Soaring

[MRC01]

Gliders do a 1-point landing, on the main wheel. The tail wheel doesn't swivel (with exceptions). Keep the tail in the air and use rudder for directional control. Keep flying on the ground, tail up, wings level, until you finally can't. ...

That sounds similar to a wheel landing in a taildragger, when you land mains-only first, then gently let the tail down on the roll. In that situation you land just a tad faster than you would for a 3-point landing (higher airspeed = less angle of attack, flatter). As the mains touch you gently/firmly apply forward pressure on the stick to keep the main wheels the ground, then gradually release that pressure as you let the tail down. As you slow down the center of mass is behind the wheels, so the airplane is inherently unstable with the rear trying to swap ends with the front. So it takes lively feet dancing on the rudder pedals to anticipate that and keep it going straight.

In a taildragger, whether to do a 3-point or wheel landing depends on the aircraft, the winds, and your mood. When I earned my tailwheel endorsement the instructor would have us doing power off 180s, then on short final he'd say whether to do a 3-point or wheel landing. That was in a 1948 Cessna 170.

 

[RayDunzl]

Haven't had an update for a while.

The old-timers at the club say the weather has not been typical for the last few weeks, rain in the dry season, lots of wind day after day, etc.

Nevertheless, I've been up seven more times since the last post.

The latest, Sunday, light wind, so the thermals don't get blown apart, still staying near the airport, but practicing longer glides before getting a refill. Flying a twenty five mile triangle, Walmart, to Chicken Coops, to the Phosphate Mine lakes, and back to Walmart.

Get low and get near the airport, but then get a "save" and do an airport loop. Looks like my airspeed indicator is accurate at low speed but pessimistic (reads low) when going faster. Will get the mechanic to look at that. Don't want to exceed the airframe's rating. For now, comparing indicated airspeed with the GPS "ground speed" is a good enough estimate. 100mph indicated looks to be 120mph across the ground. There would be some error for wind to take into account, but still, there's a considerable inaccuracy.

Most flying is 50~70mph, so not a big problem.

Best thermal Sunday gave an average of 425 feet per minute rise for about five minutes. You can feel that in the seat of your pants.

Flight path, duration 3 hours and 30 minutes. Top left to bottom is 10 miles.

At the left middle, I have to squeeze between Tampa Class B airspace - limits me to 3,000 feet, and the Skydivers wherever they are over and near the airport.

I've made forty three flights (!) in my glider now. Doesn't seem like it has been that many, but that's what the logbook says.

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Weather for this weekend looks like it will be very good. Showing 5pm Friday. Can't see Saturday or Sunday yet on this "soaring forecast".

Light wind, unbroken thermals, some cloud to mark them.

Maybe I'll get brave and venture out a little further.

Another new member, who got his license at 16 y/o a few weeks ago, whose dad is a pilot for Spirit airlines, has already completed his next "badge", for venturing out 50km/31 miles. You have to take an approved flight recorder with you (which the phone is not) to verify your claim.

I asked him how it felt to be "way out out there", he sad "Scary!".

I'm not 16 and not indestructible any more, No problem, me being just a "recreational" pilot and not headed towards an Air Transport Career.

He took the Rolladen-Schneider LS4, a club plane, which has a bit higher performance than mine, and which I haven't flown yet.

He took a lot of thermals to get out there, but nearly had an uninterrupted glide (almost no squiggles in the line) on the return.

 

[Doodski]

I have to squeeze between Tampa Class B airspace - limits me to 3,000 feet, and the Skydivers wherever they are over and near the airport.

Not sure who has more guts the divers or the pilots? Always great to read about your gliding stuff.

I've made forty three flights (!) in my glider now. Doesn't seem like it has been that many, but that's what the logbook says.

If it says so then I imagine peeps here have read everyone too.

Another new member, who got his license at 16 y/o a few weeks ago, whose dad is a pilot for Spirit airlines, has already completed his next "badge", for venturing out 50km/31 miles. You have to take an approved flight recorder with you (which the phone is not) to verify your claim.

I asked him how it felt to be "way out out there", he sad "Scary!".

I'm not 16 and not indestructible any more, No problem, me being just a "recreational" pilot and not headed towards an Air Transport Career.

He took the Rolladen-Schneider LS4, a club plane, which has a bit higher performance than mine, and which I haven't flown yet.

