On Saturday of this weekend I went out to fly again.
The day looked fantastic with large cumulonimbus clouds popping up all over. The wind was relatively calm too but only a few pilots came out to tow.
I got an early Aerotow on the Falcon to 2100 which let me work lift for 20 minutes or so. I climbed to 3070 and decided I would try to go find another cloud to work lift under. I mean, that's what cross country pilots do right? They fly from cloud to cloud, or anyway, from thermal to thermal and try to get as far as they can. Anyway, I saw a large looking cloud that appeared to be forming over Darbyville, only two miles away. So I headed out of my lift and cruised in that direction. It turns out the cloud was farther than I though, by about 6 miles or so. I kept an eye on my altitude so that I could be sure to get back, but I didn't get any lift at all. I flew back to where I expected it to be but couldn't find the lift I started in. I flew in to land and had a nice strong flare.
The day ended up turning on much more strongly toward 3 in the afternoon. One pilot had a 3 hour flight and climbed to 5000 a few times, so the lift was there. Sometime toward the end of the day, closer to 5:30, I tried taking another flight on my Horizon. I had confidence that I understood what was supposed to happen, what I was supposed to do, and how to adjust for position. But the attempt went very poorly. I nearly crashed again. Immediately after coming out of the cart, the glider started banking, I started making large corrections, and I the pilot induced oscillations escalated. The tug pilot gave me the rope and I tried landing in control. I ended up making the worst whack I've ever had and ended up slightly bending a down tube. Check out the video for a dramatic clip of my mistake.
Immediately after the attempt I had no clue what went wrong. Even after looking at the video I'm only half sure what the cause of the failure was. I think I came out of the cart and was slightly off center, or for some reason, I immediately started making a shift in body weight to the left. And I can see it in the video, but I can't for the life of me remember why I did it. I can't relate what I felt during the attempt with how I reacted. I think this is evidence for me that I need to have a fin, and a lot more VG. Both of those things aught to help lessen the "sensitivity" so to speak of the glider during those crucial moments. I can't start oscillating immediately after coming out of the cart.
Also, I need to drill into my mind that if I should disconnect from the tow line for whatever reason, I should NOT try to recover and flare, I should just set the glider down on it's wheels and roll/slide it out. I think partly the severity of my landing on this failed attempt is due to the fact that I was trying not to land on the wheels and ended up mushing (or stalling) the glider into a flare with tilted wings. I think I can pick out in the video where if I had been thinking better, I would have just belly landed and rolled it out into the soft and tall grass, instead I oscillated, never recovered and half flared while the glider was turning.
I ended up slightly shaken, but without any injury at all. No bruised shoulder where I pushed all my weight into the down tube, no sprained ankle, no scrapes or grass burns (on me anyway, the nose cone has a nice grass stain). It could have been a lot worse.
Go to youtube to watch the video, it doesn't embed very well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k09_cwbH2ps
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012, a few more aerotows
I meant to write this up that evening but I got distracted by other things.
Anyway, after my first three attempts at Aerotowing on Saturday, only one of which was successful, I came back on Sunday to get a few more in. I again used the Falcon 170 for both of my tows on Sunday.
We started out a little bit late but my first try around 11:30 went smoothly. Although I borrowed another students vario and misread my altitude so I ended up releasing at around 1100 feet instead of a full tow to 2000. I tried again immediately and towed to 1600 before I got a hand signal from frank waving me off. I assumed frank waved me off because of a bit of turbulence that the tug had just moved through. He gave me some serious advice before we towed that the conditions were likely to be much rougher and that I needed to be really careful about handing the rough air. This advice made me double my effort to watch the tug for signs that it flew through lift, or signs that would mean I was about to fly through that lift too. And I saw a couple of times that one of the tugs wing would lift suddenly followed by the tug pilot correcting and leveling off, then seconds later, I would fly through the same patch of air and have to make my own adjustments.
However, this wasn't the reason I was waved off. Apparently a 2 engine jet aircraft was making a very low pass over the area, presumably heading in to land north of us in Columbus. Everyone on the ground said that the plane appeared to fly under us, but, Frank, sitting in the cockpit of the tug said that the aircraft passed over us by 800-1000 feet and was maybe 2000 feet out in front of us. He waved me off because of the fear of the down wash of the aircraft. My efforts to carefully watch the tug ended up meaning that I excluded everything else from my attention. I never saw or noticed the close flying aircraft. In any case, I released, and made a U-turn to go back to where I figured lift would be. So by pure luck, I avoided the extreme hazard of the down wash. In the future I need to carefully watch the tug but I also need to be aware of my surroundings as well.You can see the airplane pass by in the top left corner of the video at 11:52.
