Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Two Firsts and a Solo.



The giant blobs of rain made a lot of noise colliding with my windshield. The wipers were working in overtime, but I could barely see in front of me. I stole a brief glance at the watch – I was in this wet mess for over and hour and there seemed to be no end of it. I was beginning to question the forecasts I read before leaving home and my own eyesight that made me believe the wet frontal passage should end before reaching the club, when suddenly the rain stopped, the darkness lifted and me and my car popped out in the clear, few miles west of the club.

As I pulled to the club’s parking lot, I was relieved that it was no longer raining, but was starting to question how many other people would drive through that mess and not turn back. As I got to hangar, I saw few people and more showed up soon thereafter. There were only 3 students, but lots of instructors and tow pilots, so each student got to do a daily inspection of a glider and pretty much had a pick of what to fly, with whom and how much.

Appraising the situation, I realized that I might actually get to a point where I’d be approved to fly a Junior. Juniors were club’s single seaters available to post solo students who had 5 solo flights and a check out flight or two in two seat Puchacz. As of that morning, I had 4 solos and 7 of my first dual flights were in the Puchacz, so I figured I’d make my fifth solo in the Blanik and see what happens. Here are one of club's Juniors and Puchacz:

I was the first one to take off and had an uneventful flight. Upon returning the glider to the start, I chatted with an instructor who mentioned that there would be good soaring conditions later and offered to show me how it’s done. I asked if we could do that in the Puchacz, so that he could sign me off for a Junior as well and the answer was ‘yes’. Things were falling into place, but I had to wait for a while for better conditions to develop, which was no problem as there were other interesting things going on that I wanted to be part of.

A fellow club member was going for her first solo. Watching the preparations, I finally got a prospective of how things looked from outside the cockpit when there is a 1st solo in progress. Everything was triple checked, back seat all tied up, tow pilot briefed, wing runner is extra careful to release the wing straight and level, instructor who signed off on a solo was standing by the radio just in case – I think all of us got to re-live the experience following her progress in the sky. She did a good circuit and landing and was promptly drenched with water upon returning to the start line.



Soon after the solo, my instructor deemed conditions soar-able. Figuring it would be a good time to finally take some glider aerial shots, I grabbed my little camera. I flew the tow and then my instructor took control to do some initial soaring to get us higher. He found the thermals everywhere and made soaring look easy. He periodically transferred control back to me and then took it back when I flew us out of the thermal ;-).

I read about soaring techniques prior to that flight, but came to conclusion that soaring was one of those experiences can only be learned by doing it. I learned a lot on that flight. At one point, we were sharing the thermal with another glider, weaving an intricate dance in the skies and I realized I was enjoying it as much as aerobatics. Circling under the clouds, looking at the land, buildings and roads passing under our nose, I felt free, alive and wishing for the experience to never end. Alas, we soon reached 1 hour and had to come in and land. It was my first ever hour afloat without and engine.

At the end of that flight, the instructor announced that I was ready for a Junior. He then had to leave, so by the time I got a Junior, read the manual and was generally ready, none of my original instructors were left on the field. Thermals on the other hand were getting stronger and stronger. I got a detailed briefing from another instructor very familiar with that glider and was soon rolling behind the tow plane. My takeoff was uneventful as was the tow to 3,000 and soon I released and was on my own.

I was supposed to test a number of flight conditions high above so that I knew how the glider responded. While playing with spoilers and doing slow flight, slips and stalls, I kept flying into strong thermals that seemed to be everywhere. I was not supposed to be soaring on my first flight, but I did not even have to try – most of the time I was flying as minimum sink and there were times I was flying up going straight (I was right under the cloud street). I then tried some turns right as variometer (that measures the sink or lift) went crazy and all of a sudden I gained a few hundred ft in just a few circles. It was incredible and I laughed with joy – this was the first time I managed to go up on my own.

Time flew and I had to come back to field as I was not supposed to stay up long on the first flight. With really effective spoilers at my disposal, landing was easy and controllable. Flight line then asked if I wanted to go up again, but the excitement of the day started to catch up with me and I realized I was tired, so I decided to call it a day and put the glider in a hangar.

So there I was, a first soaring hour, witness to a first solo and a first flight on type. Good thing I did not turn back in the rain…