Does age make a difference that much for gliding? I would compare it to motorcycling if on the ground and some seniors ride pretty good. With the methodical strategy required for gliding I think it could go either way. Does the aircraft make that much of a difference that a person can stay out 2 or 3 times more?

 

[RayDunzl]

Does the aircraft make that much of a difference that a person can stay out 2 or 3 times more?

Glide ratio is a factor.

The fancy ones can go twice or more farther from some height in calm air.

When travelling, you "porpoise" - pull up and slow down when crossing rising air, speed up and plow through areas of sinking air, circle in thermals when you need to and have found one.

For the planes at the field (not all club owned), the range is about 23:1 to 50:1, so, all things being equal, one could glide 23 miles from a mile high and the other 50 miles, and likely at greater airspeed, so you get there faster as well.

The actual glide ratio achieved at any moment depends on whether you have a headwind or tailwind and whether you are in rising, sinking, or calm air.

As a crude example, if your best glide is 36:1 at 60mph but you have a 20mph headwind, you are now only achieving 24:1 over the ground distance.

---

My plane has had some good days, with a previous owner.

Scored 280km/173 miles

Takes a good day and the balls to just do it, I suppose. Along with the piloting experience to have some confidence it will work out.

My phone calculates the glide ratio as you fly. If you circle, it gives the feet per minute rise, if not circling it gives the glide ratio.

I've seen it report infinite (rising over a period of time, but not circling) to as low as maybe 10:1. Typically in the range of 25:1 to 40:1

 

[Doodski]

When travelling, you "porpoise" - pull up and slow down when crossing rising air, speed up and plow through areas of sinking air.

That's trippy. A constant up'n down feeling. I'm pretty sensitive to being weightless and I imagine that a person who practices becomes more sensitive.

 

[RayDunzl]

I'm pretty sensitive to being weightless and I imagine that a person who practices becomes more sensitive.

It's not that extreme, more like driving a road that has some hills, get an assist going uphill, and spend that on the downhill to get to the next uphill sooner.

To get the weightless feel is more extreme, and you only get a couple of seconds (if that) of it at the lower speeds a glider flies. Consider the Vomit Comet gives only 25 seconds or so at several hundred knots.

 

[RayDunzl]

Sunday was a nice enough day, low winds, strong lifts.

Didn't have to spend too much time scratching to maintain altitude, instead, rise and glide.

I extended the gliding range a bit to the north and east.

Still got a bit low coming from the north, enough to begin to prepare to worry a bit, and not head directly out to the east.

The middle part of the flight was good. Lots of productive clouds along the flight path, glide along high, take lift back to cloud base, and repeat, staying four to five thousand feet.

The landing was a bit interesting, as the Skydive plane announced they were about to take off to the north just as I was lining up to land heading south. I announced my position again and eventually they stopped. I could have landed on the grass to either side of the runway, or otherwise avoided them in the worst case.

Going again today, should be similar (we'll see if will be a Good Friday), though there is a chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon, and this morning is a little overcast. Hopefully that will burn off by noon or so, and not overdevelop into too big clouds shading the ground.


This morning's animated satellite view looks good. Clouds that cover the Tampa area are moving east.

Oh well, see you later.

 

[RayDunzl]

Flew Friday and Saturday.

Had a Good Friday. No flying today (Sunday) because folks devote it to somebody else who had risen.


Both days were light winds, and a Sea Breeze Convergence Zone in the late afternoon.

Cooler air flows inland from the Gulf, meets, and burrows under the warmer inland air, helping it to rise.

Usually you don't get to fly above ir even beside a cloud.

The fist hint of Sea Breeze I've noticed is when the cloud bottoms get a little weird from their normally flat or slightly upward rounding:

If you see that, go there, and check it out.



Friday's Sea Breeze coalesced east of the airport, giving a good chance to fly around clouds below you, then come back into the Zone and catch so lift to get back up.

Saturday's Sea Breeze was a little more interesting.


I was low over downtown, 90 minutes into the flight, a mile or two from the airport, and about to hang it up and land, when I had a nice "save", catching a thermal at 1200 feet (that's kinda low, you better have a landing plan, not quite dangerous, but that height can go away quickly), that took me back up to 5300 feet, and into the interesting part of this flight.

All the way up, turning left at about 45 degree bank, for 20 minutes.