That second tow on Sunday led to a 17 minute flight in which I worked inconsistent lift.
Anyway, after my first three attempts at Aerotowing on Saturday, only one of which was successful, I came back on Sunday to get a few more in. I again used the Falcon 170 for both of my tows on Sunday.
We started out a little bit late but my first try around 11:30 went smoothly. Although I borrowed another students vario and misread my altitude so I ended up releasing at around 1100 feet instead of a full tow to 2000. I tried again immediately and towed to 1600 before I got a hand signal from frank waving me off. I assumed frank waved me off because of a bit of turbulence that the tug had just moved through. He gave me some serious advice before we towed that the conditions were likely to be much rougher and that I needed to be really careful about handing the rough air. This advice made me double my effort to watch the tug for signs that it flew through lift, or signs that would mean I was about to fly through that lift too. And I saw a couple of times that one of the tugs wing would lift suddenly followed by the tug pilot correcting and leveling off, then seconds later, I would fly through the same patch of air and have to make my own adjustments.
However, this wasn't the reason I was waved off. Apparently a 2 engine jet aircraft was making a very low pass over the area, presumably heading in to land north of us in Columbus. Everyone on the ground said that the plane appeared to fly under us, but, Frank, sitting in the cockpit of the tug said that the aircraft passed over us by 800-1000 feet and was maybe 2000 feet out in front of us. He waved me off because of the fear of the down wash of the aircraft. My efforts to carefully watch the tug ended up meaning that I excluded everything else from my attention. I never saw or noticed the close flying aircraft. In any case, I released, and made a U-turn to go back to where I figured lift would be. So by pure luck, I avoided the extreme hazard of the down wash. In the future I need to carefully watch the tug but I also need to be aware of my surroundings as well.You can see the airplane pass by in the top left corner of the video at 11:52.
That second tow on Sunday led to a 17 minute flight in which I worked inconsistent lift.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Saturday May 19th, My first Aerotow!
This weekend an event was organized in memory of a club members Mom. She was a big part of the community many years ago when the Ohio Flyers would fly from her property. It was a great weekend of flying, food, and drink.
The weekend was forecast for 2 decent days of flying and most expected to see some soaring. I was also looking forward to this weekend because of the possibility of doing my first Aerotows. John has been hinting at it for a few weeks now but this week was the first I seriously considered trying. I arranged to be out early to take advantage of the calm and cool air and Frank and I set up my glider for towing.
To cut strait to the chase: my first two attempts went very poorly although no harm was done.
On my first launch, I stayed in the cart too long. I over reacted to the advice that I would need to hold on to the cart much longer than I normally do while scooter towing and ended up trying to stay on the cart well after I was at an appropriate speed to take off. When I did finally come out of the cart, I didn't follow the tug as it climbed, I stayed low and fast, again over reacting to the advice that when aerotowing you need to fly much faster. While I don't think I was necessarily in immediate trouble, I was certainly not doing vary good yet so Frank made the cautious move and gave me the tow line. I made a safe (but uncomfortable) wheel landing in the tall grass and went back to try again.
The second launch was much scarier. Although I did come out of the cart on time, I stayed low, and didn't watch the tug at all. I had all my attention on flying the glider. I was still pulling in too far in order to keep my speed up where I thought it should be so I got below the tug again. If I had led the bar out and climbed up with the tug I think I might have been OK. But I didn't, and I definitely was not OK. I started oscillating by making enormous corrections and holding those corrections for too long. One wing tip came close to the ground and I surged all over the place. I felt like I was loosing control so I released myself from the line. After releasing, I leveled off and made a controlled landing on my feet in the grass.
Right after that second attempt, I knew I didn't do very good but I didn't realize how ridiculously close I was to a bad crash. Anyway, the video shows it pretty well I think. We discussed my second attempt a bit, but easy concluded I shouldn't try again just yet. I would wait until the late evening to try again. Many people thought that the glider was a big unknown, it hadn't been aerotowed before and the attachment point at the keel could have been wrong. It was also suggested that I should use more VG, although, in my limited experience using the VG on that glider, it doesn't make that much of a difference in free flight so I wasn't convinced. In fact, I don't like having the VG on at all while scooter towing because it ends up being harder to make the small corrections in roll that you need to stay facing down the tow line. In the end I think Aerotowing has nothing in common with scooter towing and I shouldn't be trying to apply my experiences with scooter towing to Aerotowing. I think VG is pretty likely to make a positive difference in my control under Aerotow.
