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Thanks, guys for an AWESOME flying weekend!!! TTT was more than I
had
expected and more fun than I have had in a long time...I simply
can't
wait to return! Last week, I would never have dreamed of a flight
over an hour (my previous two longest flights were only 55 min at
Petit Jean and 35 min at Lookout). I feel like I have learned so
much, but yet also feel that I have so much to learn!!!
The good karma started when Keith invited me to a weekend at
Treetopperland. After a fun carpool ride east Thursday evening
(thanks, Steve for printing out those great thermaling articles), we
arrived at the clubhouse late and were greeted with cool upper 50's
and about a 10 mph headwind at launch. I was impressed with the
great amenities and the great new ramp! It was so peaceful and cool
outside that I decided to sleep out under the stars. It was a
chilly, but restful night's sleep.
I woke Friday morning to a beautiful view of the warming Sequatchie
valley. Wind was blowing in nice...sky was crisp...and it felt like
autumn in October. After a great home-cooked breakfast and coffee in
the clubhouse prepared by Keith, I set up my glider in anticipation
of soaring the ridge. Patiently, I waited all day for it to calm
down; however, it was blowing a bit too hard all day (20mph
gusts)for
my first launch at this new site (and also for a SS). In staying
with TTT rules for novice pilots, I broke down, stowed my harness,
and relaxed with a beer with Keith as we watched Steve Prater hot
dog
in the nice ridge stuff. Later, we all ate at a Mexican restaurant
worthy of its own GPS coordinates over 30 miles away! The food and
top shelf margaritas recommended by Keith were well worth the drive.
Again, I slept under the stars and had one of the best nights sleep
in months!
Saturday morning kicked off an insane day of flying for me...The
sock
slowly swung from ENE to light in, and I decided to make the day's
first go at the ramp. The goal of my first flight was simple: 1)
prove my launch and landing skills to the club members, and 2)
familiarize myself with the LZ and other "house" topo
features/landmarks. I did just that, and after a wonderful sled, had
a nice three-stepper landing on target. I was found in the LZ
packing up my glider with a large smile on my face ready to do it
again!
For my second flight, things were really cooking up. Many pilots and
some familiar faces from Lookout were arriving. I was trying hard to
keep up with names. After gearing up, I waiting a long while in line
for a few patient pilots ahead of me...I guess as a low-time pilot,
I
am just used to going as soon as it's safe to launch!!! I eagerly
volunteered to serve as "wind dummy", and so the others politely
moved aside to let me launch before them. After I got off the
mountain, I scraped around with s-turns - desperately covering as
much ground as I could. It stinks having a horrible glide ratio, but
I wasn't about to throw in the towel without another handful of
tries. Finally, halfway to the LZ and about 600 below launch, I
hooked one that took me back to ridge level! Whistling along to the
vario bleeps, my first thought was "Geez…I'm actually staying in it
and going up!" My next thought was "TRAFFIC!!!" when Clark and his
Tandem came flying in right beside me close to my left. I'm not sure
if me or his passenger had a more terrified look on our face. I
guess I've never been so close to another wing, but I soon relaxed
as
we circled together in close harmony. What a different perspective
flying close to another wing! It was wild!!!
Once I was about 1900 above launch and slightly behind the ridge,
lift started getting weak, scattered, and unpredictable, and so I
looked over to find Nate in his red sport2 a few hundred yards away
going up like crazy...I thought, "hmmm...I hope he doesn't mind me
crashing his party". So I entered in the same CCwise direction about
500 under him and this one was a little more vicious than my first.
It took me to 2500 in no time reading 3-400+ ft/min at
times. "CRAZY!!!" I said to myself trying to keep from getting spit
out of it. Then, after a few minutes, I looked out at my skyward
wing in a tight core, and realized that Nate had topped out and
probably left to pursue other endeavors. I was on my own for the
next one...
Remembering what I read about "collectors" and "triggers" in the
thermaling articles, I snooped around looking for things that might
work. I remained cautiously observant of the 45 degree rotor rule
and made sure I had plenty of glide to make it back over the ridge
in
anticipation of some sink. It seemed all the lift was happening east
toward the quarry near the little lake behind launch. With only
about 800 left to glide back over the ridge, I caught another good
one, and figured what the hell… At first, I said to myself..."Lemme
see if I can break 3k over launch." That quickly progressed to "Lemme
see if I can break 3500 over!" I was soon wondering if it was
possible to get a mile over the LZ! "How high can I go?!" I asked
myself. It took me all the way to 4200 over launch, but not without
some growing pains. Halfway up, I experienced "going over the falls"
at least once. While very scary, I reassured myself that this was
normal with stronger thermals (thanks, AGAIN Steve for those
articles
that pointed this out!!!). I calmly gave myself the 3 second
response time it takes a Falcon to do what you tell it to, pulling
in
to regain some authority all while keeping an eye on my orange
handle
(God forbid). Had I not read those articles, I would have probably
freaked out a lot more than I did. Knowing that the strong lift was
still near, I sniffed around and caught it again. If I learned one
thing, it's not to be shy with bar pressure in the narly stuff! I
also noticed that above 3500, my vario started beeping like crazy no
matter if I was flying straight or turning hard. I'd lie if I said I
wasn't a little bit spooked as it started getting colder and darker
in a giant shadow. When the trees became less defined, I looked at
my skyward wingtip and saw that I was getting awfully close to the
dark grey whispies above as I was being shaked around like a Yahtzee
dice. "Geez I hope this Falcon holds…lol" At this point, I decided
to err on the safe side and leave the strong thermal under the cloud
with some good bar pressure. I had finally learned what it's like to
be near the clouds!!...But now it's time to warm up in the sun, get
rid of the spooks, and give my sail and sidewires a break!
