Harris Hill Friday

[Wings-Aron Lantz]

Good morning,

So a few of us are flying Harris today.  I plan on being there by 1:30.

Jim K  and I will be out today to fly and assist so we have opportunities for H2 to get out to fly.

Who knows how the wind will turn out.  It looks NW on the various models and varies in speed, but likely there will be cycles to launch in.  Wind speed forecasts get lower in the late afternoon.

Aron

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[Mark Donahoe]

CU around 1:30 or 2.

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[Moritz Wagner]

I am coming too, but will probably be late. So don't wait for me.

Moritz

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[Patrick McDonnell]

I'm planning to be at the LZ at 1:45. Pat

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[Wings-Aron Lantz]

I'm late, flat tire, going uptop when I get there.

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[Patrick McDonnell]

Hi Mark, Aron, and Mortz, Is anyone meeting at the LZ. I will be there just before 2:00. I don't have your phone numbers. Please call me at 570-637-4575. Thanks

[Wings-Aron Lantz]

Flight report:

When we started launching, the wind was like 8-12 strait in.

Mark was first off, went up with a few passes...then way up.  Moritz went next, up and away.  Aron went next and after a few passes was up.

We flew around a while and had nice ridge lift lift and thermals under the big cumulus clouds.

Pat launched and had a nice first soaring flight on a day that wasn't all peaches and cream.

Aron: I'll say this...today at Harris scared me.  After reaching 1500 over it was lift everywhere...nice thermal, smooth, then it got crazy...cloud suck...up around 2400 over.  I ran from the monster cloud, pulling vg and pulling in alot...hopefully not exceeding structural limits.  Turbulence rocking me and over the falls a couple times...I thought that maybe the glider might tumble or something. Back down to 2100 over it felt ok again, starting to relax.  Then baaam! back up to 2600 over and it got wild again...repeat, look for sink and bask in it.

I think Mark experienced similar...he said he was 2600 over and bar stuffed trying to get down...even unzipped harness and got out trying for drag, but still climbing.

How sweet it was to get the sink warning on the vario.

Once I got down to 1000 over it felt normal and smooth then whack...another major jarring patch of turbulence to the left of launch.

Soon after that widespread sink happened.

Landings were another story...

Conditions changed suddenly and we all landed pretty soon.  Wind was totally parallel to the ridge out of the north east...we kind of all were forced to land rather quickly in widespread sink.

...couldn't believe my eyes...flags in lz were opposite, so started setting up for a north east approach, on my base leg it switched again so I just landed into the wind but way into the corn by the slot...becoming an expert at corn landings here!  Thanks for the help guys on the glider retieve...4 people holding the glider up above their heads walking it out of the corn was a sight to behold.

Other folks landings were not so much fun either.  Nobody got wounded fortunately and no broken aluminum.

Jim and Tim did not get to fly with the abrupt change to cross conditions.  Thank you Jim for coming out and assisting launching people.

I'd say Mark had the flight of the day for overall time in the air...way to go you brave soul!

Pat had an awsome first soaring flight in challenging conditions...and with no vario.

There is better air than today!  Learned something today for sure.

I like winter flying, more mellow air and no mosquitoes...

Seriously it was great to see a nice turnout for flying today.

Let's fly soon!

Aron

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[Wings-Aron Lantz]

This morning Ed called me and we talked a bit...good ideas on flying better with studying the clouds and appropriate responses to cloud suck.

I shared this experience with Hyner club today and got some more thoughts about this cloud suck experience.

JB pressed me for 5 things learned...so wrote them down.  Then JB gave me his list and further below I appended them...

Lots of good ideas if when this cloud suck  and crazy stuff happens!

Five things learned?  Well until I experienced strong cloud suck and it had a grip I couldn't shake... I never thought of how it would be or what to do.  At the time  I tried flying away from the ridge toward a blue hole but that probably was the wrong thing to do.

Follow up discussions led to this list:

1. too much of a good thing (lift) might be bad depending on how close you are to the cloud.

2. Ed J. said learn to read the clouds for signs of what to expect from them...look for height, flatness, towers, dark bottoms. Ed notes 3, 4 and 5.

3. If you notice unusual lift do something sooner before it has a total grip on you.  Get out of it and then observe the cloud from the side, since you can't see how developed it is and shape from underneath.

4. Move to the side of the cloud perpendicular to the wind direction as the escape route.

5. Stay close to the edges of beast clouds so you can get away.

6. If you have lots of altitude and happen to get rolled into unusual attitude and if glider is intact, keep flying it, and it will most often right itself...so don't prematurely throw the parachute.  Moritz said this.

7. Like Brian said if something crazy is going on in the air it's probably gonna be crazy landing.

8. Be ready to change it up on landing approaches and do what you gotta do to get down.

9. Talk yourself calm and fly the glider.  Joe and Karen.

Aron

On Sep 11, 2021, at 6:06 PM, John Bilsky <uda...@gmail.com> wrote:

1. Danger is relative.  

2. Your grip will break before the glider does.

3. If you're ever in the air wishing you were on the ground, be patient... then go land as soon as you have the opportunity.

4. Start learning how to do steep banked "wingovers" (they're really whangs not true wingovers)  at altitude so that when you do get a wing lifted to an unnatural attitude, you'll be familiar with what to do.

5. Letting go of the base bar to pull VG in really nasty air may not be a good idea.  That situation is relative just like danger. 

6. In a switchy LZ, come in long & hot.  It is possible (with the right harness) to partially flare very low to keep the base bar off the ground and then do a "slide into 2nd base move"  literally.  This works well in short to medium high grass.  Corn landings can break aluminum and bones. 

7. When trying to escape cloud suck you either want to "run away" or go down.  Trying to do both at the same time is difficult at best.   Drag is your friend if you want to sink; it is not your friend when you want to get away.  Get away by going perpendicular to the lift.  (Sideways) 

8. Pay attention to the clouds before you have to deal with them. 

9. If you have to talk yourself calm, say this out loud with conviction:  "I GOT THIS!"  You might not have time to panic and recover so don't bother panicking.   Always ALWAYS fly the glider.  

JB

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