Jonathan Pitt's Quest for Silver Write Up

Silver Flights

The first week of April 2001 is one that I will always remember as the week I actually started to feel less like a fledgling fluttering around the nest and more like someone on that steep learning curve to becoming a fully-fledged cross-country pilot.

The forecast for the week was for very cold, but fairly dry, air aloft to move over California.  I spent Monday through Wednesday looking out the office window at beautiful CU’s and every day the 1km Satellite photos showed the same over the San Joaquin Valley. By Thursday I could not stand it any longer and gave Loyal a call around noon.  I was crestfallen when he answered his cell phone and said that he was up in Fresno taking care business.  “Oh great, another afternoon of looking at clouds from the ground”.  About ten minutes later, after I had made the afternoon pot of coffee, Loyal calls back and says that he can make it back to Avenal by about 2:30, if I still wanted to fly.  I was out of the office door in less than five minutes. 

When I arrived at Avenal there were beautiful CU’s everywhere and above them running from West to East was a wave, it did not appear to be associated with the Diablos since it was oriented 90 degrees to them.  There was an approaching front due to come through that night so the wave was probably a result of the prefrontal dynamics.  Loyal arrived just as I was finished preflighting the PW-5.  This was my first flight with the barograph in the cockpit and actually running.  Harold was nice enough to set it up about a month ago so all I had to do was wind it up and lower the stylus.

I released off of tow at 1500’ and climbed up a thousand feet before remembering that I was supposed to notch the barograph by diving a couple of hundred feet.  I was at 6000’ in no time and over the next half I managed to work my way up to 9000’MSL.  I could still see the wave overhead but I could not figure out how to get up to it.  There was an inversion at about 9500’ and the wave was just above it.  After about an hour the wave seemed to move south several miles. Around 4:45 the area overdeveloped.  I was still over 8000’ so I decided to cruise out to Coalinga.  It was a nice smooth flight at best L/D and I had a tour over both of the airports in town before heading back to Avenal.  I had enough altitude to push the speed up to 70knts and was actually passing cars down on the 33.  This was a first for me.  I arrived over the glider port at 80knts with 2500’ of altitude during the pull-up after crossing the runway I noticed the non compensated vario reading 400pfm up and the compensated PZL vario reading 200fpm down.  After years of reading about how total energy varios are supposed to work it was nice to see an actual demonstration that they do indeed do what they are supposed to.

Loyal was there waiting to help me get the ship back into the hanger.  It was so nice of him to drive from Fresno to give one tow to 1500’.  I was pleased to see a nice trace on the barograph and very happy about completing the first leg of the Silver Badge.

The following is an account of Sunday April 8^th.

9:00  Sit down at computer, to work, make mistake of checking the Oakland RAOB.  It has silver duration written all over it.

10:00 My wife looks out of the kitchen window and informs me that CU’s are already starting to form.  Decide to go out to Avenal.  Luckily she understands that mowing the yard while looking up at the clouds if much more hazardous than actually being in a sailplane flying through them.  Since it is already late I do not have time to prep for a cross-country flight.

11:45  Arrive at Avenal, every high performance ship on the field is out of its trailer and assembled, even Loyal’s Pik.  Pre-flight the PW-5 and prep the barograph.  This is the first time I have actually set up the barograph.  Harold had already had it set up and ready to use before the Silver altitude flight last Thursday.  It seems easy enough to set it up: you just attach a new piece of paper to the cylinder, attached the cylinder to the barograph, rotate it a couple of times to draw a base line, and close it before winding the clock-work drive.

12:15  Pull the PW-5 out to the launch line.  Bruce Patton already has his HP18 in the launch area but lets me launch first since my goal today is the five hour silver duration flight.  Mario invites me to go to New Cuyama with the gaggle and I say, “Thank you but I am not ready for that”, yet.

12:20 Launch and get off of tow at 1800 ft. and remember to notch barograph this time.  Climb to 5000’ in 500 fpm lift.  Mario launches and enters the thermal.

12:30  Start flying south to get out of the launch window of the gaggle.  Climb to 6200’.

