On May 3rd 2008, I finally achieved the goal I had been dreaming about since I was very young, I became a pilot. It was a rainy day at Arlington Municipal Airport just north of Seattle, Wa. My flight examiner was Neil Karman, we went through the oral exam and then went outside to check the weather. My first decision as a de-facto rated pilot was the go/no go decision to fly; "Lets Fly!", I said, and we got the tow pilot and my trusty trainer, a Blanik L-13, and we were dodging clouds in no time. 3 flights later I was set free as a rated glider pilot.
Fast forward two years and now it's time for my Biennial Flight Review. The actual BFR was straightforward; with 200 hours in the last 2 years my stick and rudder skills are sharp, I'm current on my FARs, and flying at the local airport I knew every inch of the pattern and runway. What I have found more valuable was a review of all the stupid mistakes I have made in the last 2 years that have eaten into the acceptable safety margin I like to maintain. Below are the top 3 (or should I say bottom 3) mistakes I have made. Sadly there are many more than 3, but by stepping up and acknowledging all of them to myself I have recognized a few aspects of my flying that need to be kept in-check and identified situations and thought patters I need to be aware of.
When flying someplace new, question your level of comfort and confidence.
I had 3 flights under my belt flying out of California City, Ca, my longest just short of 200km, but I still hadn't done my planned out and return flight for my silver badge. Feeling anxious to get it out of the way, I took a tow on March 27th. With consistent thermals to 5000' agl near the airport I felt comfortable to push towards the mountains. Why not? I had gone cross country at 2500' agl flying out of Arlington and been successful, what can prevent me from repeating that success here? Before not too long I got low and had to back track to get a climb, again up to 5500' agl I pushed north, undeterred, into higher terrain on the other side of a ridge. A short glider later, and after lots of sink, I was below the required glider to get back over the ridge, and I was in the middle of nowhere! I was targeting a landout field on my PDA that I had never seen nor had conformation that it was landable. When I arrived at the spot, which was a 500' long dirt area on the side of the highway, I discovered a truck was parked right in the middle. I found a few thermals to give him time to move along and for me to make a run at going over the ridge. My attempts didn't work and I begrudgingly returned to land on the side of the highway. I should note that this was way first landout. The gider and myself were unhurt and I was quickly picked up by my crew; quickly because I had only made it 20 miles. At this point, if you were counting my mistakes on you fingers and toes, you would have both shoes off. Fundamentally, what really got me in trouble was a strong desire to achieve my goal coupled with a rational for my in-flight decisions based on a lot of experience from a completely different soaring site. Not everything transfers from site to site. Always question your own decisions! Here is the flight.
Don't ever outsource in-flight decisions to someone outside the cockpit.
Reading this one it is difficult to imagine a situation where this would ever happen, yet it has happened to me and it almost ended very poorly; in fact it's the closest I have come to crashing my glider. I was flying the practice day of Region 12 last year and I had identified a pilot who I knew was very good, and my plan was to flollow him around the course and try to learn as much as I could. I would go where he went, leave when he left, and thermal with him; taking notes the whole time. Well at the start I was a little lower that he was and he was soon off leaving me in the dust, I had set a minimum altitude from which I would leave the start gate and at that point I was below that altitude. I tried to find a better thermal but in the process fell lower. There was a lot of internal pressure to leave so that I could execute my plan, how could I complete the task if I didn't follow this other pilot around? So, I left the start gate well below my minimum altitude and spear chucked into a field 10 miles further on. I committed to land way too late, failed to see the power lines running across the field, failed to notice how long the grass was, and failed to notice the nicer fields 1 mile behind me. I finally picked up the power line on short final, luckily they were not a factor, but no off field landing story should ever use the expression, 'luckily'. Once I touched down I caught a wingtip in the grass and ground looped. I thought for sure the boom was coming off but it didn't and glider and pilot once again escaped damage. All because I delegated my success of the flight outside the cockpit. Check the flight here.
