I
flew my first x-country flight on Saturday with Greg Hanlon (JD). I
took a 3K tow and parked under a dark cloud to the south of Tug. The
lift was weak, but I managed to work up to 4100’ or so. The cloud base
was probably 4500’, but couldn’t make it. Our task was to head NE so I
flew a few miles to a spot on the north side of the airport to wait for
Greg. He joined me soon and we headed to the ridge between PM and the
river and tried to gain as much altitude as possible for crossing the
desert between PM and the first clouds over near Cube. I circled awhile
under a decent cloud and got up to 4500’ or so. At this point Greg said
there was nothing to be gained by waiting. He pointed out that we had
Dean by 2000’ or so, although there was a substantial disagreement
between JD’s glide computer and mine - mine said Dean by 1500’ (Greg had
put my polar into his computer, which was really thoughtful of him). I
definitely would not have made the jump if I were by myself, but having
Greg’s experience and coaching made all the difference. I was very
surprised that once I committed to Dean I didn’t think about PM again.
We worked our way towards the first mountains and found enough scratchy
thermals to maintain our altitude WRT Dean, although my MSL was
decreasing. Eventually, we reached the NW shoulder of Moosilauke. At
this point I was showing 1200’ to Dean although Greg had me somewhat
higher. I almost pulled the plug here and headed for Dean (I think I was
down to 3500’). Just when things looked bleak (to me) we found a decent
thermal that took me to 4500’ and put us in glide for Franconia. We
headed for the ridge at the back side of Cannon and found plenty of good
lift to take us over the north end. The thermals here were topping out
about 5500’. So things were starting to work. Listening to the radio of
the goings on at Post Mills where folks were falling out added to the
excitement of having made our getaway. Greg was making things pretty
easy for me, looking ahead, coaching constantly, and patiently circling
overhead while I thermaled slowly upward. All I had to do was fly my
plane and try not to do anything stupid. Over the mountains it was a
beautiful soaring day with plenty of nicely spaced cumuli. We still
stopped at almost every cloud to tank up, which I suspect Greg might not
have done without me. But perhaps it wasn’t the easiest day either. So
we flew over Franconia ridge at 5500’ or so and then continued over to
Garfield and on to Twin Mt. I think I reached 6000’, my high point for
the day, at one point. The scenery over the mountains was awesome. I
really enjoyed flying along the ridges and taking a little time to watch
the scenery below. Our goal was the Mt Washington Hotel, but the clouds
there had a different character. The cloud base was lower, the bases
were wispy and the area looked overdeveloped. At some point Dan Mac (EA)
passed us on his way to Washington after escaping PM. Greg probably
would have continued, but he thought things might get a little bit
exciting and that I had had about as much stress as I could take. So we
turned around and headed back along the ridge to Garfield, over Cannon
and on to Moosilauke. The flight home was as easy as the flight out was
hard. There was plenty of lift and we passed Moosilauke at almost 5000’
with PM in comfortable, fast glide. We got to Post Mills at 1800’ (just
as the glide computer predicted).
Looking
back on the flight, I think that it has given me the confidence to
venture out on my own. I know that Greg was balancing a lot of variables
that I was just dimly aware of that made our flight possible, but the
essential parts of the experience are to make the psychological leap to
leave PM behind and make Dean (or Warren) your airport and then to
maintain a sufficient reserve altitude to glide to each successive
airport as you move away from PM and again when you return. Having done
that once, I hope I can do it again.
