Lesson Learned

After the visit to the bomb-out LZ I was feeling a bit of wear on my confidence. Pedro, Heikki, and I made our way to launch nevertheless. The wind was northwest again, and fairly strong. The forecast was for “moderate to fresh” east later on. We could see clouds forming over the range to the east fairly early, but it was completely blue to the west. Slowly as the day developed the clouds advanced into the valley behind us, but still nothing in front. Because of the wind direction and the lack of clouds in front no one was anxious to launch. Today could easily see more visits to the bomb-out.

I was just about finished setting up when Radek and Susanna showed up. Radek was the only hang glider pilot to not land in the bomb-out yesterday; he flew straight out from the hill and found a weak climb right above us that he took all the way to cloudbase. From there he flew 200km to the southeast – almost to the Hunter Valley. I chatted with him a bit about the flight, and then he invited me to fly with him today. He was planning on trying to fly 300km to Narromine. Susanna would drive for both of us. I was flattered at the invitation, but not feeling all that self-assured after yesterday’s flight. I politely declined due to my lack of confidence, but he insisted that if I didn’t make it the whole way the retrieve was still available. I compromised by setting my radio to their frequency so we could connect once in the air.

I was the first hang glider to launch again today. Conditions looked a lot like yesterday, though the wind was perhaps a bit more west. I was determined not to end up in the bomb-out. I waited longer than I normally would have for a good cycle, then launched and turned right. I was reasonably sure there was a thermal feeding up the spine to the north. Sure enough, it was right where I expected it to be. This time I stayed in it all the way to cloudbase, drifting far back into the valley. Pedro launched shortly after me, and then Heikki followed him a bit later. I started to make my way cross wind to the north. Pedro climbed nicely, and then made a turn to the south. His plan was to just fly locally. Heikki wanted to go XC as it was his last day before heading home, but he was still struggling low. Radek had not launched yet. It was still blue in the direction of Narrowmine, and the wind was quite strong from the west, rather than the predicted east. I didn’t think we would be flying 300km – certainly not in that direction. Though Heikki didn’t have a radio I was pretty sure he would fly north once he got high, and Pedro had offered to come get us if we landed out. The valley had filled nicely with clouds so I decided to try for Bingara and back. It was the same flight I had made just before New Years, but it looked like the best option for the day.

The climbs were reliable but turbulent. I anticipated each thermal with a fair amount of trepidation, and looked forward to the smooth glides in between. In no time at all my arms ached from hanging onto the bar in the choppy lift. I was about half way to Barraba when I decided to see what Radek was up to. I called Susanna on the radio and she reported that Radek had just launched and would also be flying to Bingara and back. She would start on course in case we needed retrieved. Great! It’s always nice to know that the retrieve is taken care of. Now I could focus on the flight. Some of the clouds were getting big, and it looked like there might be rain in the distance. I had just passed under a monster at Barraba when Susanna called on the radio. Radek wanted to know what I thought of the weather. I reported that there were some towering clouds but I wasn’t too worried – yet. I could see one starting to build on course to the north that could stop the flight. By the time I got to the cloud it had grown considerably. Either the shadow from it would have shut off the lift below or, if it had started to auto-convect, the lift from the growing thunderhead could suck me up like a vacuum cleaner. I decided to give myself 1500 feet of margin below the cloud before venturing under it. Sure enough it was sucking, but with a straight fast glide I cleared the far edge before being drawn in, with my vario singing “up” the whole way. I still couldn’t tell if it was raining at Bingara, but there was nothing else threatening looking for a ways to the north so I continued on. By the time I got within sight of Bingara there was a large cloud shadowing the town, but no sign of rain or other overdevelopment. I weighed my options and decided to dive in for the turnpoint and then head for the sunny hills east of town where I had gotten a good climb out on my last flight here. This time the big smooth climb wasn’t waiting for me. There was just broken lift that was drifting quickly to the east. My choices were to follow the lift and possibly end up behind the main range out of easy retrieve, or to work my way along the ridge and hope for something better. It seemed the polite thing was to make things easy for the driver and work my way along the ridge. After dribbling along in this fashion for a while I finally decided it was time to face reality and land. I called in my position just before landing, and then had a nice landing in a big field where I was greeted by a very friendly dog. Just as I was zipping up my glider bag I saw Susanna “zip” past. I called her on the radio and she turned around – the perfect retrieve. Radek was still 16km from Bingara, so we sat and visited for a while to make sure he made the turnpoint. The sky had changed considerably in the last 20 minutes. All of the big clouds had disappeared, and it looked increasingly blue to the south. As Radek made the turnpoint high we headed south to wait for him at Barraba. It looked very blue further south; very reminiscent of my flight in December. Also similar to that flight, Radek found that he was facing an increasing headwind as he made his way south. Fortunately the clouds seemed to cycle back on and he was able to make it back to Godfrey’s, landing after 7pm.

I had given Susanna $50 for the retrieve, but she and Radek had had a discussion on the radio; they concluded that this was too much and that we would use the money to all go to dinner at the Royal Hotel. We made a plan to meet for dinner and after a much needed shower I walked to the Royal where I visited with Pedro and Heikki about their flights until Radek and Susanna arrived. We had a very pleasant meal and I heard some great stories of Radek’s flying adventures, including learning to fly in the Czech Republic with Tomas Suchanek. All in all it was a great day spent with my new friends. My only regret is that they will be leaving in two days, but I’m sure we will be crossing paths again some day.