12:50  Hanging out south of 33/41 intersection watching gaggle head out onto their course.  It is amazing how difficult it is to see sailplanes in the air.  I am only about 1mi. west of them but I have to rely on their position reports to help spot them as they fly by.

1:00 Tango Gulf, a glider out of Hollister, calls on the radio and asks the gaggle where they are going. He says that he will follow gaggle down to California Valley

1:10 Start heading north towards Coalinga but blocked by over-development over the area.  Leave overdeveloped area to find lift.  Get down to 4000’ before finding a good thermal.

1:30-3:30 Practice some of the thermal exercises from Helmut Reichmann’s book:

Flying without vario

Dynamic thermal maneuvering,

 Exploring clouds at different stages of development.

I had my first experience with a “pee-bottle”. Luckily it went successfully without any major cleanups required.  There was a short cloud street between Avenal and the 33/41 intersection and I was able to practice dolphin flight along it.  Don came along side in his Discuss II for a few minutes and then increased his cruise speed and left me in his wake.  What a beautiful ship!

3:30-4:30 The gaggle, now very much spread out, returns from New Cuyama.  Avenal area gets overdeveloped.  Explore Sunflower Valley and south to around Devil’s Den to get out of the overdeveloped area.

4:30-5:15  Flew back towards the Tar Canyon area.  The clouds near the edges of the over developed area had so much lift that I spent a lot of time thermaling under  the darkest areas using 1/3 to ½ spoilers and flying at 60knts to keep from climbing into the cloud base.  These areas, about 500 yards across, were so concave that it was like flying inside the dome of a sports arena.  The  “roof” of the dome was 100-200’ higher than the outer edges and in the center were tendrils of cloud hanging down several hundred feet. I was occasionally pelted by little ice pellets that would stick to the leading edges of the wings.  Every few minutes I would have to fly out into the sunlight to warm up.

5:15-5:25  Approach Avenal to land.  Near the gliderport I see what looks like a beautiful curtain of light, caused by the sunlight hitting a sheet of vertical cloud hanging below the cloud base, and fly over to it to investigate.  I fly through the curtain and it feels like at big fist reaching out and punching the glider. The jolt must have been about a –2.5G force applied in less than a second.  I make a mental note to avoid “beautiful curtains of light” in the future.  Except for the area around the curtain of light lift abounds.  I have to pull out the spoilers to get down.

5:30  I make one of the worst approaches and landings that I have made in a long time.  It feels good to get out and stand up for the first time in over five hours.  My feet are so cold that I can hardly feel them.  Mario, Matt, and Loyal are there to greet me as I open the canopy.  Matt was kind enough to help me off with the parachute and they then help me get the PW-5 into the hanger and out of the rain.  I pull the barograph out from behind the seat and notice that instead of a nice trace going twice around the cylinder the whole five four flight is crammed into one thirty minute section of the chart.  What ever happened I am sure that it was purely operator error.  I need to have Harold show me how to set up the instrument again before I use it on another flight.

I learned so much in these three flights.  It seems at this point in flying I am learning more about myself as a pilot than I am about how the glider responds.  The more I fly longer flights the more apparent it becomes that soaring is an endurance sport.  These long flights start really focus on the most important component of the sailplane, the pilot.  How are your reflexes and ability to focus after five hours of flying?  What can you count on out of yourself?  How accurate are your mental calculations?  The flight Sunday was only five hours long.  The gold distance flight will probably take about six hours and the diamond distance flights could take over ten hours to complete.  Who ever came up with the badge program knew what they were doing and I am very grateful that it is there for us as beginning pilots.  The badges give us goals that allow us to stretch our envelopes as pilots in safe increments.  It is a nice feeling to have your soaring horizons increase.  Instead of looking out 4 or 5 miles I am looking out 20 to 25 miles while I am flying.

After my flight on Sunday I will suggest one thing to all pilots who have not yet flown long flights in a sailplane:  Figure out your urination methods before you take your long flights.  If you are shy about it pull the glider off down the runway and figure out and practice whatever system you plan to use, while you are on the ground.  I have not seen this mentioned in any soaring manuals that I have read or mentioned by instructors.  Being at 3000’ and scratching for lift is not the time try to figure things out.

Enough of my ramblings.

See you at the club,

Jonathan Pitt