Leah Learns to Glide

[canoecox]

Hello everyone! I have been a frequent forum stalker over the years but after a request from your administer I have finally made my own account. For those of you who I have not met yet, my name is Leah Condon and I am married to Tony Condon another POA member.

This series of posts were originally posted on the purple board. Your admin extraordinaire Jesse Angell though told me bluntly last night that if I did not also post on the "blue" board that he would be personally offended. So for those of you who frequent both boards I appologize for the overlapp.

Post #1- Nov. 8, 2009
Well I believe it is time for me to chime in myself and give my flight report of the weekend. The first thing Tony did when we got back from the gliderport was to sit me down in front of the computer and create my own purpleboard account

A brief background of my glider flying is that I have been up for rides 4-times (it took 2-years of dating before I got Tony to take me up in a Blanik

). I have considered getting my pilots certificate powered ever since Tony brought me to my first fly-in. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I did not want to be one of the wives/girlfriends who sat in a chair on the flight line all day while their significant others were in the air. Plus I will have to admit to my competetive/feminist nature that shouted that I could do that too. I have ~18 hours or so of powered time accumulated over a few years mostly interrupted though by college and most recently wedding planning (there are always excuses right).

I also have had the opportunity of eaves dropping in on a few conversations about how flying gliders has made powered pilots better. Along with some debates over which rating one should acquire first. My "chasing career" began when Tony called me from a field on the 4th of July one year and talked me into picking him up which involved pulling his 29ft long trailer as my first trailer pulling experience (I have since moved onto canoe trailers and U-hauls). Honestly though I'd rather have a task/job to do at the soaring meets rather than just waiting back at the gliderport twiddling my thumbs.

This years vintage sailplane meet in Wichita KS accelerated my desire to start flying gliders. Primarily prompted by smooth speaking gentlemen from IL, who had previously flown Tony's beloved Cherokee II (the other woman) and knew of one in need of a good home for a steal of a deal. I dared Tony that if he wanted to get it then he should give it to me as a wedding present (1/2 joking at first). The next thing that I knew I am now the proud owner of a 1964 Cherokee II experimental home built glider that I can't fly....hence my starting glider flying lessons. Plus the awe inspiring feeling of sitting in it by myself for the first time with the canopy closed (even if it was just the fuselage w/out the wings assembled

).

Sheesh...I did not intend to write a novel...sorry everyone, I promise to get on with the flight report

Yesterday Tony and I went out to the Wichita Gliderport which is only ~ a 20 min drive for us. I got to get my first introductory glider lesson flights. We took 2-3,000 ft tows and 2-2,000 ft tows, the 4-tows were perfect for me to get a taste but not too many to overwhelm me. The hardest part for me was flying the tow. I was comfortable at first when Tony gave me control of the rudder...then I did ok when I was given control of the roll....things just completely fell apart when I was given the whole stick. I truly felt wildly out of control but thankfully Tony kept me from doing to much damage and saved me from myself. After the release I got some confidence back flying straight and wings level. From my bit of previous experience I was able to keep coordinated. For some reason the bank angle in the turns seemed much steeper than I had done before and I know I have done 30 degree turns in planes before. This may have been in part due to the greater visibility given by the bubble canopy. I did have a hard time not looking at my wings to verify that wings were level. This must have been a bad habit that I had fallen into and the wings of the 233 were so far back that I could not just glance at them with my peripheral vision. Overall though I was able to make some landings mostly by myself and fly the portions after release pretty well. There were a few other glider pilots flying that day and it was nice to chat with them and get reassurance that the tow is tricky and one of the last things they were able to pick up.

Today we went out to the Sunflower gliderport near Hutchinson. My day first started off though by watching a Soaring Safety Foundation DVD on standard soaring signals to get me warmed up

. I was able to make some improvement overall with my tows and was even able to do a few take-offs by myself. We had a decent headwind of 20mph which gave me some good "ground flying" practice of trying to keep the wings level while we were sitting on the runways waiting to hook up with the tow plane. Other things we worked on were airbrake stalls and slow flying, maintaining speed relative to glide angle, pre-flight and landing check lists, crabbing into the wind and how approaches change with increased wind. Tony was flying with another student who had soloed this summer and we took turns running each other's wings. A good day overall though I wish my final landing had been smoother (always room for improvement). Here's to more flights to come and to a patient and capable instructor

.

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post # 2: Nov. 30, 2009
Thanks all for the welcome! Sorry I haven't been back on since I last posted (had to kick Tony off the computer after all...ok mostly joking

) Technically I believe that I am now up to 11 flights (4+4+3), but who's counting. Adam, don't worry I am a lousy speller as well. So here goes flight report #2.

This last Saturday 11/28 I had the opportunity to get back up in a glider again after spending the last week in AZ. Tony and I went up to the Wichita gliderport this time and flew their 2-33. The day was balmy and sunny for November and it was far less windy than the last time I got up. Since it had been 2-weeks or so since I had last gotten up I was a bit concerned that I'd have accumulated a lot of rust. We were able to take 3 tows before we had to give the glider to the next pilot on the schedule.

Overall things went pretty well, I am feeling more in control of the glider on the tow, though I am not there yet. I think Tony only really had to save me 1x when I got to low in the prop wash. Once up he had me do some 360+ turns in both directions along with some stalls. On the first flight I did a standard increasing angle of attack to induce a stall and then on the second one he had me try to stall while banked. The lesson learned was that I did not need to rush my stick so far forward to recover....but really just needed to relax my back pressure. I just really wanted to make sure to recover from the stall

We then headed back and I got a refresher on the differences between Crabbing, Slipping, and Skidding as I got confused by what Tony was asking as we were coming into land with the wind.

On the second tow I improved on keeping things low after I was flying but before the tow plane was able to take-off. Tony then had me do a banked stall as mentioned earlier. He then demonstrated how a slip (not enough rudder) can be induced by applying opposite rudder when banked. He also then pointed out how hard it was for me to stall in the bank and why gliders are more prone to stall/spin from a skid (too much rudder) than from a slip. On landing I need a little coaching to help with the timing of when to straighten out my crab and use a slip to reduce altitude as we came in a bit high.

On the final tow we switched tow pilots and I could really notice the difference. I regressed a bit on the tow because of this. The pilot was just being really smooth and subtle in his turns which would have been fine for a normal pilot but as a novice student I was having a hard time trying to match his bank b/c half the time I couldn't tell which direction he was banked. This resulted in me over correcting. I also noticed that I wasn't entering my turns as "smartly" as I should have been. I think after the over corrections on tow I was hesitant to "over do it" and so entered at too shallow of an angle thinking that I was being conservative. I was able to work through this during my final flight.

Over all impression was that my tows improved, 360+ turns make me a bit dizzy as the dancer in me keeps trying to "spot", my entering into turns regressed a bit but I atleast am aware of the problem, my take-offs were better, landings were ok though with the wind correction I was grateful for some coaching. I will be sure to keep all of you posted when I have more to report.

