Soaring

[RayDunzl]

Sometimes a gray day can be good flying, and sometimes not. This was a 23 minute "sled ride", tow to 3000 feet, and just gently glide back down

There was a little sun though the haze, and something was building some puffy clouds, but there was no lift to be found.

There was a storm front coming from the west.

An hour later the winds reached at least 35kt/40mph/65kph on the ground, with rain. That's Florida weather for you.

Zephyrhills sled ride on Wednesday

Barograph. All up on tow, and all down in glide.

 

[RayDunzl]

Soaring encourages you to collect various "badges" for accoplishments.

Quest earned his "Silver Duration" yesterday in The Yellowbird, a Schweizer 1-36.

From Eric Tellmann email:

"Congratulations to Qwest who completed his 5 hour silver endurance and silver altitude. What’s remarkable is Qwest was checked out in the 136 that morning and did a 3000’ tow. Came right back after getting a feel for it and took off about 12:45 for an endurance flight. Not only did Qwest compete the 5 hour he did 6 hours and 7 mins."

That' a long time. The picture is about 7:00pm. He may still be stuck to the seat, You can see how low the sun is.


Eric is an A320 Captain.

Eric's son:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7352063547381124395
They're part of Lakeland Aero Club, for high school students, but they've been flying here at Zephyrhills a bit.

Where were these folks 56 years ago when I was of the age to join in?

 

[Doodski]

Soaring ecourages you to cllect various "badges" for accoplishments.

Quest earned his "Silver Duration" yesterday in The Yellowbird, a Schweizer 1-36.

From Eric Tellmann email:

View attachment 360344

"Congratulations to Qwest who completed his 5 hour silver endurance and silver altitude. What’s remarkable is Qwest was checked out in the 136 that morning and did a 3000’ tow. Came right back after getting a feel for it and took off about 12:45 for an endurance flight. Not only did Qwest compete the 5 hour he did 6 hours and 7 mins."

That' a long time. The picture is about 7:00pm. He may still be stuck to the seat, You can see how low the sun is.


Eric is an A320 Captain.

Eric's son:

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7352063547381124395
They're part of Lakeland Aero Club, for high school students, but they've been flying here at Zephyrhills a bit.

Where were these folks 56 years ago when I was of the age to join in?

Yes, amazing stuff! So young and so gooood...

 

[RayDunzl]

Saturday was busy.

There were six "Guest Rides", people who just show up and want to take a $125 Glider Ride.

At one point there were 8 gliders lined up waiting for a tow.

I spent the day "working" on the ground, as payback for the times others did work while I was in the air.

Sometimes a late day flight is the best time of day. I took off about 4:30pm, the first time all day there was nobidy else waiting to go up (though there were some more flights after i was up). Late day,the thermals are maxing out, the air generally smooth,

Made it to 6000 feet for the first time this yeat at 5:53pm.

The mechanical altitude indicator drags a little, but the flight computer gave me 6002 feet barometric (which seems quite accurate on the ground) so I'll go with that.

GPS says 6171 feet, but it isn't necessarily accurate for height.

Same shot.

Gonna head to that line of clouds in from of me, about ten miles away along I-75.

Not much between here and there, so will see if I can make it.

I did, about 40 minutes later, found some lift along the way to the left in the picture above.

I could have stayed up, but was getting a little chill in the cool air.

So that set me up for a long glide to landing...

28 minutes and 30 seconds, losing 5,128 feet to the approach, at about 70mph average

That's 102fps forward, and 3fps down, so a Glide Ratio of about 34 feet forward per foot of drop, and a glide distance of about 35 miles. That's decent for my antique plane.

I think that's the airport right in front of me below, about 10 miles away, so I turned left toward Dade City (10 miles north of the airport), then turned south and overshot the airport still burning off altitude, for a right downwind and landing headed south.

The flight computer is set to keep a line on the map that shows the heading between me and a chosen target, in my case, the airport, in case it is not clearly visible to the eye. A handy little toy.

Nice late day flight.

Below, the little airplane symbol is at the start of the final glide. Barograph at the bottom shows time and altitude. Squiggles on the map are circling in rising air.

The gray line is "airspace". Left half is Tampa Class B above 6000 feet top left and above 3000 feet lower left. Tight side is unlimited for us. Don't bust the Class B limits.

 

[RayDunzl]

Flew Saturday and Sunday... I tend to O.D. on fun things.

