3/1/06 Flight – New Experiences and some lessons learned.

[Don]

Two trucks loaded with some of Kagel’s finest, some of Kagel’s wanna-be finest, and Fred Ballard with his tourist headed up the hill shortly after noon. The wind at the launch was out of the South at 5 – 15 mph. But to make things a little more interesting it was shifting and was from the SW and sometimes the West.

The first two pilots launched and took a few anxious moments to find the lift. I was third to launch. I immediately headed to the “Old Reliable� locations along the ridge – NOTHING ! No precious sweet beeps on the Vario. Anticipating a sled ride I headed towards the volcano looking to make this an extended sledder. At 2,523 MSL and one turn before heading toward the LZ I found some light lift – the sweet sound of beeping - just what Joe Greblo had forecast on the website “light lift to 5,000’�. I worked the lift back to the ridge and then back above launch – THANK GOD ! Later, Ron Weiner told me that because of the West wind was creating rotors along the ridge, I should have headed straight toward Trash – hopefully I’ll remember that for next time. Lesson learned.

20 minutes into the flight and just a few feet East of Trash I picked up a thermo at 4,400’. The sweet sound of beeping again put a smile on my face. However, the smile didn’t last long and soon turned to concern as the beeping turned into a steady high pitched whine indicating a 1,000' + climb as the altimeter went to 5,000’, then 5,500’, then 6,000’ with no end in sight. The only things that were in sight were the clouds overhead! At 6,532’ I straightened out, pulled in hard and locked the elbows. At 35 mph airspeed I had slowed my accent rate to 200’ - the “sweet sound of beeping� was no longer “sweet� – I longed for the “groan� indicating a decent of at least 350’ per minute. In what seemed like minutes but was actually less than 30 seconds I was out of the lift. Another lesson learned.

As time went on the majority of pilots were calling it a day. Only I and Ken Andrews flying a T2 were still in the air. A call from Erwin alerted me to the fact that Fred Ballard had returned to Launch for a flight with Nancy. I decided to try to “hang on� long enough to see them launch. Lift was minimal with an occasional thermo along the ridge. After another 30 minutes or so things seemed to change. Light lift was nearly everywhere. I decided to make one last short flight towards a low long “bump� just west of the Cemetery. As I left the ridge at 4,500’ I pulled in slightly – I was going up! As I passed Trash on my left I was at 4,750 – and still going up ! I pulled some more. As I made my turn and headed back towards the Volcano I had loss some altitude but was still at 4,250’. Again as I passed Trash, this time on my right, I started to climb. Wondering when the “fun� was going to end I pulled in hard and locked the elbows (again). Doing 35+ mph airspeed I was climbing – in the next 1 ½ minutes I climbed 200’. My fingers were nearly frozen (41 degrees on the vario) and I was beyond tired. With the bar still pulled in / pushed back I made more than a half-dozen giant S turns desperately wanting to hear the “groan� from the vario which rarely occurred. After eternity – actually 7 minutes - I managed to descend below 3,000’ to cross the Bridge. After some minor but unwanted lift in the staging area I finally landed 3:24 after launch. It was another 5 minutes before feeling returned to my fingers. Use Bar Mitts you say ? I have them ! Safely stored in my gear bag – wouldn’t want to wear them out before summer. Yet another lesson learned.

[Christian]

Don,
Great report. This was cloudsuck, right? What did the sky look like? What was cloud base that day?
It's hard to get much cloud experience at Kagel, and my first two times were very similar. Greblo pointed out that when cloudsuck is an issue you can bail out when the vario exceeds 500 up, then return to the cloud and do it again.
Did that feel like an option?

CW

[Chip]

This was cloudsuck, right? What did the sky look like? What was cloud base that day?

I spoke with the pilots later that evening and they said between 6500 - 7k

Based on the lapse rate yesterday I don't really think it was cloud suck as much as it was a higher than normal adiabatic lapse rate and no inversion layer.

If the environmental lapse rate is larger than the dry adiabatic lapse rate, the air is absolutely unstable -- a parcel of air will gain buoyancy as it rises both below and above the lifting condensation level. This often happens in the afternoon over many land masses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_lapse_rate

[Susko]

The best advice I ever recieved about being overpowered by lift was to change your mindset from "Gee, I want to get down." to "I'm going to try going somewhere." Granted, you still need to be aware of airspace, bailout LZ's, etc. It certainly keeps you from scaring yourself and pooping yourself out. It's not fun trying to land when you're tired from fighting your way out of the sky.

So if you can't get down at Trash, try tagging Lance's or Little T (or Big T) provided you have the glider to get you back to where you want to be.