LC

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post # 3-December 13, 2009

Hi everyone,

I have another flight report to add to the others. I think that mother nature was confused today in KS. Today, December 13, Wichita KS had highs in the 50's. To a native Minnesotan like myself I could hardly believe it. Tony and I had made arrangements to fly today however @ 9am we woke up to fog which wasn't supposed to clear out enough or in time for us to fly. So we called our tow pilot and canceled for the day. After church the fog had lifted however the ceilings were still under 1k ft and still were not expected to clear until later in the day. 20 min later the sun was shining and we were able to re-setup our tow pilot for 2pm

I took 4 tows today, 3k ft, 4k ft, 3kft, and 1 kft. The first flight was messy. It had been a few weeks since the weather last allowed us to fly and I had a lot of rust to knock off. I was a little disappointed as I found my self tensing up and getting stressed.

On the next flight Tony introduced flying the "box" on tow. He demonstrated the manuever and pointed out the visual targets (horizontal lined up with wing on low tow, then horizontal and window on low left and Right etc). As my last tow had been a bit out of control I was nervous about adding another feature to the tow. However for some wierd reason I picked up flying the box pretty well. Tony joked that if I could just fly the tow @ the lower left hand corner of the box all the time I'd be set

. Really I think it was just because I had a specific place to be rather than trying to stay centered etc in high tow. To stay low I required a lot of pressure and constant aleron to hold the corners (left and right) vs the subtle corrections to stay in the center (or atleast it felt that way).

The second tow I only did a 1/2 box and then we worked on my always being able to locate the glider port. Tony also had me perform some 360 degree turns, straight stalls and banked stalls. Tony also started having me do un-coached (or lesser coached) landings. My 1st and 2nd landings were pretty good though I was on the high side. The airbrake started to click when I realized that if my approach was low I could close the airbrake and decrease my descent.

My 3rd flight Tony had me fly a full box on the tow. After release we worked more on my flying coordinated and did a series of Dutch Rolls. My third approach was tighter and I after Tony had me do what felt like a very steep/accelerated slip....I felt very low w/airbrakes shut and for a moment did not think that we would make it to the runway. Tony on the other hand pointed out that this was a more "normal" low approach and that my others just had been pretty high. He thought I was too far to the right and had me correct back to center when I was worried about altitude

On our 4th and final flight we took a pattern tow of only 1k ft. Things really seemed to click. I had a bit of a bump on take-off (Tony said I could not count it as 2 in my log book

) but then after that I tried to focus on using my feet/rudder. The "Box" exercise made me more aware of where the wake was so I flew a lower high tow than earlier. Combined with perhaps less turbulence in the air the flight was great. I flew a right pattern and had a decent landing (although with a bit of coaching).

While I trust my instructor, I started to realize that I was trusting him too much and expecting him to pull me out of anything relatively sketchy. Tony had to bluntly tell me that he was only going to pull me out of a pickle if I really messed things up and I shouldn't expect him to do all the work (or something along those lines). That really clicked today and I think made me refocus and work harder to fix my own errors instead of expecting him to "save" me

Sorry for the novel, it always seems to run so long each time I write these up. I don't know when the weather will next cooperate but I hope that it will be soon. Happy Holidays

Leah

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post #4- January 17, 2010

Thanks Wayne, I do indeed like your edited version!

Today I did indeed spend out at the Sunflower Gliderport. I was a little nervous for the first flight as the last time that I had flown was about a month ago and that was at the Wichita Gliderport. I had last flown at Sunflower in November so it was nice to be back. Mostly I was nervous about how far I may have regressed due to the cold winter weather interrupting my flight opportunities.

While I woke up to fog (again) in Wichita, Sunflower was 53 F and sunny! The Minnesotan in me was flabbergasted to have 50 F weather in January rather than March! We were not the only ones to take advantage of the fine weather as Tony flew with 2.5 other students. Three of us rotated through with him and Tony did a pre-checkride flight with another. After doing take-offs w/out wing runners in December it was nice to have lots of help.

On my first flight I started off pretty stiff and tense for no reason except that I felt rusty. It must have been pretty noticeable b/c Tony mentioned that I seemed tense and that was enough to get me to relax. Once I did I satisfied with how well the rest of my tow went. I think I finally am getting the hang of it! Once we were off tow Tony had me do some stalls with 1/2 airbrake. I always am somewhat hesitant to stall the glider. It just seems like once I have my angle of attack increased to a certain point...it goes against the grain to continue to increase it. I did notice that my left wing tended to dip down....and as I was a bit overzealous in my recovery as I did not want to spin/stall. Tony had me repeat the stall, but this time with a gentler recovery (less agressive about getting the stick forward). While we still had some altitude Tony demonstrated and then had me perform a forward slip. So then when the time came to land, I started with the slip. My landing was OK, though I should have held it off longer. I got so excited about making it to the runway alright that I forgot where my landing mark was...and also the fact the the runway was 7,000 ft and I landed early. I should have held it off for a bit longer, but otherwise it was pretty good.

On my second flight I was under the impression that it was to be a 2,000 ft. Tow and Tony was going to introduce taking the slack out of the towrope. As he had debriefed a turn back to the runway for a rope failure above 200 ft, I was not completely shocked by what came next. I was making a point of keeping attention on my altimeter when I hear the "pop" nose of the towrope release. My first thought was.."Wow, the rope broke", followed instinctively by my right bank away from the towplane. The interchange that followed went something like this:

me: "We are going to land down wind?"
Tony: "Yup, we don't have enough altitude to fly a pattern"
Me: "Ok, landing ahead...full airbrakes"

Even though it was a low altitude release I was surprised by how much altitude we had to loose to land. I used full airbrakes and landed pretty quickly. I still had plenty of speed an probably should have held it off a little longer to slow myself down a bit. We also ended up landing on the other side of the runway (gliders do not land on the newly paved center but off to either side on the older pavement) than I intended to do to traffic. I managed to lineup though I was hesitant to bank so low to the ground. Tony pointed out to me how large the bank angle needs to be in order for my wing to hit once we got out of the glider. Next time I will not be so hesitant to use my ailerons to line up near the ground.

Flight #3 was great! I wanted to correct my trademark bank angle osscilation on tow that I had fallen into a bit on my short 2nd flight (I was able to shake it off right before the simulated rope break). I was able to match my tow pilot's bank angles and did not accidentally drift into the wake. In summary I was able to fly it without Tony needing to intervene which was a great confidence booster. Once in the air Tony introduced slow flight. This was pretty as it extended my flight time, which felt especially long after my abbreviated 2nd flight. It was nice to see how slow I could fly without stalling. While I was near my stall speed I still felt that I had full control of the glider, and I got to stay aloft longer! On landing I finally was able to land on my mark (though that was with Tony's encouragement to hold things off for an extra 1 second). I thought that we were going to overshoot our mark for once but he was able to get me to wait an extra second and of course we nailed it!

