Up, up and away (Part 2)

I'm presently at cloudbase, around 3,500' QFE to Sutton Bank which is not more than about a mile away. If you want to find out how I got there, read part one of this post.

Now that I had some height, it was time to do something with it - and I had a plan. I read on a website of another gliding club that early solo pilots should set themselves little challenges to ensure that they were always pushing themselves to try new things, and learn new skills. Apparently, the sport of gliding loses quite a few people at this stage - no longer regularly flying with instructors to push them on and not qualified to venture out into the countryside, they get bored and stop flying.

I can't go out of gliding range of the airfield, and even if I could, I'm not yet used to quite how far a glider can go given a certain height - I mean, I know the numbers, but I want to get an idea of the reality.

I estimated that I could glide at 30:1 accounting for inefficient flying and to make the calculations a little easier (the aircraft should be able to do 38:1 according to the spec). So, to travel 6,000' (approx 1 nautical mile) I should lose 200'. Thirsk is 5 nm away from the airfield so an out and return should be comfortably done for a loss of 2,000' (the return leg would be downwind and fast, cancelling out the slow, into wind outward leg). I had 3,500' which, with a 1,000' circuit height still gave me a very comfortable margin.  So off I went.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at how easy it was to fly to a point that was pretty much directly into wind, I had expected it to be fairly slow going at around 40-45 knots, but the conditions were such that I could still comfortably climb at one knot whilst cruising at sixty. I arrived at Thirsk having lost almost none of my starting height, there was a part of me that wanted to use the racecourse as a convenient turning point, but I didn't want to get too close to Topcliffe and the centreline of their runway 21/03; I was comfortably above their MATZ but I was without a radio and didn't want to risk being a nuisance.

So what to do now? I'd easily made my goal, and I still had tons of height - there was only one thing for it, explore!

I turned south towards Dalton, which allowed me to keep Sutton Bank in view over my left wing and make sure I didn't get too low. I had started to lose a little height by now and so picked out some likely looking clouds ahead that had potential to provide a climb. They duly did, the altimeter registered about 4,100' at the base and it occurred to me that I was about 200' from a silver height badge claim (realistically, I would have wanted 400' to make sure). I turned lazily in the lift whilst I considered whether I could and should try for it, but couldn't readily spot a way to gain any further height so I went back onto my original heading. I knew that Easingwold lie to the south, but I wasn't sure how far so I didn't venture forth.

I took a turn in the direction of Helmsley, which was the second on my list of places to visit. I hadn't anticipated doing it on this flight, given that it was 5 miles directly downwind of the airfield but since I was doing very well height wise, and with a following wind, I decided that I would be able to make it there and have more than enough height to get back. I also had the additional insurance policy that I could turn back to the airfield at any point along the leg if the picture didn't look right.

Getting to Helmsley was super quick and I was comforted to see another glider over the town at my height - that means two of us had arrived at the same decision that we could make it back from here (no, it didn't occur to me at the time that it could have been a glider from another club, or that it might have had an engine!). Mission accomplished, I turned for home.

And then I did a little poo.

First things first, where IS home? I knew that I was pointing in the right general direction, of course - but it took about 10 seconds to actually find the airfield since I hadn't seen it from this bearing and distance before, there's no giant white horse on this side to lead the way.

That problem solved, I trimmed for 45 knots and got nowhere fast. I wasn't sinking any more than normal and I still had 3,000' but I won't deny that I was taking significant interest in the fields below.

I needed to make progress, so I adjusted the trim for 60 knots, hoping to make 40 over the ground. Any faster than that would lead to an inefficient glide and I didn't want to burn my height. I'll have to do a field landing at some stage, I'm not worried about it - but I don't want to have to have that discussion when I was supposed to always be within range. I was headed directly for the end of runway 24 and I was fully prepared to and half expecting to land without a circuit.

In reality, the trip back was about six minutes but it felt like twenty. I hit what felt like a wall (of air) about half a mile behind the ridge, it produced a short, sharp climb and I assumed it must have been generated by wind coming off the hill. I was back over the clubhouse with about 1,800' left and as it loomed closer, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Safe and sound, I was over an hour into the flight now - maybe 1:20, was my two hour flight on the cards? It was, but once again my own politeness denied me as I knew someone else wanted to fly the aircraft, so whilst I was tempted to head to Thirsk again, I didn't try for a further climb. Thwarted again by the lack of a radio!

A normal circuit and landing quickly followed on the newly treeless and far less intimidating runway 24.

So, no 2 hour flight, no silver height today - but 1:31 was a new personal best and I had pushed my boundaries and travelled further than I had done before, so I left feeling satisfied.  There'll be another good day to achieve all of the things I want, but don't be after me on the flying list next time, because I'm going to bag that long flight and I'm not coming back until I do!