Looks like this outside at the end of the rise. You "could" fly right on up into the cloud above, but that is a major "not a good idea", and could be your last. Regulations say remain 500 feet below the cloud. It's not a particularly distinct line where the cloud starts, and distances are a bit deceptive in the air, having nothing with which to scale. Use your own judgment.

Be sure to take your barf bag if you're a passenger and not used to it. I tend not to eat before flying even though I'm driving.

Now the more interesting part of the flight.

I'm under a line of clouds running north/south being "pushed up" by cooler air coming in from the Gulf, conveniently marked by clouds to the west at a slightly lower level.

Flying around in the shade is nice on a hot day.

There's nothing new to flying in rising air, but usually it is a small area of rising air, and you have to circle to stay in it, as shown by the circling above.

But now, in the convergence zone, I'm just cruising along, here at 4,900 feet altitude, an hour and fifty eight minutes into the flight, at 63mph ground speed, proceeding in a south south east direction, over beautiful meth-ridden downtown Zephyrhills, going up at 2 knots per the electronic vario, confirmed with 210 feet per minute per GPS and the "analog" vario.

60F/15.5C air temperature, it was 90F/32.2C on the ground.

So, the flight "barograph":

Blue is not circling (defined as a 270 degree turn to start), Red is circling to the right, Green is circling to the left.

The last hour - no circling, just cruise along and maintain in the Sea Breeze, then come on down since it was time -2 hours and 48 minutes flight.

Initial Blue is rising behind the tow plane... Then catch thermals and glide between... Then the low point, and the thermal save back to high altitude, and then...

60 minutes of no circling to gain altitude, the last green is a circle to avoid and watch the two plane dragging somebody else up for an end of the day ride.

The average altitude loss over the longest Blue - while riding the Sea Breeze - was 32 feet per minute, with a calculated Glide Ratio of 167.5:1. During that time there were some no circling gains, a nice ride.

Just cruise along looking at the clouds and thinking what a nice day.

---


Earlier, all the club's Schweizers, along with mine, were staged on the side waiting for the atmosphere to get moving... You can see how few clouds had formed, it's about noon.

They've finished the heavy construction on the extension of "our" runway. IT isn't open yet, as there is work to finished on the lighting, and changes to the glide slope indicators, and the Instrument Landing electronics.

Most traffic uses the runway to the left, Gliders and Skydivers use the extended runway. The extension is so heavier business jets can come in to Zephyrhills, which, I suspect, won't be that much of.

I think it is more a "pet project" ($7m) for some local politician so once a year his buddies can fly in, and if they land to the south, take that loooong taxi past the sewage plant back to the facilities and fuel on the left.

I've only seen a jet use "our" runway one time in my year there. And maybe ten other small planes (besides us and the skydivers) not related to us or the skydivers.

Whenever somebody comes along and announces their intention to use "our" runway, the skydive plane advises them that it isn't a really good idea due to jumpers and gliders using it. The offending pilot usually goes, "Oh, ok, uh huh, I guess I'll land on five.)

Oh well, Gliders and Parachutes have the right of way, so, tough.

 

[RayDunzl]

I figured out how to add targets/waypoints to the flight software, so from now on I'll be trying to make little goals an my baby steps towards longer cross country flights.

The tips of the pie shapes are the targeted turn-points and destination (back to the airport).

So, Saturday, I made all the stops on my route, then came the save, and rise up into the Sea Breeze convergence, and lots of running around near and south the Walmart.

I'll expand the route before the next flight. Take in some new scenery.

Flying over the same areas isn't so bad, because you're mostly watching the sky, which is always different.

 

[RayDunzl]

I put some yarn on the wings, expecting to see the break between laminar and turbulent airflow.

So far, all laminar.

The yarn was perfectly still under all conditions I flew with it.

The break (laminar flow separation) must be further back on the wing than I can see from the cockpit.

A real surprise was that the end of the yarn was not wiggling back and forth, as the end of the yarn on the canopy does. Just dead smooth stretched out in the airstream.

Yaw-string on the canopy, the end is always whipping around:

 

[Doodski]

@RayDunzl those pics put a whole different light upon seeing what you are doing. They look great! So close to the clouds...

 

[RayDunzl]

@RayDunzl those pics put a whole different light upon seeing what you are doing. They look great! So close to the clouds...

