What I Did at Camp – Weekend 1, Gorham 2009

Saturday was forecasted to be rainy in the morning, clearing in the afternoon and very windy. So I debated about whether to even drag the 304 up to Gorham. I finally decide to go and got there around 1. We waited for it to clear which finally happened around 3:30. I help Evan assemble PM for his introductory (diamond) flight to Gorham (see his post).

On Sunday I flew the towplane up with Jason in tow in the Blanik, and Andy following in his Champ (to take Jason home). Jason made a perfect landing in the 25-30 mph winds with everyone watching (and critiquing). Shortly after we arrived a rain shower came through and the 7-8 gliders that were up (including Evan in PM) quickly landed in 5-10 minutes. It was nice to see how smoothly the operation went on Gorham’s single runway.

It starts to clear in the afternoon and it’s my turn in PM. I take a 2K tow to Mt. Hayes. I would have towed a little higher but everyone else was getting off at 2K so I follow suit. I work up to 5K in the thermal/ ridge/wave lift. There is strong lift but its rough, inconsistent and confusing (at least to me). The big boys are following a cloud street to the Carter-Moriah range. Its an easy trip but it’s a ways downwind, it's still blowing really hard and I am not particularly confident I can work the turbulent lift. I choose to go up wind to Pine Mtn. I can hang out there at about 5K. I move on and ridge soar a spur off Mt. Madison. I am careful not to get too far into the box canyon produce by the spur off of Mt. Adams. The spur doesn’t produce much but a least it’s an easy downwind trip to the airport if I get low. I work upwind to the spur on Mt. Adams and get down below 4K. But then I get around to the front of Mt. Adams and it’s an elevator ride to 7K and cloud base over the Mt. Washington Observatory. There are small holes in the clouds in front of Mt. Washington and I can get up about 500 ft. higher than cloudbase in the holes, but then the holes close and I have to dive out. Later the clouds in front of the mountain dissipate some and I can freely climb above the clouds in the bow wave in front of Mt. Washington (John Good had a reference that used the term ‘bow wave’ to describe the wave found in front of the mountain, Andy and I had a great flight in the Blanik above the clouds in the Franconia bow wave this summer-glad to know what to call it). I slowly work the lift to 11K over the base of the cog railroad. Now I am relaxing at 11K, listening to the radio and wondering what to do next. The big boys are at 20K behind the Wildcat ski area in what I (erroneously) assume to be the secondary wave. It sounds like they can’t penetrate to the primary because of the high winds. The clouds have cleared and I can clearly see Wildcat. I then see a glider 3-4K below me over the observatory. As I watch he turns downwind towards Wildcat. So I figure I’ll follow him. I’m way higher than he is, and my ground speed is going to be about 150 kts, how can I not find the primary? I follow a mile or two behind him. Nothing but sink, he finally turns around when he hits route 16 but I don’t find any lift. I keep going until I pass the top of Wildcat. I think I must have somehow missed the lift. I turnaround and fight my way back to the horn in a stiff headwind with heavy sink. I get to the Horn at 6K and even push passed the Horn. Nothing but sink and now I am in the rotor and it's rough. I pull the plug on the flight and head to the airport through the rotor. It's very turbulent (up and down, more than 10 kts) all the way back to Pine Mtn. where I arrive at 3K and find the trusty thermal up wind of the mountain. I half-heartedly work the thermal and relax a bit. I have just lost 8K in 13 minutes (average climb –615 fpm). That should be a record. I think “I could climb in this thermal and start all over again”. But then I think “that was enough fun for one day” so I land.

I was confused about the descent phase of my flight until that evening when Lee Blair (from NESA) shows the flight log from his diamond climb to the gathering at Good’s Glider Guiders Guesthouse (GGGG). He climbed behind the Carter-Moriah range in what was assumed (by me) to be secondary wave. His track shows that at some point he tried to push forward towards the horn and lost 4K before heading back downwind. That’s the same place I lost all my altitude. So now it was clear. From the top of Mt. Washington to the wave behind Wildcat there was nothing but sink. The wave behind Wildcat WAS the primary. Now it made sense. The wavelength was stretched out because of the high winds. In hindsight if I had just flown downwind another 30 seconds I would have hit the lift!

Monday morning was clear and the winds were still forecast to be high but diminishing during the day. The big boys started launching around 10 with their 2K tows. I was in no particular hurry and waited until the bulk of the gliders had launched. Thomas gave me the best advice of the weekend and suggested a high tow directly into the primary (“why mess around at low altitudes for 2 hours”). The big boys were joking about how paying for a high tow is like paying for sex and that it makes you feel dirty. I took a high tow anyway. The friendly Pawnee pilot towed me to the primary, told me when to release and where to go. I release at 7K msl at the horn. I was relaxing in 2 kts of lift and climbed about 700 ft. But then the lift was gone. How could I have lost the wave? I search all around but can’t find it. I lose the 700 ft I had gained. I finally broaden the search and find 1 kt behind Mt. Madison. I very carefully stay in that spot. After 10-15 minutes I have gained 1000 ft and I can start to look around. I explore the area in the Great Gulf but there is no lift stronger than 2 kts. I join Doug (T4) who took a low tow an hour or two earlier and has transitioned from thermals into the wave. We take the slow elevator up to around 18K. I never see much more than 2 kts (average about 1.5) but the wind is strong. Indicated airspeed is around 60 kts (TAS about 80 kts) just to stay in one place. I look back at Doug who is a little behind me and I see a huge lenticular cloud forming below and behind him. He puts his nose down and races away. Now the cloud is just below and just behind me and I can see the moisture violently condensing to form the cloud. I push a little faster to make sure I stay ahead of the cloud. I little later I look up and there is another lenticular forming above and behind me. I am in between (and a little in front of) two layers of cloud which are probably only about 600 feet apart. The leading edges of the clouds are just boiling as the cloud forms. It was like the lower cloud was trying to grab the glider from the bottom and the upper one trying to grab it from the top, and the glider trying to race away at 95 mph (TAS). This could have been the stuff of a recurring nightmare but PM has performance in reserve and I know I can get out of there with a push of the stick. Instead I feel like I’m teasing the clouds, just staying out of their reach.

The clouds then retreat downwind to Rt.16 and the wave subsided. I’m down to 16K so I decide to take a foliage cruise and head over to Wildcat along the Carter-Moriah range over to Berlin, up to Mt. Starr King (in Jefferson) and back to airport. You can sure get around with 15K to burn.

18K absolute altitude and 11K climb are my personal best. Both in an easy flight. Sometimes it’s ok to pay for things.

See you next weekend at Wave Camp.

Tim

P.s. there are a lot of very experience and knowledgeable pilots at the wave camp. They are willing to advise and help for the asking. I did not intend the phrase ‘big boys’ to have any negative connotations. The ‘big boys’ play well with everyone.