Four hours and seven minutes, and five hours and 21 minutes.

Gotta get my money's worth, as they say.

The Cessna towplane has a problem and is grounded in the hangar, and the Pawnee (has a new carburetor) isn't liking to restart when hot, so those of us that were ready lined up ready to go so there wouldn't be a reason to turn it off before we got up. There were two more on the side, not quite ready to get in line.

The Pawnee is on final approach in the distance on the right, finishing the obligatory pre-tow test flight.

Saturday and Sunday barographs.

Both days were without cumulus clouds, so no clues where the lift would be in the air. Fly along, hit a "bump", and try to work it. Some work better than others.

Saturday got off tow at 2000 feet, and nearly had to land, couldn't find lift, then got a "low save" just before entering the landing pattern.

The airfield elevation is 92 feet, not subtracted from the graphs. Pressure Altitude is "above sea level" in these illustrations. Thre brown line (almost invisible) along the bottom represents the local ground elevation as you fly. It would make a difference if flying over more hilly terrain.

Sunday, found some lift much sooner after the tow. That's normal. It's rare to get "shot down" right after tow. If you take another tow it's a "relight". And more $$$.

Less experienced pilots, and those being trained, will go to 3000 feet. Guest Rides will go to 3000, or 4000 feet if it is a marginal day. I suppose the Guest Ride pilots don't maneuver too aggressively with their passengers. If I see one up there I'll usually fly with them for a few minutes to give the passenger an idea what they look like up there.

I don't have a passenger. Find lift, and crank it.

The rising portions of the line below - the tow plane yanks me up at about 900 feet per minute, later, the steeper thermals below averaged 300fpm, with bursts to 700fpm or more.

Both days, the highest point reached was around 4:15pm.

 

[Doodski]

Fflew Saturday and Sunday... I tend to O.D. on fun things.

Four hours and seven minutes, and five hours an 21 minutes.

Gotta ket my money's wortyh, as they say.

The Cessna twolplane has a probmen and is grounded in the hangar, and the Pawnee (has a new carburetor) isn't likeing to restart when hot, so those of us that were ready lined up ready to go so there wouldn't be a reason to turn it off before we got up. There were ywo more on the side, not quite ready to get in line.

The Pawnee is on final approach in the distance on the right, finishing the obligatory pre-tow test flight.

View attachment 362378

Saturday and Sunday barographs.

Both days were without cumulus clouds, so no clues where the lift would be in the air. Fly along, hit a "bump", and try to work it. Some work better than others.

Saturday got off tow at 2000 feet, and nearly had to land, couldn't find lift, then got a "low save" just before entering the lanind pattern.

View attachment 362379

Sunday, found some lift much sooner after the tow. That's normal. It's rare to get "shot down" right after tow. If you take another tow it's a "relight".

Less experienced pilots, and those being trained, will go to 3000 feet. Guest Rides will go to 3000, or 4000 feet if it is a marginal day. I suppose the Guest Ride pilots don't maneuver too aggressively with their passengers. If I see one up there I'll usually fly with them for a few minutes to give the passenger an idea what they look like up there.

I don't have a passenger. Find lift, and crank it.

The rising portion of the line below - the tow plane yanks me up at about 900 feet per minute, later, the steeper thermals below averaged 300fpm.

View attachment 362380

Both days, the highest point reached was around 4:15pm.

I really enjoy your soaring thread. Keep up the interesting stuff.

 

[RayDunzl]

My PC broke, so I've been dealing with that, slowly, in case you missed me (unlikely).


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Nice flying on Wenesday 5/1/2024.

Usually, I stay near (so to speak) my airport, but Wednesday's weather felt like I could go anywhere.

I still remained within a calculated (it might not always work out) gliding distance to my parking place, but expanded my previous range to the south, north, and eadt.

As well as a new altitude high of 7100 feet.

Hernando County (Brooksville) Airport came into view for the first time, as I turned back toward Zephyrhills.

It's typical for the lift to go higher as the day progresses then just disappear toward sunset.

The low point late in the flight was a turn back toward the airport because I wasn't finding lift, with a "save" near the airport followed by the run out to the northwest and the highest lift and distance of the day. Possibly a bit of convergence with a breeze coming off the gulf contributed to the high point.


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The view back toward Zephyrhills from the glider location above, about 14 miles away, just after the high point of the flight.

