April 27 report

Another outstanding report from Andy Kozak: 

Gliding in New England usually starts with the Super Bowl. So far this year it has been true to form. Monday April 27^th started off with a very good omen. A bald eagle soaring over Post Mills airfield. His tail feathers were illuminated by the sun making them look brighter than any I had ever seen. I was third to be towed up after Greg Hanlon and Tim Chow. Rick Sheppe was the tow pilot. He fairly quickly found a thermal and turned tightly to bring me back into it. We entered the thermal a second time, so I released. Somehow, I felt that I immediately lost the thermal, but looking back at my flight trace I was in lift as I turned 180 degrees, had I just kept turning I would have likely still been in lift. Not sure what happened there.

I flew toward where Tim and Greg were climbing trying two circles on the way which gained me nothing, but I picked up enough altitude in between them to keep going. Finally the vario started to rise, as hoped for, and I could relax.

Greg (JR), Tim (BU), and I (2R) joined up across the Connecticut river in a thermal over Piermont Mountain. I was the lowest but at 6000 feet I decided to leave the weakening thermal because the clouds ahead looked very good. Prior to takeoff, Greg had suggested we make Sugarloaf in Maine our goal. I knew that was a long way and thought it might be difficult for me but that is the direction where I headed. Kinsman notch passed below us, then we flew over Cannon Mountain and Franconia notch. We skirted Mount Lafayette and passed over Twin Mountain. We skirted Mt Washington and flew over Mount Adams and Madison all the while searching for the darkest spots under the clouds.

Mount Lafayette

Mount Washington

We had not yet turned to gain altitude. Greg had pulled ahead and Tim had fallen behind. That is the pecking order of our gliders on glide with Greg’s JS1, my ASW 27 and Tim’s HpH 304CZ. Tim has 17.4m wings and he outclimbs me, but I have a better glide at higher speeds. Greg beats me at everything.

I focused on flying smoothly and at the correct speed to fly. We were at about 8000 feet as we approached a large blue hole over Gorham. Greg flew straight across and I followed. At 5500 feet. Near Berlin I found a strong thermal. The entire route to this point had airfields within easy reach. The first is Dean, then Twin, Mount Washington (Whitefield), Gorham and Berlin. Except for the blue hole over Gorham there was barely a break in the clouds. From here north, as far as I was concerned, the map said “Here be dragons.” To be fair, last fall I flew a bit past Old Speck Mountain (Maine) in wave, so I had a pretty good look toward Sugarloaf. I also would have Berlin airfield which was just toward the east and Bethel airfield just to the west behind me.

Greg had diverted a bit to stay over the Mahoosuc range. I took a straighter path. Somewhere before Grafton Notch, Greg had to take several thermals while I was able to continue straight. I passed him without knowing it. The area around Richardson Lakes seemed overdeveloped but still provided plenty of lift.

Richardson Lakes

I only needed to stop for one more thermal before reaching Sugarloaf Mountain. We had decided to try for Jay Peak next, so I turned and headed west.

We had been flying over the spine of the mountains, and Sugarloaf is essentially the end of those mountains. There is a short and very distinctive Bigelow range just to the north of Sugarloaf. But the nearly continuous cloud street was at an end.

Bigelow range in the distance

It took some time for me to find good lift but I was in range of the Rangeley airfield. Greg had continued further to Sugarloaf airfield. He seemed to find several 12 knot thermals, the best in his life. I was just trying to find a thermal. Tim was struggling a bit as well but we finally got going again.

Greg and Tim suggested airfields and a course line - making my life easier. I had to stop to refuel every 5 or 10 miles but the clouds mostly worked well. Flying parallel and close to the Canadian border I could look almost straight down at the Derby Line crossing. Not much traffic in either direction. Greg caught up to me near Lake Memphremagog.

Lake Memphremagog

I led the way across and then we turned over Jay Peak. I could see skiers getting off one of the lifts near the peak. There was still quite a bit of snow on select trails.

