After a very weak day yesterday (top of thermals at 3000′ msl), we had a better day today, although mostly blue.  The soaring weather forecast from both BMapper and XCSkies were adamant that there was absolutely no chance of clouds, so of course there were clouds over at least part of the soaring area (way out to the southwest over Blackwater Creek airport and into the Tampa Class B airspace).  The rest of the forecast turned out to be relatively accurate – winds from the southwest 15-20kt, with 3-5kt climbs to 4000-4500′ msl and no clouds.

BZ and I decided to construct and fly a task today, just to add a bit more competition realism into the practice environment.  We decided on a 3hr TAT with 3 circles; North to 19 Leesburg with a 15 mile radius, then south to 37 Wines with a 25 mile radius, then northwest to 15 Green Swamp with a 10 mile radius, then home.  The day got started a bit late, so by the time we got started on course it was (we thought) well after 2pm.  Knowing that the day was probably going to end around 4-4:30pm, we decided to cut the task down to 2 hours (as it turned out, our start times were off by an hour, as our nav systems were still using EDST – oops!).  Anyway, we got good climbs initially and were able to start out the top of the cylinder (we had set the max altitude to 4000′) but as we went north toward Leesburg, conditions were quite a bit softer.  In fact, we could see clouds way off to the west, and we were well above those cloudbases.  We just nicked the Leesburg circle and turned south, thinking we’d get better climbs the further south we went, and that was indeed the case.  We were able to make good progress into the 15-20kt quartering headwind, and we had a number of marked thermals that helped us along.  It got a bit soft again down near Winter Haven, but we were able to keep going without too much trouble, and wound up coming home with an average speed of about 55mph – not too shabby for going it alone on a blue day with significant winds!

BZ and TA Practice TAT

This was just our second ‘Real Life’ team flight, and we continued to make adjustments in our transition from Condor to RL.  One of the biggest adjustments is in the communications area; we used either Skype or TeamSpeak to communicate in Condor, and they are both much easier to use than RL radio.  In Condor we could freely converse, and the quality was pretty good.  In RL, you actually have to mash the PTT button, wait a split-second, and then talk or the first part of the message gets clipped.  In normal communications that clipping is generally insignificant, but when the entire message is “3.2” (meaning the average climb rate at the moment is 3.2kt), any clipping is disastrous.   After BZ complained a few times about hearing just the “.2”  part of “3.2”, I realized I had to press the PTT switch and pause just a beat before saying anything – Push, pause, speak.

Another big difference is the much higher level of complexity in the air mass itself.  In RL, being able to sense and exploit energy lines is very important, as is the ability to tell the difference between a 8kt gust and a real 4-6kt thermal.  The air mass model in Condor is much simpler, so stop/go decisions were much easier to make.  Today there were a couple of occasions where BZ was fooled into wasting a turn or two in a thermalus-fakus, and then had to catch up to maintain team integrity.   There were also a couple of occasions where one of us missed a real thermal, and the other one hit it solidly, turning a potentially worrisome stretch into an easy one with a nice 4-5kt climb.

Of course, our ability to communicate efficiently is drastically impacted here in Florida by the fact that every flight school within 100 miles feels compelled to report every location and maneuver on 123.3 and 123.5, so getting a word in edge-wise is next to impossible.  We are experimenting with consumer two-way radios, but we haven’t really got this part figured out yet.

One thing is for sure – this team flying business is HARD WORK!  BZ and I have probably flown well over 200 hours together this winter in Condor, and we are just getting started.  When you think that even dedicated racing pilots rarely fly more than 100-150 hours per year, BZ and I have already practiced together the equivalent of two years.  In RL, assuming you and your team-flying partner aren’t based at the same gliderport, and aren’t able to fly together on every flight, then the RL time required to accumulate 200+ hours of team-flying practice might be much longer than that.

After flying today, while BZ and I were sitting in the Micro-Castle, enjoying a beer and debriefing from the flight, I kept hearing these strange mechanical noises from outside.  It sounded almost like someone was jacking up a camper right outside my door, but I knew the RV’s around me were already well situated and didn’t need any adjustments.  Finally the light dawned in my head, and I went outside to welcome Dennis Linnekin (DL) and Rob Ware (DI) to the party; they had just arrived with their matching Mega-Castle rigs (huge Lance pickup campers on dual-axle pickups).  Dennis and Rob share a ASW-27 and an ASG-29, and apparently have the same taste in upscale campers as well.  Interestingly, they decided to dismount Dennis’ camper from his pickup so they would have a crew car, but Rob plans to leave his camper on the pickup – go figure!

Micro-Castle row at Seminole (aka “the low-rent district’)

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is for partly sunny with winds around 20kt with gusts to 30kt, and XCSkies is calling for B/S ratios in the 4-5 category.  I think BZ and I are going to do some housekeeping chores and some shopping, and wait for better weather on Thursday.  Stay tuned!

Frank (TA)