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Soaring

RayDunzl

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So, I decided to sign up with the local (41 miles) club, Tampa Bay Soaring Society.


Blanik L-23 two seat trainer:


1612288087125.png



Waiting for tow:

Clockwise from top left:

Airspeed in knots, variometer (rise or fall in knots, max indication is 10), another variometer, rise fall in meters per second, compass, yellow tow line release handle, and altimeter, reading 90 feet above sea level.

1612287060379.png



My 75 year old Czechoslovakian instructor waiting with me and my hand in the Czechoslovakian Blanik.

1612287404341.png



Here's our ride:

A 1961 Cessna 175

The man with the cane is the "Wing Runner" - about to grab the tow rope with the hook of the cane he is not actually using to walk. I'm volunteered for that job for several upcoming Wednesdays (11am to 5pm), having taken and passed the on-line traing for that task.

1612290151751.png


It works. Cloud base (and top of lift) is generally around 5,000 feet here on a good day. I suspect we have plenty of good days.

Towed to 3,000ft, rise to 5,000 three times before my hour was up and it was time to land.

Traffic Pattern (entry at 1,000 feet) and runway marked. The runway looks small but actually is close to amile long at 4694 x 100 ft. / 1431 x 30 m.

Zephyrhills FL - https://www.airnav.com/airport/KZPH

1612287857831.png


Flying Hint: Don't forget where the airport is.



Seminole Lake Glider port (commercial operation, 80 miles) upcoming event.

No, I'm not ready to participate.

1612286942007.png



Of course I hope to graduate to something a little more sporty in a year or so:


Privately owned Lak-17, about 20 years old:

1612288236158.png


I watched him get towed and come back after a couple of hours, and later helped break it down and put it in his trailer.



He posted this "what I did Saturday" from his flight computer afterwards:


"Please follow the link below to a short video of a cross-country flight 4 TBSS members made yesterday. Bruce P and Steve C were flying a DG1001 from Seminole Lakes, Randy M was in his LS8 and I was in my Lak 17. We all met up just East of ZPH and took a 103 mile flight together. The video is of a flight-replay that I put together using SeeYou software that shows the flight track of all three gliders. For those of you who have not considered cross-country flying .. I hope this video gives you some insight into the excitement (and occasional fear) that comes along with a well-planned cross-country flight. If you have any questions or interest in cross-country, please let me know. I’d enjoy talking with you or maybe sharing a shorter flight. We are still planning on conducting a cross-country camp later this year (date TBD)."

We talked about the trainer a little.

"Oh yeah, it drives like a truck".
 
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BDWoody

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Awesome Ray!

Thank you for the update and pics.

Looks like a great time.
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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There's a new member at the club, and will likely be a regular (volunteer, but $20/hr) instructor, I flew with him last Friday.

He's a retiring Captain (forced retirement at 65) from United Airlines next month, flying international routes.

---

I think the skydivers next door may have experienced a fatality. Saw a chute drifting down a mile away to the northwest about 4pm, indicating a cutaway and use of reserve, which happens (at least twice now during my recent visits to the field), then heard distant sirens, expecting them to show up someplace near where the chute fluttered down, then emergency services showed up at their landing zone (1/4 mile away to the south), apparently the victim landed on-target. Too far away to see what happened. Nothing found in the news.



The SkyDive place continued operating, the jump plane in the foreground taxiing across the grass around the emergency vehicles occupying their taxiway, finally the police shut them down (and us too) around 4;30.

The show must go on, I suppose.


1613424973268.png





One of the Club member's legs are paralyzed, and he requires a little extra assistance getting in and out of the plane equipped with a hand-operated rudder:


1613424837056.png


The wheelchair is separate from the hoist frame.


Not everybody is elderly and infirm at the place.

1613425390937.png
 
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Tks

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Man that's so cool. Idk if I'd have the balls to get in one of those
 

Blumlein 88

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I'd think Florida is one of the better places for soaring. Or maybe not.

Ray, do they still use a yaw string on the canopy or has everyone gone to using instruments for sideslip now?
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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I'd think Florida is one of the better places for soaring. Or maybe not.

