December 17

We had a half day today at Wes/Mar. It was cold and overcast with a chance of some precipitation. On my way there I saw some light snow falling but when I pulled up Noel, Matt, and Mike were all there setting up gliders to fly. I got out the Northwing Horizon again and flew it for the second time.

I do like that glider. I think it looks amazing with Red, Yellow and Blue underside and White top. It also feels great in the air. Now that I've been seriously considering buying a glider I've started thinking about how to actually make a decision. I've done some reading on a few different gliders that I figured would be in my skill range and pretty much across the board the reviews are good. I didn't really see much difference in customer reviews between the Northwing Horizion, Airborne Sting, or the Wills Wing Sport 2. And anyways I don't think reading reviews is nearly enough to make a decision. I want to see and feel and fly the glider I'm buying. So I think I've gotten pretty lucky with this Horizon being for sale at the training field. I've gotten the chance to fly the glider and I know exactly what I'm getting. So this has easily brought this glider to the top of my list. Add to that the good looks of the glider and I'm pretty much ready to buy it now. I enjoy flying it and find it easy to handle and land and figure I'll be able to stick with this glider for quite a while.

So I ended up with another 5 tows totaling some 25 minutes! Not much flight time compared to any veteran pilots average day but it was far more than my previous few days averaging only a minute or two per flight. The weather made this day particularly interesting too. It was overcast and cold and even snowing lightly while we were flying! But the air was unstable and there were cumulus clouds showing signs of thermal activity. It might have been a soaring day if any of us had the skill (and luck) to find the good lift. I did find some very light lift that let me make 3 or 4 full 360 degree turns without loosing any altitude at all. I was able to watch the vario and saw myself stay right around 715 feet the whole time (45 seconds or so). I wonder what kind of difference I would have seen if I had made larger radius turns, or tried flying a little slower etc. I think learning how to take full advantage of the invisible and unpredictable currents of rising air is something that will only come with lots of experience but I did get a small taste!

 

I think I've still got some bad habbits with my landing flare. Sometimes my weak or poorly timed flare still results in a decent landing but I find myself off balance or with wings not level. I'll have to work on this better next time I get out there.

I think these videos are also getting a little boring. I'm glad I have them to look over and learn from but as the flight time increases it becomes less and less interesting to include the whole flight in the video. Maybe next time I'll start editing the videos more to show just the highlights or something.

December 10 at Ed Levin Park

I made a visit to California this weekend to visit relatives in the San Fransisco Bay area. After hearing so much about Fort Funston and the Hang Gliding community there in SF I decided to take a day and go flying. Specifically, I wanted to work on foot launching since I have so few hills here in Ohio. I made contact with an instructor via the USHPA website and scheduled a day of lesson on Saturday at Ed Levin Park.

The Park is great because it's got large wide open lawns and a mountainside with established launches at a bunch of different altitudes. So it's perfect for practicing skills. I think it is often soarable but the forecast for Saturday was very light winds and slightly overcast.

I met John Simpson at the park in the morning and we set up and got started working on foot launches from 50 feet. From this launch I practiced executing a strong run downhill in light conditions. John expected the wind to change from south-south-west to more northerly and sure enough it did. I had 4 foot launches by that time and got 2 more after the wind changed. Cross wind launches are interesting because of how far away from your launch direction you have to point the glider. I was running down hill almost directly west, but the wind was 30 degrees off to my right so I had the glider pointed nearly directly into the wind. This exaggerated yawing of the glider into the wind felt bizarre but it does help to ensure a smooth launch. And anyway, as soon as the glider does start flying, it corrects it's yaw back to the direction of the launch run.

In total I had 6 foot launches from 50 feet, and 2 from 300 feet. I think this qualifies me for the foot launch skill, and maybe even the cross wind launch skill however I forgot to get my instructor to sign off on these in my log book, oh well.

I also got to experience how much more work you have to put into learning when you are required to carry the glider up hill each time you launch. I've gotten used to being driven from one end of the field to the other on a golf cart! It's exhausting.

