Looking out the window through drizzle and fog so thick I could not see the trees in my front yard, I thought that Saturday’s weather tracked the forecast very accurately – no visibility and ceilings touching the ground, just as the forecast promised. With Saturday being a flying write-off, I got on the internet and pulled the aviation forecasts for Sunday.
Meteorology was one of my favorite subjects in the pilot ground school. I like the challenge of reading the charts, interpreting them and then comparing my conclusions to the public weather forecasts. From the charts and area forecasts, it looked as if the weather was supposed to improve in the afternoon on Sunday to the point where it would be flyable. I then looked at public forecast and it looked bad with clouds and 40% chance of rain.
Not sure what to expect, I decided to check the club’s Yahoo group to see if anyone posted anything about Sunday and started laughing when I discovered the message titled “Sunday Weather - do not believe the public forecast” from our president. He then explained pretty much what I figured out from aviation weather websites, but he also added that there might be good soaring conditions. Having finished laughing at the timing of all that, I started to pack my bag for Sunday.
I was supposed to be on duty, but figured that if it was quiet and I would try to do one or two short circuits in the Junior to practice better landings as my last one prior to that date could only be described as “arrival”.
More than a few members must have read the “do not believe the public forecast” message as it was not quiet at all, but the Field Manager allowed me do short circuits anyways as there were other people who could help out. I managed three short tows and my landings were starting to improve again. I then put my name on a list again thinking of doing a soaring flight and finished the duty just as the field got very busy as conditions improved from “just flyable” to “good soaring”.
While I was waiting for my turn, another club member flew his first solo and yet another member flew his first Junior flight later that day.
And then it was my turn to go up. I initially made a ticket for 3,000 ft, but the instructor releasing me told me to change it to 2,000 ft as he was confident I was going to find lift right away. He was right, the tow pilot dropped me right in the lift and I climbed to 3,400 ft (from 2,850 ft) in no time.
I then spent an hour flying from cloud to cloud, looking at their forms, the shapes of the tops and bottoms, wind direction and sun position and tried to predict where the lift would be relative to all that. Most of the time though I still found lift by flying through it, not by looking at the clouds, so I have a lot yet to learn. The best thermal of the day was over 6 kts on my variometer and I stumbled into it by chance, but once I got it centered, it felt like riding an express elevator – I was laughing all the way up.
As I was circling near the field, I saw the glider heading to cross country do a few circles above the field and take off somewhere distant with a good speed. I felt envious as I wondered what it felt like to go away from the field relying just on your skill and a bit of weather luck.
I then looked at my watch and could not believe my eyes as it said I was up for an hour. It did not seem that long at all and I could have easily stayed up more. Setting up the circuit and preparing for landing, I kept thinking of how fast time must fly when one is flying cross country. I think I’d like to do that someday.
