Having a great time

New Pictures at www.CraigStanley.org/gallery

Since until now I have only been posting from the cell phone, I thought I would give a quick summary of events so far in more than 140 character blurbs.

On Friday I got in with enough time to do some ridge soaring. This was an evening flight with a Strong wind. It was also my first launch off the ramp. I let my nose get a bit to high, and went off the edge without much airspeed and was a bit wobbly. Luckily I was able to recover just fine and made it back 150 to 200 feet above launch. I was then able to soar the ridge for a good amount of time hanging out over launch.

On Saturday I flew with an instructor at Whitwell (the place without the ramp). It worked out nice because he had two tandem flights that day, so I would cliff launch, and then he would go off with a passenger, and then the other tandem customer would drive to pick us up. These flights all went very well, and I was able to get my cliff launch rating.

Yesterday was one of the best flying days I have had since my long flight in Whitewater. I decided to take off very early (people said I was smart for doing so, but I think it was dumb luck and being eager to fly). I was able catch several thermals as they swept up the valley wall. These thermals took me to 3090 feet above launch (launch is ~1500 above the valley floor, which is at ~750 MSL) at one point. I kept racing downwind and getting lucky finding some monster thermals. Many of the people that flew after me found weak conditions, and had to land quick after launching. One pilot had poor judgement and ended up clipping a tree and almost hitting a house on the way in. He had a busted lip, downtube, leading edge, and ego.

After I made it to the C goal (different goal for every group), I hung around above the airport for awhile and then decided I might as well attempt the goal for the B pilots. I made it part of the way back upwind, but at this point conditions were getting worse, and my penetration was poor. High wind speeds and low climb rates make it hard to move into the wind.

My track log from yesterday can be downloaded at www.craigstanley.org/9-30-07.kml

(You may need to right click and select "Save Target As" and then open from your computer)

This should open up the track in GOOGLE EARTH, and zoom in. I recommend looking at the map from the side so you can see the altitude. In the track log you can see where I was turning circles in thermals and going up, and also on glide going downwind. I am interested to calculate my glide angle later on. I feel that I may have been pulling in too much and flying faster than my best glide angle.

Today's flights were quite un-eventful. The lift was very powerful, and very small. It was very difficult to turn in them. Some pilots were able to get high, and after doing so were able to stay high, but my skills were not there. I sank quite a bit after launch. There is a house below launch with a small field the size of a baseball diamond. It was actually kicking off a thermal. I flew above the house there for ~10 minutes, gaining a 40, loosing 30, gaining 30, losing 40, ect. I made it back up almost 250 feet before the thermal seemed to die off, and eventually I got low and had to go head for the landing field (First Baptist Church).

Later in the day, around 4, we went back up to the launch site to get one last flight of the day in. There was no lift left, and hardly any wind. Although it is more fun to fly thermals, it's nice to take a flight every now and then when you know there are no thermals. Then you can take in the view, enjoy the experience, take some aggressive turns, and not be concerned about losing the altitude that you know you will lose anyhow.

I did take several pictures today. Unfortunately I forgot my counter-balance for the other wing This consisted to a tape measure clamped onto my leading edge last time - not sure if that is acceptable in the Boeing manuals. These pictures were taken from the keel and the lack of a wide-angle lens is frustrating. Oh well.

Unfortunately I forgot my computer's power supply, so I have to borrow one. Additionally, the closest wireless signal is a 15 minute drive to the bottom of the mountain, so web updates won't happen very often.

-Craig