May 21, 2003 - Morgan, UT My Phoebus, 1 tow .6 hour
Finally I flew her!!! It is 11:30 pm and I just got back from the airport. I am leaving to go to Wyoming tomorrow so I wanted to jot down the quick details right away. I will upload pics that I took tonight Tuesday of next week.
I left work at 4pm and drove 1 hour to get to Morgan. Aaron and I then worked with Stan to make sure that by taking out the 11.75 pounds of lead in the nose I would not be aft of the cg limits. I was just fine. We then put the glider together with Jay's help as well. Once the glider was ready it was 8pm and already the sun was pretty low.
We decided to auto tow me down the runway to the far end for me to get a feel for the controls. That was the best thing we ever could have done!!! We kept the speed down to about 20 knots but I could not believe how easy it was to track right behind the tow vehicle. I didn't oscillate back and forth at all like I was afraid I would. The Phoebus is laterally rock steady while being towed. The tow went so well that Jay said he would jump into the tow plane and I was as ready as I would ever be to do the real thing.
My adrenaline levels were as high as I have ever experienced - even more than the first time I went skydiving in fact! The beginning of the tow went great. I stayed right behind the tow plane without any problems what so ever. Then I got to speed when my stabilator showed me what it is made of. I can not believe how sensitive the pitch control is in the Phoebus. It is unreal. I had two little bounces as I was trying out the feel and immediately understood why EVERYONE who I have talked to who has ever flown a Phoebus has warned me about how micro small movements need to be on the stick to avoid problems. The rest of my 3000' tow went great.
I hesitated just a second before releasing my mental umbilical cord from the tow plane but as soon as I pulled the tow rope release lever I was greeted by sheer ecstasy. The Phoebus is an incredible secret which I now share a part with only a few other lucky soaring fools. She was responsive in every way and I couldn't believe how she didn't want to lose a single foot of altitude if she didn't have to. I was flying in still evening air but 5 minutes after releasing from tow I had only lost 200 feet in altitude! If I were in the 2-33 I would be entering the pattern to land by then. :) Turns were easy to coordinate and slow flight and stalls were gentle and true.
One of the surprises of flying the Phoebus is that it really likes to talk to you. I tried slipping while on tow and immediately heard pretty loud groaning/screeching sounds. Flying uncoordinated after releasing had the same effect. I took her up to 90 knots indicated airspeed and she was still smooth as silk and the wind noise was much quieter than I had expected. It was starting to get pretty dark and after 25 minutes in the still air I had only lost 1500 feet altitude.
I grudgingly bled off some altitude and entered the landing pattern mid-field on a downwind leg at 850 feet agl. The stupid, wonderful thing refused to lose altitude at all in the still air so I was grateful for the over/under pretty good sized spoilers at my disposal. I ran my downwind a little too close to the runway and so I needed to turn base too soon to make sure I didn't go downwind too far. I turned final and was at 400 feet agl and much too high since there was no wind at all in the evening air. Again, thank goodness for spoilers. I had no trouble during the entire landing pattern keeping my 50 knots indicated air speed. I was thrilled how well things were working out as I came in at full spoilers until 100 feet agl and then slowly transitioned them to 1/4 open as I got 20 feet above the ground. The pitch angle of the Phoebus was just right and I was blessed with a perfect 2 point landing (main wheel and tail wheel touched down at same time). Again, I was very happy the Phoebus tracks down the center line so well by just making small quick rudder adjustments. Wow, the drum brake is just mainly for show isn't it!?!? I am glad I had plenty of room to roll out. I would hate to land in a small field with a fence at the far end with those brakes. I'll have to make sure I plan for that.
 "I'm down and my glider and my own body aren't broken!" I did it! Aaron, Jay, and Judy Thomson were all there within 30 seconds to greet me with cheers and prayers of relief. Jay asked me if I said a short prayer to plead for safety right before take-off. I said yes. He then said that he said one himself just in case I forgot. :) What an incredibly memorable first flight in my new love. I can't wait to go out again next week! A special thanks again to Aaron, Jay and Janet Thomson up at Morgan Valley soaring for all their help in getting me and my glider ready for this first great flight.