Looking back over the lake we could see the area had turned significantly bluer. Tim was behind us and turned south at about that point. Greg and I shared a last thermal just past Morrisville airport. At Sugarloaf Greg had flown approximately 15 miles further to turn at the airport. In addition he had closed the original 10 mile gap. 25 miles gained, probably over the course of 160+/- miles. In the end Greg would fly 423 miles at an average of 67 mph.

After our last thermal together he flew down the crest of the Greens past Okemo and back to Post Mills. I chose to turn over Ascutney. We live on the slopes there. Normally I would call my wife when passing overhead and she comes out to try to spot me. She has gotten good at that.  At 7000 feet there was no cell reception.

On final glide, between Lebanon and Post Mills, I flew under a cloud where I gained 500 feet in about a minute of straight flight. The clouds were beginning to thin but there was still some strong lift. By then all of us were on final glide. Tim ended the day with 337 miles. I flew 374 miles at an average speed of 61 mph. This was my first 600 km flight. The previous day was my first 500 km flight also at an average of 61 mph. Consistent.

I had intentionally not maxed out my climbs, but left while lift was strong. The clouds looked so good and lift was plentiful so that seemed to work well. It was much easier to do with a high cloudbase. The first long leg of my flight from Piermont Mountain to Sugarloaf covered 110 miles at a glide ratio of 213:1! I spent only 5.2% of my time in two thermals at an average climb rate of 632 fpm.! For the entire flight I thermaled 18.2% of the time. All amazing metrics, clearly spectacular conditions for New England.

One of the things I had noticed with my flights was that my average bank angle was lower and my velocity higher than what I would have liked. The saving grace was that everyone else seemed to be about the same. We seldom fly directly into the strongest lift and center the core for an entire thermal. We level out to move our circle, sometimes repeatedly, and I know I tend to relax as I climb. I am looking for the next cloud, checking traffic and not necessarily only focused on staying centered.

The table below shows Region 1 flights of 250 miles+, which were posted on WeGlide from 4/21 through 5/1. Twelve flights, seven pilots, three airfields, various gliders.

Click to enlarge

The second table has bank angle and velocity for the same flights. This data is taken from WGlide. I think it is representative of our actual bank angles while in a thermal.

Click to enlarge

The Max. bank angle / velocity is for a single segment. For Evan and myself this was one thermal. For Kari it was a long segment.

To come up with an average of average bank angle over 10 flights I eliminated the high and low. The result is 32.6 degrees, and a velocity of 55.8 knots. Someone with more statistics knowledge may want to dive deeper into this and then tell us what it means.

Conclusions:

The King of bank angle is clearly Kari. Only Evan comes close to Kari’s average for a day, but Evan’s was in only one thermal. Kari had an average bank angle of 43 degrees at 56.5 knots. This is about same velocity as the rest of us but with 10 degree less bank angle! They do not build gliders like they used to. However, this still only resulted in a somewhat below average climb. Kari was far from anyone else making a true comparison impossible.

Evan is clearly the King of climb with those 21 m wings. He had an average climb rate of 497 fpm over 3 flights. The nearest was Greg on one day at 440 fpm. I am amazed that Evan has an advantage of roughly 100 fpm over everyone else? How is that possible?

I can claim second runner up for a bank angle of 39 degrees. It was my first thermal, and it was a highly focused climb from 1000 feet above the local terrain.

Tim gets an honorable mention for descending over Post Mills at -372 fpm in a 45° bank, at 88.7 knots and in a 702 ft radius circle.

At an average bank angle of 32 degrees, we flew in circles at best more than 100 feet larger in radius than what Kari flew and what is theoretically possible.

I also looked at a few recent long flights in Europe and Mifflin. We are all actually turning tighter than just about everyone!

Are we all close to the sweet spot for our equipment and Region 1 thermal characteristics? Is there room for us to improve? Should we just claim victory and enjoy the experience? What did I miss?

April 26 report

 Andy Kozak writes:

Sunday the 26th did not start off well for me. Alasdair showed me that the NESA 2-33 was missing a cotter pin on one of the bolts holding the tailplane. The nut was spinning freely but still attached. It had been assembled after our safety meeting and then flown a week ago. I then pre-flighted it Saturday for my Flight Review, with Alasdair. I try to touch everything I am checking to make sure I do not just give it a cursory look, but apparently I had not done so this time.