The solid pink line on the Flight Recorder is the heading to the airport (which is off the top of the screen).

Which is nice, because I can't see it.

It also says I can ge there at 4437 feet if I fly direct. So I took a detour, turn to the east, then due south, and made it a 39 mile glide (no thermals taken, hardly any lift observed) to landing, the big downslope at the end of the barograph above.

From near the glider position on the map above. The airport is (probably) around that light area right of center near the horizon. Or just short of it, can't tell from here. Or maybe thats some Industrial Buildings in Lakeland. Hmmm...

I know it's down there somewhere, let me take another look...

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This flight (red) overlaid onto the April 2024 flights.

Shows a little expansion of my usual range.

All the above within gliding distance of the airport.

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How you stay up without a motor.

Here's the computer track of a strong thermal entry and exit in that flight.

Flew for 11 minutes and 40 seconds in "glide", lost 1453 feet, hit a big bump and cranked the plane over to the left.

In five turns, two minutes and 52 seconds, gained 1677 feet, and flew on.

Gained 335 feet per turn there.

They don't get much prettier than that around here.

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This Saturday and Sunday look good in the forecast, but not as good...

 

[Timcognito]

Too claustrophobic to get into one of those things but like vicariously living through your photos, charts and descriptions. Nice break from "HiFi".

 

[RayDunzl]

Saturday 05/04/24

Midway Lakes Airport.

Can't see it? It's right there!

Next to the two little irregular lakes across the highway from the big white building on the right.

 

[RayDunzl]

Sunday, 5/5/24.

Happy birthday to me, now 71 on the oldometer.

Nature gave me a Convergence in which to fly:

Convergence - Soaring - Chess in the Air

Convergence How to recognize convergence lift. Convergence is the lifting mechanism that results when and where two different air masses, traveling in opposite directions towards each other, meet. They often form in the vicinity of orographic obstacles, such as a mountain range, that provide a...

chessintheair.com

The clue is visible in the distance, left of center, westward toward the Gulf of Mexico, clouds at a lower altitude than the main clouds over the mainland for the day.

Cool air coming in off the gulf burrowing under the warmer land air, pushing it up.

So I go that way:

Cruising along under a big one, rising 790 feet per minute per the clock.

At some point you have to push the nose down to keep from being pushed into the cloud, so you get to go fast.

Convergence is still ahead.

Heading west, odd looking clouds at different levels along the front.

Cruising North along the "energy line", convergence line north/south to the left, me rising about 500 feet per minute.

Flying among the low clouds just forming with a few fat raindrops coming out of the clouds above

You usually spend a good amount of time circling (red and green on this barograph), it's fun to be able to just curise along or make gentle turns (blue).

50 to 60% of the time circling to stay up is common on a day where you have to work at it.

This day only 24% circling, mostly earlier in the flight.

Stated late, about 2:30pm, just helped launch others, flew five hours and 48 minutes the day before, so wasn't anxious to get up.

Barograph:

Computer counts 16 thermals, I count more like 8, some were interruted to get a better position in the lift. The last hour and 20 minutes was just cruising, except for one place it counted the broad turns as a "thermal).

A lot of "blue" is good.

A more typical flight, same flight duration, struggling to keep aloft, 58% of the time thermalling (tight circles) to catch rising air.

I tend to turn left (red) a lot more than right (green).

I thought I've been working on that, but I don't see any evidence yet.

I think my plane likes left turns more than right.

 

[RayDunzl]

25 minutes of effortless gliding in the convergence area mentioned in the previous post.

4k resolution available in the options.

 

[RayDunzl]

Video from the Perfect Thermal mentioned above.

Snooth sailing, then some little bumps and sink and agitation, then boom!

 

[RayDunzl]

And we're getting a new old towplane...

The powers that be have decided to take a spare engine for our Pawnee up to Blue Ridge Gliding Club, jam it into a CallAir A-9 which needs an engine, and fly it back to Zephyrhills.

I don't know who is going to fly it, but I can make a good guess.

I suppose they'll need a ferry permit to get it here.

And there's another CallAir they're giving away for parts. That'll need a flatbed trailer trip.

https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult?NNumberTxt=9615Z

 

[Doodski]

So... Is it time to review your qualifications and rewrite your flight license exams etc. Is this a thing that you must do to maintain airworthy status?