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Florida Flying
By Graeme Malone
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Graeme
Malone visits the land of opportunity, tries his hand at aerotowing, learns
a lot about cross-country flying and succeeds beyond his wildest dreams.
 I love flying.
The sense of release on leaving the ground after a winter's lay-off is
impossible to match. This year it all happened in Florida, courtesy of
the Hoover free flights.
Getting acclimatized
My wife Jo was attending the Skydive Deland Boogie (a big skydiving meet), so I decided to tag along and see if I could get some flying in. They do aerotow flying at Deland, so I was sure to have fun. My glider was an Antonov C14 that packs down to 2 meters. Having loaded it (for free) on the plane, all we could do was wait and see how it emerged at the other end. At Orlando the glider reappeared, unscathed. Car hire for the fortnight, with USHGA discount was $187. Two lumps of stiff foam and straps through the door spaces worked fine as a roof rack, plus a single glider rider. My first impressions of Florida were good: 75 , very flat, green and with 3/8 cloud cover at 6,000 feet. We drove the 45 minutes
to Deland, and couldn't believe our luck - $10 per night got us a house
by a lake, complete with shady trees and garden. I started to put the glider
back together under a tree. 50 Minutes later she was complete, drawing
admiring glances from curious neighbors. Neither screwdriver or spanners
were needed. It was now high time for a drink so Jo and I headed off to
the infamous Deland airport bar. It was cool and dark, and overlooked an
airfield full of renovated old planes. Each evening Jo and I would meet
up here and swap our day's tales of daring do with other pilots and skydivers.
The next morning, Channel 35 (24 hour weather) showed the temperature as
75 and the dew-point to be rising. Sure enough cloudbase had dropped to
4,500 ft. I rang the Draggin' Flyers and set off to find them.
Learning to Aerotow
My only experience of aerotowing had been on one very calm evening in Dijon behind a La Mouette Ghost flown by Dennis Barbie. It was surprisingly straightforward. The Florida system was even easier. They use a 3-axis ultralight that looks very similar to our Thruster. The tow line runs from the tail of the tug to the pilot, and it is here that things get interesting. The pilot is pulled up fully proned out from a 3- wheeled trolley. The threader and weak link run from the carabiner through the tow line to a release on the harness. My standard chest release worked with their system without any problems. Once ready, you wave an arm to the tug pilot who takes up tension and then throttles up. Trolley, glider and pilot are pulled forward. Gradually the trolley is unloaded as the wing starts to lift. Beneath the base-bar, the trolley has a pair of loops that the pilot hooks his fingers into. Once the trolley is well and truly flying, i.e. not just bumping up, the loops are released and the glider, relieved of the trolley's weight, lifts off. It was too easy! The biggest
hurdle I had to overcome was getting used to having nothing to do on take-off.
The glider is automatically at the right angle of attack with wings level.
You can't fail to clip in; you would be flat on your face - and you don't
have to rotate into prone once you're flying. Once on tow, it was all about
anticipating the tug's movements and following them yourself in order to
keep within a 45 cone behind it. Climb rate averaged out at 650ft a minute.
What really impressed me was that pitch and roll inputs were very similar
to those of untowed flight. Due I am sure, to the carabiner taking half
the tow force. As a winch tow pilot, what did take some getting used to
was being able to push out to a degree that, on the winch, would have had
the glider mushing.
Learning about XC
Tuesday morning found me rigged up on a slightly different trolley at the Wallaby Ranch Flight Park. The first tow was uneventful and the pilot waved me off at 4,500ft in lift. I got to cloudbase from this, but then waffled around aimlessly; although the clouds were obviously working, I ended up on the ground after 30 minutes or so. I kept this up for the rest of the afternoon gradually staying up longer each time. That evening, I was told a few points to bear in mind when looking for lift and what to do once you are in it. In point of fact they were all things that are drummed into you from the moment you try and go XC. For some reason this time around they made more sense than usual. 1. The glider
wants to get on the ground ASAP. Given half a chance it will slip
and slide its way to descending air and stay there. Therefore override
it when it gets turned, however slightly.
2. When you
are looking for lift, picture the thermal as a spring in a pond.
Floating objects like twigs or gliders get pushed away from the upwelling
source. The ripples caused do not necessarily amount to lift but they are
pointers to where the genuine lift is to be found.
3. Once in
good lift do not worry if its strength drops markedly. You may not
have lost it, it may have just topped out and you are sitting on top of
the fountain. Stay in the reduced lift and soon enough another big gush
will fizz up and propel you to cloudbase.
4. Once at
cloud base, don't get lazy. Stay close under or beside the cloud
where the lift is manageable. Take time to have a really good look around
at what the air is doing. Be in no hurry to leave. You are catching your
breath and covering the ground; make the most of it. Watch how the clouds
within gliding distance are working. Once you make your choice, stick with
it. VG on, elbows in, line up two points in the distance and go for it.
Theory into practice
The next morning I was itching to put my newfound understanding of these ideas into practice. In particular the idea of the thermal as a spring causing disturbances some distance from it. I am pleased to say it all came together better than I could have hoped for. I ended up flying 35 miles, staying in the air for over three hours, getting my best height and height gains (5,800 and 4,600ft respectively) and generally having the best time ever. There was no wind on the
ground but at 4,000 ft you could detect a light south-westerly drift. The
air felt quite rough and we got a link break (the weak link goes at 120
lbs) at 500 ft, though I managed to scrabble up to 1,500 ft before losing
it. The second tow was more successful; this time the line broke at 2,300
ft. The lift was 4-500fpm but the sink was off-the-clock. The first thermal
as usual, was easy because they dropped me right in it. Following my belief
I kept nudging the glider against the flow, as it were, and was rewarded
with an ever increasing climb rate, topping out at 900fpm all the way round
for some six or seven 360's. Every thing went milky at around 4,200 ft;
there we were at cloudbase. Not getting lazy was easy; trying to relax
was difficult! I was so damn excited.
