June 2019 Flight Log

[wingspan33]

June hasn't been all that good for flying but conditions got good this last week end. 6/22/19 was very nice with the wind out of the NNW. That made local Mt Washington the place to fly. I was delayed in going up, then around 6:30 pm went on my way. Upon arriving I realized I forgot a jacket and had to drive home to get one. Temps were in the low 70s and with windchill and cooler temps late in the day it was best to have one. Not so bad since it's only about a 6 mile drive. I got back to the launch area around 7pm. The winds were good but a bit fast from many of the PG pilots (as many as 15 down from Canada and a few local). I checked out the conditions, and found out a Novice hang glider had crashed into some trees. I talked with that pilot and several others who are members of the local Rochester, NY club. I then helped another Novice hang glider pilot launch, as winds were easing up. A number of PGs started launching as well. They were mainly just ridge soaring and I had intended to get high enough to top land. As that seemed less likely my enthusiasm dropped and I decided to skip flying for the day.

This last Sunday 6/23/19 was supposed to be WNW winds of less than 10 mph slowly rotating toward the NNW and getting even lighter. I decided to drive up to the site with a (new to me) WW Sport 150. I haven't flown it yet and wanted to at least get a sled ride - which may have been the most likely given the predicted conditions. I arrived about 4:30 pm with half a dozen Canadian PGers packing up to head home. One informed me that I should have been there around 11 am. Thermals were good and he had gotten up to 5K (I think he mentioned that being cloud base). Well, the wind wasn't bad but did have a good bit of variability with now and then 45 degree changes in direction (fit well with being "light and variable").

I was set up by 5 pm and launched at 5:18 pm. The flight lasted 10 minutes but was a soaring sledder (whatever that means lol). I actually got higher than launch but slightly above the ridge to the south of launch. I made a few passes along the ridge and felt a few mild pops but nothing strong enough to thermal up in. The glider flew nicely and although I landed in chest high grass/brush I kept the nose up on final flare. Touch down was at 5:28 pm.

Oddly, on final set up, the wind was blowing about 8 mph out of the NE. It's more typical for the wind to be more westerly in this LZ. So I had to adjust for the atypical wind direction on final. But everything ended fine. Oh, except for trying to move a set up glider through 5' tall plant growth - for 100 feet.

I broke the glider down then left it to hike back up the (steep) hill to retrieve my car. That was good exercise since I could afford to lose a few pounds.

Here are some screen captures from the video I took -

Launch Run

Ridge south of launch

Just higher than launch!

Getting lower

Down wind leg

Going upright

180 turn then flair to decent landing in tall weeds

Walking out of the weeds!

Google Earth Image of track from above

Google Earth image from above and in front

GE Image2 Mt Wash Flight 6-23-19.jpg (167.54 KiB) Viewed 7952 times

[Bob Kuczewski]

Nice flying Scott!!!

From the air, that looked like a nice grassy field. But your pictures after landing makes it look like a budding jungle down there!!

That's another reminder that it's always *wise* to walk your intended landing zone before taking flight.

Thanks for posting, and It's great to see you flying again!!!

[wingspan33]

Bob and others,

On Monday and Tuesday I rented a field and brush mower and took down lots of that tall growth. I need to do a bit more to make it as good as it can be, but it's better than it was.

I would also mention that I down loaded (open source) Open Shot Video Editor and will likely soon post a You Tube video of my Sunday flight. A short flight is a good beginning for a flying video.

[wingspan33]

Well, here it is folks. My 6/23/19 flight at Mt Washington on YouTube. It's very basic with a title and some editing to get rid of 10 minutes of launch waiting.

This video will give you a basic idea what flying in NYS is like, for those that don't know. No sandy beach, no dry desert, lots of nice green trees and farm fields and a glimpse or two of one of our local Finger lakes (Keuka, in this case). I hope you enjoy. BTW - The launch is about 600 feet over the LZ.



Once I get used to the editing program I may put up a vid of my over one hour flight. But I'll have to take mainly the high lights to keep the upload time reasonable.

[JoeF]

Scott, thanks!
And do you have comment about:

ScottInstrumentArmSwingBack.jpg (32.81 KiB) Viewed 7901 times

[wingspan33]

Hi Joe,

I do have an explanation. I made the down tube mount for the wind speed indicator myself and it was meant to go on airfoil down tubes. The Wills Wing Sport (from 1988) has round down tubes. While I tightened the the grippers pretty good it seems I didn't tighten them quite enough. The air foil DTs have more surface area for the mount to grip to. Less surface area = less grip. So, I think I have to go back to the drawing board!