All in all it was a good day! I was able to chat with some of the other pilots and was inspired/motivated when Tony signed off one of the other students for her 2nd solo flight. Her initial solo flight was in September or October. She showed me how to insert the ballast in the 2-33 which hopefully will come in handy in the future. I also got to play guinea pig for outfitting the clubs 2-22 with rudder pedal adjustments so I am looking forward to having the opportunity to fly something different in the future once they are installed. (right now, even with my legs completely straight, I can only reach the rudder pedals with my toes

). We attracted an audience while we were flying and I had a nice chat with a neighboring Amish dad and his two sons who rode out on horse back to come and watch. I had seen them there before but this was the first time I had gotten a chance to chat. They were very friendly and seemed to have a good time watching the motorless gliders.

Well that is all for now. Until the next time that the weather permits flight, take care and thanks for reading!

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post #5- May 15, 2010

Ok, so I will admit that I a quite behind on the whole blog update. I will try not to be too long.

Marfa, TX
The 16-23 or so of April I went with Tony and N373Y down to Marfa, TX for the Dick Johnson Wave Camp. While I spent most of the week helping out at the airport, exploring the town and even made it out to Big Bend National Park for a day I was able to make it up for two flights.

One of the rides scheduled for Sunday did not show and since the Blanik was already down at the end of the runway Matt Michael, Tony's glider instructor asked me if I wanted to go up. I of course agreed! This was the first time that I had flown with a different instructor and I could tell that styles were a little different. Though as Matt had trained Tony I wasn't too lost. I had not flown since January due to an illness and then weather so I had a little bit of stage fright about performing well for Matt. This was also the first time that I had flown anything besides a 2-33 or a 2-22. While I was debriefed that the L-23 would be much more pitch sensitive and a bit more of a dog in roll than the 2-33 it was quite another thing to experience it.

I think what really gave me the most trouble though was the disconnect between the pitch and the roll. I think that it would have been easier if it had been more sensitive in both the pitch and the roll. But the biggest wake-up call for me was the dynamic air out there. I have never experienced so much slack line on tow in my life! After not having flown in 3 months I was sure that it was something that I was doing or not doing that was causing what felt to me like an out of control tow. Matt was great though about talking me through taking out the slack and stepped in the time or two that I couldn't quite reduce the slack myself. It also finally clicked that to stay coordinated in the tow I do not need to focus so much on the yaw string as it can be un reliable, but to work on coordinating my turns but then to use the rudder to keep the glider pointed at the tow plan, inspite of what the yaw string might be saying.

Imagine my surprise then when we reached the ground and Matt told me that he was impressed how well I had managed the tow. I am pretty sure that my mouth fell open before I remembered to close it. He then explained that the majority of the slack that occured was induced by the dynamic atmosphere that we were towing through. Even Tony admitted that he had slack lines on his tows. Whooo, big sigh of relief... for a moment there I thought that I had regressed so far that I was putting huge slack line in the rope

I then got to go up for a second flight. This time though I still experienced slack line on tow, I was expecting it and was able to reduce it pretty well myself. The highlight of that flight though was that Matt took me soaring. This was the first time that I had gaggled or thermaled with other pilots. The icing on the cake though was when Tony came out to find us and we got to circle in the same thermal. After spending many weeks recovering N373Y it was amazing to see her in the air. I must admit that I am quite a fan of her new paint job. My only regret was that I did not have my camera to take some air to air shots of her and Tony.

While I was planning on getting a few more flights in that week the weather (specifically the wind) had other plans in mind. Even though I only got two flights in, it made me appreciate the nice calm air that KS can have during some of the flights since I have been back home (I have flown 2 days for a total of 7 flights since). I will have to update you all on those flights later though as Tony has to write an article for two different magazines by tomorrow morning so I should relinquish the computer.

Thanks for reading!
LC

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post # 6- May 16, 2010

Alright, though I posted last night I am still behind on flight reports. On Thursday May 6, I took my first flights post Marfa out at the Wichita Gliderport. In all I took 3-flights, a 3,000 ft tow, then two pattern altitude tows (~1k ft). By Kansas standards the wind was pretty well behaved around 14 mph or so with some higher gusts. Most of my flight eperience has had some form of a head wind or another so it did not seem too tricky to me.

The tow of the first flight felt like a dream after flying in Marfa. I still am a little tense on tow but was able to do a decent job of it or at least the tow was much less "exciting" than the two that I had taken down south. Once released Tony had me practice stalls, coordinating my turns and then....it came time to land. I was having some trouble judging my approach. Specifically it came out after word I was ignoring the vertical angle (pitch wise direction) from my glider to my landing point as I was on the downwind leg. The angle that I was conscious of up to that point was my "yaw" angle to keep my flight path parallel to the runway. This lack of attention to my landing spot angle had my fairly high when I turned base and required some full airbrakes to land....and of course I missed my intended spot. After talking with Tony once on the ground I realised my over sight and we decided to work on approaches and landings for the rest of the flights.

The 2nd flight was mostly a demonstrative one. Tony let me fly the tow unassisted. The air was much rougher and bumpier on this tow. The tow pilot that day also has a reputation/tendency to accelerate quickly and always gives me a bit of trouble during the roll before lift off. This was a pattern altitude tow, so after we released Tony took over the controls to demonstrate a more controlled approach and landing. I was able to follow along his angles but I still feel like I just need some more landing experience in different conditions to be able to full recognize how to adjust my approach for different conditions (winds mostly).

The 3rd flight of the day was my turn to show what I had learned. This pattern altitude tow was smoother. After release it was my turn to set up the pattern. While far from perfect, the entry in my log book at least declares it to be a "much better approach and landing" so I must have been paying attention during the demonstration on the last flight because I do feel that I learned something.

Ok, now I just have my flights from yesterday to report upon and then I will be all caught up. I will go ahead and open a new reply window for that one to keep things from getting too confusing. Hopefully in the future I will be able to keep up my reports with my flights so I do not have to drop all of them in your laps at 1x! Thanks for reading,

LC

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Post #7-May 16, 2010

Fortunately or unfortunately, due to a raining and low ceiling weekend, once I complete this post of Friday's flight I will then be all caught up on my flight reports!

On Friday, Tony and I headed out to the Wichita Gliderport to take a few flights after work. I am thoroughly impressed by how efficient we were as we managed to get in 5 flights in just over an hour. It helped that we were the only ones flying that day, and that most of the tows were only up to pattern altitude.