1995 or so in The Woodlands...

Nice hat, I wonder what happened to it?

The shirt and shorts look real familiar...

#2 of three gliders I built.

Launched via 50 feet of latex tubing stretched x5 to 250 feet, with 300 feet of string extending that, so you could get the plane up 250 feet or more, plenty high to catch a thermal on a good day in the flatlands, otherwise, maybe a five minute sled ride back down to do it again, if not launched off the top of a hill for slope soaring.

Flew them in thermals in various places, and on the California Coast, lots of slope soaring in the mountains of various states, as I traveled around doing telephone and data stuff.

Examples:

#1 "Gentle Lady" trainer - 2m wing, rudder and elevator control only

#2 Top Flite Metric - 2m wing, higher performance, rudder, elevator, and spoilers

#3 Top Flite Antares - high performance, 100" flat wing, rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps, and spoilers.

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"The previous record for Dynamic Soaring was 545 miles per hour – which was when my jaw dropped. The new record, set January 19 at Parker Mountain in California, pushed that to 548 mph. The camera is back a little far, so you have to watch carefully for that ellipse because this aircraft is looping unbelievably quickly"

 

[DonH56]

Never would have thought a hobbyist RC anything would go that fast... Wonder how many G's it was pulling in the turns?

Quasi-related: There is a glider event at Denver Wings Museum this Saturday, see https://explorationofflight.org/event/glider-showcase-22/ Wish I could go but we've another commitment we can't break.

 

[RayDunzl]

Wonder how many G's it was pulling in the turns?

It would have ripped the wings off my RC planes...

g-Acceleration Calculator - Curve, Circiut

Calculation of the g-force at a constant speed in a curve. Enter two values at speed, circle radius and acceleration. The third value will be calculated.

rechneronline.de

Guestimate:

Probably higher, smaller radius, hard to tell from the video.

Maybe I should guess a circumference from the speed and go from there.

 

[RayDunzl]

I've got about 100 hours and 49 flights in my glider now, so, average 2 hours per flight. There were some short ones when the weather was less appealing.

And a short one Friday. Tow to 3,000 feet, and just couldn't connect, for a 26 minute "sled ride". Everybody else was staying up.

Observers: Nice landing! Are you going to go again?

Beetlejuice: Whew! Thank you, thank you! That is why I won't do two shows a night any more, babe, I won't, I won't do em.

I don't like to press my luck on any one day, and it's $45 a pop now to that altitude, including a $5 towplane fuel cost adjustment.

Yesterday was better.

3 hours and 30 minutes.

Expected the Sea Breeze convergence over the airport area, but it stalled out far west of town.

Missed one target on my practice loop. It gets a little scary when you're far from the airport, so, didn't try for it on the turn back to the south at Dade City.

After the loop, just fly around near the airport watching other traffic and killing time.

On the barograph above, I think the "photo landing" is where I crossed my finish line but kept flying.

I'll have to extend the loop a bit.

 

[Doodski]

It would have ripped the wings off my RC planes...

g-Acceleration Calculator - Curve, Circiut

Calculation of the g-force at a constant speed in a curve. Enter two values at speed, circle radius and acceleration. The third value will be calculated.

rechneronline.de

Guestimate:

View attachment 204031

Probably higher, smaller radius, hard to tell from the video.

Maybe I should guess a circumference from the speed and go from there.

Wowowow @ 34g I would weigh in @~10,200 lbs. A fair load for that glider.

 

[Doodski]

I've got about 100 hours and 49 flights in my glider now, so, average 2 hours per flight. There were some short ones when the weather was less appealing.

And a short one Friday. Tow to 3,000 feet, and just couldn't connect, for a 26 minute "sled ride". Everybody else was staying up.

Observers: Nice landing! Are you going to go again?

Beetlejuice: Whew! Thank you, thank you! That is why I won't do two shows a night any more, babe, I won't, I won't do em.

I don't like to press my luck on any one day, and it's $45 a pop now to that altitude, including a $5 towplane fuel cost adjustment.

View attachment 204036

Yesterday was better.

3 hours and 30 minutes.

Expected the Sea Breeze convergence over the airport area, but it stalled out far west of town.

Missed one target on my practice loop. It gets a little scary when you're far from the airport, so, didn't try for it on the turn back to the south at Dade City.

