Prez Sez

Well, I don't have a top ten list for this month and I don't want to lecture everyone on safety (OK, I really do but I'm not sure that I can get away with it). I thought I would describe my flight at High Rock on Monday. It was fun, but ultimately came with considerable risk. I thought by describing it, pilots may consider what they might have done in the same circumstances.

Monday's forecast was mostly sunny with 5-10 mph NW winds. Steve Kinsley and I went to the Pulpit to find 10-15 mph winds with a significant north cross. Although cumies were popping, with the cross we elected to go to High Rock where conditions would be more fun. At the Rock (arrived at 2:00) we found light winds around 5-10 mph with only a slight north cross. Cumies were forming and covering 70% of the sky. Any real sun would cause a cloud to form.

At launch, we thought it would be soarable despite the light winds since the thermals seemed so plentiful. For the first half hour, things were pretty light but soarable from 300'to 600' over. However, I noticed pretty quickly that a cell had OD'd to the south and was raining near Hagerstown, and another cell had formed about 10 miles to the north. However, neither of the cells was moving our way, and in fact, the storms seemed to be slowly passing to the east. After about 45 minutes, I noticed a sudden big increase in wind. I was able to get out in front in my Litespeed, but it did take some effort flying at 50 mph to get out of the venturi. When I reached the train tracks, wind appeared to be around 25 mph in the air so I continued to fly out near the train tracks in the fun thermals. The flying was good; I climbed to 2700' over without even drifting much past the train tracks.

After another 15 minutes, I noticed a small cell had OD'd right out front near I-81. Well, I could see through the light rain and thought I could fly through it, but decided that since the cells to the north and south were quite large, there was a chance the cell would continue to grow until it was much too large to fly through. I stuffed the bar to get on the ground.

Things then became interesting. I flew out past the LZ to find winds closer to 30 mph at launch level and quite rowdy. I could see the high grass in the LZ and nearby fields whipping around. The trees surrounding the LZ were also whipping violently. At this point, I had few options. The cell was still coming my way, and I was too low to go anywhere even if I had more altitude. I got in position over the LZ and hit a monster thermal. I honestly had 800' up all the way around even with my wires slapping. With that kind of turbulence in the field, I didn't want to land. I held on and let myself climb for 600 or 700 feet up to 500' over launch, but I still needed to get down with that cell coming. All this time I saw Steve in the LZ calmly breaking down and wished that I had landed when he did. I let myself get kicked out of the thermal as it drifted to the north of the LZ and headed back over the downwind side of the field. I did a few figure 8s over the downwind side of the field and started my final about 250' agl in the center of the field about equal to the gap in the trees. I thought ordinarily I would glide past the far end of the field, but with this wind didn't see that as a problem. A few more wire slaps coming in on final and I thought, "Hey, I may even have a no-stepper with this wind!" But the gods must have read my mind. I could see the high grass getting flattened by the wind so I could easily see the wind direction. As I came within 10 feet agl, the grass suddenly turned 90 degrees cross from my right and knew immediately a no-stepper was not an option. I dove into the grass and flared hard just in case. Lo and behold, my wing caught and I had a very soft wheel landing with nothing hurt or bent. Before I could get up, the wind swirled behind me and almost flipped me from behind (with the keel on the ground). At this point Steve came over to help and said, "Your landing was just like mine!" Although I started my final extra high, I landed 50 feet short of the traffic cone. The cell came through 10 minutes later, but it was dissipating and wasn't any big deal by the time it got to the LZ, but the strong winds continued for at least another half hour.

The point is, I want you to think about what you would have done that day. Would you have launched at 3:00 with nice cumies out front, 5-10 mph straight in winds? Would you have thrown off a hang two in those conditions? Would you have landed when a couple of cells OD'd and started raining 10 miles off to the north and south? Would you have stayed up longer than I did? Would you want to land with winds around 25 mph at tree top level? I'm not sure that many pilots would have declined to fly that day. But once in the air, things quickly became pretty serious. These were not fun conditions. I'm still learning about conditions, especially spring flying when things can change quickly. You will need to continually evaluate conditions this spring, while on the ground and in the air. Thunderstorm season is coming and you might find yourself in the same circumstances. Just make the right decisions.

— Tom McGowan