Before we flew Tony gave me a good ground school on cross-wind take-offs and landings as for once I was flying with a cross-wind from the east instead of the typical Southerly headwind. On the first flight we took a 3k ft tow and I was impressed by how smooth it was. I really feel like I am starting to relax more on tow. Tony then had me do a refresher on boxing the wake. This seemed to go pretty well though I did find myself a bit rusty remembering the focal points (ie lining up the wing and horizontal as the visual for low tow etc). After release Tony had me do some stalls and establish my crab angle over the ground to track straight. I did notice that I am getting better at keeping the gliderport insight throughout the flight. Tony then decided that I needed to work on my "thermaling" steep bank turns. Boy did I end up getting a bit dizzy! I entered a turn to the left, and instantly was sucked into looking down at the ground along my wing. I think that this was intuitive after years of dance classes growing up and being trained to pick a point to "spot" during turns. This lead me to loose pitch stability. Once Tony mentioned this I kept my head up and eyes on the horizon to establish the 45 degree angle and things improved...though I did end up with a headache by the time we landed. Without the headwind to help loose altitude upon landing my approach was too high. As I was turning base Tony told me to slip....which I thought I did by cross-controling the elevator and ailerons but I ended up really producing a big skid as I used inside rudder. I was pretty rusty on my foward slips and until now had never done them in a turn and thought that it did not really matter which direction I chose to start my bank. Lesson learned. I ended up floating and using more of the length of the runway than I am used to. The tow pilot thought that this was intentional so that we could just take off from that end of the runway. Tony was nice enough not to correct him.

I completely forgot about flight number 2 until we got home and Tony started filling out my log book (tells you how memorable of a flight it was). The purpose of the flight was for me to work on my approach to landing. On our tow he suggested that I might have more pitch stability if I kept my arm on my leg. This started the first of many confusions though that day as I had just put my left hand (airbrake hand) up on the instrument panel. I typically rest it there in case I need to pull the release while at low altitudes. I was pretty sure he was talking about this hand so I obeyed...even though I did not see how this was to help my pitch stability (maybe relax me b/c it was more comfortable?). The approach was much better but then confusion #2 came in. I applied what I considered to be a "cross-wind correction" aka my crab angle to "correct" for the cross-wind. As we were on final about to touch down Tony told me to add my cross-wind correction. This confused me a bit as I was already crabbed but I thought "maybe not enough" so I increased pressure on the rudder. This however caused him to more forcefully tell me to apply cross-wind correction and bank. On the ground this earned me a lecture about the importance of cross-wind correction.....however we both were using/interpretting this term very differently. It took atleast another flight before the truth sank in. Tony meant Cross-wind correction to mean, correct from the crab angle to straighten out/ point the nose down the runway right before landing. And then the bank angle into the wind would help keep us tracking straight until impact. I, as mentioned before, took "cross-wind correction" to me ...correct for the cross-wind by applying a crab angle into the wind. Atleast we finally figured that one out.

Flight number three was a big surprise for me. I thought that we were going to take another pattern tow to work on that whole cross-wind correction business (it was on the ground after this flight that we figured out the cause of the confusion). Tony however had other thoughts and pulled the release on me to simulate a rope break. My instant reaction was to turn directly at/toward the glider port as we were only 500 ft agl when he pulled the release. The however caused a left turn which afte rI performed it my thought was "Oh no! I messed up, I am suppossed to bank right after release from the tow plane". This then caused a half moment of frozen pilot indecision when Tony spoke up and reminded me to breathe. After I took him up on this handy piece of advice the rest of the rest of the abbreviated pattern went pretty well. The tow pilot did not understand our early release and asked why I did not warn him. Tony spoke up and said that it was a surprise to me too!

The 4th flight was pretty much a standard 1k ft pattern tow and provided more practice with the crosswind tow and approach to landing. This is also when I discovered that Tony meant for me to keep my stick hand balanced on my leg for pitch stability rather than a rest for my release arm. Ah...that made much more sense! Though in order for me to routinely use this technique I will need to make sure I have extra cushions than normal to have my knees bent enough.

Tony pulled another dirty trick on the last flight. This time the "rope break" came at only 300ft agl. I remembered to breathe better this time though I think Tony reminded me again of this vital human necessity. This time we did a 180 degree turn for almost a straight in approach. We were wider out from the runway this time so I angled in to get closer before straightening out to make it a head on final. I am getting better at picking my spot and we ended up fairly near the hangars. Though I did let me nose drop too soon/fast for Tony's liking. I thought that by getting the skid on the ground it would help us to slow down, but I will delay that a bit next time.

Ok, sorry for the novel! I now have you all caught up to date.

LC

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Hello everyone! I have been a frequent forum stalker over the years but after a request from your administer I have finally made my own account. For those of you who I have not met yet, my name is Leah Condon and I am married to Tony Condon another POA member.

Don't worry, we won't hold that against you.

Thanks for posting your experiences.

 

[rottydaddy]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Good reading... thanks for sharing it here.
You seem to have a great attitude about the training; I think you'll do just fine. I can relate to all the little problems and challenges; I think it's pretty much the same for everybody who tries their hand at flying with nothing but wings and gravity (and a some lift if you're lucky).

 

[wby0nder]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Good read'n. Thanks Leah. I loved flying with you at Marfa. It was a WILD ride wasn't it?! After that you can handle any tows!

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

6-4-2010
I soloed!!!! I am afraid that the rest of my other flights today are going to take a back seat to my last one, but I will try not to get too tunnel visioned.

Well if you would have asked me after my first flight if I was going to solo today I would have told you that you were crazy. First tow was rough, I was not coordinating well, or relaxing and was not finding a good medium between not over controlling and being too timid. Tony had me box the wake and then practice getting slack line out of the rope. After release we worked on Dutch rolls and 360 turns to help me shake off the rust and coordinate my turns. Tony then had me do a mostly slipping approach vs airbrakes.

2nd and 3rd flights went much better. I stopped pressuring myself to be perfect, and used my rudder and the tows went MUCH smoother. After relase Tony demonstrated incipient spins and recoveries ...boy did it feel like we were nosing straight down towards the ground. Even if Tony says it was more like a 45 degree angle pointing towards the ground. He also had me do some straight ahead stalls. My landings were pretty good, I was a little high on the one so went further on my down wind leg which made my approach angle on base and final a bit shallow. Tony debriefed me by saying that it is better to be too high on base then to fly too long of a down wind and not be able to make it back. I managed to make it pretty well centered on the runway and pretty close to my landing mark (I don't know what I will do once the bald spot of the lawn has grass again, it makes for a great landmark from the air amongst all the green fields).

I wish that flight #4 never happened and that we can just skip right over it. The take-off and tow went well, however Tony pulled the release @ 300 ft and things did not go well after that. I have had simulated rope breaks before down low, but typically even lower so that I was able to just go straight in for a tailwind landing. I was too high however and instead of taking a deep breath and realizing this and going for the alternate runway or turning/holding a base leg for the main runway until I had worked off some altitude I tried anyways for a straight in landing b/c I reacted instinctively which is never a good thing. With the tailwind, I was WAY too high, even with full airbrakes and a slip Tony had to take over from me . Even he had a tough job getting the glider down and stopped before the end of the runway. He had to nose the skid down and apply full wheel break and even then it was a bumpy ride. Due to the tail wind we really did not have any control of the glider. At first b/c of this Tony thought that we might have blown/lost the wheel. Thankfully though we came to a stop before the end with selves and equipment still in one piece.