Know the point of no return.
This one has happened to me a few times, most notably early in this flight. Out on course there were amazing Cu's popping, but not in the direction I usually leave the Tehachapi Valley. There were more to the west in an area that is very far out of the way and only has was very non desirable land-out option. I got as high as a I could and made a B-line straigh for the clouds. About 10 miles into that glide, when I realized the clouds were out of reach I should have turned to the east to make my escape, but I didn't, I had made my decision and a was fat, dumb, and happy. About 5 more miles and I could have made an escape to better terrain and much better landing options, but again i had made my decision, the clouds were still there and they were getting better, but at this point I should have realized they were out of reach If I were to maintain escape options. I had crossed the point of return and hadn't yet noticed. It was just a little further on that I realized I was going to have to make it work if I wanted to escape the valley, so I got down low and close into the rocks and finally got the thermal I was looking for. I should have never been in the situation in the first place; low, in a valley with only one very poor land-out option, and no escape routs.
So that's the short list of the mistakes I have made in the last 2 years of flying. Soaring is challenging and dangerous, that's why I like it, but there is no reason to make it any more dangerous that it needs to be. If you asses your mistakes and understand how events transpired you're more likely to fill your bag of experience before you bag of luck runs out!
Keep flying, and making good decisions,
Michael 'BK'
February 23, 2010
Current Projects
I just wanted to provide a status of what I'm working on and apologize for missing last few weeks worth of posts, there is a great post in the works based on an interview with Chip Garner; so stay tuned for that.
My current projects:
1) I'm sanding the wings of my Libelle, fixing some poor repairs previously done, sealing aileron gaps, sealing aileron root holes, improving spoiler fit, replacing all spoiler springs, making tip wheel fairings, improving the canopy seal, fixing some fuselage scratches, adding tabulator tape to the rudder, making a tail skid, fixing some trailer issues, and making some improvements to the cockpit to increase comfort.
2) Developing a detailed simulation of an ASW-20 to evaluate different digital vario filtering schemes.
3) Planning for the upcoming season's contests - US Sports Class Nationals, Avenal season opener
And there are always a million other things on the back burner. In an upcoming post I will detail all the mods I made to my Libelle, and talk about the season goal sheet I'm developing for myself.
Keep soaring,
Michael
My current projects:
1) I'm sanding the wings of my Libelle, fixing some poor repairs previously done, sealing aileron gaps, sealing aileron root holes, improving spoiler fit, replacing all spoiler springs, making tip wheel fairings, improving the canopy seal, fixing some fuselage scratches, adding tabulator tape to the rudder, making a tail skid, fixing some trailer issues, and making some improvements to the cockpit to increase comfort.
2) Developing a detailed simulation of an ASW-20 to evaluate different digital vario filtering schemes.
3) Planning for the upcoming season's contests - US Sports Class Nationals, Avenal season opener
And there are always a million other things on the back burner. In an upcoming post I will detail all the mods I made to my Libelle, and talk about the season goal sheet I'm developing for myself.
Keep soaring,
Michael
February 13, 2010
Changing Gears - Continued
Last week I posed the question, "Why would you need to change gears while flying?" and provided a list of reasons why I though you would have to. Tony Condon, a Cherokee II pilot (who's soaring blog can be read here) also provided his own reasons for changing gears. Below I address a few of those reasons and provide anecdotal evidence from my own flying.
Good Reasons for changing gears:
The sky ahead is blue.
