May 20, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, One 1,400 ft tow, .3 hour flight. Second tow to 4,000 ft, flight lasting 1.8 hours.
This was one of those days where the soaring forecast called for incredible lift and cross country flying potential so I didn't care what the sky looked like. Well, what it looked like was high cirrus clouds had moved in and were blocking a good portion of the sun's energy. What I was left with was a day with wind gusting out of the south starting at 10 knots at the beginning of the flight and ending at 25 knots 2 hours later at the end. My average gain on each thermal that I could find was only 90 feet per minute. It made for lots of turns in very weak and broken thermals where you go up 1/4 of the turn, go down 1/2 the turn and stay neutral if you were lucky the other 1/4. Tough conditions! It really made me question how bad am I really at thermalling a core and staying slow enough to stay within the really narrow thermals without stalling out and the nose dropping and gaining 10 extra knots that I didn't want. I felt like I was meandering all over the sky instead fly flying nice neat tight circles. Practice it was and practice I guess I am in bad need of. It was pretty ugly. I am just glad I don't have a 2 seater so no one saw how bad it really was. To be fair I was trying to always thermal staying pretty banked and keeping the airspeed under 50 knots. I was only a few knots above stall at that bank and the air was ratty. I guess the best might have been to fly 5 knots faster but that just felt lazy.
The first flight lasted only about 18 minutes after I got off in some very weak lift only a little bit above pattern altitude. I tried but in the end I was down to only 500ft above the ground and entered into a base leg to land. At least all of the takeoffs and landings were pretty good considering a stong 15+ knot crosswind.
The glider is now safely nested in it's hangar and waiting for next time. It is expected to rain in Utah for much of the rest of the week but I hope to be able to get back out and fly on the 31st.
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 May 31, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, A 1,200 ft tow resulting in a 3.7 hour flight.
Click here to view flight track.
Another SLOOOOOOW day flying. I am starting to get a complex. :) There were a few cumulus clouds right over Cedar Valley and then it was blue in all other directions for 50 miles. The wind was strong from the south but the forecast was also for strong lift. I tried to do the 500km triangle flight down to Beaver but it was not to be. The best I could average under clouds or blue sky was around 2.5 knots or 250 fpm with half of the thermal going up at 600 fpm and the other side of the turn going down fast as well canceling out much of the gains.
South of Nephi it was clear that making it another 90 miles south to Beaver and it being 4pm already was a lost cause. I thought it would be an easy flight home by heading over to the foothills south of Mt. Nebo but I was wrong...again. The foothills sustained ridge flying north but when I got to Nebo to my great surprise it was not working well at all in the southern winds. I know that when the wind is from the north it isn't good but I thought that from the south it would be easy to ridge the southern slopes. Looking at my flight trace you will see that it was a slow death inching downwards on every turn. I headed north to see if I could catch a glancing blow of wind on the west side of the mountain but again lots of sink and just little lift. With finally only a few extra hundred feet to spare to get to the Nephi airport I reluctantly left the mountainside and headed into the Nephi valley to admit defeat, again, and land out at the airport. I flew for less than a mile when over the valley I hit a small bump that turned into a good enough thermal to gain 4,000 ft of altitude enough to easily make it home. I would have bet 10:1 that I was landing out for sure.
Takeoff, tow and landing were great. I haven't had a bad wing drop in over 20 flights so I (knock on wood) am hoping I am finally getting the hang of launching this thing. The weather for the rest of the week looks not very friendly to good soaring with under 70 degree weather and rain off and on. I hope to get out sometime early next week. On Friday the 13th, good thing I am not superstitious, I am flying my wife up to Sheridan, WY for a little getaway. Can't wait! --Bruno
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