Bob Iuliano was already climbing out over Hawks Ridge when I released just below him. Usually we would fly together as long as possible but Bob had to get back earlier that day. When he headed toward the Green mountains, I took a northerly track up the middle of the state. The clouds looked good everywhere. A slight detour to the Greens along with the arc formed by the mountain range would result in a longer path versus heading due north. One of my goals has been to fly to the Canadian border, and this seemed like a good day to give it a shot.

The initial clouds worked well. I hit a relatively low point of 4800 feet near Chelsea, but the cloud I had been aiming for looked good and I was within range of Post Mills, so no worries. Near Montpelier I made a pointless diversion east toward what I thought was the best cloud in the area. It offered weak lift but at least afforded me a bit more altitude. It also gave me time to look around, and I noticed wisps of clouds starting to develop in the blue area just to the west. I backtracked west and headed toward the cloud street above Barre. All of this time I was within spitting/gliding distance of the Barre/Montpelier airport, so again, no worries. Turning west turned out better than expected and I was able to turn north while still in the blue. From there I flew without the need for any major climbs, just thermaling enough to top off my altitude.

One of the things that I think has helped my soaring is that I have learned to focus on being smooth and being more selective when slowing down. Not every patch of lift needs a sharp pullup. The glider gains energy in the small pockets of lift that we traverse and every control input or change in flap setting costs something in terms of drag and therefore altitude. I try to pay attention to what my flight computer’s MacCready speed-to-fly is telling me but I do not react instantly to every change. I try to avoid slowing down in anticipation of lift. Not every cloud works and slowing too much leaves me with little energy when I find sink instead.

There are several metrics available in WeGlide that I track. One is glide ratio over segments of flights. The leg from my initial climb to the border was 109 miles. On that leg I achieved a glide ratio of 63/1, significantly better than my theoretical 48/1.

There was a cloud growing just on the Canadian border and there was a light wind from the north. I could see the border on my flight computer but from 5,000 ft I could not actually see the 20 ft border break on the ground. Several roads in the area made it somewhat confusing. I turned, just barely touching Canadian airspace and gaining some altitude in the thermal while enjoying the view.

Heading back south the lowest point of the flight at 4600 feet came when I was near Morrisville airport. There had been a larger than normal gap between clouds but again the clouds ahead looked very good so I was never worried. I had also started to notice that the clouds over the Greens were at two levels, indicating a convergence.

Flying south I experimented with the optimum distance from the convergence line and found it to be well to the east versus closer to the convergence. However, I never did get extremely close so perhaps it would have been even better at that point.

Between Sugarbush and Killington I was able to fly without turning. Near Killington I gained nearly 1000 feet in a thermal and then an additional 2000 feet in straight flight. I did not turn again until well past Bennington. At that point the clouds seemed to be a bit more spread out and there was smoke from a rather large fire. Two years ago I had come this far and then tried to return under an overdevelopment only having to land at Bennington. Not wanting to repeat that, and with plenty of altitude, I turned back. Retracing my recent path I maintained altitude and decided to head east and add a bit of a triangle to the flight. This had the added benefit of allowing me to stay within final glide of Hartness, minimizing the potential need for a retrieve.

In retrospect, I should have continued south into Massachusetts. At that time, I did not know it but two pilots from Post Mills were in the same area with me, just returning from their flights to western Connecticut, near where the three states of Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut meet. Evan Ludeman eventually flew 370 miles and Greg Hanlon flew 304 miles. I could not have flown to Connecticut but I think I could have gone well into Massachusetts, which for me is unexplored territory.

The leg of my flight from the border south covered 139 miles at a glide ratio of 111!  Another WeGlide metric I look at is per cent of time circling. A very good number to aim for is 20%. For this flight it was 16.3%! Needless to say, my flight of 349 miles (560 km) was the longest of my life.

Clearly a great day to fly cross country in Vermont. Hopefully my skills and decision making have actually improved and it was not just the right time and the right place!