For more pics taken right after I landed, please click here.
|
May 31, 2003 - Morgan, UT in Phoebus, 4000 ft tow for .9 hour
Today was a long one. I left the house at 7:30 am and drove the 75 minutes to get to Morgan. My wife was great enough to give me the whole day to work on my glider/fly. I thought I had plenty of time but the day went quickly.
The first thing I did was work on taking off the funky aluminum raised plate that the radio was screwed into. I guess one of the previous owners had short arms and needed the extension. I replaced it with a instrument hole reducer that I bought from Tim a Wings and Wheels. My panel looks a lot cleaner now.
The second thing I did was to velcro on a gliding performance chart I made in Excel under the turn coordination indicator and my new oxygen on/off switch and plug-in that Aaron installed. This chart has miles on the left and columns of my most visited gliding airports. I then have the distance in msl that I need to be at both 90% and 50% glide performance for 37:1. With my simple gps and airport waypoints already plugged in, I can easily see what altitude I need to have to safely get to the nearest one (hopefully).
Next, I went to work on my canopy. I am pretty happy with the one I have as it does not have too many scratches and only one crack that is about 6 inches long on the side where the little window slider was screwed in. It already had a stop hole drilled in but the crack split there into a Y. I talked to Stan about the problem and he gave me a pretty interesting-looking drill bit to drill two more holes to stop the crack, hopefully once and for all. After I drilled the 2 holes I filled all three now with epoxy and I hope that is the last I need to think any cracks. I then spent a good hour+ buffing out the scratches and cleaning the canopy. It now looks great.
I have an old Garmin GPS II+ at my disposal at the moment. It isn't the best or fanciest but I have put in many of the local airports as waypoints so I can see how far I am from them when I start spreading my cross-country wings a little more. With my little distance chart I installed in combination with my gps, I should be in better shape than just guessing. I spent a few hours in the afternoon working on an aluminum L-bracket to mount to the left side of the cockpit. I am pretty happy with the results. I'll take an updated cockpit shot to show all the changes that have been made since I bought it.
By this time somehow, it had already gotten to be 4:30 in the day and Mike the tow pilot said he was willing to wait if I wanted to put my wings on and take a tow. The conditions were spotty and pretty much shutting down already, but I figured I might as well take a high tow and actually fly the stupid thing I have spent so much time and money on.
Take off was great. I had about a 5 knot right crosswind that posed no problem. I concentrated hard on staying right behind the tow plane and didn't porpoise a bit while waiting for the tow plane to start climbing. Following on tow was a slightly different matter though. I did fine but I will continue trying to not overcorrect vertically.
We ended up going 4000' up to about the top of Durst which is a large peak about 6 miles east of Morgan airport. The lift was real weak (only 100-150 feet per minute up) yet the predominant sink was around 400' down. I enjoyed slowly working my way down the face of the peak and trying to stay in the small brief pockets of lift. I am really curious if a more experienced "bird brain" as Aaron likes to call people who can stay up in anything could have stayed up much longer. I really tried working on my outside awareness being so close to the mountain and two other gliders somewhere in the area. I also worked hard on flying good circles at constant speeds to try to stay in the little lift I could find. It probably worked out for the best that I couldn't stay up longer in those conditions because I ended up being 45 minutes late meeting my wife later that night anyway.
The landing was about as good as I have ever done. I entered the pattern for a left downwind for runway 21 at 800' agl. This time I spaced myself further away parallel from the runway and was able to see where to turn base. The landing was again an exact 2-point touchdown so I am starting to think that the Phoebus comes in at a great viewing angle when the spoilers are only open a hair up to a quarter distance. I think I was a little too harsh on the brake from my first flight. It does work some and I am sure I will continue to get a better feel for it in my next few flights. I am ready to hanger my bird for the rest of the season. I know I am whining but it is going to be great to just show up at Cedar Valley and already have her put together and almost ready to fly.
|
Pages
    
|
