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Soaring

Poor soaring weather recently. Typical summer stuff - damp ground doesn't heat well, high humidity, low clouds overdeveloping to shade the ground, irregular weak thermals, hard to stay up.

Four showers soon to combine into an afternoon thunderstorm, about five miles distant.

Getting ready to land before the gusty winds and rain hit the airport. Coulsn't stay up anyway.

Only a 55 minute flight, 2000 foot tow release, 2900 feet max altitude.

About 839 feet above ground and headed for landing here at Zephyrhills.

1722350370456.png



The squalls combined into a thunderstorm.

Wind pickup later as the storm blows through.

1722350303988.png


Radar at landing time

1722350905005.png


And at the windy time above

1722351015287.png


Oh well.

Try again tomorrow. It's my activity. Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The forecasts are all mixed, from decent to no good at all, so I pick the good one.

I landed once in a strong rain squall. It is to be avoided.
 
RayDunzl said:
Poor soaring weather recently. Typical summer stuff - damp ground doesn't heat well, high humidity, low clouds overdeveloping to shade the ground, irregular weak thermals, hard to stay up.

Four showers soon to combine into an afternoon thunderstorm, about five miles distant.

Getting ready to land before the gusty winds and rain hit the airport. Coulsn't stay up anyway.

Only a 55 minute flight, 2000 foot tow release, 2900 feet max altitude.

About 839 feet above ground and headed for landing here at Zephyrhills.

View attachment 383792


The squalls combined into a thunderstorm.

Wind pickup later as the storm blows through.

View attachment 383791

Radar at landing time

View attachment 383793

And at the windy time above

View attachment 383795

Oh well.

Try again tomorrow. It's my activity. Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The forecasts are all mixed, from decent to no good at all, so I pick the good one.

I landed once in a strong rain squall. It is to be avoided.
Click to expand...
Do you listen to earbuds when piloting your glider? Or do you need to have your senses including your hearing about you?
 
Doodski said:
Do you listen to earbuds when piloting your glider?
Click to expand...

No.

Doodski said:
Or do you need to have your senses including your hearing about you?
Click to expand...

Listen to 123.075 Aircraft VHF, the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) for the airport on a handheld. There's no control tower, so it is "see and avoid" on your own flying around the field - Visual Flight Rules (VFR), as opposed to having someone tell you where to go as in Controlled Airspace. Pilots announce their intentions before takeoff and landing and while "in the traffic pattern" and often when leaving or approaching the area.

Listen for Skydivers jumping, the Twin Otter Jump Planes taking off and headed up, or rapidly descending, and General Aviation Traffic taking oiff ir landing or practicing electronic approaches etc.

Listen for the Tow Plane bringing another glider up, it's kinda fun to fly with someone when you aren't going anywhere. Practice seeing other aircraft is good, too.

Don't really need to hear the glider, though you'll hear a difference in the wind in strong up or down drafts.

Listen kind of subconsciously to the Variometer beeps, for rising or sinking air.

Too slow and the wind noise gets real quiet near stall speed.

Wind noise is about the same as having the driver window in a car about 1 or 2 inches down, at speeds mostly 50 to 80 mph.

Newer gliders may have better sealing around the canopy.

I heard the engines of one of the jump planes near me but never saw it, Sunday. So it was somewhat close. Will look back at the video to see if it shows up there. They come down pretty fast.
 
RayDunzl said:
No.



Listen to 123.075 Aircraft VHF, the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) for the airport on a handheld. There's no control tower, so it is "see and avoid" on your own flying around the field - Visual Flight Rules (VFR), as opposed to having someone tell you where to go as in Controlled Airspace. Pilots announce their intentions before takeoff and landing and while "in the traffic pattern" and often when leaving or approaching the area.

Listen for Skydivers jumping, the Twin Otter Jump Planes taking off and headed up, or rapidly descending, and General Aviation Traffic taking oiff ir landing or practicing electronic approaches etc.

Listen for the Tow Plane bringing another glider up, it's kinda fun to fly with someone when you aren't going anywhere. Practice seeing other aircraft is good, too.

Don't really need to hear the glider, though you'll hear a difference in the wind in strong up or down drafts.

Listen kind of subconsciously to the Variometer beeps, for rising or sinking air.

Too slow and the wind noise gets real quiet near stall speed.

Wind noise is about the same as having the driver window in a car about 1 or 2 inches down, at speeds mostly 50 to 80 mph.

Newer gliders may have better sealing around the canopy.

