A short flight and a bunch of work

Today I had a short flight in the PW5. Due to scheduling, I took off about noon, when the thermals were just starting to pop. On tow, all turbulence stopped at 4200' MSL, so I figured that was where the inversion layer sat at the time. Right after release, I turned back and found a thermal that went up to - yep - 4200'. Shortly thereafter I found some pretty hefty sink, and had to come back. I ended up with just a 20 minute flight.

The landing was weird. I had had some excess speed on downwind and base legs, but had it under control at 52 knots on final. I was on right track to my aiming point, and was down to maybe 20 or 30 feet AGL. Suddenly my airspeed dropped to the low 40's. I must have caught a tailwind gust or flown through a thermal or something - there had been some lift on downwind. I had to nose over to regain flying speed (and close spoilers), but there was not much air under me, so I had to quickly round out again. I touched down quite short of the landing zone, maybe 30 or 40 feet early.

Before taking off, we had a problem with the circuit breaker that powers the audio vario and its digital display. It kept shutting off. It worked OK during preflight checks, and worked fine later on the ground, so we think it was just too hot. The glider had sat in the sun for quite a while with the canopy cover off, and it was about 97F when we pushed out. Maybe the breaker is getting old and overly sensitive. We're going to make sure to cover the canopy to keep the cockpit cool when we have a long delay. I thought the Volkslogger was acting up. I wanted to test it once before using it at Tehachapi. As it turns out, I was misinterpreting the Volks display... I think it was working properly. But we also thought it was contributing to the breaker popping off, so we turned it off before flight, and I flew with my standalone GPS input.

Later, we disassembled the PW5 and a Blanik to transport them to Tehachapi for the Labor Day weekend campout. (The Grob 103 is already there - has been all summer.) We're planning to leave the PW5 there for another week, and I'll fly it in the Dust Devil Dash on 9/6. That's a straight-out contest. You can read about my effort in that contest last year here.

A Minor Milestone

Saturday's flight was my 200th as a glider pilot!

Soaring simulation software for training

I've written before about programs such as Sailors of the Sky and Condor, which are glider-specific PC-based flight simulators. Recently some instructors have described their experiences with students who have used Condor before or during their flight training. These students have required fewer flights before solo or testing for their PPG - sometimes quite significantly. PC-based simulation like Condor does not qualify as a "simulator" under the FAR's, and time on it cannot be logged, but it can be very helpful.

Our club Board decided to offer a Condor training environment to our student pilots. I donated a used PC of adequate power, another member donated a 21-inch monitor, and the Board funded the rest of the equipment and software. I did the purchasing, configuration, and installation. From concept to completion took about two months. Total cost to the club was about $450, since most of the hardware was donated.

We cleared out some dedicated space in our clubhouse, and bought a computer desk. The PC includes a force-feedback joystick, rudder pedals, and speakers. The force-feedback joystick allows some realistic aileron resistance, and provides a shaking warning to simulate pre-stall buffet. The rudder pedals are important to enable students to properly learn coordinated turns.

In addition to the basic Condor program, we got an add-on pack of gliders that includes a PW5. The basic Condor comes with scenery for Germany. I also found a scenery file for Colorado, but none for California. One of our club members is working on building one.

I made up a notebook with simple instructions for getting started with Condor, some next steps for more advanced students, and the Condor manual. Soon we'll demonstrate it to all student pilots.

We believe we are one of the first clubs in the U.S. to provide a dedicated soaring simulation station on site at our gliderport. We think it'll be a great benefit for students who may not want to invest in the hardware and software on their own. We're hoping our instructors will work simulation practice into the training curriculum.

I'd be interested in comments from other clubs who may have experience with the use of simulation in their flight training.

Steep turns

One of the requirements on the Practical Test Standard for the Commercial certificate is demonstration of steep turns. That means turns at a bank angle of up to 60 degrees. One trick that has been suggested to help gauge the angle of bank is to pick two screws on an instrument, diagonally opposite each other, and make them line up on the horizon. Using that measure, I realized some time ago that I usually don't bank very steeply, usually only up to 35-40 degrees even when thermalling. It just does not feel comfortable to bank more steeply.

