Airplanes and Mother Nature

The weather in Southern Ontario this summer was more reminiscent of South Florida sans the extreme heat. I think we have had thunder showers almost every day since the beginning of summer.

The glider field was being drenched thoroughly on a rather regular basis and was very wet in spots. A week ago, we were towing the glider to the starting position. I was running the tow cart trying to avoid the wettest spots when I noticed the giant white stones ahead. I initially thought they were edge markers, although I was not sure why they would use stones. Then I noticed that more stones right in the middle of the runway, set up in concentric circles. Just as my brain was about to explode trying to guess what they were for, we came close to one. It was a giant white mushroom and the beginning of runway was full of them. As soon as we put the glider into position, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures.

A week later, we were flying in the morning when the very active weather was moving all around us. I got up twice and every time there was a wall of dark clouds and rain somewhere close to the airport. But somehow, the T-cells kept missing the field completely. I only meant to stay for the morning, but there were not a lot of people flying and instructor was available, so I signed up for another 2-flight (each instructional sign up = two flights as long as each is under 30 mins). As I was waiting, the skies around the field changed from blue to ominous black.

My turn came and soon instructor and I were fully strapped in a ready to go when the call came from a pilot above the field that one of the big cells was turning our way and we should be putting everything into the hangar ASAP.

As we got out of the glider and hooked it up to the tow cart, the rain intensified, and by the time we got to the hangar, I was completely wet. We put the gliders and tow planes in a hangar in a record time. As soon as the doors were closed (talk about good timing), the skies opened up and emptied right above us. The noise inside the aluminum-roofed hangar was deafening. Outside, there was a wall of water and hail, interrupted by an occasional lightning. Since we had to wait it out inside, and the noise made talking all but impossible, we had nothing to do but take pictures.

After a while, there was a break in the weather and some members made a run for the clubhouse and I made a run for my car, having to wade through ankle-deep puddles to get to the driver door. I got inside, put the heater on and drove home via the nearest coffee place and through the endless waves of showers, interrupted by occasional dry spells and some postcard scenery.

Gliding - the beginnings.

Last weekend, I finally made it to the glider field that I visited in May for the glider acro ride to start my lessons.


After few flights, I am slowly getting more comfortable with every phase of the flight. I now know I can plan the circuit and land. It may not be the worlds' smoothest landing, but it’ll be safe. My flying once off the tow could be better in terms of speed control and coordination, but I am working on that. I think it’ll come once I get used to sight picture and stop subconsciously pulling on a stick. I had exact same problem when switching between Cessna and Citabria as one flew in a much more nose down fashion than the other.

And after my last 2 flights, I was finally getting comfortable with the takeoff and towing. I’ll need couple more flights to feel fully comfortable, but I felt like I made a big progress compared to my earlier flights.

But flying is only part of the fun. The big difference between the glider operations and flying the airplanes out of a busy airport is the camaraderie and the grassroots nature on the gliding field. Everyone pitches in the get the glides and the tow planes out of the hangar in the morning, get them into positions, hook them up, run the wings, and put them back into hangar at the end of the day. I liked helping to hook up, running the wing and glider retrievals as much as flying. And the best part was, i could get close to the towplanes to take decent enough pictures even with my little travel camera.

Switzerland from the air

I was in Switzerland recently where I spent a few days on a advanced diving course and then de-toured into Germany to see my parents.

The return trip from Zurich was in the morning and I was at the airport very early, so I decided to check out their observation deck that I read about on airport's website. I thought it would be some high structure away from all action. 2 Swiss Franks got me admission and having gone through security check, I was soon walking towards the deck. And walking… and walking some more, seeing some funny contraptions along the way.

After about a mile (on the top of one of the levels, so on a roof essentially), I came to the deck – which was almost right next to one of the runways. With the mountains in the background! I really missed my semi-professional camera and long lenses, but alas, with 3 overweight bags full of scuba gear, all I could pack was my little travel camera, Canon G9. The runway adjacent to the deck was used for landings and it was neat to see different names on the airplanes, compared to the familiar North American ones. They also had the radio transmitting the talk from the tower, so for a while I was back in aviation photography nirvana listening to conversations and shooting airplanes. Too soon it was time to leave least I’d be shooting my own airplane departing without me.

