Looking instead of flying

Camping at Big Bear Lake this weekend... The soaring forecast for the local field was for thermal tops to be over 10,000 ft and over Big Bear to 17,000. I know some of the pilots go from the valley up over the mountains, so I thought maybe I'd see someone soaring. Sure enough, while we were out on a boat in the middle of the lake, I spotted two: one north of the lake and then one just south, nearly at cloudbase. Very cool... a goal to look forward to someday.

We've camped up here a number of times. I bet there have always been sailplanes above us and I never even knew it.

Let's see... 17,000 ft * a conservative 25:1 glide ratio / 6020 feet means you could glide 70 nautical miles...

Comparing three gliders

Now that I've flown three different models, I find myself comparing them. I'm sure I'll think of more aspects, but here are several:

Weight: Empty, PW5 about 440 lbs, Blanik about 650, Grob about 880. So PW5 with one person weighs about half the Grob with two. This all affects the feeling of inertia and stability. Rollout distance is influenced greatly by the weight.

Wingspan: P < B < G. Noticeable effect on roll rate! Will have to remember that when trying to enter a thermal in the Grob.

Attitude: B seems to fly level (or maybe it just feels more "normal" since I've flown it so much more. P seems nose-high: if I fly it "level" it's really nose down and flying too fast. G (only once so far) seems nose-low: I had to push it over to get it to fly fast enough.

Roll-out: B is a taildragger with rotating tailwheel. It'll go where you want it on rollout: for example, you can steer it to a desired point to ease the next takeoff. P is a nosedragger with non-turning gear. Once on the ground, it goes in a straight line. G is a taildragger with non-turning tailwheel, also tarcks straight. P and G: better get 'em straight before touchdown!

First flight in Grob 103

5-7-05 First flight in the Grob 103, a two-seat fiberglass ship. The club recently reactivated it after having put it in storage for about a year. Since it’s bigger, heavier, and flies differently from the Blaniks, the club rules require additional training, so everyone is clamoring for instructor time in it. The weather was mostly cloudy. There was lift around – several glass ships were staying up – but not really a very strong day. So I flew one 18-minute flight with a CFI. The way it’s built gives it a much more solid feel than the Blanik – none of the rattles etc. The long wings and greater inertia make it roll slowly. But it’s very slippery – it floats forever after flare and before touchdown. We did a few stalls, straight and turning. This ship will hardly stall at all – a lot of buffeting and then a VERY gentle stall. I bet it only loses about 10 feet of altitude.

My flight was fine, my landing fine, except that I misunderstood how the wheel brake worked and reached over to grab the trim handle thinking it was the brake. Later I learned from other pilots that the wheel brake is not very effective in the Grob, so I probably couldn’t feel it grabbing even when I was pulling the right handle. I figure it will take about 5 flights or so before getting signed off in the Grob. It will be a much nicer ship than the Blanik for giving passenger rides.

Aside from flying, it was a very busy day on the ground. That’s part of being in a club – everyone has to share in work. Most of the club is going on a campout next weekend, so some people disassembled and trailered the PW5, others packed up gear for it and a Blanik. I helped T and N get the pitot-static system working again on the Grob. I also helped transfer a half-mile of steel cable (used for auto-towing) from one spool to another.

PW5 second flight

An interesting day, weather-wise. Rain a couple of days ago, so it wasn't exactly a post-frontal day. High cirrus until about noon, then that cleared out and the sun started heating things up. We could see CU in the distance, but all clear air at our field. Early landers said there was a lot of lift but a lot of sink too. When I went up, it took quite a while to find ANY lift but I eventually kept finding decent stuff. (Hard to tell how strong it really is - the vario in the PW5 seems really nervous to me - big swings up and down. I don't think I'm flying in and out of it that badly. But maybe that's just a result of how light the ship is compared to the Blanik.) I was up about 5800' MSL when CU started forming right where I was, and it just got more and more puffy over the next hour. I topped out at 6300' MSL. Up in the 5-6 range there was lift all over the place - but BUMPY! Bounced me around pretty good - I'll just have to get used to that, since the PW5 seems to react really fast. I stayed up an hour - that's our club's time slot size, and I thought another guy was going to want to go up again. (I should have checked by radio - he had already left!)

VERY smooth landing, right in the box. Having two inflated tires instead of a hard tailwheel makes it much nicer. It was so smooth and quiet that no one from the club noticed I had landed.

Some dual glass ship joined me in a thermal for a while. He was higher, so it was easy to keep an eye on him. I've gaggled before, but this time I think I was climbing faster than he was, and he was making a bigger circle, so I tended to climb up inside him which made me a bit nervous. I lost sight of him a couple of times but we were never quite at the same altitude so it worked out. He eventually headed away before I topped out.

I also shared a thermal with some seagulls at about 4000' AGL.

Next time I definitely need to try the Camelbak. A water bottle just doesn't fit in the PW5's pocket.

I practiced again keeping track of my location with a map. We have a topo map that's been conveniently marked with names of local landmarks. (I haven't gone far enough yet for a sectional to be useful.) I spent a bunch of time thermaling over a little lake with a campground, and realized I had camped there with my parents when I was about 10! At the time I had no idea where we were... but the name on the map and the layout of the lake matched my memory.

At the end of an hour I was pretty well done anyway. The PW5 takes a little more concentration than the Blanik, especially for speed control.

GPS and Navigation

A couple of months ago I realized that when I start flying a higher-performance ship and start learning to go cross-country, I should get a GPS system and/or navigational computer. At first I thought I wanted a little handheld GPS, like a Garmin. I got some recommendations from club members and RAS members. I priced Garmin and Lowrance units that seemed popular. But they don't really have any features specifically for soaring, and the screens of the low-priced ones seem too small to be useful.

I thought about PDA-based nav computers. I decided against Palm OS devices. I have a Palm and I love it, although I don't use it much anymore now that I have a Blackberry from work. But I've had my Palm crash enough times that I don't trust the OS for flight duties. Plus they just are not as powerful CPU-wise as Pocket PC's. I was skeptical of Windows-based devices because I have a lot of experience with Windows on PC's and servers. But the best soaring software seems to be written for that platform. No one seems to be complaining about stability. I have decided that it will be more stable if I don't load a bunch of other personal software on it: it will be a dedicated navigation tool, not a PDA.

There seem to be some very nice slot-based GPS receivers that integrate well with the pocket PC platform. It's no longer necessary to run a cable to a standalone GPS box: the GPS becomes part of the handheld. 

So at the SSA convention I attended a session comparing features of soaring software. I remember narrowing in on one of the programs, although at the moment I don't recall which one I liked. I don't need all the racing features at this time.

I read lots of opinions on RAS about screen legibility. It's not perfect but some are pretty good.  Cumulus Soaring has a great rundown of devices and packages. So I settled on the HP ipaq 2200 or 2215. With a Transplant CF GPS and a big battery, it can run for many hours. Only problem is: it's not made anymore and it was expensive ($600 new). So ebay sounded like a good option.

After two tries I found a good deal on a (I hope) lightly used ipaq 2215 with lots of memory and the big battery. It's coming to me via UPS as I write. I hope I'm not buying someone else's problem device, but the refurb units from HP are too expensive.

Now I need to order the GPS unit. And I need  to dig thru my notes to refresh my memory about software, and get that on order.