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That Didn't Look Good (long)



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 23rd 06, 03:17 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Mary Daniel or David Grah
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Posts: 1
Default That Didn't Look Good (long)

Here is a self-indugent story of a flight last year. There is a prettier
version at http://home.inreach.com/grahdani/flights.html





Friday, 24 June 2005 was set as the day in 2005 I would again be able to fly
straight out as far as I could in my H301 Libelle with my friend Jeff
chasing me in his Cessna and then providing an aero tow home the next day.
This flight didn't turn out as well as flights in previous years.



This year I didn't watch the weather as closely as I normally did leading up
to a flight. From the looking I did do, the weather looked pretty good for
a flight to the northeast. Perhaps it was good enough that I could achieve
my long time goal of flying to Wyoming from Bishop. One part of the
forecast puzzled me because it suggested there would not be much sun on a
track to the northeast from Bishop. This didn't seem to match the rest of
the forecast but I didn't bother to reconcile this.



When I woke up the day of the flight I saw a high overcast covering most of
the sky at Bishop and understood the forecast about the lack of sun. As the
morning progressed the high clouds drifted off to the northeast and the day
started to heat up. I knew the high clouds would affect a flight to the
northeast but when I looked at the satellite image loop it seemed I could
skirt along the northwest side of the high clouds and still fly to the
northeast with a tailwind.



Around noon I was ready to. There weren't good clouds along the White
Mountains yet but I could see some about 80 miles to the north near
Hawthorne. I figured I could reach those clouds pretty easily. I took off
a few minutes after noon and worked my way up the Whites. Once off the
north end of the Whites conditions improved for a while, I was able to get
up to a little over 17,500 feet, and I was able to increase my speed.
Unfortunately, as I approached Hawthorne I was down to about 10,000 feet
with the really good looking clouds still several miles to the north. I
struggled along hoping for a good thermal that would be a ticket to those
good clouds ahead.



My mindset was that the day was a good day and I should push pretty hard to
cover as much ground as I could. Even with the high clouds keeping the
ground cooler than it would otherwise be, I figured the day would get better
and soon I would be covering ground at a rapid clip. Unfortunately I was
struggling along east of Walker Lake while the good clouds seeming to recede
away from me as I moved toward them. Undaunted I set my sights on a landing
far to the northeast and tried not worry about being 4 or 5 thousand feet
lower than I usually insisted on being.



Finally I found a good thermal, connected with the clouds and headed on my
way at as fast as my Libelle would go. The clouds formed a pretty good
street off to the north toward Winnemucca and on a path north of the deck of
high clouds. I was sorry to see, though, that the street led right through
several restricted areas between Winnemucca and me. As I drew closer to the
restricted areas I tried to figure out if I could skirt along the east side
of them and stay with the clouds. Soon it was clear that wouldn't work so I
veered more to the east with the intention of flying toward Austin and
beyond. This direction was toward the high clouds receding to the
northeast.



Jeff was in the air now and headed from Bishop toward Austin. His plan was
to land at Austin, add fuel to his tanks, and wait until I was in the area
and we would chart a course from there.



As soon as I left the clouds I started down pretty quickly and before long
was concerned about where to land. The Gabbs airport was starting to feel a
long ways away as I sank to about 10,000 feet again. After a couple fair
climbs I could reach Austin and I was happy to see a few cumulus on the
Toiyabe Mountains north of Austin.



The thermals that gave those two climbs on the way to Austin had a
substantial drift to the north that is readily apparent in the GPS track of
the flight. For some reason, perhaps because of my now firm focus on flying
northeast - the direction I thought the wind was blowing - the fact this
drift was not to the northeast did not register with me during the flight.



Although I had caught up to the high clouds before reaching Austin,
conditions were good on the Toiyabe east of Austin with a few nicely shaped
cumulus. I quickly progressed north-northeast along them and climbed to a
little over 17,500 feet about 20 miles north of Austin. From the top of
this thermal I could see some good clouds leading to the sun northwest of
the high clouds near Battle Mountain and a few scraps of clouds in the
direction of the Ruby Mountains, northeast of my position. I chose a route
to the northeast and I left the Toiyabe and headed deeper under the high
clouds.