I imagine this is the most common reason for changing gears during flight, and the easiest to see coming. It happened to me on a 500km triangle task on my way to the first turn point; the last 50km was out in the blue after a leg under good cloud development and reliable lift. The approach was simple because it was easy to see the problem coming, which is important to realize in addressing the other reasons for changing gears - if you are aware of the changes ahead you can start to plan early. In this instance, the solution was to climb as high as possible before heading out into the blue and switch from flying cloud references to following ground references. Dial back the MacCready and turn around and retreat before you are too low to make it back into an area of known good lift. Keep in mind when flying into the blue there are three reasons why the sky is blue; 1) the lift doesn't go as high as it did in the area of clouds, 2) the dew point is lower and the lift goes just as high, 3) there is little or no lift. On my flight, it turned out that the lift was just stopping 500' lower than in the area of clouds. That portion of the leg was still slower but I made the turnpoint.
The last thermal was broken at 8000'.
This one came form a very interesting learning experience; it required connecting a lot of different information together to develop a good reason to change gears and slow down. The sky was clearly rocking, good cu all over with good vertical development but no hint at over development. The cloud tops were leaning to the north east but I was showing wind more out of the north west. Cloud base appeared to be at 9500'-10,000', but climbing through 8000' the lift was broken and weak, about 2-3 knots below the rest of the climb. I realized, after ignoring the sings for an hour, that there was a shear layer at 8000' and if I could break through 8000' the lift would be much better and as an added bonus the wind would be better aligned with my leg. So I changed gears by slowing down and struggling through the shear layer, once above 8000' the lift picked up markedly. I was then forced to shrink my working band so that I would not drop below 8000'.
I am nervous.
Death Valley has an intimidating name which conjures up images of a very formidable place for a glider pilot to fly over. When your landing options are Furnace Creek or Stove Pipe Wells you consider all other options seriously. On a straight out flight from Tehachapi, Ca for the 2010 Dust Devil Dash, I had to make an even more difficult decision. I needed to cross the valley north east of Death Valley - 35 miles of inaccessible desert with the retrieve option being a helicopter for you and a 3 day expedition for the glider on ATVs and 4 wheel drive trucks. In this situation, no matter how good the clouds look are how strong the lift is, it's reasonable to change gears, slow down and stay high.
Bad reasons for changing gears:
I needed to make up lost time.
This happens to me more than I would like to admit. If you set a goal for your flight, and maybe it's a bit reaching or an over call for the day, it easy to blame yourself for falling behind and try to make up for it by doing the completely wrong thing in poor conditions; change gears and fly faster. There is only one optimal speed for every condition, and that speed doesn't change because you are flying poorly or because you need to fly faster to make your turnpoint or goal.
The final point is that there are good and bad reasons to change gears - good reasons are based on lots of information gathered from all resources available, bad reasons often come from internal emotions or rational independent of all the information available to the pilot. If you only eliminate all the bad reasons for changing gears from your flying you will be making a significant improvement.
Keep soaring, no matter what gear you're in!
Michael
Good Reasons for changing gears:
The sky ahead is blue.
I imagine this is the most common reason for changing gears during flight, and the easiest to see coming. It happened to me on a 500km triangle task on my way to the first turn point; the last 50km was out in the blue after a leg under good cloud development and reliable lift. The approach was simple because it was easy to see the problem coming, which is important to realize in addressing the other reasons for changing gears - if you are aware of the changes ahead you can start to plan early. In this instance, the solution was to climb as high as possible before heading out into the blue and switch from flying cloud references to following ground references. Dial back the MacCready and turn around and retreat before you are too low to make it back into an area of known good lift. Keep in mind when flying into the blue there are three reasons why the sky is blue; 1) the lift doesn't go as high as it did in the area of clouds, 2) the dew point is lower and the lift goes just as high, 3) there is little or no lift. On my flight, it turned out that the lift was just stopping 500' lower than in the area of clouds. That portion of the leg was still slower but I made the turnpoint.
The last thermal was broken at 8000'.