The good thing about flying with another student on the field is that I had the chance to trade-off with him and re-group/ collect. The disadvantage is that when that power transition student is flying so well and you instructor asks you to go grab ballast sneakily so as to surprise student #2 and to go get your camera and to locate a bucket for the ceremonial drenching of the 1st solo....I believed that that is what I was doing. After Tony and Luke landed Tony got in with me and we took a pattern altitude tow to (I thought) make up for the crummy simulated rope break flight. It was a nice and smooth and controlled flight, though he did mention that I could have closed the airbrakes a little sooner and have floated a little longer. All in all though once we landed and I got out to help run a wing, with Luke behind me, when Tony looked towards us and asked "what do you think about soloing" I was convinced that he was talking to Luke. In fact I turned to look at him to see what his response would be when there was suddenly a moment of awkward silence. I thought, boy he is quiet...then Tony looks me straight in the face and says "You know I am talking to YOU right?" Uh....doih...no...I thought you were talking to Luke! I told him that on a scale of 1-10 that I was probably a 7 as to feeling confident/ready to solo. I said that I wasn't sure but reakized that I was having consistent flights overall, that the wind had calmed down and would be up again tomorrow, and that if I wanted to solo this weekend that this might be my option. Most importantly, while I may not have all of the nuances down, I felt confident that I could get the glider up and down in one piece. Plus it was approaching 8pm and day light was ticking past so I did not have too long to hmmm and haw the decision.

Our tow pilot/ local designated examiner brought out the lead bags to put under the seat and I strapped on a parachute to complete the ballast. I tried not to let myself think too much into the magnitude of the event, I did not want to make myself too nervous or excited or pressured. I decided that I would pretend that this was no big deal, that Tony was in the back seat and just being particularly quiet and hands off. I spoke with our tow pilot Charles and got him to promise to give me a nice and easy pattern tow. He told me he would fly straight ahead for the first 800 ft and then would start a left turn after which I would release @ 1k ft and then head in for a left hand pattern.

I wish I could say that I remember every little moment and enjoyed it to the fullest, but I was definitely in "the zone". I was talking myself through the entire tow process. I think I might have felt that the glider was a bit more nose heavy than with Tony in it, but I was not really dwelling on that. I felt that the glider wanted to fly a bit sooner than normal so I let it. Then I spoke out the check points on tow: 200 ft (ok locate my other landing options), then 500 ft (half way there, keep it up), 800 ft (ok, Charles is going to be turning soon, glider port is directly behind me so I can't see it yet), 1k ft (darn where is that gliderport, I can't see it and I need to release....wait no I don't I can hang on for a few extra hundred feet until I am sure that I can see it...Oh duh there it is, much closer to me than I was looking).

Then came the release...this typically is a part of the flight that I find exhilarating. It means that I have survived the tow and the "fun" part can begin. Just look for traffic, pull the release...and apply coordinated rudder and bank to make a well defined bank. Of course the first time I am flying by myself I happen to pull the release and attempt to bank right while in the wake of the tow plane. I got the bank angle in....but I was not turning. I could hear the buffeting of the glider (it was only afte rI landed that I realized that it was the wake). After a few seconds that felt like hours of trying to fight the turn I gave into the glider and made a nicely executed left hand bank (I mostly am proud of myself for thinking on my feet and not freezing when things did not go my way). The landing went really well. I felt the most engaged in the process than I ever had before, I talked myself through it, applied airbrakes early as I was still a bit high. Turned base instead of extending my downwind. While I could have used a forward slip...I did not want to jinx myself and mess up. Plus I felt that I was low enough that I could control it with airbrake...and I was right I crossed over the road that borders the runway at tree height as I intentioned. I then tried to control my airbrakes for a smooth touch down, closing them when I was leveling out and then applying the wheel brake. While it felt very smooth and I made my target landing spot I was probably a little too fast on touch down/had too much energy. So next time I will work on my bank following release from tow and perfecting that landing. All in all it was a good approach/landing according to Tony. My own mother did not believe me when I called her afterward that I had an above average landing for myself until she heard Tony confirm that statement (after all he is the professional).

Tomorrow we are off to Sunflower near Hutchinson for the weekend. I hope to get a few more soaring flights in, though the wind may be above my 15 mph minimums. The fall back plan is to get some soaring flights/thermaling 101 flights in with Tony in the 2-33 out there. We are camping so I will not have a chance to update/post until Monday.

LC

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Woohoo! Congratulations!

 

[GMascelli]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

CONGRATS!!!

 

[Diana]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Wow, Leah! Congratulations! Sounds like you did a great job on your solo! That was a very informative write up.

 

[jesse]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Congrats Leah - very cool.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Congrats, Leah. Do you get to wear a glider hat now?

 

[rottydaddy]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Outstanding!! Keep it up, and have fun with the thermals!
You'll probably go through the same phases again: "I can't do this/I can but I'm not very good/OK maybe I can improve/wow, why did I think this would be hard? "

 

[tonycondon]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Here is the post solo picture

 

[CJones]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

That is awesome, guys! Congrats to instructor and student both!

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

 

[vontresc]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Congrats! Now you need to tell that CFI of yours to get you that "A" Badge for your bucket hat. Hopefully you guys will have better weather than us this weekend, and get a bunch of flying in.

BTW isn't it amazing how much better the 2-33 flies without that back seat ballast?

 

[AdamZ]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Hello everyone! I have been a frequent forum stalker over the years but after a request from your administer I have finally made my own account. For those of you who I have not met yet, my name is Leah Condon and I am married to Tony Condon another POA member.

This series of posts were originally posted on the purple board. Your admin extraordinaire Jesse Angell though told me bluntly last night that if I did not also post on the "blue" board that he would be personally offended. So for those of you who frequent both boards I appologize for the overlapp.

Well were glad your finally here!!

Post #1- Nov. 8, 2009
.... The first thing Tony did when we got back from the gliderport was to sit me down in front of the computer and create my own purpleboard account

The first thing he did was WHAT? Purple? What are we blue chopped liver? Were gonna have to have a talk with Tony about that and perhaps increase his dues next year

6-4-2010
I soloed!!!! I am afraid that the rest of my other flights today are going to take a back seat to my last one, but I will try not to get too tunnel visioned.

EXCELLENT and Congratulations !!!!

... I was talking myself through the entire tow process. ...Then I spoke out the check points on tow: 200 ft (ok locate my other landing options), then 500 ft (half way there, keep it up), 800 ft (ok, Charles is going to be turning soon, glider port is directly behind me so I can't see it yet), 1k ft (darn where is that gliderport, I can't see it and I need to release....wait no I don't I can hang on for a few extra hundred feet until I am sure that I can see it...Oh duh there it is, much closer to me than I was looking).