I farted around a bit thereafter just catching what I could to stay
up longer and then my neck and shoulders started to ache to the
point
I was ready to turn it in for the afternoon. (Note to self... Heavy
motorcycle helmets are okay for 6 minute sleds, but not for 2-hour
soaring flights!!!!) What an accomplishment! I finally broke the
hour mark for the first time and doubled my longest personal ridge
soaring flight! I headed for the LZ, but not before buzzing the
launch ramp to scream "WHooHOOO!!!" to the others at launch. I
wanted EVERYONE to know how STOKED I was. Indicators in the valley
were switching hard from N to W....Which way should I go?! I chose
North, and stuck with my decision...tried some new approach patterns
this time, with a healthy mix of s-turns and boxes from my non-
dominant side. The wind ended up 90 degrees cross on final, but
another good landing, regardless (I always come in hot). You
couldn't keep the grin off my face the whole afternoon. "I am
finally a bona fide soaring pilot!" I said to one of the
grasshoppers
chilling out on my harness...
That evening, the wonder stuff crept in again! I had my morning sled
appetizer, my big thermal lunch, and now it was time for dessert! As
Keith put it.."MAN, You are pigging out on air today!!!". I saw
Steve up for almost an hour while I tried to look for a second wire
guy. I tried the phone list with no luck. Then, believe it or not,
even more good karma! A student pilot checking out the launch site
with his son was willing to give me a hand with Jeff. "Thank you
gentleman, and CLEAR!" I said without hesitation. With one step into
the strong headwind, I gratefully took the instant elevator ride to
400 over to join Steve hanging out above. The rest of the hour
flight was peaceful…a great way to cap off the day. I was able to
practice some hard turns/mini-wing overs without falling below 100
over. I gave my glider and myself a workout!!! It was a blast, and
while we were both able to easily stay up for another hour, we
headed
to the LZ before it got too dark. I followed Steve to the interstate
lookout point, where he seemingly drew a crowd of onlookers. I
wanted to give them an encore, but instead decided to head for the
LZ
with some extra altitude. Again, I varied my approach a bit and
committed to a west landing this time. Being target-fixed on Steve
watching me come in (don't mess up!) and forgetting that the field
had a slight downgrade, the ground came up faster than expected. I
wheeled this one in. DOH! I'm ready for a beer and another restful
night of sleeping under the stars.
Sunday, both Steve and Keith decided not to fly. I was already set
up and packed the car and said I'd meet them in the LZ ready to
return to Memphis. I launched and sniffed below launch for about 15
minutes finding tiny "bug farts" just to stay aloft. I tried the
same area I had luck with on Saturday, just to find sink there. Man,
this sport is like fishing!!! Where are those damn bass hiding!!?
It was hard to tell if the blips I was getting were thermals or just
intermittent pockets of useable ridge lift I was intercepting. My
spirits were becoming dampened as I struggled to find something good
and began sinking out. I really don't like getting too close to
treetops, ESPECIALLY in sink. I kept telling myself to relax, look
for triggers, collectors, maintain as much altitude with what I had
to work with, probe as much ground as I can, and wait patiently for
the next cycle "set" to come through. Finally, the upwind side of a
tiny cloud shadow began to hit the ridge and I decided to make a run
for it, knowing that if it didn't work, I'd be heading straight for
the LZ. My luck was good, and I skyrocketed up to 3500 over! This
time, I was over the brown circle-shaped house on the south side of
the launch. This thermal was calm at first (around 200ft/min) but
eventually became even more abusive to me than the one I was in the
day before. When it calmed down enough for me to comfortably look at
my vario, it was averaging 450+ ft/min. I hit a point where I really
felt like the cloud would eventually suck me into it, and my input
to
the glider was becoming less and less. Wind sounds across my ears
were whistling hard and picking up like crazy. The bleeping added to
the carnage. Every ounce of instinct told me to get out, and so I
dove out of it bar-to-knees keeping an eye on my airspeed and hoped
I
would stop climbing. I finally got out of it after counting five or
more seconds and then started to glide over the ramp to show
everyone
how high I got =). On my way to the LZ, I caught a few less-intense
pockets just to stay aloft and rack some more airtime along the way.
I spotted a seemingly growing column of smoke from the south. It
must have been from the same smoldering wildfire we found under the
power lines during our Sunday morning 8-mile mountain bike ride.
As I waited for Keith and Steve to arrive at the LZ for me, I hung
out about 600 feet over the LZ. The field was certainly kicking off
some lift. I was desperately trying to figure out which direction I
should approach, since the sock was switching hard W to N every 5-10
seconds. Since it was in the heat of the day, I was mentally
preparing myself for a bumpy approach with a possible crosswind.
Being indecisive, I set up my approach from the southwest corner so
that I could choose a north or west final approach at the last
minute. As I got low, it was looking more north than west, so I
committed there, hooked it right over the small patch of shrubbery,
and landed on target. Again, Murphy was correct. The telltales
switched on me on final, with a couple of punches toward the end,
but
I always come in hot and low, so no worries. Good two-step landing
to wrap up a great weekend!
It is hard for me to describe every little happening that went on
during my flights. I had moments of panic, despair, and my moments
of bliss (whistling CCR song on the way up!) All I can say is that I
felt so free up there, being so high. Every time I've been on a
commercial airliner looking out, and wondering what it would feel
like to be out there by myself…way high —now I know.
It was great meeting many of the Tree Toppers out there this
weekend. What a great club! I hope to see you in the air again very
soon! Thanks, again, for a great weekend!
Jeff Sharp
your newest Tennessee Tree Topper friend.
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