Ray, do they still use a yaw string on the canopy or has everyone gone to using instruments for sideslip now?

Out West may be better.

Mountains, for ridge soaring as the wind hits and rises up the slopes, wave soaring, for the upper atmosphere "wave" from the same wind, and thermals that rise to higher altitudes - drier air goes higher before it condenses into cloud, I think.

Florida only has thermal soaring, and high humidity, limiting the altitude to the bottom of the clouds, generally 3-5,000 feet, unless you are rated and equipped to be sucked into them.

My instructor likes to graze the bottom of them, it starts getting foggy outside, and the ground starts to disappear, and he says (with his Czech accent) "Dat's goood enough".

Airbus built a glider (Project Perlan) with which they are shooting for 90,000 feet/ 17 miles altitude on wave lift in Argentina, just becaus.

Yaw string is on every canopy here.

The club planes are VFR (visual flight rules) only, minimal flight instruments, and locally restricted to 6,000 feet because we don't have transponders or communication with Tampa International Air Traffic Control. I have yet to see a day where the 6,000' limit could be exceeded in clear air.

The little airport (Zephyrhills KZPH) is within the 30nautical mile radius of Controlled airspace, but somebody negotiated a "cutout" (blue vertical line) for some little airports around the eastern edge.

1613438057550.png


https://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KTPA/sectional
 
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Blumlein 88

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I'm a little surprised that they don't have transponders considering where you are, and that they negotiated that cut out of controlled airspace you show.


In any case, sounds like a lot of fun. I think finding thermals in Florida in the summer is pretty much a no-brainer.
 

Wes

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What stereo system is in it?

I thought this was going to be a Don Ellis thread from the title...
 
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RayDunzl

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I'm a little surprised that they don't have transponders considering where you are, and that they negotiated that cut out of controlled airspace you show.

Transponder, $2,000+ or so.

It may not work below 2,000 feet or so - when the dive plane flies it doesn't show up until it has reached that altitude and disappears there when landing. Line of sight for Tampa's Radar must not reach to the ground 30 miles away.

Daytime, the airliners pass by pretty high.

Looking at the radar now, 8:50pm, they're much lower in the area, probably already in cloud and using instruments to navigate blindly.

Plus, the SkyDive place operates up to 14,500' whenever they book a load and they throw stuff out unexpectedly, so, that's another "controlled traffic stay away" buffer for us.

Small planes that come around are usually using the other runway at the airport, and announce their intentions on the radio, 123.750mhz on your radio dial. The runways cross at the north end, so, there's that to watch out for.

I can't say I've noticed more than a couple just passing by that would interfere.



What stereo system is in it?

I take my portable.

Mono, AM, and bi-directional:

1613441199695.png
 

Vovgan

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The SkyDive place continued operating, the jump plane in the foreground taxiing across the grass around the emergency vehicles occupying their taxiway

the stark contrast that I experienced between skydiving in Moscow, Russia (where I’m from) and Perris, CA, USA is that in Russia instructors and stuff genuinely care about you and always keep their eye even on experienced skydivers. Everyone knows the jumping sequence before boarding the plane/heli, everyone’s briefed about wind direction, mandatory daily cut-off/reserve pull training on the rig before being admitted to the first flight, etc.
In contrast in the US we had to sign a 50-page liability waiver for drop zone, put our initials 5 or 6 times on each page after every clause, watch drop zone lawyer explaining to us that according to the papers that we’re about to sign nothing that can happen to us on drop zone can be held against drop zone, then we were videotaped (!) saying that we’re in our right mind and that we understood everything’s that we’ve signed... and then... and then nobody cared what we did. No instructions, no basic gear check for first comers before we boarded the plane, the jumping sequence was briefly discussed (and then loosely followed) just before jumping off the plane.
that contrast had left a lifetime impression in me
 
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RayDunzl

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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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Bought some software - Condor 2 - flight simulator optimized for gliders.




The physics are very realistic in it.

Also a joystick on and rudder pedals under the desk now.

Need some extensions to bring the mouse and keyboard over in front of the big screen, and immerse.

