and pointed out some landmarks in the distance, then directed me to steer towards some of them and maintain course for a while. Some weak thermals allowed us to stay up around 4,000' so once Rod was satisfied that I could steer a course acceptably he asked me to demonstrate the stalls that we had practised in our previous lessons. These were easy, I did three stalls with good recoveries, and then it was down to circuit and landing. The landing was ok, but I was struggling to control speed again. Rod signed me off for stall and recovery and my pre landing checks, so even with minimal airtime today I was reasonably happy that I was progressing.
The day wrapped up with more work in the clubroom, and a nice cold beer afterwards :) I forgot to take my camera or phone up with me today so had no photos to add. It's going to be a bit of a break until my next lesson as I'm off for a couple of weeks holiday, and then I have the Ride to Conquer Cancer - a big fundraising cycling event in which I am participating.
The day's activities included a number of Air Experience Flights (AEF's) in the morning, and with only the IS-28 two seater available for lessons (the PW-6U was having a new wheel brake installed,) I deferred my flying till the afternoon. So, the bulk of the morning was spent helping Rob out with renovations in the clubhouse - lots of sanding! The clubhouse is starting to look really good, and it's a credit to the members who have devoted so much time to doing the work. Still lots to do though, won't be finished until summer!
Around lunch time I headed out to the lineup to help out with launch duties for the remaining AEF's. The instructor today was Kevin Saunders, who I had not previously met. Kevin is the club president, and I had a good chat with him about my progress before it was time to fly. Around 1:30pm the last of the AEF's was over so it was time to strap in and head up for a flight with Kevin.
We planned on launching to 2,000' but at 1,500' we hit a nice bit of lift so Kevin called for release. After a single turn through the thermal we lost it, and despite a quick search we were unable to regain it. Consequently, we were down to about 1,200' and had to consider entering the circuit. As I made for the circuit entry point, we crossed another weak but fairly broad thermal, and hooked into it for a brief ride up to 2,500' and some additional airtime. We used the airtime to practise control coordination, focussing on use of the rudder to counter adverse yaw from the ailerons. All too soon though, we were down at pattern height and it was time to land. I managed a passable landing, although Kevin was running the spoilers.
Upon landing, Kevin was called away to attend to some issues over at the clubhouse, and it was looking like that was it for the day - there were no other instructors around. Just as we were getting ready to pack up though, Rod Carter showed up to see how things were going today. He offered to take me up for at least one more flight as he had some spare time, so with a minimum of fuss we were hooked up and on tow towards 2,000'. I'm now confident I can handle the aerotows independently, and Rod was hands off for the entire tow. All the way up the tow, Rod was quizzing me on what I'd do if the rope broke, what options I had for landing... which paddocks ahead were usable and which weren't and at which point I'd decide to turn around and land downwind on the runway. This was very useful for me, as although I'd been briefed on what we'd do on rope break in previous flights, this was the first time I was asked to decide for myself.
On release, and after making clearing a clearing turn, we stumbled into a reasonable thermal and headed up to 4,500'. Rod had me make a number of coordinated turns and pointed out some landmarks in the distance, then directed me to steer towards some of them and maintain course for a while. Some weak thermals allowed us to stay up around 4,000' so once Rod was satisfied that I could steer a course acceptably he asked me to demonstrate the stalls that we had practised in our previous lessons. These were easy, I did three stalls with good recoveries, and then it was down to circuit and landing. The landing was ok, but I was struggling to control speed again. Rod signed me off for stall and recovery and my pre landing checks, so even with minimal airtime today I was reasonably happy that I was progressing.
The day wrapped up with more work in the clubroom, and a nice cold beer afterwards :) I forgot to take my camera or phone up with me today so had no photos to add. It's going to be a bit of a break until my next lesson as I'm off for a couple of weeks holiday, and then I have the Ride to Conquer Cancer - a big fundraising cycling event in which I am participating.
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