A Double-First!

Hi all, I'm Roger Harris - I used to be a member of SSS until I moved to Pevensey Bay - some of you will remember me I hope - to those that don't - Hi!!

I had one of the most testing and (ultimately) rewarding glider flights of my life yesterday. I only started slope soaring a couple of years ago, having done power flying 10 years previously but having gotten bored with just 'flying round in circles' as I put it.

Soaring gave me more of a challenge - I am fond of saying that. But yesterday my brash summary really came home to roost!

Our local Easterly slope here in the Eastbourne area is called Butts Brow - a fairly narrow and deep bowl (think Devil's Dyke, but not as extreme - I mean the bowl bit on the right just before you get to the pub - not the slope) - and with a 8kt Easterly forecast I decided to go up for an hour in the afternoon.

When I got there it was hot and humid with not much breeze, but the car park is sheltered so I thought nothing of it. Some random bloke came past and said "you'll have plenty of thermal lift on a day like today - not much wind to speak of though" - I thought he was just a local know it all. The forecast was for a decent light breeze.  I got to the slope, out of the shelter of the bushes, to find the breeze as expected, maybe only 5 or 6 kts, but plenty to keep the good old Stargazer II up - it is very lightly built ( more of that later).

I quickly checked the model over, switched both the Tx and Rx on, tested controls and launched out into the light breeze.

Lovely! She glided straight out, gaining a little height as she went. I was in for a pleasant and gentle flight.

Fifteen seconds later, having gained around 30ft altitude from launch, the wind dropped to nothing and I found the Stargazer in sink. Rapid sink.

She very quickly dropped below the horizon and kept sinking. I was aghast - I'd never been in this situation before. Already she was too low to get back for a slope-top landing so I just kept scratching around looking for lift. I tried all parts of the bowl but to no avail. By this time I was edging myself forwards on the slope in order to keep the model in sight. I began to over-control and over-bank the model, partly because it was getting difficult to see, but also due to nerves and tension. Thus I lost extra height due to sloppy flying. I got a grip on myself, kept the bank angle to a minimum required for a turn. I used rudder to balance the turns and was rewarded with a slower rate of sink. Large, slow, flat turns allowed me to search for the elusive lift.

I knew from the Slopehunter write-up that the 'bushes' in front of me were in fact trees and should be avoided unless one has the climbing prowess of a gibbon. I kept the model out away from the slope, sinking lower and lower into the bowl. Things were getting serious - I realised I may well actually lose the Stargazer, or at least have to do a blind landing at the bottom of the slope and risk loss/damage as a result.

There is a clearer patch on the left side of the bowl, a lot further down, so I elected to head for that in the hope of not damaging the model too badly in what was likely to be a very heavy landing nearly 1/4 of a mile from where I was standing. I remember someone saying one should keep the model circling, lined up with the elected landing site. Once the model got close, one would (if lucky) be able to see the shadow of the model (if sunny) to gauge altitude.

As I got closer to my chosen crash site, the model suddenly wobbled slightly. I thought - that might be lift! It wobbled again and I turned gingerly into where the wind should have been coming from. I was rewarded with a slight height gain. I continued scratching around and to my utter amazement I found a thermal and the model began slowly climbing out of the bowl.

As I got higher the lift became stronger and after an initial struggle I ended up climbing so high I got my second dose of fear for the day - this time I feared I'd lose the model because it was so high, lol!

It was a struggle, I lost lift and regained it several times, but eventually had one of the most satisfying flights I've ever had with an Rc glider.

I even managed an absolute greaser of a landing 22 minutes after launching - just managing to clip a dry cow-pat on the ensuing slide. Yes, slide! I absolutely greased it in!

Did I mention the Stargazer is lightly built? The cow-pat was rock-hard and snapped the empennage clean off the top of the fuselage. I wasn't the least bit upset. I'd just had a flight which exemplified the reason I'd gotten into soaring in the first place.

The double-first? 

First 'low save' - and I mean low!

First flight where all height gain was from thermal lift, not slope. My first-ever thermal flight - with my trusty old Stagazer II, bless it!

What did I learn?

1) Listen to the locals... although if I had listened to that random bloke, I never would have had that flight...

2) Keep the plane flying, no matter what. I made the mistake of slowing up, pulling back unconsciously to try to keep her up. That was detrimental and once I realised what I was doing I actually fed in some down-trim and kept the airspeed up.

3) Never give up! I really thought I'd lost the model, or at least severely damaged it. But I kept at it and was finally rewarded with a great flight.

4) That nice E'ly breeze I encountered as a arrived at the slope was probably the trailing edge of the previous thermal - it passed as I launched, so the threw the model straight into sink - nice...

5) Finally, if it's too precious to crash/break/lose, don't fly it because one day you'll do what I did yesterday - and might not be so lucky. That's another one of my favourite brash sayings - but it's OK - that one came home to roost years ago ;-)

Happy flying all.

Rog.