Oh, and it supports VR goggles, so might have to check that out too, along with Multi-player...



 
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Bugal1998

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Thanks for sharing your experiences, @RayDunzl ... 20 years ago a glider pilot friend took me to Zephyrhills for a flight. Such a great memory! I've contemplated getting my glider rating locally here in PA, but haven't done it yet.

Despite holding a variety of fixed wing commercial pilot and flight instructor ratings (was a chief instructor for an aviation college), I still don't really know how to fly... Everything I fly still needs an engine!

Gliding really makes you feel a connection to the air. Powered pilots experience the atmosphere... glider pilots partner with it.

Looking forward to following your aviation journey!
 
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RayDunzl

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20 years ago a glider pilot friend took me to Zephyrhills for a flight.

Maybe I'll be able to do that in twenty years, too.

Flying is easy until it isn't, finding thermals before you have to go home is unknown territory, landing isn't too hard (it's slow-motion, but you only get one shot at that), but the takeoff and maintaining a good position behind the tow plane at the end of a stretch 200 foot rope when both of you are bumping around and making turns is very frustrating.

Simulator track (Condor 2 Simulator makes a file that can be opened in SeeYou.cloud, SeeYou Navigator on your phone tracks a real flight with the same file type) from last evening with weather set to "no wind" and thermals set to "strong", cloudbase at 8,000 feet. Caught one just after tow, tall spiral on the right, until I got tired, and (literally) ripped the wings off on a near vertical dive toward the landing zone to see what would happen:

1613772356218.png


It informed me I had ripped my wings off.

The flight duration was an hour and a half.

When you successfully land (whereever, not just on the runway), it leaves you sitting in the cockpit. If you crash, it switches to a scene of the devastation.

The visuals as you fly are quite realistic, unlike the overview above. The detail at ground level is a little fuzzy, but just enough like real from a few hundred feet altitude. Looks just like what I see from the air.

Picked a nice sporty glider (listed at 52:1 glide ratio) for that instead of the "drives like a truck" trainer I'm stuck with at the field. Silly me wasted some of that by not retracting the wheel. A nice straight trimmed "hands off" glide would yield 1 knot sink rate

Entered cloud (VFR) a couple of times in the strong lift, the visuals are good, starts getting a little hazy then white screen. so you level out (no indication of "level"), and push the stick forward (assuming "down", and eventually exit the cloud at some wacko attitude and direction and confirm what a bad idea that would be to do on an otherwise nice Saturday.

Instructor took me into the fringe of cloud on my "Introductory" flight, just enough to make me nervous about it. He didn't say anything, I was about to. The simulator simulated that very well, and illustrated the consequences of going too far. Total disorientation.

I'll have to complain (but to whom?) that the "scenery" sets me up on the wrong runway at Zephyrhills for takeoff. at the southeast end of 5/23 instead of the south end of 1/19. On the other hand, the scenery for the 5/23 runway seems to be enhanced (maybe not fuzzy on the ground), I'll have to try landing there to be sure.

---

Decided to go ahead and get the VR goggles so I can "look around".

And probably save some money on instruction flights.

---

Things to work on:

Aerotow, because half the time the towplane gives up on me and releases. The rest of the time I'm "all over the place" too far left/right/up/down and over/under correcting and letting the tow line slack and even passing the tow plane. If you've ever water skied on a single ski, it's not far off, except you get to deal with a third dimension (as does the tow plane) and there's much less "drag".

I have a "habit" of crossing the controls when suddenly needing to make a "correction", especially on tow and landing. Think of driving a bus, with the big flat steering wheel - my feet like to follow my hands, instead of my feet moving opposite to my hands, as is normally necessary.

So, one of my pastimes while listening to a tune now has been to practice "left stick, left foot forward, right stick, right foot forward, mentally, with a little muscle tensing, but not much movement, just trying to ingrain the muscle memory.
 
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RayDunzl

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Flew Saturday with my Czech Instructor.

A totally cloudless and somewhat windy cool sky, but he was still able to find invisible lift and regain the 3,000 foot tow height twice in the hour.