So today that's what I planned to work on. Shortly after release I found a suitable thermal and intentionally banked steeper and steeper. I thought I remembered feeling that I would fall sideways toward the low wing, but that was not an issue today. This time I found two things that I needed to work on:

* The G force gets really noticeable beyond 45 degrees or so. If I recall correctly, it's 1.4 G at 45 deg, and 2.0 at 60 deg. When thermalling, we keep on circling for many turns, unlike when we turn just to change heading. So the G force is with us for a long time. Not a problem, but it takes some getting used to.

* I initially had some problems with speed control. In the PW5, at 60 deg, the optimal speed is 56 knots. It kept wanting to creep up to 62 kt or so, and it took a lot of effort to bring it back down. After some practice, I seemed to be more consistent.

After working a couple of thermals up to about 6800' MSL, I headed over to the hills to see if I could find some to take me higher. No luck - a lot of sink - and I ended up with just a 40-minute flight.


Earlier in the day, I spent some time briefing another pilot who's hoping to fly the PW5 soon. He's flown a single-seat glider a few times before, but it was quite a while ago. I recommended he work through Bob Wander's book "Transition to Single Seat Gliders", a terrific little book that really helps you get prepared in advance and suggests some maneuvers to practice in the air before your first landing.

Cloud streets and TVs

We've been getting some heat and tropical moisture influx for a few days, so I figured we might get some cumulus clouds to mark the lift... normally Hemet is so dry that all we get are "blue" thermals. There were big CU over the mountains, and the cloudbase there was maybe 9,000' MSL. There were CU and some lenticular-looking clouds all around the valley. My thermal forecast at trigger temperature (88F) was for lift to 6300' MSL. When I took off, the temp was 99F.

I came off tow at 4300' MSL and joined a thermal about 1000' under a 2-33. I worked that one up to 6000', and the 2-33 headed away, so I figured that was probably the top. Just a short distance away was a dark little cloud leading to a "cloud street" along the ridge north of the valley. I easily followed that over to the "S" ridge, which was pretty good because that ridge often has no lift working. I spotted a turkey vulture (TV)... and then a big flock of them, probably 15 to 20, all circling in lift. Sure enough, right under them, I found lift again. I worked that one up to 6300' MSL (and the TV's scattered).

With all this good lift, I would have liked to attack Mt. San Jacinto, but the peak was quite obscured by haze and clouds. Plus, my PDA / GPS had failed due to the heat, so I did not have glide calculations available electronically. If I was seriously planning to go to the mountain, I should have studied the distances and altitudes so I would have a good idea of my range, which I had not done.

So with plenty of altitude, I headed south across the valley, over the lowest foothills. As I mentioned, there were some lenticular-looking clouds in various places, and one was just ahead of me, so I thought I'd see if there really was any mountain wave lift working. It occasionally does work in the Hemet valley, but I have not encountered it yet. I went just adjacent to what looked like the leading edge of the lennie, but I was at least 1,000' lower than it, probably 2,000'. Either I was too low, or it really wasn't a lennie, or the wind was going the opposite direction, but I did not find either lift or sink near it. Not finding any meaningful lift there, I continued to the southeast corner of the valley, where I found yet another thermal to 6,000' MSL or higher.

Heading west along the hills north of Diamond Valley Lake, I found no lift and not much sink. I played with correlating the sink rate to the airspeed. (I really found no serious sink all day.) I went nearly to the town of Winchester, thereby completing a modified version of the "cross-country practice triangle" that we use, about a 30-mile flight path. I didn't find much more useful lift in that area, so I planned to land. The wind had picked up at ground level... AWOS said 12kt gusting to 20kt, with some really bumpy, turbulent lift at about 2,000' AGL. I did a pretty darn good crosswind landing after a 1 hour and 10 minute flight.

A very good soaring day! And guess what - I topped out at 6300' MSL, exactly what my forecast indicated (though for the 88F trigger temp, not the 99F actual temp).