...
LC

HA I remember on my PP solo I talked to myself the entire time. Through each step of the flight. I also remember screaming in the plane "HOLY S***I'M FLYING A PLANE BY MY SELF!!

Thats a great accomplishment Leah and whats even cooler is you are learning a skill that you can share with Tony. That is just awesome. I hope we see more of you here.

 

[Everskyward]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Very cool Leah! And Tony too!

 

[Jeanie]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Yea!! Go Leah , Go Leah !! Congratulations.

 

[B2Soar]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Congrats! and thanks for the great posts Leah. Jesse was right that you needed to post them here. I have been waiting for that "solo" report but did not want to rush you in any way. Now I am anxious to read your report after you first fly 53T, but I can wait so do not rush that either. That should be so much fun for you and all of us also. Thanks again Leah.

Rick

 

[gprellwitz]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Leah, congratulations! I mean on having him post the picture of you BEFORE he soaked your T-Shirt! Oh yeah, on that soloing thing, too!



WAY TO GO, GIRL!

 

[Ted]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

HA I remember on my PP solo I talked to myself the entire time. Through each step of the flight. I also remember screaming in the plane "HOLY S***I'M FLYING A PLANE BY MY SELF!!

While I've never done the actual screaming part, I still get that feeling every time I fly. 800 hours and 5 check rides later, it hasn't gone away. Every time I push the throttles forward in the Aztec for takeoff, it makes me smile. 450 hours in it and that hasn't gone away. I don't think it ever will, at least I sure hope not.

Congrats, Leah! First solo is a great accomplishment (as is every subsequent flight, in my mind anyway), and it's even better that Tony can instruct you.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Leah, just found time to read this post--fantastic!!! Congratulations on a successful engine-out landing!

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Thanks everyone for your congratulations! Due to a combination of cruddy weather and my crazy schedule I have not been able to get out and fly since my solo weekend. This long 4th of July 3-day weekend was meant to be full of glider action but once again thanks to a soggy weekend I was only able to get up on Friday evening.

7-2-2010

After an afternoon working on getting Tony's glider trailer sealed up and ready for the next day's Kansas Kowbell Klassic (club glider straight out distance contest) we pulled the 2-33 out of the hangar and I was able to get 3 flights in before things got too dark.

Now I had not flown since the weekend that I had soloed which was ~3 weeks ago. Typically it takes me at least 1 flight to knock off the rust before I am able to get back the progress that I had made. Today was a pretty dreary overcast day with 12kt SE winds gusting to 20kts so I wasn't really expecting to solo. I ended up making 3 flights with Tony. The first flight went really well. The tow was a bit dynamic but I was able to make corrections by myself. Though I will admit that I was a bit on the high side of the tow. The tow was pretty much completely straight/upwind so I was not able to keep a good eye on the airport. I knew where I was relatively however and I also knew that the wind would help me to get back to the airport. I released after 2000ft and just flew East to West trying to stay upwind of the airport while keeping it in sight. I made a left base landing and tried to work on my spot landing. I always forget that your touch down point is not what is designated by the examiner it is where you stop. Though I misjudged my touch down spot I was able to get stopped between the two hangars which was the goal.

The second flight was the highlight of the 3. I managed to stay lower on this tow. The challenge was because of the humidity the haze did not give a clear horizon line so that I had to use the towplane references to get into the correct tow position. I knew I was in the right spot for high tow when the horizontal was lined up with the landing gear. This tow was dynamic again and I was able to handle things myself again. Tony acredits this to my having soloed and I think there is some merit to that. Even though I have not flown in a while my perspective has changed. I know that when I am solo I will have to handle the conditions myself so I might as well start practicing that now. I had a dance teacher who used to tell us to dance in practice (smiles etc) like we were on stage so that when the time came to perform it was already "normal" for us to do so. I think that flying is similar. If I pretend that my instructor is not back there now, then it won't be so weird when he really isn't. I do have to say though that I appreciate his verbal coaching and tips.

Back to the 2nd flight, we released @ 2000ft and Tony pointed out some very small clouds that were lined up in what is called a "street". He had me go over to investigate them and talked me through thermaling. It was a great help to have his experience talk me through how to move my circle to re-center a thermal and how to recognize that a lifted wing is a clue to rising air. We were able to go from our release point to the far end of the runway and only lost 400ft of altitude. We then were able to catch another weak 100ft up or so thermal to penatrate back upwind before needing to enter the pattern. At ~30 minutes this was one of my longer flights, even with the weaker conditions.

Flight #3 we tried to replicate the success of flight #2 without much luck. I circled a few times and headed towards some promising looking clouds but only were able to stay up for ~15 minutes. Chasing after one cloud put us into a better position for a right hand pattern so I took the opportunity to get some practice in landing "the other way". It went really smoothly. My references were off but I do not want to get too used to them anyways. In fact landing #3 was my best "spot" landing of the bunch.

While there was still daylight left, I was able to accomplish my goal of kicking off the dust/rust with those 3. Tony said that I was flying to solo standards however the wind was above my maximums so I was not able to repeat the solo. We were going to try again on Sunday and Monday but both days were rained out with low ceilings. We will have to try again next week

Thanks for reading,

LC

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Nice writeup, Leah! Thanks for the Monday-evening flying stories!

 

[wabower]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Great report, Leah. Sounds like you're doing well in spite of your instructor.

 

[tonycondon]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Great report, Leah. Sounds like you're doing well in spite of your instructor.

it is amazing how much students can teach themselves while the dope in the back seat just keeps them both from getting killed

 

[vontresc]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

it is amazing how much students can teach themselves while the dope in the back seat just keeps them both from getting killed

LOL but the student up front keeps getting distracted when the dope in the back keeps screaming "OMG We're gonna DIE"...

 

[tonycondon]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

it's a realistic distraction. That's what all of my passengers always say.

 

[Everskyward]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

it's a realistic distraction. That's what all of my passengers always say.

Is that why you disabled my headset?

 

[Ted]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Is that why you disabled my headset?

Nah, it was probably because you're so loud and talk too much.

 

[tonycondon]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Leah had a good flight yesterday in Reno. http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=1431804

 

[flyersfan31]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Leah, you need a better instructor. Seriously. Tony?? He's a bum. I'd drop him.


:wink2:

Nice writeups. It's great that you two can enjoy the same activity. My wife won't even sit in the co-pilot seat!

 

[canoecox]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Here is my official report from the Women Soaring Pilots Association Seminar which was held this past week at Air Sailing Gliderport which is North of Reno, NV. It is a little long but I hope that you enjoy the report.