I heard the engines of one of the jump planes near me but never saw it, Sunday. So it was somewhat close. Will look back at the video to see if it shows up there. They come down pretty fast.
Click to expand...
Wow... That sounds like a lot of concentration and that would be fun while adding to the visceral thrill. :D
 
RayDunzl said:

Listen to Live ATC (Air Traffic Control) Communications | LiveATC.net

www.liveatc.net www.liveatc.net

Archived aircraft radio.

Airport is KZPH.

Local clock is 5 hours earlier than UTC.

Gliders operate starting about noon on Sunday Wednesday Saturday (more or less)

The General Aviation traffic is usually a little more busy in the morning.
Click to expand...
I'm going to tune into that radio channel to see what it's all about. I think it will be education and cool too. You made me wonder about long distance glider flying. They fly at night when setting distance records? That would require more instrumentation?
 
Doodski said:
They fly at night when setting distance records? That would require more instrumentation?
Click to expand...

Gliders generally operate only during daylight, and have minimal instrumentation and no lights - the waiver is due to no engine powered electrical system.

Some small power planes are also exempt, like a Piper Cub (old ones, anyway).

If you are properly equipped, then you could fly night. There are probably no thermals at night, so you'd need mountains and wind.

There's a couple of women, Silvia Trnka and Claudia Hill, planning a non-stop from Alaska to San Diego, 2500 miles, using the wind coming off the Pacific, hitting the mountains and rising, to stay up at night, thermalling as necessary in the day if the mountains aren't there. Their plan calls for three days and two nights in the air.
 
Doodski said:
I've been to an airshow before but that link you provided makes that airshow look like a hick town air show... LoL. That's an amazing amount of aircraft at an airshow.
Click to expand...

There's a similar show near here, maybe 1/3 the size

flysnf.org

Homepage

Join us, April 1-6, 2025, for the 2nd largest aviation expo in the U.S. with over 200K visitors and aircraft of all kinds!
flysnf.org flysnf.org
 
RayDunzl said:
There's a similar show near here, maybe 1/3 the size

flysnf.org

Homepage

Join us, April 1-6, 2025, for the 2nd largest aviation expo in the U.S. with over 200K visitors and aircraft of all kinds!
flysnf.org flysnf.org
Click to expand...
I would be on that like white on rice! :D
 
RayDunzl said:
Gliders generally operate only during daylight, and have minimal instrumentation and no lights - the waiver is due to no engine powered electrical system.

Some small power planes are also exempt, like a Piper Cub (old ones, anyway).

If you are properly equipped, then you could fly night. There are probably no thermals at night, so you'd need mountains and wind.

There's a couple of women, Silvia Trnka and Claudia Hill, planning a non-stop from Alaska to San Diego, 2500 miles, using the wind coming off the Pacific, hitting the mountains and rising, to stay up at night, thermalling as necessary in the day if the mountains aren't there. Their plan calls for three days and two nights in the air.
Click to expand...
WoW! That would be awesome. I bet they have huge amounts of experience.
 
Summer Soaring in Florida.

Saturday August 3.

This summer seems to be more active than usual in the weather. This is the day before Storm Debby blew through.

Some little showers in the area, not a problem, and the rest of the sky lools like a nice day, though the cloud base isn't very high, around 3000 feet.

1723468920196.png





30 minutes later they've grown into a threat (airport on the left) and I'm headed down at 100 mph, as those sthorms usually pack unpredicatable gusty winds.

Small showers are innocuous, they don't pack a punch and if the sky around is normal you just fly someplace else till they pass. worst case would be a landing in light rain.

Lots of darkness and rain you can't see through, so, a short flight.

1723468745857.png
 
Sunday August 11.

Another afternoon of building storms, but hhis day provided a nice riide.

Many clouds building, but not quite ripe to rain, giving long glides in broad areas of rising air.

An hour and 43 minutes, so not a really long flight, but only 28% of the time was circling, maybe a record, some of it very broad sweeps that really shouldn't register as circling on the computer, and long glides, averageing 7.1 miles.

I don't look at the ground very much (except to see where I am) so it doesn't bother me to remain above a relatively small area. I'm looking at the sky which is always different.

Never seen a cloud like this one, wiht the piece hanging off toward the ground. Kept my distance anyway, as I'm close to landing. Further investigation indicates it is an example of how tornados look when forming. It dissipated.

1723470500689.png


Closeup:

1723506086765.png



Sometimes the clouds form at different levels. Climb under one, and you are above others. You can't fly through clouds, and the Visual Flight rules require a distance of 2000 feet to the side, and 500 feet below. You setimate the distances to remain legal. I'm about to turn left into the clear air there.

