30 January 2022, Wharton to Wallis

Flight and/or trip reports
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nuclear
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30 January 2022, Wharton to Wallis

Post by nuclear »

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonar ... ht/3000026

Looking at the forecast for the weekend, Sunday looked like the day with more wind (~8 kts surface) with more south in it than Saturday, and more lift. Saturday was a good flying day with great turnout and I did some tandems, but the forecast definitely held with respect to the lift on Sunday. As it happened (maybe by plan?) Saturday was mostly newer pilots, but the old guard showed up on Sunday with both Henry and Rich Diamond launching before me. I was told Henry's launch was sporty (warning #1) but I didn't personally see it. Rich "I don't tow" Diamond launched next and had a good launch that made the conditions look not so bad.

After Rich D launched I got on the cart and made my way over to the launch area and soon Tiki landed and was in the process of hooking up when she yelled "Dust devil!", dropped the rope and skedaddled with the DF behind the hangar (warning #2). Not immediately seeing the dust devil and already being in my harness on the cart, I figured I was better off staying put and riding it out (with Read on the nose wires) than trying to unhook and secure the glider on a tiedown 50 ft away. Luckily the dust devil missed us (though we did soon see it and it was a massive one) and I had a brief flight with the cart when the associated gust came through (Tiki, can I log that?). The dust devil having passed and awaiting Tiki's return, I broached the subject of retrieve with Read: "So, Read, hypothetically, if I were to land elsewhere, not that I am planning to at all, might you be persuaded to fetch me?"

"Do you have a tracker?"

"I do"

"Which vehicle should I take?"

"Any vehicle you want if you are willing to come get me" It was on.

When Tiki returned with the DF she stopped in front of me, gave me the serious drive by look and said "It's turbulent." (warning #3) A wiser person might have put all these warnings together and waited but I didn't. Perhaps there was a bit of "the older kids are doing it, I want to too!" running through the back of my mind. I shrugged, she shrugged and we proceeded to hook me up.

The initial launch was fine, but we soon found the turbulence. That was one of the rougher tows I've ever had and certainly the roughest I've had on the T3. At maybe 200 feet up (I didn't have time to look at the vario) I got knocked well out of position high and to the right. I had my hand on the release and was starting to pull when things seemed to stabilize somewhat and I decided to hang on a bit longer and see if I could get it back. A non-trivial part of my motivation at this point was the realization that I didn't particularly want to land at that moment in those conditions. Getting back into position, a main concern was not letting the rope get too slack. Unlike on the tandem, the pitch pressure on the T3 is very light and I have no problem diving to put myself wherever, but the speed that comes with that presents a real problem in causing the rope to go totally slack and then snap back when the slack is taken out, not good for anyone. The first thousand feet went pretty much like this, though that bit at around 200 feet was the worst.

Above 1000 things smoothed out considerably to the point that I was worried there might not be enough lift to stay up. As usual though, Tiki sniffed out the best lift and she dropped me off at 2,800 ft established in a big fat thermal. Working this thermal, it just kept getting better and better pushing 800 fpm at times. The top of lift forecast was a little over 4,000 ft, which I had assumed to be optimistic (it was January after all), but this thermal just kept going and going. Up till then, cumulus clouds had been forming towards the coast, getting tantalizingly close but not reaching the airport. As I passed the forecasted top of lift still climbing steadily I saw wispies forming well above me. Eventually I topped out over 5,800 ft getting very close to the base of those wispies (they never formed much of a cloud, unlike those to the south). The decision to cut the tether at this point wasn't difficult: I was pushing 6,000 ft, there were no cumulus clouds or solid lift indicators up wind, the wind was around 15 mph at altitude so staying would mean leaving the lift I was in and with that wind speed and direction and that altitude, one of my favorite hay fields over on the other side of walmart was in easy glide. I went.

The next 20 minutes or so was pretty uneventful. I was staying high, well over 4,000 ft, working lift till it started to peter out then going on a brief glide to the next thermal, all in the blue. I did eventually start getting low (which for this flight was below 3,600 ft) and finding a good bit of sink. As I was on this glide and getting lower, I had been watching a cumulus cloud 1-2 miles to the south. It had been there for awhile (translation: I was suspecting there might not be much going on there by the time I could get there) but there was another wispy downwind of it and I figured there was probably a good lift line there, so I turned crosswind and went for it. It paid off and I was soon up above 4,000 ft again.

Over Hungerford things were looking good and I decided to go ahead and put the Wallis Gliderport waypoint in my 6030. I've always wanted to land there, the wind direction was right and this seemed like a good opportunity to do it. Scrolling through page after page of waypoints I didn't recognize, I soon realized that I still had all the Florida waypoints loaded. Oops.

The rest of the flight went well, and I made it to Wallis at around 4,000 ft, with plenty of lift around. At this time, about an hour into the flight and after 4pm I was getting pretty cold, shivering uncontrollably and with the gliderport below with their nice long smooth field with multiple windsocks I was ready to get lower (warmer air) and land. The landing went well and I had a great time chatting with Jim from the glider club as I broke down. Not bad for a January afternoon!

Big thanks to the people that make it all happen: Read, Tiki, SR. Hats off to you guys and I hope I can return the favor.
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Matthew McCleskey

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EGARZA
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Re: 30 January 2022, Wharton to Wallis

Post by EGARZA »

Great report!, it was really nice and inspiring to see you there

Safe flights!
Efrain Garza

hmwise
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Re: 30 January 2022, Wharton to Wallis

Post by hmwise »

Excellant flight! That explains why my tow was so rowdy, especially below 1000 feet! We must have run into several dusties on the way up.

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Rich Diamond
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Re: 30 January 2022, Wharton to Wallis

Post by Rich Diamond »

Definitely was a Hands On day .
Still glad I flew , the cobwebs are definitely OFF !
One of the rowdiest tows I have had, the SINK under tow was :o , though I faired well .
Released at 2200 agl and was able to get to 3867 which was nice before hitting all sink
Ended up coming thru the cut with some lz turbulence with a nice landing .
Happy to see all of you out there .

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