My Flying

Once again I took the opportunity to do some further work on the Single's tow out gear and as the sky was looking really good I wanted to fly the Falke. The only problem was that the wind was blowing quite and bit and was also gusting some what. I would guess it was blowing at about 25 kph, which is pretty close to the Falke's cross wind limits.

Taxing cross wind and turning at the bottom of the runway turned out to be rather tricky, but worked out well enough. However, up in the air things were REALLY very bumpy and not bumpy in a good way. I scouted the area briefly but elected to land as I was up there to soar and not to be tossed around in turbulence.

I practice a missed approach on 26 and then went around to land. The landing went off very well even with small crosswind component from the left and the plane touched down slightly with a very short ground run. The wind seemed to have picked up a little since my departure and it was fortunately that I had someone there to hold the wing for me while I taxied crosswind. So that was a short 15 minute flight at 68.40ZAR and some good experience gained by flying the Falke in wind and turbulence.

The Sunday flying activities of our club take their annual break from about mid December to mid January and thus there no organised flying. Presently I'm also on my three weeks annual leave and took this opportunity to head out to the airfield today to do a little work on the tow-out gear for the Single.

After about 3 hours worth of work the weather was looking quite good with lots of clouds so I took the Motor Falke for a short spin. Though I could not find any decent thermals there was a good amount of general lift and I managed to climb to 3000 feet with the engine ticking over at a little more than idle (about 1500 rpm).

I then glided down with the engine on idle and practiced three circuits onto 26. The flight ended up being a good 55 minutes long and should cost 276.00ZAR.

So after a good week's flying we hitched the trailer and headed out early for our 9 hour trip back home, so I'm guessing that this would now be a good time to summarise the week' flying as well as to highlight a few lessons learned.

=>

Table of the week's flying:

Date____Avg._____Avg.__Max.Alt.__Total____Distance
________Lift_____L/D___Gained____Time_____________

30-Nov__0.4 m/s__28.4___626m_____1h 28m____53.5 km
01-Dec__1.3 m/s__32.4__1228m_____2h 52m___195.9 km
03-Dec__0.6 m/s__35.3__1312m_____2h 24m___121.7 km
05-Dec__0.8 m/s__27.8__1956m_____5h 23m___258.7 km

The above stats are from SeeYou using my logger traces. The distances flown is not the length of the task, but rather all the straight glides added together.

=>

First off - a short note on the organisers, Soaring Safaris: They run a very professional operation with reasonable pricing and I was very happy with the service that I received, but for the few small issues mentioned in the day's blogs above. Their services are clearly directed towards attracting foreign pilots to our shores and this is reflected in their Euro pricing as well as how they generally conduct some of their operations at the airfield. Never the less we locals (all two of us) were made to feel welcome.

On this note, during my week at New Tempe, 90% of the pilots there were from Britain and I'll be honest - I was extremely impressed and somewhat surprised as to just how friendly and helpful a bunch they were. In some respects us South African's can learn from this.

The facilities at New Tempe, which I understand are maintained by the Bloemfontein Gliding Club (BGC) are very good, but unfortunately for the condition of most of the runways. Pretty K@K (crap) to say the least. The grass (or rather mowed bush) runways are very bumpy and you need to ensure that you land within about 5 metres of the centreline else the chances are good that you will find some or other hole. Runway 36/01 is much better than 27/10, which is truly horrible, and I came close to breaking by bakkie when I drove though a huge donga.

Probably the greatest lesson that I learned during this experience is that I can. It's very nerve-racking taking off and landing at a strange airfield, especially in a glider where you get one shot at it, but I managed and managed well. Furthermore, leaving the comforts of being within gliding range of a designated runway is also a little un-nerving, but gets easy the more you do it and the greater your confidence becomes.

Another lesson that I learned, which is something that I'm rather good at but this was never the less seriously reinforced during my week is: be organised and prepared. Make sure all the equipment works, that the trailer is ready, that you know where everything nut, bolt, cable tie and screw thingy goes and that you can do all of this blind folded and under pressure. Gliding is a strange sport. You get to the airfield early and everything is moving at a snail's space. You get the aircraft ready for the day and then spend lots of time just sitting around chatting and looking at the sky, then BAM, all of a sudden the tug powers up and things start to MOVE, and move quickly. Then once the stress of the aero-tow and finding that all important first thermal are behind you, things again become pretty peaceful and slow down. Then later it's home time and time to join the circuit and then the peace is suddenly broken while you are frantically trying to get out the plane and remove the glider from the runway while other planes come in. Bloody great stuff I'll tell you!

What also really helps are checklists, and not just for flying, but for ensuring that you bring along all the correct kit as well as for prepping the glider for flight. A further huge factor is having people to help, even if it's only one person and they are your wife. They can help you with small things at the airfield and the launch site and believe me this makes a big difference.

During the week I achieved my two main objectives by flying my short 50km cross-country course, required for my license and, as a bonus completing my Silver-C badge.

Finally, I would just like to thank my fellow club member's who provided me with advice and some labour in preparing for this trip, my father who was a massive help in doing a lot of the engineering work in getting the trailer and aircraft sorted and my wife for the help and the huge amount of support.

Well what now? The only way to get better at this gliding thing and especially at cross country flying is practice and that means flying. If I'm really lucky I can do a gliding camp each year and thus build on my skills and experience. This will of course require a large commitment in money and even more so in time - so here's hoping for an abundance of both.