He thought I did better on the tow this time, I think the simulator, the little bit I've played with it, helped. With it I can do the wrong thing and see what happens, as well as the right thing.


Real vs $60 Simulator



Mistake of the Day:

Eating a sandwich, some chips, and drinking a coke not long before the flight.

Got nauseous and called it quits before something really bad happened.

Instructor complimented me on making that call.

---

Saw the evidence of another cutaway (main chute malfunction and use of "reserve" chute) by one of the Skydivers, a chute waffling down on its own, and someone under a little smaller than usual all white canopy.

---


1613917956314.png
 
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RayDunzl

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Some more visitors came by the field, signed the waivers, and went up for an "orientation" guest ride.

Instructor and I walked to the clubhouse to have the lunch snack.

First visitor to go up walked in and said "I came to clean up, cut my leg getting out of the plane."

Instructor, still chewing: "The glider is OK isn't it?"

---

On the way to the clubhouse (such as it is) we walked past the parked/stored planes both tied down and in trailers.

Somebody without a license and maybe no experience and maybe not even a club member (yet) bought one and parked it under the trees, on an open trailer, with a saggy tarp over the top.

Instructor and the club president took a look. A mostly wooden single seat plane that obviously needs a thorough mechanical review.

There are retired Airframe and Powerplant mechanics as members that maintain the club planes.

Me: "What is it?"

"It's a BG-12"

"They aren't gonna want to sign off on this thing if they don't know its history"

"Yeah, that could be a problem"

Me: "Who is our Test Pilot?"

Them: (laughs)

President: "You buy it you fly it"

---

Pictures from a couple of weeks ago:

Snack and Story Telling area of the Clubhouse:

1613919675186.png


Office

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Work area and bathroom

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View from the hangar where the tow planes and golf carts nap. RV parking $6/night

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The other tow plane under reconstruction in the hangar

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Wings recovered, details being worked, paint comes soon.

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Clubhouse and runway behind

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Members, visitors, and staging a single seater for launch

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Grob 103 Astir two seat trainer about to be yanked into the air by the Cessna, the rope is about 200 feet. Europeans use 100 foot rope, just to make it harder, I guess.

1613920586173.png


We stage off the edge of the runway because we share it with the Skydivers, and they can get busy with four jump planes online. It is rare for another plane to use this runway, though a business jet did one day, starting at the other end and at about 50 feet altitude passing by us.

One of their Twin Otters taking off.

1613921861814.png
 
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RayDunzl

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Saturday's little adventure:

The flight track starts with the red and ends with the orange.

First segment of the barograph at the bottom is the tow to 3,000 feet, the rest of the flight was free. Altitude colors at right. Picture cut off because of restrictive size limits

Wide parts are spirals upwards.

Instructor flew most of those, on the final one where it changes from green through a little adjustment and finally to dark blue, he says "I got you now you bastard!" (with Czech accent, of course)

Cap'n Ahab of the Skies... and pulled right up into the cloud fringe.

1614479466901.png

1614479491811.png

1614479588447.png


The highest rise with a little searching around in more detail from a different angle. Don't try it if you get dizzy.

1614531883650.png



---

An hour is about enough for me at this stage. My butt is burning from the the seat (old removable cushion over metal "parts". My instructor is never ready to quit flying.

(After a "doing it all wrong" attempt at landing the thing. for the landing approach, the "brakes" control descent, the stick controls speed. Got that one backwards. My instructor likes to say "Ok, do this new thing now" without any "how to" beforehand. I'll admit it does make for a memorable wrongness.)

After landing:
"You want to fly a few patterns?" ( tow to 1200 feet and practice landings)
"No, I'm fried."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Ok." (looks around)
"Who's next?"

I'm gonna have to find a nice gel cushion or similar.

---

Airspace Violation:

Over the swamp, above 5,000 feet, a Bald Eagle (I think) took an irrational interest in us and was diving talons first and wings spread to within a very few feet of the canopy, then abort, and not hit us. Could have been something other than a bald eagle, but sure looked like one.

