Running from the weather and the Wedgie

February 15, 2013

The forecast for the day was for possible rain showers.  When I got up in the morning I could see clouds already forming—not a good sign. 

We headed up to the East launch at the usual time but looking at the sky it was clear that we needed to launch as early as possible.   No time to eat a sandwich and drink a soda while waiting for clouds to develop.  They already were and there was a rain shower far away to the east of us.   On the other side of the mountain the clouds looked much friendlier.

Fredrick launched first and was slowly going up.  I launched in a weak cycle and ended up running through the grass in front of the launch hurdling a small tree stump before finally getting airborne.  I should know better than to launch the east in a light cycle.  I was lucky to get away with that launch without hurting myself.


Climbing out in front of the East Launch



 Once away from the hill, I found a weak thermal just over the road coming up to launch and then found something a little stronger and was soon up to 1400 meters and floating over the back of the mountain heading west towards much friendlier clouds.

 

I called Mary Beth on the radio to tell her what I was going to do but there was no response.  The car radio had switched channels.  Oh well, that just meant a longer retrieve.  Then I remembered I had not turned on my SPOT tracking.  I turned it on.  While turning  on the tracking I inadvertently left a “safe landing” message which confused Mary Beth who seeing that thought I had landed just on the west side of Mt. Borah. 

First brown field and shower away in the east

I pressed on wondering how far I could get before the weather made me call it a day.  My first glide took me over a nice large brown field.  There was a “wedgie” (wedge tailed eagle) thermaling over one part of the field.  I headed for that area well above him.  There was weak lift but I could turn in it.  He out climbed me easily and was soon at my level.  Squawking he made a pass at a pass at my wing and a small aerial dog fight ensued with me maneuvering to keep away from him as best I could before he lost interest and flew away.  I remembered I had the camera going a little late but did manage to get one shot of him as he flew off.  I continued to work a thermal on another part of the field that took me up to cloud base.


The wedgie flies away and clouds to the west

Now I had to be careful which clouds to fly for.  I stayed working the edges of the clouds as I headed west.  Meanwhile clouds were building off to the north and the rain showers were moving west.  I was still OK heading west along the Boggabri-Manilla Rd.   Meanwhile Mary Beth was calling me on my cell phone thinking I had landed.  There was no way to answer.

Looking east back towards Manilla

Finally it was getting too easy to stay up and the air getting rougher.  I went on glide and landed near the road and right next to a cattle grate.  No fences to climb over on this flight.

Clouds to the north after landing

I need to work on judging wind for landing.  When it’s thermic and the winds are light it is often tough to judge.  From now on I will go with the forecast and not take too much stock in the groundspeed read outs I see on the GPS which in the case of today’s landing led me to make a mostly cross but slightly downwind landing.  I’m too old to run fast and I hate the embarrassment of landing and having the wing overfly me.

Safely on the ground I rosetted the glider and set it by the side of the road while I ate my sandwich.  Mary Beth arrived just as I was finishing it and we were on our way back to Manilla.

We still have to figure out what happened to the radios. We did a radio check before I took off and she said she never heard me even though she had both her hand held and car radio on.  Something to check out.  Could be “operator error” on Mary Beth’s part or my part with the new bluetooth headset.

Anyway 1 hour and 5 minutes of fun flying and a 16k XC today along with a few lessons learned or maybe re-learned.