The thermals under the high clouds proved to be a long way s apart. About
40 miles after being at the top of one thermal on the Toiyabe I was down
close to 9,000 feet looking closely at the highway between Eureka and
Interstate 80 between Battle Mountain and Elko about 3,000 feet below me as
my landing spot. Fortunately I found lift, was able to climb away, and
continue on my way toward the Ruby Mountains and now on a track more to the
east than northeast. I found the best thermal of the day on the way to the
Ruby's and climbed to a little over 17,500 feet. It was after 1700 by this
time and it was clear I wasn't going to make it to Wyoming and might not
even make it out of Nevada. I was sure I was high enough to reach the Ruby'
s and could see a few shreds of cumulus clouds along their spine. I was
confident once on the Ruby's I could easily fly the length of the range. I
thought a reasonable landing spot would be Wells Nevada at the far end of
the Rubies.



I reached the Ruby Mountains at about 12,500 feet and the clouds along the
spine seemed to dissipate as I approached. I turned northeast along the
spine confident I would soon contact lift. Unfortunately I sank closer to
the highest ridge of the range and still found no lift. As I continued
northeast, the Fort Ruby strip near the south end of the Ruby Mountains and
about 30 miles behind me, became harder and harder to reach. Jeff was in
the Ruby Valley east of the Ruby Mountains and said he saw what he thought
would be reasonable places for me to land on roads and private airstrips
there. I knew I could reach these areas but wasn't sure I could reach the
Elko airport 30 miles to the northwest and on the other side of the Ruby
Mountains from the Ruby Valley. As I sank even closer to the spine of the
Ruby's I found scraps of lift I tried to work but with little success. With
a few hundred feet to go I had to make a decision on which side of the Ruby'
s I should sink. The landing spots Jeff found seemed more like a sure thing
so I made the decision and descended east of the spine of the mountains.



Jeff had found two good places to land, one was on the paved road near the
north end of the Ruby Valley and the other was at a private strip mowed into
a nice green field. Although I thought I could reach the road, the strip
was just off my right wing so I committed myself to the strip. I worked
weak lift on a ridge jutting from the Ruby's into the valley but it only
delayed my inevitable landing.



As I got lower, Jeff made a low pass on the strip and reported 18-inch high
grass along the sides and some poles set back from the strip on either side
at about mid-field. I was a little concerned about the grass and knew I
would need to keep my wings level as I touched down and rolled to a stop
after landing to avoid catching a wing in the grass. As I made my final
approach to the strip on a track to the southwest, I noticed the ground
sloped from the right to the left, from the mountains to the valley, and
that there was a light breeze blowing off the mountains across the strip
from the right. The mowed strip was narrow and to stay aligned with it I
held my right wing a little low. As I approached round-out and prepared to
touch down I noted the slip I held for the wind and the cross slope of the
field both made my right wing be close to the ground. I raised the right
wing to provide clearance and prepared for touch down.



The instant it touched down, probably at about 40 miles per hour, the glider
began turning sideways to the right and skidding. At once I thought I had
forgotten to put the gear down and, without a wheel running along the
ground, I was sliding sideways on the belly of the glider. I immediately
recalled I had gone through my pre-landing checks and verified at least
once, and probably twice, the gear was down and locked. By this time I was
sliding sideways perpendicular to the strip and realized it didn't matter
why I was sliding sideways, and braced for any sort of impact or breakage in
store. I further realized I was experiencing a ground loop and remembered
that Libelles sometime break their tail booms in ground loops.



I came to a stop and all was quiet. I couldn't see much because I was in a
cloud of dust kicked up by the less-than-perfect landing. Moments later
Jeff, who had been watching from pattern altitude said on the radio "that
didn't look good" and sort of captured the moment perfectly. To what he
proclaimed later was to his relief, I replied I was okay. I knew I hit my
head on the canopy and wondered if I had strained my neck a little. I tried
to take the canopy off but couldn't. My Libelle's canopy needs to roll
forward an inch or so to release the back of the canopy and I couldn't get
the canopy forward for some reason. After some gymnastics in the cramped
cockpit I finally got the canopy off and climbed out of my glider.



The tail boom was not broken but the wingtips were torn off of both wings
and the landing gear was bent to one side. In a couple of minutes Jeff
landed and taxied to a stop near me. We gathered up the wing tips and
pushed the glider off the strip and tied it down. The owners of the strip
were not at home so I left a note on the glider giving my cell phone number
and saying I would be back the next day to get it. Jeff and I solemnly flew
off in his plane, camping overnight under the wing of his plane at the
Eureka airport. We were back in Bishop mid morning. But my adventure wasn'
t over.



By about noon I was headed out of town with my trailer to get the glider.
On the way out I retrieved a voicemail on my cell phone from the owners of
the strip where I landed and returned the call. The fellow I talked to was
extremely nice and understanding about my need to land on his strip. I told
him I estimated I would get to the strip in about 8 hours, or at about 8 pm.