"Florida has one of the densest concentrations of nesting bald eagles in the lower 48 states", Ok, I'll buy it. I had one chase my RC sailplane while flying it near Big Bear in California long ago.

Very much like this, and big, coming at you at a 60+mph closing speed:

1614530482648.png



It's a bit surprising how many birds of various types are flying around way up there. Even little ones. I'd be afraid of the eagles.

---

It was mentioned to be an exceptional day, normally the cloud base is not at 6300 feet, the Cloud Base being a function of air temperature (delightfully cooler up there) and dew point temperature, and the "inversion layer" altitude has something to do with it too.

Cloud base is the limit we can rise, the cloud will be happy to suck you higher, but the planes do not have the instrumentation to fly blind (whiteout) above the hazy fringe at the bottom.

---

Somebody who knows what they are doing:

The club president towed sometime after noon. His plan: to fly from Zephyrhills to Ocala, turn south, Ocala to Myakka City, turn north, and Myakka City back to Zephyrhills, a 250 mile straight line round trip. His intention was to log a 300km flight for whatever benefit or rank that bestows upon him.


1614480402418.png



By 5pm, the skies had mostly cleared of clouds (and lift), and we began wondering if he might have "landed out" someplace.

By this time everything has been put away for the night, and the regulars were beer drinking and story telling in the screened room.


About 5:30, we heard his call on the radio announcing his entry into the landing pattern.

Wow.

He flies a 1995-ish Rolladen-Schneider LS8, now manufactured by DG Flugzeugbau GmbH

42 to 1 best glide ratio, that's a drop of 116 feet per minute, so if the air you are in is rising more than 1.3mph you aren't dropping. A decent thermal might rise at 600fpm, or almost 7mph. There are broad areas of rising and falling air in addition to the thermals that are busy making clouds.

Said he bought it two years ago for $42k.

I offered him $42.5k on the spot, but he declined. I guess he isn't profit-driven.

1614480949485.png


Before he launched, I noted he wears an emergency parachute.

"Oh. You jump?"
"Nope."
"Ever jumped?"
"Nope."

That will be me, too, I suspect, someday, if I keep on this path.

1614482031926.png


Zoom.
 
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Blumlein 88

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Hey Ray, @RayDunzl

A book I found superb when getting a pilot license or actually before getting one is "Stick and Rudder:An explanation of the art of Flying"
by Wolfgang Langewiesche. It is oriented toward powered planes. However I'd say 75% of the info is equally useful for gliders. It basically helps you think about how a wing flies and what your controls do to the wing you are controlling. It will clear the fog about flying anything with wings tremendously. Though written in 1944 you'll find more than a few experienced instructors who think students shouldn't be allowed around the controls until they have read this book. And that subsequent training experience after reading and understanding it is 10 times better. It takes a little thinking thru each of the concepts, yet each one is pretty simple.

It would eliminate most of these:
(After a "doing it all wrong" attempt at landing the thing. for the landing approach, the "brakes" control descent, the stick controls speed. Got that one backwards. My instructor likes to say "Ok, do this new thing now" without any "how to" beforehand. I'll admit it does make for a memorable wrongness.)


https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Rudder...words=The+art+of+flying&qid=1614536845&sr=8-3

Here is one not-atypical review of it:

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2016
Verified Purchase
If you fly or know someone who does -- buy this book! You may literally save their lives some day. It's a steal for a hard cover volume and it's one of the best texts on stick & rudder flying I've ever read. I'm an Air Force Academy grad with a degree in Astronautical Engineering. I know all the equations of flight and have tested wings in a lab. I was also a Jet Instructor Pilot for several years and also have a small out of Cessna 172 time (I just didn't enjoy props). Been out of flying for 30 years.


I then took a ride in a glider and fell in love with soaring! You hardly use the rudder in normal jet flying so I had a lot to "re-learn" about how important it is in light aircraft. One of my glider instructor's recommended this book. I was skeptical, but quickly fell in love with it. It was written many years ago and the old wording and line drawings just added to my interest. You won't find any equations or graphs -- but sound words from a pilot who knows how to fly.
 
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