BTW - The wind speed indicator WORKED! The wind was strong enough to make it rotate backwards. That meant I had sufficient air speed to be flying! . . .

[Bob Kuczewski]

"And the nose did not hit!"

Nice flight Scott!!!

I was going to ask about the airspeed mount as well, but Joe beat me to it. It's great to see you back in the air after all this time ... and look Ma ... no USHPA!!!!

[wingspan33]

"And the nose did not hit!"

Okay Bob, so you had the sound turned up despite the loud wind noise? Or maybe you turned it up just to hear what I said at the end.

Well, that comment is connected with my last 5 flights on my (almost new to me) Wills Wing Talon 140. The Talon can beak over if you flair with the VG in full loose setting. I landed it that way 4 out of 5 flights and (mildly) beaked over. I then got advice from Mike Myer at Wills Wing and Paul Voight at Fly High Hang Gliding that it's best to have the VG set to 1/4 to 1/3 on during landings. A flatter wing makes for a crisper stall during the landing flair.

In the above flight, I was flying the Sport 150 and didn't anticipate beaking over. But between the tall grass and a less than usual wind direction I thought it might still happen. When it didn't, I happily declared that ". . . the nose didn't hit!".

I'm fairly confident that if I'd made a longer, straight into the wind approach, with no 5 foot tall grass to complicate things I probably would have had a very nice (perfect?) landing flair on the Sport. My landings are usually from decent to very nice but even a good pilot can mess up in odd conditions or with an unfamiliar glider. Hopefully, future videos will show good flairs (or I'll just edit them out ).

[wingspan33]

It's 3 days late but here's my report on my June 30th flight from my local Mt. Washington flying site.

It was a bit windy up on launch when I got there around 4:15 pm and 3 Canadian PG guys where waiting for the winds to drop. I went and measured the wind speed at launch and except for a tiny 19 mph peak the wind was averaging 12-16 mph. I'd brought my Wills Wing Talon 140 and did not worry about the winds being too strong. I carted the glider up to the upper launch and started setting up. I was ready to fly by about 4:45 pm. None of the PG guys were in the air, but it was still a bit "puffy".

At 4:54 pm I launched and was quickly higher than launch. In fact I was 200+ feet over within 30 seconds. Looking down the trees were really showing the wind and it didn't seem likely the PGs would be in the air any time soon. The thermals were a bit chopped up but I caught a few with 6-7 high points durning my flight.

The duration of my flight was 2 hours and 4 minutes. A full hour longer than my last long flight. My highest altitude gain was only 2,863 ft ASL. That translates to 1,763 ft over the valley and about 1,163 ft over launch. I landed in the top LZ at 6:58 pm. I had my first good solid flair on the Talon. However, it was a little too high and as I settled straight down I lean into the down tubes as I (and they) met the ground. So the nose, once again rotated toward the ground.

All in all it was a great flight. Along with all my other flight data, my GPS told me that my air distance was 43 miles. Bob will cal it 43 miles of sky scribbling! I'm giving some thought to doing a cross country flight where the scribble will be more of a straight line.

I took a 4K video of the flight but it stopped recording at 1 hr 10 min.s time even though the battery wasn't dead and the SD card was not full. ? ? ? But I can still edit what I have and produce a nice (10 minute?) YT video. I've also gotten some screen shots from the video and Google Earth shots of my 3D track. Here they are -

PS - The 3 PG guys only got 10-20 minute flights around the 7:30 - 8 pm time. It must have been bumpy (to them) even then, or they could have stayed up an hour. So much for hang glider air time vs collapsible canopy air time.

Walking up to launch.

Launch run begins.

Less than a minute into flight.

Now 300 ft over.

Still going up!

Nice view of the valley and ridge facing SW.

Track log from above.

Track log from front.

#2 Track from front.

[Bob Kuczewski]

What a flight track!!!! Wow!!!!!!!

So how do you keep from getting tangled up in all those lines?



Seriously, Scott, your flying is becoming an inspiration. Thanks very much for your posting, and be safe up there!!!!

Your friend on the left coast.