1723472457500.png




Full Flaps approaching the airport

Definitely headed down with the pointy end of the plane bur flapa holding rhe speed back to 55mph or so.

750 feet above ground and dropping anout 650 feet per minure.

1723505445739.png




The video below covers the last part of the flight, circling for a bit, then a long glide maintaining altitude, and fast glide to landing before a storm hits the airport.

Green is circling left, red is circling right, and blue is straight or broad turns. I tend to turn left, unless I think about it. Sometimes I don't.

1723471596261.png


Gentle circling in lift, then the long glide starting at 4:45

 
RayDunzl said:
Sunday August 11.

Another afternoon of building storms, but hhis day provided a nice riide.

Many clouds building, but not quite ripe to rain, giving long glides in broad areas of rising air.

An hour and 43 minutes, so not a really long flight, but only 28% of the time was circling, maybe a record, some of it very broad sweeps that really shouldn't register as circling on the computer, and long glides, averageing 7.1 miles.

I don't look at the ground very much (except to see where I am) so it doesn't bother me to remain above a relatively small area. I'm looking at the sky which is always different.

Never seen a cloud like this one, wiht the piece hanging off toward the ground. Kept my distance anyway, as I'm close to landing. Further investigation indicates it is an example of how tornados look when forming. It dissipated.

View attachment 386098




Sometimes the clouds form at different levels. Climb under one, and you are above others. You can't fly through clouds, and the Visual Flight rules require a distance of 2000 feet to the side, and 500 feet below. You setimate the distances to remain legal. I'm about to turn left into the clear air there.

View attachment 386100



Full Flaps approaching the airport

Definitely headed down with the pointy end of the plane bur flapa holding rhe speed back to 55mph or so.

750 feet above ground and dropping anout 650 feet per minure.

View attachment 386187



The video below covers the last part of the flight, circling for a bit, then a long glide maintaining altitude, and fast glide to landing before a storm hits the airport.

Green is circling left, red is circling right, and blue is straight or broad turns. I tend to turn left, unless I think about it. Sometimes I don't.

View attachment 386099

Gentle circling in lift, then the long glide starting at 4:45

Click to expand...
So cool! Can you do a spiral when flying mostly horizontally?
 
RayDunzl said:
Sunday August 11.

Another afternoon of building storms, but hhis day provided a nice riide.

Many clouds building, but not quite ripe to rain, giving long glides in broad areas of rising air.

An hour and 43 minutes, so not a really long flight, but only 28% of the time was circling, maybe a record, some of it very broad sweeps that really shouldn't register as circling on the computer, and long glides, averageing 7.1 miles.

I don't look at the ground very much (except to see where I am) so it doesn't bother me to remain above a relatively small area. I'm looking at the sky which is always different.

Never seen a cloud like this one, wiht the piece hanging off toward the ground. Kept my distance anyway, as I'm close to landing. Further investigation indicates it is an example of how tornados look when forming. It dissipated.

View attachment 386098

Closeup:

View attachment 386188



Sometimes the clouds form at different levels. Climb under one, and you are above others. You can't fly through clouds, and the Visual Flight rules require a distance of 2000 feet to the side, and 500 feet below. You setimate the distances to remain legal. I'm about to turn left into the clear air there.

View attachment 386100



Full Flaps approaching the airport

Definitely headed down with the pointy end of the plane bur flapa holding rhe speed back to 55mph or so.

750 feet above ground and dropping anout 650 feet per minure.

View attachment 386187



The video below covers the last part of the flight, circling for a bit, then a long glide maintaining altitude, and fast glide to landing before a storm hits the airport.

Green is circling left, red is circling right, and blue is straight or broad turns. I tend to turn left, unless I think about it. Sometimes I don't.

View attachment 386099

Gentle circling in lift, then the long glide starting at 4:45

Click to expand...
That was a awesome landing. I had no idea you go so fast.
 
Define a "spiral"...

You turn when you find a local area of lift, to stay in it.

The plane is a little less efficient in a turn, so you don't do it till you need to, or want to.

A 45 degree bank angle increases decreases efficiency by about 20%.
 
Last edited:
Doodski said:
That was a awesome landing. I had no idea you go so fast.
Click to expand...

The "never exceed" speed for my glider is 139mph per documents.

All (civilian) aircraft have one I presume.

But that would be in smooth air.

Too fast and the wings or tail may start a destructive flutter.


 
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