This one came form a very interesting learning experience; it required connecting a lot of different information together to develop a good reason to change gears and slow down. The sky was clearly rocking, good cu all over with good vertical development but no hint at over development. The cloud tops were leaning to the north east but I was showing wind more out of the north west. Cloud base appeared to be at 9500'-10,000', but climbing through 8000' the lift was broken and weak, about 2-3 knots below the rest of the climb. I realized, after ignoring the sings for an hour, that there was a shear layer at 8000' and if I could break through 8000' the lift would be much better and as an added bonus the wind would be better aligned with my leg. So I changed gears by slowing down and struggling through the shear layer, once above 8000' the lift picked up markedly. I was then forced to shrink my working band so that I would not drop below 8000'.
I am nervous.
Death Valley has an intimidating name which conjures up images of a very formidable place for a glider pilot to fly over. When your landing options are Furnace Creek or Stove Pipe Wells you consider all other options seriously. On a straight out flight from Tehachapi, Ca for the 2010 Dust Devil Dash, I had to make an even more difficult decision. I needed to cross the valley north east of Death Valley - 35 miles of inaccessible desert with the retrieve option being a helicopter for you and a 3 day expedition for the glider on ATVs and 4 wheel drive trucks. In this situation, no matter how good the clouds look are how strong the lift is, it's reasonable to change gears, slow down and stay high.
Bad reasons for changing gears:
I needed to make up lost time.
This happens to me more than I would like to admit. If you set a goal for your flight, and maybe it's a bit reaching or an over call for the day, it easy to blame yourself for falling behind and try to make up for it by doing the completely wrong thing in poor conditions; change gears and fly faster. There is only one optimal speed for every condition, and that speed doesn't change because you are flying poorly or because you need to fly faster to make your turnpoint or goal.
The final point is that there are good and bad reasons to change gears - good reasons are based on lots of information gathered from all resources available, bad reasons often come from internal emotions or rational independent of all the information available to the pilot. If you only eliminate all the bad reasons for changing gears from your flying you will be making a significant improvement.
Keep soaring, no matter what gear you're in!
Michael
February 7, 2010
Changing Gears - Community Comments Requested!
I'm trying something different this week. I would like to ask all the great pilots who have been reading my blog to help contribute. Below is a list of all the good and bad reasons I can think of that a pilot would change gears while soaring. By change gears I mean, fling more or less aggressively, staying high or pushing low, increasing or decreasing MacCready, keep flying or land. I don't imagine that my list is complete, so I would like you to add a comment below with all the ones I have missed. During the week I'll collect the comments and amend the list with your thoughts then select a few to provide anecdotes for from my own flying or from flights I have read about. If you are feeling ambitious, provide an anecdote as well! Note that there is a list of good reasons, and a list of bad reasons; I'll comment on that later.
Good reasons for changing gears:
The sky ahead is showing:
Good reasons for changing gears:
The sky ahead is showing:
- More clouds
- Fewer clouds
- No clouds
- Cloud bases rising
- Cloud bases lowering
- Thunderstorms building
- Thunderstorm blow-off
- Cloud streeting
- A greater headwind/tailwind
- more/less favorable for ridge/wave/thermal-ridge/thermal-wave
- Showing a gust front
- Weaker than expected
- Stronger than expected
- Broken
- Broken above/below/at altitude x
- The next thermal is expected to be:
- Weaker than expected
- Stronger than expected
- Broken above/below/at altitude x
- Unknown
- Hasn’t started yet
- Is about to stop
- Has changed, i.e. shear line at end of day, ridge to thermal, thermal to wave, etc.
- Has changed angles, i.e. high to low, east facing to west facing
- Will/Has become blocked
- Is about to set
- Too low for comfort
- Too high to use
- Above/in/below the working band
- Will/Has become unlandable
- Will/Has changed, i.e. mountains/ plains, grasslands/forest, dry/wet
- Lost
- Tired
- Daydreaming
- Nervous
- Uncomfortable
- Reporting weak/booming lift
- Appear lower/higher ahead
- Returning lower/higher
- Deviating from course
- On the ground
- Gaggling
- Easy to see
- Make up lost time
- Make more distance
- Fly further/faster than competitor
- Recover from a mistake
- Frustration
- Impatience
February 3, 2010
New Resource for Importing Existing Turnpoint Files to Google Maps
There was a questions that came up at the convention I hadn't answered yet, that I would like to address now:
Q) I have a number of turnpoint/waypoint/landout files used in flight on my PDA, how do I get them into my Google My Maps?
