My Scariest and Most Memorable (and Probably Coldest) Flight

by Mike Chevalier

Saturday, September 22, 1990, the site: Woodstock. The glider: A Magic Kiss 154, a very popular glider that year. The day started off hot and sultry, so typical of the area. The forecast was for light SW winds to shift to the NW later in the day. We had a work party that day at a SE site called Fetzer's Gap, across the valley from Woodstock. We spent the day moving dirt and rocks around to smooth out the new launch which was actually someone's yard.

Fetzer's Gap never really worked out well. The ridge looked promising but seemed to be as soarable as Bill's Hill. Like seldom. And the landing field was far away from the ridge. And the first time we flew there, a brash paraglider pilot, new to the area, admitted that the LZ was too far away for him and decided to just ground handle his new wing on launch. His ego got the better of him after watching the hang gliders fly off and ground handling led to a flight attempt.

He never even made the first clearing and ended up dangling from the trees about 40 feet above a group of muttering pilots. The fire department was called and a ladder truck brought in to effect the rescue. On other days there would be several incidents involving hang gliders unable to make the distant landing field and ending up in trees. The site was given up on the following year and has not been flown since. But I digress.

After the work party a large group of pilots showed up at Woodstock with the wind turning NW just in time for an evening flight. It was still hot so I launched only wearing a T shirt and jean jacket. I found abundant lift on the ridge and headed south, climbing all the way.

Near Edinburg gap the lift became much stronger, so much so that I found myself climbing at 800 fpm in widespread lift. I took a few pictures, marveling that I was above the clouds which were several miles out front. I took a few more from 7200 over launch and realizing that sunset was nearing, started what would become an hour long struggle to get down.

The Magic Kiss was a fast glider in its day but was really designed for slow flight, something that it did very well. Its designer said that you spend 95 percent of your time flying slow. Well, it was capable of going fast but was twitchy and easily overcontrolled. I was soon pushing it to its limits, bar stuffed and knees tucked, trying to make forward and downward progress. Every so often the glider would go into violent oscillations and I would slow the glider to calm it down and warm myself up a little. And in the process I would gain back the altitude I had worked so hard to lose. I was freezing and warned others on the radio of my predicament, they were experiencing strong lift near launch but not on the scale of what I was in. Another pilot commented later that I sounded scared on the radio. Probably because I was.

I considered diving over the back and landing in Page Valley but God knows where I would have ended up given my altitude. I looked back there, it looked much darker to the east and I could see street lights flickering on. I saw the sunset from 5000 over and had to make a conscious decision to ignore the cold. I also had to ignore some violent oscillations to make forward progress.

I flew all the way out to I-81 before getting out of the lift. I dove several thousand feet down to launch level and sped back to the LZ. When I got there I was once again in strong lift with a glider below me. Again I had to stuff the bar and spiral it down, slip turning it and reversing direction every few turns otherwise the speed would be too great. Since it was getting dark I had to take off my sunglasses and hold them in my teeth. This was a problem since at that time I wore contacts. My eyes started watering profusely, blurring my vision.

Finally I was able to get down, make an approach and land in the LZ, now dark. And land with a good whack, my hands being totally numb and unresponsive. I was unable to unhook, another pilot had to do that and carry my glider. Others had to get me out of the harness. I sat in a car with the heat running to warm up and endure the pain of thawing hands. I broke the glider down by headlights. Bill Bennett told me later it was strong wave lift that I had encountered.

The next day I had a bad case of tendonitis, probably from the white knuckle grip on the bar. One of the tendons was painful, swollen and hard and looked like a third bone. In spite of that I flew Woodstock again on Sunday in more normal conditions. My description of Saturday's flight at the next club meeting brought out a bit of gallows humor although one older pilot didn't find anything funny about it.

Thinking about it afterwards, I realized that the flight had maxed out the capabilities of the glider, had I been flying anything slower I would have been blown over the back in the dark. Had the flight occured with plenty of daylight and proper dress it could have been an interesting and probably long XC flight over the back. Given the same conditions with my current glider, a Stealth 2, the fast flying wouldn't have been a problem. I've found wave lift since then at Woodstock, but not as strong off the north end, and had a good time exploiting it.

The Magic Kiss is gone, I parted it out a few years ago. I recently cut a chunk out of the lower surface and gave away the sail to someone planning to make a hot tub cover. I'm still flying with the same harness, an early Black Hawk pod. The Litek vario I was using I sold to a pilot in Wisconsin. The altimeter was one of those cheapies I bought at an auto parts store, it's still around somewhere. And that venerable jean jacket. Got that as a gift in 1978. A little worse for wear but I still have it and wear it sometimes while flying in hot weather.