Cayucos - My first soaring flight

October 12, 2008

Saturday was looking good for Cayucos according to NOAA, so John Bill and I met in the morning. Jen came along to take pictures and drive. When we arrived, the winds--which were forecast to be over 15mph--were pretty much nil. We hung out on the beach for over an hour watching the flags at the fire station across the street hang almost completely slack. Just when I was wondering if we would fly at all that day, the wind started to pick up. It built to 20mph in barely a half hour. We drove to the top and set up.

Since I was the beginner, it was agreed that I would launch after John and before Bill. John launched his Eagle with some assistance. He immediately floated up and began crabbing around in front of the hill, hanging out about 100' over launch. It was my turn. I was pretty nervous walking to launch. Bill was holding my nose wires--but the wind was gusting from 18-22 mph, and as I approached the shallow part of the slope, I found it was more and more difficult to hold my nose down. It didn't help that I'd decided to mount my vario a little bit too high on the down tube. I hooked in and prepared to launch, shoving the vario down a bit. We stood at launch for a little while with Bill holding my nose wires. It just felt too erratic. I felt like I had I had the basetube pinned to my legs, and the nose still wanted to pop. We set the wing down for a minute. After collecting myself, I picked it up again. It felt better this time. I waited until Bill showed me that he was not holding the wires, and the wing was balanced. I shouted "clear!" Bill sprang out of my way and off I went, pulling in for all I was worth. In 3-4 steps I was off the ground.


Cayucos Ridge Soaring from henderthing on Vimeo.

The nervousness of launch quickly gave way to the elation of actually gaining altitude. It was a great sensation to feel the glider quickly rising above launch altitude. My first order of business was just to get a sense of my mobility in this wind. I flew back and forth in front of the hill, and started working my way several yards back around the side of the hill. I could make progress in any direction--but flying directly into the wind gave me a ground speed of only a few mph. I also noticed that flying downwind over any of the ridges radiating from the hilltop launch--even if I was well over them--slowed my upwind progress considerably. I decided to play it safe and not stray far from the front of the hill. If the wind got much stronger, I wouldn't be able to make any upwind progress without losing lots of altitude. At last--I had the opportunity to just spend time getting a better feel for my wing! The air was very smooth, and I could easily maintain an altitude of about 800'. It was a beautiful day, so I was quite happy to fly my pedestrian little figure 8's and a couple circles over launch. I was having a great time.



A while later I watched as Bill managed to get himself and his U2 into the air with no assistance. I was impressed! I continued my non-adventurous patterns as John and Bill explored the back bowl and surrounding areas. After about 45 minutes, I flew about 1.4 miles south to re-join them at "the knob." I arrived at about 250 feet, and managed to get back up to about 500. Earlier, I'd made one quick attempt to yank my harness zipper up. It didn't go on my first try--so I forgot about it, opting to jam my feet into the bottom of the harness instead. I also happened to have a little irrational fear of not being able to unzip for landing... Well, by now my feet and legs were getting a little uncomfortable. Just when I started to think of landing--I watched as first John, then Bill flew over Route 1 and landed on the beach. I followed, although my approach probably looked a lot different in very vertical way. I had a smooth, light landing--and was greeted by Jen. What a great day. I'm so glad I met these guys. They have been nothing but helpful, patient and supportive--not to mention fine company. This is the beginning of what I'd been training for.

Airtime: 1 hour 15 minutes