A) Prior to my discovery of this tool, I was only able to do this with tools I have developed that wouldn't share well. But, thanks to Lynn Alley and his website http://www.soaringdata.info/ there is now a tool for everyone to use, and better yet it's free and it's online! Here is how to take data you already have and map it in Google My Maps.
1) Start by downloading this file from the World Wide Turnpoint Exchange, saving it to your desktop for easy access later. I have chosen a .cup file but other waypoint formats will work. Read this for more info.
2) Go to http://www.soaringdata.info/ in the first box, click on the words "this link".
3) Use the Browse button and open the .cup file saved in step 1.
4) Select, "Include only turnpoints in the output" and/or "Use FAA/NASR aiport names" if you want.
***I believe the website has a small error so the next steps are a work around to be able to select, ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4, which at this step should still be unselectable***
5.a) Input a local airport identifier in Box 1. If you downloaded the .cup from step 1, try using L94 (Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi, CA)
5.b) Select a maximum waypoint count of 5 (doesn't really matter)
*** At this point the ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4 should be a selectable option***
5) Select ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4
6) Type in "Soar" in option 5 and select Submit
7) You will get a popup that prompts you to save a .zip file; save it to your desktop. Once the download is complete, unzip the .kml file.
8) Go to Google Maps and Select My Maps and create a new map or open an existing map you want to add to (see my Feb 1st post for details) Then select the Import option, and brows to the .kml file and select OK.
In just a few seconds all your waypoints/landouts/airports will be imported into your map. You are 90% of the way to a great soaring resource for your local club. Here is an example map that should look just like the one you created following the steps above.
View US Airports from NASR Data in a larger map
As always, I'm available for questions.
Keep soaring,
Michael
Q) I have a number of turnpoint/waypoint/landout files used in flight on my PDA, how do I get them into my Google My Maps?
A) Prior to my discovery of this tool, I was only able to do this with tools I have developed that wouldn't share well. But, thanks to Lynn Alley and his website http://www.soaringdata.info/ there is now a tool for everyone to use, and better yet it's free and it's online! Here is how to take data you already have and map it in Google My Maps.
1) Start by downloading this file from the World Wide Turnpoint Exchange, saving it to your desktop for easy access later. I have chosen a .cup file but other waypoint formats will work. Read this for more info.
2) Go to http://www.soaringdata.info/ in the first box, click on the words "this link".
3) Use the Browse button and open the .cup file saved in step 1.
4) Select, "Include only turnpoints in the output" and/or "Use FAA/NASR aiport names" if you want.
***I believe the website has a small error so the next steps are a work around to be able to select, ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4, which at this step should still be unselectable***
5.a) Input a local airport identifier in Box 1. If you downloaded the .cup from step 1, try using L94 (Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi, CA)
5.b) Select a maximum waypoint count of 5 (doesn't really matter)
*** At this point the ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4 should be a selectable option***
5) Select ".KML (for Google Earth)" in Box 4
6) Type in "Soar" in option 5 and select Submit
7) You will get a popup that prompts you to save a .zip file; save it to your desktop. Once the download is complete, unzip the .kml file.
8) Go to Google Maps and Select My Maps and create a new map or open an existing map you want to add to (see my Feb 1st post for details) Then select the Import option, and brows to the .kml file and select OK.
In just a few seconds all your waypoints/landouts/airports will be imported into your map. You are 90% of the way to a great soaring resource for your local club. Here is an example map that should look just like the one you created following the steps above.
View US Airports from NASR Data in a larger map
As always, I'm available for questions.
Keep soaring,
Michael
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
