WEATHER
Visibility: 10 miles in haze
Wind:
Altitudes: 6500'+
Time Aloft: 3 hours
Max Lift: 10 knots plus
Temperature: Warm
Comment: We should have paid more attention to Morgan's Friday e-mail.
Tow pilot: Jim R.
President Larry and I talked on the phone Friday afternoon about what soaring might be like the following day. I looked at the Northern California RASP, and I think Larry looked at SkySight. They both agreed that best lift would be in the 2:00 to 3:00 PM range the next day. We both wanted to take care of some non-flying tasks at the Gliderport. With the lack of sign-ups and a not-too-encouraging soaring forecast, Larry and I agreed that we might as well send notice to the scheduled towpilot, and I could cover if anybody showed up and wanted a tow. A bit later I read Morgan's e-mail encouraging people to go for it.
The RASP, SkySight, and our local expert all erred on the low side!
We puttered around and did "stuff" in the morning, then about 11:30 we went into town and grabbed lunch. We noticed some little CUs over the hills north of Coalinga. Encouraging. A bit later we saw attempts at CU forming just to the north of Black. Eventually some small CU did form, and then a line of CUs eventually formed and persisted.
At about 1:30 PM Richard went first in 06. His plan was to take a 2000' tow towards Tar Peak and see what he could find. He didn't make it there on tow. I had asked him if he wanted a lap around the the field to gain altitude, or just head straight towards Tar, and his decision was to take a lap. Coming around, on the upwind leg right over the gliderport, we ran into awesome convergence. 800 to 1000 FPM (feet per minute) climb in the mighty 150 with a glider in tow. Richard released at the north corner of the gliderport at 2000' AGL as I waa completing the 210° left 30° right turn to get back in the convergence before heading to Tar.
Darrell Eggert went next in NT. His plan was a 4000' tow, ending up at Tar. Once again we did the lap around the gliderport to gain a bit of altitude before heading to Tar. But the convergence was still there and we got a lot of lift almost right over the gliderport. Over the radio Darrell stated that he had never really experienced convergence, so I talked and showed it to him. In the core, move left and lift falls off, go back through the core to the right (west) side , where it fell off dramatically, to the point we were descending 100 FPM on tow. Then back to the core.
Richard reported to us that the convergence was even stronger a couple of miles north of the gliderport, He also mentioned that his Vario had "pegged!" Darrell still wanted to go to Tar, so we left the convergence and made a beeline to Tar There wasn't much lift between the convergence and Tar. I was surprised when Darrell released about 2-3 miles short of Tar, but he had already gotten the 4000' AGL he wanted.
The convergence was so close and good that as I was descending in 05U I
contemplated getting the 1-26 ready and the autotow reel out to have Larry give me an
autotow. I mentioned it to Larry after landing, and he didn't seem too
keen on the idea, and I figured that the convergence might have
moved or dissipated by the time I got up, and I would have had to have found the convergence PDQ after takeoff.
I don't know the details of their flights, but I did hear Richard say that he went went south of Highway 41, and he was up well over an hour. Darrell had initially wanted his 4000' tow, then a couple of pattern tows to get more familiar with NT. About an hour and a half after liftoff, he radioed that I might as well put 05U away, as he was just going to continue riding the lift he was finding. At about three hours after liftoff I radioed him and he said he was forcing NT down to call it a day. He announced after landing that it was his longest flight ever in a glider, and he thought another hour would have been easy, but he wanted to not get home too late.
After Darrell was on the ground the CUs looked still workable over the hills. The CUs were high enough that the Schweizers could have easily made it back to the gliderport from the ridge, although getting TO the lift may have been a problem without a quite high tow.
So, we missed a very good soaring day. Larry and I should have not decided to cancel the towpilot, and I should have gone up in the 1-26. But three tows would have been hardly worthwhile for Iceman to come all the way out to the gliderport. For all of us, when Morgan suggests we go soar, we need to listen!
Now, here's Darrell's words:
Fantastic day for me. Got about a three hour flight.
Had
to come down so that I could get back at a reasonable time. Lift was
still really working at 5:00, four or five hours could have been
possible.
Great convergence line from like 3,500’ up to 5,000 and the thermals were really working up to about 6,500’ plus.
That
Discus is just incredible how it flies. I stayed pretty close to the
airport. Played over the ridge, Tar Peak and such. It’s amazing to see
what’s all over there. Venture out a little towards New Coalinga and
such, but didn’t stretch it too far.
Really good day!