My pictures can be found at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/canoecox/WSPA_Reno_2010#

-LC

My trip out to the Women Soaring Pilots Association’s, “WSPA”, seminar started on Friday July 16. I left work early and had my husband Tony drop me off at the airport here in Wichita, KS. Summer G. who is another student with me at the Sunflower gliderport was also attending the seminar with her parents. The four of us were on the same flights out there. We had dinner together during our layover in Denver. Once we arrived in Reno, Summer’s parents took a shuttle over to their hotel and Summer and I started our journey out to the Air Sailing gliderport which is ~ 25 miles north of Reno. We had directions complete with mile markers, but the last 2.2 miles once the road turns to gravel were a little rough. We later found out that the best way to drive this road was @ 40 mph to even out the bumps, but that first night we were traveling @ 15 mph so that we did not miss our entrance to the gliderport. As it turned out, there was a nice white sign that was labeled “Air Sailing” so it was easy to spot. The next morning we did get credit though for finding the place in the dark. It was about 10pm local time, so about midnight body time once we got there. People in the club house had Lee, one of the towpilots and caretakers show us where the Memorial Grove campground and bath house were. From there we set up my tent via headlamp and quickly crashed for the night, What I had failed to think of at the time was how to stake down a tent in the desert. I have done a fair bit of camping in my day and know that in rocky soil I tie down to bigger rocks, or trees with my guy lines. When winter camping I know how to turn the stakes sideways, bury them, and then compress the snow on top to get a good anchor. At 10 pm in the evening when my stakes either were not going in b/c the ground was too hard or were pulling out b/c of the sand I just said “heck with it”. On a side note I later was able to use a hammer to properly secure my tent from the afternoon thermals and dust devils.

I woke up dark and early on Saturday morning @ 4am. My body was already for my normal 6 am Central time week day wake up. Thankfully I was able to fall back asleep. The activity for the day was a trip out to Virginia City, NV. My carpool was driven by Marye Anne of Reno and in the car with me were Frauke and Summer. The drive out there was worth while in itself as you have to climb up through a windy mountain pass to get to Virginia City in the first place. The first stop once we were there was to visit the cemetery. There is a program where people dressed in period portray “residents” of the cemetery. They tell the story of the life and death of a person who lived in Virginia City during its prime. The tour was very fun, but all of us could not imagine being the “widow” or the other female characters who were dressed in layers of long dresses, and in the widow’s case black. It made me thankful for modern day clothes. I could not imagine surviving a Nevada summer in the 1800’s dressed all in black without air conditioning.

After the cemetery we had lunch reservations at a Chinese restaurant. The food was delicious. I sat with Terry Duncan, Phyllis Wells and Summer. Over lunch Terry took out her sectional and oriented Summer and me to the local area. She pointed out where we were with perspective to Air Sailing, but also land out options in the area. After lunch we had some time to kill before our trolley tour through town. I dashed into some of the gift shops to pick up a few postcards, but also to take advantage of some of the air conditioning. I did feel bad for Marye Anne though who was trying to keep 20 or so pilots all together. I believe the phrase “This is worse than herding cats!” was mentioned a few times J. It did seem that we were always missing someone. The trolley ride lasted about 20 minutes but it pointed out sites such as the “Bucket of Blood Saloon” and the local mines and museums. It was a good way to get a taste of the town. We then headed back to Air Sailing. I will admit to enjoying the A/C on the way back. Frauke told us stories from the time that she helped out with the Women World Championships as an interpreter. That night we helped to get things set up for the seminar. It was also the banquet for the Sports Class contest that were taking place there.

I woke up early again on Sunday, but not quite as early. I had learned at this point to wear my long sleeved sun shirt and pants rather than the shorts and t-shirt I wore the day before. I also started to adopt bringing my umbrella with me for extra shade. At first this felt a bit silly to have an umbrella out when it was 90 F and sunny with no sign of rain clouds, but I soon saw the brilliance of all those Southern Bells and their Parasols from the 1800’s. The scheduled activity for this day was to take a tour of the Native American museum at Pyramid Lake and then go swimming. Summer and I however ended up doing our “high tow” check out flight. As we were training in a S2-33 at our home gliderport we were assigned to fly with instructor Pete “Skimmer” in the S2-33. As we were both student pilots and would be flying dual all week Pete decided to make the flight less of a technical test (slack lines, boxing the wake, etc) and more of an introduction to mountain flying. Summer went first and it felt like they were up there FOREVER, when in fact it was only an hour flight. Upon landing Summer’s words were “Leah, you HAVE to get up there”. The tow was more dynamic than I was used to, as expected. Pete had to help me out with one doozy of a slack line that occurred as the towplane was turning. Sure enough, within 4 minutes of release I found myself @ 10,000ft and climbing. As we did not have oxygen with us we left the thermal still going up @ 900 ft/min once we reached 12,500ft. The field elevation at Air Sailing is 4300 ft.

Pete then had me fly from the “Red Rocks” over to Tulle Peak. We did not really find much lift near Tulle. Then he had me try to start heading towards the “Dogskins” This only partially worked as I kept getting into great lift while not even cirlcling! It was so smooth that Pete though it might have been a bit of wave. After I had been up for almost an hour Pete had me pull the air brakes, find some sink and circle to get down. That was a first, in KS I have no trouble coming down. In the course of this checkout flight I set both a personal altitude and duration record. I knew that this was going to be a good week.

The exciting thing about Sunday was that it was July 18th. This meant the official start of the seminar! We gathered for a grilled dinner and then had the Air Sailing Briefing, the official welcome from Neita and an air space talk from Reno ATC. This all made for a long night but it was great to get all of us together. When I was helping to assemble the bags I believe the original person count was 71 with 40 or so being full time pilots. I know that there were a few cancellations so you will need to check with Neita about the official count. We had a great international presence as well. Valerie and Carol made up the Canadian contingent from Alberta. Christine, Anna-Laura and Sylvia made it from Germany. Then we were fortunate to have Jasna, Dani, Irena, and Denis (sorry if I missed anyone) from Slovenia. Plus US pilots from Connecticut to California and everywhere in between.

The way that the seminar was set up is that we were divided into 2 groups. Track #1 was made up of student and low time pilots, while Track #2 consisted of the more experienced participants. Track #1 was further divided into groups A-D and were assigned a 1-hour time slot to fly a dual glider with an instructor in the morning from 8am-noon. We were fortunate to have 5 instructors and 5 dual gliders available to us. At 9am while track #1 was flying and running the line for each other, Track #2 would have an hour or so of ground school. Each day had a different topic. Then after a volunteer prepared lunch, track #2 was able to fly single sailplanes, sign up to fly dual with an instructor, or sign up to fly cross-country in one of the 2-Duo Discuses or the DG-1000. Track #1 had their hour of ground school at 2pm in the afternoon and then if there were openings, were able to sign up for more flight time with the instructors in more dynamic conditions or to sign up for a dual cross-country flight.