It all seemed to be working.
I stayed under the cloud in an area of 3-400fpm lift, half in and half
out, cooling down and trying to look for the next cloud. After 10 minutes
or so I got a bit cold (shorts and T-shirt I'm afraid!) so headed in gentle
lift to the sunny, upwind side of the cloud. Boy, did that sun feel good!
I found I was able to move out from under the cloud edge and back up the
cloud face. There was my shadow with it's rainbow circle just like the
Skywings fairy tales said it would be. The cloud kept changing shape below
and behind me, giving a marvelous impression of movement and speed relative
to the glider. A check ahead showed I could still easily make it back to
the LZ if needed, so I concentrated on finding the next source of lift.
There were two candidates, one nearby and raggedy and another slightly
across wind that looked as if it was working better (the bottom edge seemed
straighter, smoother, and darker) I went for the latter. VG on, point the
toes and off we go. I left with 5,000 ft and by 3,500ft started to get
wobbled about, three-quarters of the way between the two. Initially the
bumps were soft; if I was turned to the right I would correct maybe 60
to the left and continue flying straight, waiting for the next one.
Here we go!
Suddenly, WHAM! The glider pitched up hard and the vario went nuts. This is the life! I loosened my grip on the bar and tried to tighten the bank angle. Seven, eight , nine, ten-up! I can hardly believe my eyes. I just stayed there resting on the A-frame, reveling in it all. This time though I inadvertently went straight in to the cloud and spent some sweat-soaked minutes, bar in, heading for the occasional glimpses of sunlight that appeared. I burst out into the big blue, well chuffed! I found I could maintain height by doing big 360s, half in the very edge of the cloud side and half out. Looking back at the LZ.
I decided to risk it and go cross- country. I had a wallet full of plastic
and the Ranch phone number. To date my best distance had been 12 miles,
so a taxi was not out of the question. The sound of jet engines scared
me witless until I spotted a pair of USAF trainers way below me, like toys.
Bob had warned me about them; apparently they are briefed to keep a look
out for us around his LZ. It felt so good up there my mind started to wander
and I began to play with the cloud, zooming around it and watching my tip
vortices churning up its edges. Before I knew it I had lost the lift (or
it had stopped) and was at 3,000ft looking at decaying clouds all-round.
I wasted valuable height getting angry and flying randomly. Now I was down
to 1,200ft; after 5,000ft it felt like I should have been getting out of
prone. I reminded myself that 1,200 ft at Sculthorpe in Norfolk is more
than enough to get away with, and decided to stop being a prat and listen
to what the glider was telling me. I saw a long line of very tall trees
upwind of a small airfield. I could see heat haze over the field and figured
that if I didn't get up from there at least there was a good chance at
a cold drink and a lift back. The glider started to get wobbled but it
was even on both sides so I knew I was flying perpendicularly to the ripple,
towards their source.
Keeping going
And there it was, slap bang in the middle of the field, a nice 5-up that seemed to lean slightly upwind. Two men came out of the hangar to see what all the noise was about. I was singing loudly. This thermal was the best of the day (it was now 1.30) and took me up to 5,800ft. The backs of my legs were getting very burnt by now so I stayed under this cloud for maybe 25 minutes, letting them cool off. Ahead of me downwind, nothing much seemed within reach so I stuck with the zeros and 1-ups, waiting. Eventually, something decent began to form and I left for it, trying to fly straight and smooth. 2000ft later it was the same old story; get wobbled, turn 60-90 into it, find lift , go up! After three or four more times, I was starting to get really tired. I had been in the air for almost three hours and decided I really should think about landing while I still had some concentration left. Coming down
This proved to be much tougher that I thought. There were not many roads or houses so from around 3000ft I chose what looked like a barbecue going on by a lake with smoke for wind direction and loads of cars and people for a ride home. Arriving overhead at 1,500 ft, I saw that it was actually a house on fire with fire engines and a human chain bringing buckets of water from the lake. A Ukrainian hang glider with an English pilot was the last thing they needed, so I left them to it. There was lift everywhere. I saw a house with a pool, telephone lines and two cars. This'll do! The glider went left and conveniently found a nice pocket of 3-down that this time I was happy to stay in. There was a long field downwind of the house. I overshot it handsomely but did a perfect stand- up landing about a yard from a fence. Unfortunately there was no one to witness this perfect approach, but I eventually got a response from a very cautious lady in the house who phoned the Ranch. I had landed close to Zephyr Hills, about 35 miles from take-off, a taxi from here was going to be expensive. Fortunately the ranch was able to come and get me. More practice
The rest of the fortnight just got better. Instead of leaving the LZ I would work my way up or across wind appreciating just how far you can glide from 5,000ft and still get up. My time aloft in thermals grew and grew. I had set myself a goal when I left Gatwick of 20 miles cross-country and 3,000 height gain. They were easily exceeded and I am now hungry for more. I just hope the lift in England is as obliging. |