Just a few miles from Bishop I ran smack into what must have been a 40 mile
per hour headwind with blowing dust and sand and some rain. I got through
this and the hours went by as I drove slowly across Nevada. When I got to
Highway 50 near Austin I had my first encounter with the masses of huge
crickets I would find covering the roads in many places. The horrified look
on the face of a bicycle rider going the other way on Highway 50 summed up
the situation pretty well. From Eureka I left Highway 50 and decided to
take dirt roads to the Ruby Valley because the route on dirt roads would be
so much shorter than a route on paved roads. I knew I had to drive on some
dirt roads getting to the strip and figured the trailer would be full of
dust anyway, so why not save some time?



A few miles from Eureka I got lost and had to backtrack to find the right
road. Soon I started to run through (and over) patches thick with crickets
again. When I passed each of the few vehicles going the other way, the
tracks of smashed crickets that vehicle left would quickly become brown with
live crickets feeding on their fallen comrades. It was disgusting so I had
to stop and take a picture. As I walked along the crickets would screech
and hop away. Before continuing on I walked around the trailer for a quick
check and heard the hiss of a leak in one of my truck tires. I drove out of
the cricket patch, changed the tire, and drove more slowly since I no longer
had a spare. Finally I reached a paved road near the Ruby Mountains without
seeming to get another flat. I needed to stretch so got out and walked
around the trailer again and was really sorry to hear the hiss of leak in
one of the other tires on the truck!



I started to drive toward Elko but the tire was going flat fast. In about a
quarter mile I pulled off the road onto a side road and wondered what to do
next. I called the owner of the strip again to tell him I wouldn't be
getting to the strip that day. He offered to come and get me and even bring
my two flat tires to his place and fix them! I didn't want to cause him so
much trouble but my options were extremely limited so accepted. He drove
with his wife the hour each way to pick me up me and to pick up my tires.
We decided we should also tow my trailer back to the strip so I could put my
glider in it and save some time. Once there, I realize I had left some of
the gear I needed to load the glider in the trailer in my truck. He did a
great job fixing the two tires and we drove the two hours back to my truck
and back, with me following him on the way back. To top off the day they
treated me to a delicious meal at what I found to be an absolutely wonderful
old house that started its life as a one-room schoolhouse. I slept under
the wing of my wounded glider.



Early the next morning I woke to the sound of them loading their plane for
their trip back home to Las Vegas. I became even further in their debt when
he helped me take the wings off the glider and put them into the trailer.
Soon they took off. I was able to force the landing gear to retract enough
to load the fuselage in the trailer and was on my way home, home the long
smooth paved way.



The paved way home was along Interstate 80 and as I drove along on that
highway west of Elko I noticed how much the trailer would sway when the big
trucks passed me, me going about 60 miles an hour them going 75 or more. It
didn't take long for me to find out the real reason why the trailer was
swaying when the right trailer tire disintegrated catastrophically because
of low air pressure. I was discouraged to find the trailer spare was also
low on air even though I had filled it when I left Bishop. I limped along
to Battle Mountain to get air. I filled my gas tank, the two tires on the
truck that were low on air, and the now-in-use spare on the trailer, and
headed for Austin.



The highway between Battle Mountain and Austin was thick with crickets in
many places, so thick I thought I remembered about smashed crickets being a
safety problem because they make the road so slippery. I slowed down going
through the crickets. The sound of the countless bodies being crushed under
my tires was memorable, to say the least. My fender wells and other truck
and trailer parts were coated in thick mush of cricket that dried. Some
stays there as I write this months later.



I didn't need gas at Austin and actually didn't even need to go through town
because the highways I was going to travel joined west of town about a mile.
At the highway junction I checked the tires again as a precaution and once
again heard the hiss of a leak in one of the truck tires. So, I drove into
Austin, filled all the tires, including the spare on the truck, mounted the
spare, and bought some fix-a-flat now that I was without spare tires.



From Austin I made it home without incident after a long couple of days in
the glider and the truck. I bought new tires for the truck and the trailer.
For several months I couldn't face even evaluating the damage on the glider.
Finally I did look the glider and a few months later had it repaired. It
was almost a year later that I flew my Libelle again.


  #2  
Old September 23rd 06, 04:09 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Chuck Lohre
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5
Default That Didn't Look Good (long)

I was mesmerized by your story "That didn't look good." You are an
incredible writer. My humble appreciation. I wish I lived out west. We
here in the east could only understand your story if we deleted a zero
from your altitudes.

Please email me
 




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