One of the other local pilots there offered to record a short clip of one flight:
I didn't have level wings and was maybe going a little fast for the flare, but I made the spot landing!
This was the second flight from 300', on the first flight I did poorly judging the altitude on final and overshot the spot quite a bit.

And I also recorded my usual tail perspective on the GoPro camera but have had trouble editing it together. And anyways 6 of the flights were 10 seconds or less (from 50 feet) so it doesn't make for a very interested set of clips.

December 3

This Saturday was another relatively warm and sunny day with a gentle breeze to tow in. When I got to the training field John asked what glider I wanted to fly. I haven't had a choice before, I've always just flown the Falcon. Here's what I know about gliders: The Falcon 170 that I am used to flying is a single surface low performance glider that is designed to be exceptionally easy to turn and land. As you increase the performance of the glider, for example by adding a second surface (to the underside of the wing and enclosing the sail frame) you often have to sacrifice in other areas, such as responsiveness in handling or landing characteristics. I often hear people talk about the "flare window" getting smaller for high performance gliders. The flare window is that ideal moment to flare in order to come to a complete stop for a no-step landing. So when John started talking about trying a different glider, I was concerned that a higher performing glider would give me a lot of trouble

We ended up decided to setup and try the Northwing Horizon 180. The Horizon is a double surface glider with VG (Variable Geometry means that the shape of the internal frame of the glider can be changed in flight by pulling on a long cord at the control bar). It's definitely a couple of steps up in performance compared to the Falcon, and I'm on the lighter end of ideal hook in weight for such a large glider (at 185 square feet), but it's given a USHPA rating of H2, so we thought it would be a good glider for me to try out.

After John test flew it, he made an adjustment to the hang point to get a good trim speed and I gave it a go. The flight plan was just to box the field and get a feel for any differences in handling compared to the Falcon that I'm used to. We also had a variometer and an anemometer attached to the glider so that I could start paying attention to airspeed and altitude. For the first flight, the glider was trimmed pretty fast, at around 25 mph, and I certainly felt the speed while flying. The glider responded nicely though and I didn't have any trouble making some turns and setting up a landing. I landed kinda fast though and only flared weekly. We adjusted the trim again, and on the second flight I saw the glider trim to 19 mph. At this trim speed, I felt I had to pull in a bit more on the control bar in order to get a turn to respond quickly, but my landing was a no-stepper.

I still need to work on consistent flares though. I tend to move my hands to shoulder height on the control bar when I turn to final and then keep them there even when I flare for a landing. Instead I should be keeping my hands lower on the down tubes during final for better roll control and then move my hands much higher when I round out to flare. I will work on that the next time I fly.

On my third flight I had a tow line break. It's one of those things that we need to be aware of and know how to respond to when it happens. As the video shows a tow line break causes a sudden dive as the glider stops climbing and picks up speed to start flying again. I think I handled this part well and was able to level the glider and continue on a straight path. The thing that I wasn't immediately aware of was the fact that I still had a tow line dragging behind me. This can be extremely dangerous as a dragging tow line can get caught or tangled on the ground and suddenly pull you in the opposite direction your flying (Think about throwing a tennis ball attached to a string). I only thought of the towline dragging behind me when John called it out on the radio. Later on in the day I had another tow line break and reacted much quicker to disconnect the tow line trailing behind me.

The other thing I tried doing with this glider was slowing it down at altitude. At his point he glider was trimming to 20mph but I was able to slow down to 16 mph before I felt the control bar pushing back against me and the glider wanting to nose down. I think this was only the very begging of a stall though. 

Over all I thought the Northing Horizon 185 was a whole lot of fun to fly. I felt comfortable making turns, speeding up and slowing down, and landing was pretty easy too. From all the descriptions I hear people give of higher performance gliders I expected the Horizon to feel completely foreign to me. Instead I felt great and had no trouble with it at all!

The word is that the glider I flew is for sale too! Maybe I'll have a glider of my own sooner than I thought!

I only recorded 3 flights of the 10 that I got that day. I need to get in the habit of stopping recording when I land, and also turning the camera off while I wait for my next launch in order to save the battery. Oh well, I recorded the line break and my first flights on a high performance glider.