June 17, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, 3 Towns for the day. The first 2 resulted in quickly coming back to land after 1.6 hours. The third tow was a 2,000 ft tow resulting in a 4.0 hour flight. Click here to view flight track.
This was my third flight of the day so I was starting out very late to really go too far. I ended up still having a fun time and enjoyed the Utah scenery as always. One good note is that I was able to get over to Joes Valley Res again on this flight which is great practice since it is the 2nd turn point on my 500km triangle attempt I hope to make within the next few months. Again, fun day with strong lift late in the day and great takeoff and landing.
June 28, 2008 - Parowan, Utah in Duo Discus with Karl Striedieck during region 9 contest. Below is what I wrote about the flight to some friends:
Wow! Just like I reported
last year he doesn't have any secrets to why he is so successful, he
just puts all the basics together well. Here are my observations I
will try to include in my own flying:
A. Karl always banked at least 55 degrees in every thermal. He kept
it nice and tight so he didn't end up flying through lift then sink
then lift then calm. He just kept in the lift and flew tight enough
circles to stay in the best part.
B. 95% of the time when circling his airspeed was between 55-65
knots. He seemed not to mind he could have been 5 knots slower at
times to try to fly min sink.
When I asked him about this he said that he would rather fly faster
and have total feel and control instead of always being on the verge
of a stall in often-gusty thermals. I have been trying too hard to
fly as slow as possible in thermals and will often hit a gust and
enter into a spin and have to recover. Note to self, "fly tighter
and faster and I'll end up going up faster."
C. If you are up high enough and you know the day's conditions are
providing some good lift force yourself to fly through thermals that
are not up to your expected day's conditions. Easy to say but tough
to follow!
D. Do NOT pull up in sucker gusts! If your vario is just screaming
but you don't feel it in the seat of your pants it is just a gust and
keep going. The vario will either stop in short order or you will
feel the real thing and it is time to pull up into the lift.
E. Karl only got suckered into turning 360 degrees in a low thermal
once. Once you see that the thermal you just started turning in
isn't what you thought, limit your turn to no more than 90 degrees
and stop it and keep going. No reason to waste a complete turn in
low lift or even worse, sink.
F. Karl was very talkative at launch as to what he would do if there
were a problem at that moment. "Straight ahead, now I would land in
that field, now I need to land the other field, now I can do a 180."
It was a good reminder to no get complacent at beginning of any tow.
G. Karl stays for the most part between 70 and 85 knots. His
transitions are very smooth between thermalling and cruising and he
does not porpoise. He says he usually does not fly faster dry
because he likes a better search radius. Since he is not pulling up
at every bump he needs the range.
H. Karl and most of the other pilots kept their patterns high and
tight and had to really open the spoilers and flaps if they had them
and dive to land. They clearly don't just make it over the fence.
On the other hand they all have disc brakes, which were very good at
stopping a fast glider.
I. Karl looks down and inside of his turns when thermalling. I have
tried this since seeing it last year and it has helped me to make
better turns for some reason.
J. If you are in sink even if you are high you are losing time since
you will have to make up that altitude. When in heavy sink you
should be bugged and trying to figure out how to get out of it and
try to stay in lift. Easy to say, hard to do…
K. And finally, just stay relaxed and enjoy yourself. If you make
it too much work then it just might stop being so much fun.
Hope these comments were helpful. I would highly recommend all local
pilots that want to do some serious XC or racing to take one of these
back seat contest rides!
July 3, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, One 2,000 ft tow resulting in a 4.9 hour flight and hopefully a new Utah state speed record for the 500km FAI triangle. Click here to view flight track.
Click below for a few video snippets I took during the flight
Wow! Fun flight and an amazing day. I have been really wanting to complete this challenge for the last few seasons. As always, there were many things that I could have done to make the flight go faster looking at it in hind sight but wow what an incredible day. :)
July 19, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, One 2,800 ft tow resulting in a 1.7 hour flight. The soaring index was looking promising and winds aloft were light. The day looked like it could start a little bit later so no one at Cedar Valley rushed to get in the air. The first launch was 1:30. I took off around 2:15. I was hoping to try a new 300km FAI triangle course. Take a look at my igc and see how it turned out.
Lift was scarce and very difficult to work below 8,000 ft but was booming above 9,500. My start was right over Cedar Valley but there was no lift in the valley at all. With Class B over the airport at 9,000-10,000 you also had to skirt under it, hit the start point and try to best glide back over to the mountains 10 miles to the west and hope to catch some lift. There was no ridge lift working below 9,000 so thermals only.
I ended up twice leaving a true 7-8 knot themal to get back to Cedar Valley to start and then restart the task and the second time couldn't work the low lift. Still a fun day but I was hoping for a longer flight.
June 17, 2008 - Cedar Valley, Utah in my ASW-20B, 3 Towns for the day. The first 2 resulted in quickly coming back to land after 1.6 hours. The third tow was a 2,000 ft tow resulting in a 4.0 hour flight.
June 28, 2008 - Parowan, Utah in Duo Discus with Karl Striedieck during region 9 contest. Below is what I wrote about the flight to some friends: