Hard YAKKA!

Date: 28/07/07
Location: DDSC
Conditions: Cold, blue, crappy stable day! In detail, South Westerly wind at a massive 21kts, 3000agl with 2kt climbs.
Aircraft: LS1-F GWR
Time Airborne: 1:31
Total Time on type: less than 10hrs

Trace: http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=208065670 :(





Weekend report: The sky on the 27th just looked so impressive, and with a bright and early start I headed out to the field with high hopes of the day. Wind was calm and morning was cool.. The wings on, taped and ready to go by 9am it was soon time for the daily DDSC task and weather briefing.

The jaw dropped when I heard what was coming our way, as described above. The task was then reset to Chinchilla - Kingaroy - DDSC = 320km. We tow out the launch point at 10:45 and the wind is already starting to pick up with little warmth in the ground. Launch was around 11:30 and the task was again reset, Chinchilla - Jandowea N - then figure it out from there!

Re-Tasking...

Soon after launch I was back down to cct height and struggling. Downwind, base (oh geez, is it worth taking another launch), then 3.5kts out of the ground! Climbed up to max height of the day in the best climb anyone came across. Spoke with my distorted ordinary radio to Allan (who was on my wingtip), lets start!

Across the 1km start line, the task ammended again, now to Chinchilla O/R (220km). Wingtip-to-wingtip, Allan and I head off. We discuss paths and obviously decide to head upwind of track, and over the darker paddocks with a river tree line running towards CHN. Already we notice that the glides are quiet long between climbs, although we both felt as though 70-75kts was about right.

The first glide was 32:1 for 17km, where we connected with a 2.4kts. I find these windy days extremely difficult, I can't quite picture the climb dynamics. I spoke with Allan afterwards in our post flight analysis, and he suggested what I already knew (but didn't want to admit), that I need to practice, practice, practice on the windy days. Tell myself, I really enjoy these days...

At the top of that climb, we head off together again. Another 32:1 for 11km! These glides and climbs have been hard yakka. I didn't quite connect with the next climb, allan pulling 600' on me. We both decide to head off at the same time, and cover as much ground on our next glide. The day is proving to be very difficult, and when Allan cores a climb 1500m right angles to me, I decide to divert and take it to the top..

I got the climb, but was broken and weak. I felt as though I had lost contact with allan and decided that we should now pass relevant information to eachother but fly our own flight from here until we join back up again.

I find a nice energy line and run it directly into win, unfortunately covering next to no distance towards the goal. After 7km, I turn back on track and aim for quite a bunch of trigger points. I was lining up for a paddock about 3-4km ahead of me while on the hunt. I managed to grab 2.1kts from 1000' up to a nose bleed height of 1800agl before loosing it and slogging back on task.

Then it all went pear shaped and egged closer to the Dalby aerodrome. The wind is now SW @ 17kts and I'm struggling. About 30minutes of struggling in the vacinity of the town, I was forced in anger to call it quits.. Damn, #2 XC of #2 XC's flown, I've ended up outlanding!

Back home in the box, in the hangar next to Mike-Fox...

The Retrieve was painless, with minutes after landing Shane McCaffrey rocking up from the end of his sons soccer match in town, offering me a lift back to the club! Allan, once again managed to scrape away and gain final glide a couple climbs later..

What did I learn today? I need a nice easy day to figure out how to make the LS1 climb efficiently, put a fast day in to get the confidence right up there again. The one thing I've found is that even though I haven't been able to get WR to climb yet, I have been getting it to really move along in the glides - so am happy with that.

Thanks to Allan for taking the time to fix WR radio, it now works ALL the time and very clearly! Cheers dude...

I hear there's rain coming this week, so hopefully we get it and it clears up in time for a really nice weekends soaring. It'll either be that, or I'll be heading north to tweak WR up and complete the Form2..

Over and Out,
WPP

First XC in GWR

Well, it's taken me 12 weeks after purchasing a 1/2 share in a LS1-f, GWR, that I've finally taken it out of the circuit! After seeing my syndicate partner taking WR for a run on Saturday, we de-rigged the glider and moved it north to the Darling Downs Soaring Club (http://www.ddsc.org.au/) for the next month, where I'll be training with Allan Barnes for the Australian Club Class Nationals in Kingaroy (http://www.kingaroygliding.com.au/). Allan owns a LS1-f also, so should provide some excellent practice for our future in team flying.

We took an early launch with a planned task of a 100km FAI traingle, then complete it as many times as possible. The aim of the flight was to see how we fly together, compare gliders, go for rythm and to help set goals for the future. Unfortunately though, my radio was playing up so made things hard for our first flight together, however, we did see that it was going to be a partnership that should work.

The past 2 months of soaring in Australia have been dismal, Sunday 22nd was the first decent day we've seen for some time. My flight can be downloaded/seen here: http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-309851098 Allans flight can be found here if your interested in overlaying the two with SeeYou: http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-226582357

My Stats: 177km @ 86km/hr, avg climb for the flight, 3.6kts (28% thermalling), 42.8:1 for 15.6km glides, 7% extra distance covered in diversions.

Was a nice day, cu's to 3500agl, 12kts of ESE winds which provided a bit of route planning and added challenge when low. I'm finding the LS1 to be a pleasant glider to fly, likes 75kts in the cruise and around the 50kt mark in the climb. Looking forward to spending another 50hrs in it to master the climb.

Unfortunately though, on the second leg of the second lap of the 100km task Allan and I hit some overdevelopment. The ground got cool, and the turnpoint looked horrible. I took my last climb to near base and headed off, unfortunately a little to fast. Allan was out in front calling back what he could while 5km ahead of me and about the same height. I rounded the turn (about 500' lower than allan) quiet low and headed for every trigger source I could find. Two hills and a red paddock later, I found myself very low. Couple turns here and there, until at 400' I decided to peel off and land in the paddock below (on the side of a hill!). All went well, Allan managed to scrape away and get glide to home (32km away) and came and picked me up about an hour later. Thanks mate.

Am very happy to be at the DDSC club, very energetic and XC goal orientated club. On the Sunday many took on the challenge of flying the first 400km flight of the season, unfortunately there were a couple of outlandings (on top of my own) after the overdevelopment. Heard all the o/l's went well, hope you all got back to the airfield safe and sound.

I'm hoping to keep this blog up to date with all my weekend preparations for future gliding championships, fingers crossed I'll be able to add a few pictures from time to time.


'til then, safe circles
Woolley