After the loop, just fly around near the airport watching other traffic and killing time.

View attachment 204037

On the barograph above, I think the "photo landing" is where I crossed my finish line but kept flying.

I'll have to extend the loop a bit.

Perhaps a tow setup like a ski hill where a season pass is purchased and then the skier rides unlimited would be a bonus.

 

[RayDunzl]

Perhaps a tow setup like a ski hill where a season pass is purchased and then the skier rides unlimited would be a bonus.

Looking at the unrestricted price for Heavenly Valley, $841, maybe.

Multiply by 4 (?) for all year.

And to be fair, the lifts would only have one chair each with a two person load capacity...

 

[RayDunzl]

There's a site that accumulates flight logs from people all over the world.

Here's 2022 flights logged with Zephyrhills as a takeoff location.

Gets pretty dense around the airport.

There's only a couple of people that venture out far.

Nobody flies toward Tampa. You need to have the proper transponder, and permission from Air Traffic Control, to go that direction, unless you are below 3,000 feet, which is kinda low for distant travel.

 

[RayDunzl]

Nothing new here except I've been flying regularly.

The weather was good yesterday, very light wind, strong thermals.

I've (cautiously) extended my range a little bit, most distant point was 14 miles from the airport.

It's interesting how close (as opposed to distant) points on the ground appear when higher altitudes are reached. Same distance when lower looks impossibly far away, still,

Yesterdays flight went over 6,000 feet, and 14 miles away doesn't look bad at all. 3 hours and 54 minutes flight time.

I made a chart, giving the altitude, "glide slope", and the distance that could be covered back to the airport at a safety altitude of 1500 feet on arrival near the runway.

6000 feet and a conservative 20:1 glide slope gives 17 miles leaving you at 1500 feet at the end.



The "final glide" yesterday, when I elected to quit, started at 5800 feet and due to particularly good conditions yielded a drop of only 97 feet per minute for an effective glide slope of 54:1. I got back near the airport and just kept trucking along and running into broad areas of lift, no circling required.

All the track in the red circle was the "final glide", except for takeoff and one tangle circling in a thermal before heading north.

The big loop part includes predetermined turnpoints, but I had to do some go off course and backtrack to hit them on the east side, as there just didn't seem to be any visible lift in their direction at the time. Clouds are created by lift, Bllue Sky (no clouds) may or may not provide lift, as you don't have clues where to find it. Take a detour to some clouds in another direction (toward the airport for caution) then try to hit the tunpoints.

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A little excitement occurred Saturday.

On tow, just after takeoff, and still low near the end of the runway, I suddenly found the towplane to be (relatively) very high in front, and me very low behind, and pulling back on the stick didn't bring me up, just provoked a mushy wallowing feeling rather than crisp control response. Both of us had a fairly high angle of attack, he's trying to climb, and I felt I was near stall.

The towplane should pull the glider along behind it, not actually pull it up, if you can envision that. a few hundred pounds of deadweight hanging off his tail below and behind could cause towplane big trouble. The relative positions of the two planes can vary quite a bit in turbulence, which is common on a crosswind day near the ground.

To not make things worse, I released early at -- I don't know - 200 feet ? 300? Less? -- feet altitude. Didn't look at the instruments, just looked out the window, the height looked like enough to turn, pulled the handle to release the tow rope, and pushed the nose down to get my airspeed up. I would have pulled the handle anyway if too low to turn, but my landing then should then be straight ahead... somewhere...

The turn back to the runway was uneventful (we have a lot of open space, no trees or other obstacles) though low. No panic, no adrenaline rush, just fly the plane, so that was good. During training a few low releases are part of the course, but this was a little lower... A Neil Armstrong* moment.

Had we been higher, a recovery may have been possible, but down low, my "I have one second to decide" decision was to abort.

Unfortunately, my phone didn't keep a record that episode. I thought it would, but looks it discarded the data, when i didn't do a reset before the next takeoff, so there's nothing objective to look at for speed and altitude.

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"Our hearts (in Mission Control) were beating fast, of course, everybody’s was,” Schaber told me recently. “So I figured I might as well watch theirs.”
He switched his monitor to the channel displaying biomedical data for the astronauts. Armstrong seemed calmer than some of the folks in Mission Control. The commander’s heart was ticking along at 75 beats per minute, a remarkable rate for someone who was about to, you know, land on the moon.