The weather was nice with little puffy clouds and as we climbed and turned, i could see the airport from my window.

We then flew over Zurich and Lake Zurich and headed towards the mountains. Soon afterwards, the sun was too bright to shoot anything.

Coming near Toronto, i was puzzled to see a dusty red layer immediately below the clouds. As soon as we went into that layer on descent, i realized, it must have been smog as the visibility below clouds was terrible. But it did not matter - i was home. This time for longer than a few days.

Frankfurt - Toronto from the air

Life never turns out the way you planned it, but I guess making the best of what’s thrown at you is part of the fun. I had all kinds of plans to start my glider training and finish my night rating, but life and family matters interfered causing me to be away more than home for the past three months.

"Away" meant Europe where i have travelled twice recently. This meant flying big airplanes, including 777 (as a passenger of course). On a recent trip back from Frankfurt (to see my Dad who is in cancer treatment in Germany), an approach pass went right over downtown Toronto and of course I had my camera ready.

Leaving Frankfurt:


Somewhere over Germany in rainy weather:


Breaking through clouds on descent to TO:


Flying over Yonge Street with downtown in background and another plane headed for parallell Rwy:



Downsview Airport:

Aerobatics Squared. Part 2, The Noise Returns

At some during my glider aerobatics adventure, my instructor mentioned that he and another 2 people own the Decathlon. “That Decathlon”- he said, pointing towards the yellow and blue plane that I initially thought to be another Citabria. Having almost jumped out of my skin at the thought of seeing my dream plane face to face, I asked if I could go look at it later. Instead, he extended me an offer to fly in it.

Just then I felt like I was at the gates of flying heavens: I got a chance to fly a glider, do acro in a glider and i was about to fly my dream airplane and may be even do some acro in it. My stomach tried to insert a meek “but you just did 20 mins and may not have it in you” in the endless stream of happy thoughts, but I told it to stuff it, we were going to fly that airplane even if it was straight and level.

It was not of course. Moving the glider back to starting position, finding parachutes (the ones we used in the glider stayed with the glider), visiting facilities, fuelling the plane, pre-flighting the plane all took time and my stomach settled enough that I knew I could do at least one acro figure and I wanted it to be the one that I have not flown before, but desperately wanted to experience with a qualified instructor on board.

Inverted spin.

It was incredible and not scary at all. To me, the rotations looked different than an upright spin, but that was probably because I knew we were inverted starting it. Had I not known, I’d probably not be able to differentiate inverted from upright. I would have loved to try one more, but I was concerned that it would leave little stomach tolerance for anything else, so we did other things instead.

I managed to fly a decent enough loop to hit my own wake, several somewhat ugly hammerheads (i never got truly vertical and forgot about aileron inputs in a turn) and some rolls. I mentioned to the instructor that I could never fly Citabria inverted for long enough due to extremely high stick force required to keep the nose up and next thing I know I was flying inverted in the Decathlon.

The Biggest difference between the Decathlon and Citabria is symmetrical airfoil in a Decathlon, making inverted flight MUCH EASIER. Keeping the nose above horizon was so easy that I decided to try turning (I never got to turning in a Citabria as I just was not able to keep the nose up long enough). Turning was funny as the plane turned opposite direction from upright for a given aileron input, but the rudder inputs were still the same as in upright, so while my brain knew all that, making it work inverted took some doing. Eventually, I rolled upright. Few moments later my stomach interrupted the flying Nirvana and asked to be delivered to the ground, pronto. We complied.

I got a little confused in the circuit with the power settings (it had a variable pitch prop that I never flown before), and had to slip almost all the way to landing, but managed an almost nice 3-pointer.Almost, because I pulled the stick back too fast and ballooned a bit. Saved by instructor, as usual.

And that was the end of the flying for that day, but I stayed on the field for couple more hours taking few pictures of the other people flying the Decathlon (used above); some unusual gliders and a lot of pictures of the tow planes. I was a perfect way to unwind after my double aerobatics.

Tow plane (Pawnee) coming to land:

Pawnee landing:

Glider tow:

Unusual (powered) glider:

I am definitely coming back there. Soon.