I thought about stepping all the way back to taking a tandem next, I already have complete confidence controlling the glider (at least under the most gentle of conditions), but the feeling of being towed behind the airplane is still pretty unique and I could easily get comfortable with that before trying again. The other option was just flying the Falcon that John trains students on. It would eliminate many unknowns from the equation since it was already set up to aerotow and had been aerotowed by dozens of pilots over the years and was a very easy glider to fly.
We waited until the evening when things were starting to cool off before I towed again. By this time all the other pilots were around, some already finished flying for the day so they were eager to jump in with advice at the last minute. Some were so eager, they continued throwing scenarios at me even while I was doing my hang check ("If you have to land out in a field, remember to land on TOP of the grass...Don't forget, if you have to drop the tow line, remember where it lands...etc). I had spent all day thinking about this and talking to people for advice and I was ready to go. It stops helping when the student is overwhelmed with information that really doesn't have anything to do with what he's trying to accomplish!
Anyway...that third attempt went perfectly smooth. I felt calm, controlled, and focused the whole flight. I had my eyes on the tug from the time the wheels first started rolling, I left the cart on time, and followed the tug as it climbed to maintain my position behind it. I might have been slow to adjust my position when I drifted low or drifted high, but I think I did a good job of staying in the sweet spot over all. I didn't have an instrument with me so I don't remember how high I got, but I think we climbed all the way to 2200 feet and I had a smooth sled ride back down to the field. I think my first aerowtow flight went great!
TL;DR Check out the video!
The weekend was forecast for 2 decent days of flying and most expected to see some soaring. I was also looking forward to this weekend because of the possibility of doing my first Aerotows. John has been hinting at it for a few weeks now but this week was the first I seriously considered trying. I arranged to be out early to take advantage of the calm and cool air and Frank and I set up my glider for towing.
To cut strait to the chase: my first two attempts went very poorly although no harm was done.
On my first launch, I stayed in the cart too long. I over reacted to the advice that I would need to hold on to the cart much longer than I normally do while scooter towing and ended up trying to stay on the cart well after I was at an appropriate speed to take off. When I did finally come out of the cart, I didn't follow the tug as it climbed, I stayed low and fast, again over reacting to the advice that when aerotowing you need to fly much faster. While I don't think I was necessarily in immediate trouble, I was certainly not doing vary good yet so Frank made the cautious move and gave me the tow line. I made a safe (but uncomfortable) wheel landing in the tall grass and went back to try again.
The second launch was much scarier. Although I did come out of the cart on time, I stayed low, and didn't watch the tug at all. I had all my attention on flying the glider. I was still pulling in too far in order to keep my speed up where I thought it should be so I got below the tug again. If I had led the bar out and climbed up with the tug I think I might have been OK. But I didn't, and I definitely was not OK. I started oscillating by making enormous corrections and holding those corrections for too long. One wing tip came close to the ground and I surged all over the place. I felt like I was loosing control so I released myself from the line. After releasing, I leveled off and made a controlled landing on my feet in the grass.
Right after that second attempt, I knew I didn't do very good but I didn't realize how ridiculously close I was to a bad crash. Anyway, the video shows it pretty well I think. We discussed my second attempt a bit, but easy concluded I shouldn't try again just yet. I would wait until the late evening to try again. Many people thought that the glider was a big unknown, it hadn't been aerotowed before and the attachment point at the keel could have been wrong. It was also suggested that I should use more VG, although, in my limited experience using the VG on that glider, it doesn't make that much of a difference in free flight so I wasn't convinced. In fact, I don't like having the VG on at all while scooter towing because it ends up being harder to make the small corrections in roll that you need to stay facing down the tow line. In the end I think Aerotowing has nothing in common with scooter towing and I shouldn't be trying to apply my experiences with scooter towing to Aerotowing. I think VG is pretty likely to make a positive difference in my control under Aerotow.