When I planned my trip for Bloemfontein I set for myself two objects. The first was to fly my short (50km) cross country so that I could tick that final box on my blue training card for my glider pilot's license and the second was to complete my 5 hours for my Silver C. Both of these objectives were important as both are rather difficult to complete back home from where I normally fly. There was also a third and over riding objective - to bring the club's glider back home in one piece. This sort of set the scene for my flying in Bloemfontein: To fly very conservatively, i.e. keeping as high as possible and not venturing too far away from base.

I had planned to be in Bloemfontein for a week with six flying days. Today was Day Six, and thus my final flying day and I still had one of my objectives to complete - the five hours. So with this in mind I paid extra attention during the morning's briefing.

The weather for today was predicted to be reasonable with 2.5 m/s average thermals and the normal light westerly blowing upstairs with no thunderstorm activity for the afternoon. The only small problem was that from early afternoon they expected the air to dry out and thus there would be no nice cumulous clouds to mark our way.

To maximise my available air time I made sure I was right near the front of the grid. I was actually the second glider to arrive, but took off as number four as I let two guys go ahead of me as they apparently needed to catch flights later that afternoon.

I was aero-towed from runway 36 at about 10am. It was a little earlier than normal, but it was already hot and starting to get really sticky. By now I had become pretty well organised in getting the plane to the launch point and organising all my kit into the aircraft, and I felt like quite the pro. The tow went off well, but today I really had to work damn hard behind that tug and I was pouring with sweat by the time I needed to release after 3½ minutes (though it felt more than 10 minutes). It was extremely bumpy and we were both being tossed about; and during this whole time I was thinking to myself that the lift was going to be really great today.

Shortly after release I found a stonking thermal and climbed at 2.5 m/s (average) to 11 000ft AMSL in like 10 minutes. As it turns out, that was to be my best thermal of the day From that high it looked like I could fly just about anywhere and I headed off in the general direction of the dam. My main objective for today was to stay high and to stay up for at least five hours so therefore I planned to take just about every thermal that I found as I was never really planning to go anywhere.

By the time I reached the dam (after many detours) I was at 11800ft AMSL and just over and hour into my flight - four hours to go and mmmhhhhhh, what to do with myself? I hang around the dam for about an hour and a half not really gaining any height and getting a little bored. I looked towards Dealesville and the last few cumulous clouds were beginning to look rather sad! About halfway to Dealesville was a rather pathetic looking cu which looked like it was already in decay and over Dealesville there were still a few small clouds.

Just passed the dam I hooked a thermal to 12500ft AMSL and thought to myself: As they say - nothing ventured, nothing gained and off I headed towards that sad looking cloud between the dam and Dealesville with about 2400 metres (or 62km @ 1:26) in the bag. Of course, and as I expected, my sole cloud on route disappeared before my eyes as I flew towards it. On the way to Dealesville I didn't find much lift and by then the sky was starting to get rather blue. Just short of Dealesville and at about 9500 ft AMSL (which was way out of gliding range to get me home) I found a nice little thermal that gave me extra height and some encouragement to soldier onto by objective.

By now the dam was looking VERY far away and home base was just a distant dream. On the way back, after reaching Dealesville, the sky was a clear blue, but I fortunately managed to find two thermals that helped me out on route. However, both were not that great and I arrived at the dam at my lowest altitude for the flight (8500ft AMSL) and just within gliding distance of the airfield; though it sure did not look like it, but this is what the glider computer said. By now I was about 3½ hours into my flight and still needed another 1½ hours - which was NOT going to happen at this altitude. When I originally left the dam for Dealesville I made a mental note of a fairly decent thermal on the edge of the dam and hoped like crazy that it would still be there when I got back. Thankfully it was and I managed to claw back much need height, but I still needed to survive for another good hour or so.

I began to explore the area between the dam and the airfield for some lift and I found a very nice 1.5 m/s average thermal that took me to the highest point of my flight, 12818ft AMSL. Unfortunately I lost this height surprising quickly by just floating around the sky pretty aimlessly and with no real plan. By now I was 4½ into the flight and I was starting to get a little tired. Luckily I found two small thermals close (12 km) to the airfield that sustained me for the last half an hour and I arrived back at the airfield with tons of height.

I flew a very wide and high circuit around the airfield making my radio calls and listening to the traffic. As luck would have it five other gliders were also arriving back at the same time and I needed to try and fit myself into this sequence. As my experience level is not that high and I now had to again land on a different runway (my first time using 18) I gave myself a very long high final - which I later heard confused the guys on the ground as they generally expect planes to come in low and fast.

As there was already a plane on the runway that had been half pulled off I aimed to float GLH down the runway (brakes closed) and to touch down after this glider. Only problem is that I have never really landed like this before and I wasn't quite sure how to get the plane down as they do tend to float and float and float. I opened the brakes, but perhaps too much and the plane come down, bounced and was airborne again. So I closed the brakes, settled her and tried the same again. This time she thankfully stayed down. So not my best landing ever, but with a 50 km flight, a 1000m height gain and 5 hours that one Silver-C in the bag!!!

So after all the congratulations the glider was quickly derigged and loaded on the trailer ready for the trip home early the next morning. Rather a pricey, but VERY well spent 957.55ZAR, including 360.00ZAR for the tow.

The stats for this flight are rather interesting. I flew for 5 hours 23 minutes that included 3½ minutes for the tow. I gained 1970m that included 457m for the tow. I thermalled 98 times for just over 3 hours or 58% of my flight at an average of 0.8 m/s. So I spent a lot of time going in circles!!! Fortunately I never even felt close to getting my problematic motion sickness. The L/D of the Astir averaged at 28:1 which I thought to be pretty good and compares to what I have read that this glider is capable of and not the 33:1 claimed by the manufacturers. Most of this was done at about best glide of 95 kph.