The schedule on Monday was off a little as there were still many people who needed to be checked out. The track #1 training flights were cancelled, but I was able to fly with Rob “Stoney” and get my simulated rope break flight in. We flew the s2-33 off of runway 17. The rope break went ok, after all I did make it back to the airport, but I came in a bit fast. Something to work on, I just took the “put the nose down” part of the rope break procedure a little too much to heart. I was just hanging out after the afternoon lecture on high density altitude by Phyllis and Neita when I heard that there was a spot open in the DG-1000 if anybody wanted to take it. I looked around and was confused by the lack of movement. I was willing to jump into any sort of glider let alone the DG-1000. Terry made a quick call out to the club house to try and find Gail (whose turn it really was). Gail it turned out was up flying in another glider so I ended up taking her place. Julie and Terry were nice enough to tell me that they would find someone to fill my dinner duty for that night and told me to go up and have a good flight.

That certainly was a treat to fly with Matt Gills in the DG-1000. He got me strapped in and hooked up to the O2 (which was another first for me). He took off and did the initial climb to altitude over the Dogskins. From there we headed Northwest towards Susanville and he let me fly the majority of the flight. At first I was having a hard time keeping my pitch/airspeed steady while thermaling. One thing that soaring in KS does have is a nice defined horizon line. By the end of the flight though I think I got the hang of finding the average horizon line amongst the mountains. There were a few times over a ridge that we got a little low and would not make it back to Air Sailing so Matt pointed out our possible alternate landing spots. These included dry lake beds that we could aerotow from, along with some local airports. Thankfully though we were able to climb up to nearly 13,000ft and were able to pick up a few more thermals and make our way back to Air Sailing. Once in the neighborhood though we went and checkout out Pyramid Lake which really jumps out as this turquoise blue gem in the middle of the tan colored mountain desert. We then headed towards a radio tower and played along the ridge. By this time though we were already late for dinner and my bladder was more than a bit full so I talked Matt into heading back and landing. We arrived back at Air Sailing with too much altitude though and Matt had one more trick up his sleeve. I gave him back the controls and before I really knew what was going on, he dropped the nose and gained some airspeed. Then he sharply pulled up and I saw blue, blue, blue and then the ground over my head. I think he did at least one other loop and I felt my cheeks flattening out, and my nose distorting with G-loads. I remember thinking that I would have looked pretty silly if a camera had taken a picture of me. This was my first time experiencing any aerobatics and I loved it. It turned out that we stayed up for about 3 hours, and there was still dessert and some ham left over for dinner. Best thing of all was that after dinner I tied with Anna-Laura for the highest altitude reached for the day, and won for the longest duration time of 3 hours. I got a cute orange coffee cup that says “Chicks Fly” on it.

After dinner was our social activity “Yankee Trader”. For those of you who are not familiar, in Yankee Trader, everyone who brought a wrapped gift drew a number out of a hat. The person who drew the #1 got to go up to the table and pick out the first gift to unwrap. The 2nd person then got to pick out and unwrap their gift. After which they got to choose if they wanted to keep the gift that they unwrapped or if they chose to they could “steal” a gift from anyone else who had already unwrapped theirs. At the very end of the game, the person who drew #1 had the option to trade with anyone else. It was a really fun game. Jenny Beatty drew the #1 position. By the middle of the game she had this box of fancy herbs that she just could not seem to get anyone to trade her for. My turn came up and I opened up a 1908 bound book of Aeronautic magazine. It was pretty neat but I did not let myself get too attached to it as I knew that Jenny was eyeing it. Sure enough at the end of the game I went home with Jenny’s Herbs J They do smell pretty nice, I just have to be creative and think up some recipes to use them in. I was a little disappointed that no one opened up the gift that I brought. It was a bit of a joke, but you will have to tell me if anyone ended up getting my “Snake Bite Kit” as a prize.

Tuesday was the first day that we started what would become the “normal” schedule for the rest of the seminar. I was lucky enough to fly with Neita in the ASK-21 for my lesson time. This was the first time that I had the experience (besides the DG-1000) to fly a glass ship. It was much lighter on the controls than I was used to with the S2-33. Neita helped me out but I think that I eventually got the hang of it. Her only comment to me though was that I was not using enough right rudder. This is something that I worked on and later fixed.

In the afternoon I had 4 flights with Gary Philips in the S2-33. We were shot down on the first 2 flights after trying to find lift. I had a really nice landing on the 2nd flight as the glider came to a stop right when the wing dropped. The next 2-tows were pattern tows. Gary had me work on my cross-wind take-offs and landings. He broke it down. On the first flight I was in charge of the rudder and he was in charge of pitch and ailerons. On the last flight I was given control of the stick and Gary had the rudders. The flight went well, my pattern improved, but on landing I let my right wing get too low (my upwind wing, that I had down for the cross-wind), but it ended up dragging in the dirt and even with full left rudder I was not able to keep the glider completely straight.

On Tuesday night after dinner, Kate, Summer and I made an ice cream run into town for $1 scoop night. For some reason ice cream just tastes better in the desert J. We got back in time to watch the showing of the news broadcast in the club house. A local reporter from one of the TV stations had come out earlier in the day to do a story on the seminar. Kate and Sylvia were featured in the showing.

Wednesday was my last day at the seminar as I had to work on Thursday and Friday. I traded my flight time so that I could fly with the first group at 7:45 am. Once again I was able to fly with Neita in the ASK-21. We took a high tow to 8,000ft and then she had me work on slips to both sides. I was able to get myself centered better on the seat and thus fixed my rudder control issues from the day before. She had me pick a road and try to keep the nose of the glider pointed straight down the runway. After flying crosswind yesterday and performing all these slips today, I was feeling pretty confident about my slips. I was able to control them better by understanding that the aileron controlled the drift and the rudder controlled the direction that my nose was pointing. Nomenclature wise I am still confusing the difference between a forward and side slip (does it have to do with ground track or the direction that the glider is pointing?), but I know how to get the slip to do what I want it to do.

After my morning flight I had to go and pack up my tent. As always after buying a shirt and accumulating some things from the trader game and the welcome bag, it was harder to stuff everything into my back pack. Thankfully I got things packed up in time to cheat with people back at the flight line by the little gazebo before heading back up to the club house for lunch. After a tasty tuna salad sandwich I took a quick shower for the sake of those sitting next to me on the airplane, said my good-byes and headed out. I arrived exactly two-hours before my flight which was perfect.

I had to switch flights in Denver and then had a minor snafu with my luggage once I landed in Wichita. But overall things worked out and I arrived home @ 12:30 am central time in Wichita. While I was not able to stay for the whole week, I still had a great time and learned a lot. The best part though (while flying was great) was the ability to network and meet all these great women who are involved in and passionate about soaring. I’d highly recommend the WSPA seminars in the future.

 

[Matthew]

Re: Leah Learn's to Glide

Sounds like a great time! Total immersion like that can be a lot of fun.