I thought about stepping all the way back to taking a tandem next, I already have complete confidence controlling the glider (at least under the most gentle of conditions), but the feeling of being towed behind the airplane is still pretty unique and I could easily get comfortable with that before trying again. The other option was just flying the Falcon that John trains students on. It would eliminate many unknowns from the equation since it was already set up to aerotow and had been aerotowed by dozens of pilots over the years and was a very easy glider to fly.
We waited until the evening when things were starting to cool off before I towed again. By this time all the other pilots were around, some already finished flying for the day so they were eager to jump in with advice at the last minute. Some were so eager, they continued throwing scenarios at me even while I was doing my hang check ("If you have to land out in a field, remember to land on TOP of the grass...Don't forget, if you have to drop the tow line, remember where it lands...etc). I had spent all day thinking about this and talking to people for advice and I was ready to go. It stops helping when the student is overwhelmed with information that really doesn't have anything to do with what he's trying to accomplish!
Anyway...that third attempt went perfectly smooth. I felt calm, controlled, and focused the whole flight. I had my eyes on the tug from the time the wheels first started rolling, I left the cart on time, and followed the tug as it climbed to maintain my position behind it. I might have been slow to adjust my position when I drifted low or drifted high, but I think I did a good job of staying in the sweet spot over all. I didn't have an instrument with me so I don't remember how high I got, but I think we climbed all the way to 2200 feet and I had a smooth sled ride back down to the field. I think my first aerowtow flight went great!
TL;DR Check out the video!
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday May 6, 2012, towing at Wesmar
Saturday of this weekend was forecast to be very foggy and rainy. So no flying was possible. But Sunday was expected to be much more sunny. Indeed we had mostly clear skies all day. A few cumulus clouds were popping up here and there but it was very humid and we had very little lift to work. Again, a number of other club pilots came out for Aerotowing so we had our crowded setup of scooter towing down one runway and aerotowing off the other and a total of 15 or 16 gliders set up to fly.
I got 4 scooter towing flights today for a total of 14 minutes of air time. Unfortunately there was so little wind that our scooter tows couldn't possibly get us high enough to work lift. So all 4 of my flights were sledders with the occasional meager effort to search for lift. Although another student named Matt did manage to extend his flights on 2 occasions to more than 10 minutes. 15 minutes in one case I think. So he managed to find what I could not.
Anyway, I think I had 4 great landings today, and was pleased with what felt like consistency. I was setting up my approaches better, and flaring strong and with good timing. I was even able on 3 of the flights to land right back where I started and only a few steps away from the launch. So my accuracy or judgment of final glide is getting better. However I did notice after watching the video that my fourth landing showed some yawing oscillations which led to a slightly off balance flare. I've heard other people mention this before on a number of occasions, usually after it led to a whack. I think their conclusion was that a late, or aggressive turn to final leads to this oscillations after rounding out at the ground. On a very high performance wing, this oscillation can be much more significant too. In this case it led to a slight imbalance but if it was any worse I would have been too off balance to keep the glider on my shoulders. I will have to pay closer attention to this next time and be conscious of my turns before final.
Check out the video, the landing with yaw oscillations is at 04:39 in the video below. I included 1 flight, but all 4 landings.
I got 4 scooter towing flights today for a total of 14 minutes of air time. Unfortunately there was so little wind that our scooter tows couldn't possibly get us high enough to work lift. So all 4 of my flights were sledders with the occasional meager effort to search for lift. Although another student named Matt did manage to extend his flights on 2 occasions to more than 10 minutes. 15 minutes in one case I think. So he managed to find what I could not.
Anyway, I think I had 4 great landings today, and was pleased with what felt like consistency. I was setting up my approaches better, and flaring strong and with good timing. I was even able on 3 of the flights to land right back where I started and only a few steps away from the launch. So my accuracy or judgment of final glide is getting better. However I did notice after watching the video that my fourth landing showed some yawing oscillations which led to a slightly off balance flare. I've heard other people mention this before on a number of occasions, usually after it led to a whack. I think their conclusion was that a late, or aggressive turn to final leads to this oscillations after rounding out at the ground. On a very high performance wing, this oscillation can be much more significant too. In this case it led to a slight imbalance but if it was any worse I would have been too off balance to keep the glider on my shoulders. I will have to pay closer attention to this next time and be conscious of my turns before final.
Check out the video, the landing with yaw oscillations is at 04:39 in the video below. I included 1 flight, but all 4 landings.
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