Monday, September 18, 2006

Just Morning

Every morning the guys with the Motor Sailplanes have been up and ready to T/O at first light. I have felt a little ashamed every morning as I watch them leave, even though if I thought there was even a small chance of a Glory I would be out there too.

To be honest conditions have been very stable since I have been here, every morning looks the same, as do the general patterns in the day and night. I may not know what it looks like the night before a Glory, but I have a 100% record for calling the days when nothing comes through.
So anyway, this morning I decided to get up and put in the effort. The Sailplane guys were surprised to see me at the airfield in the dark and even more surprised when I started rigging the fun in the dark. "You're not actually going to commit aviation this morning?" was the typical comment.
As the sun came up over the horizon I took off with a small crown of spectators watching and climbed up to 300ft and watched my groundspeed decay. By the time I was around 1000ft I was getting blown backwards, there was about 25knots of wind up there and I could choose to come down and go forwards or go up and go backwards or remain roughly stationary in space.
I grew tired of looking down at the same spot after 15mins and landed. It really is all about going down wind in the fun!
I proved that I can at least function at that time of the morning and I need about 30mins from parking the car to T/O. I figure I then need 10 mins to get high enough to be able to catch the wave as it comes through. I am feeling quite comfortable about doing this with the fun. Posted by Picasa

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