3 weeks in Florida

I just got back home to Maine today after spending the last 3 weeks in Florida for WillsWing Demo Days, a clinic with Mike Barber, and competing in the 2019 Nationals. I'll catch you up the best that I can from the start of the trip and everything that happened throughout it..

Ilya and I spent two days driving down to Florida and arrived at Wallaby Ranch on April 4th. The trip was uneventful and the weather looked to be halfway decent for us to get our first flights in 6 months. We set up our gliders and took a few tows mid-day and floated around in the bubbly Florida thermals.

On April 6th the weather was looking decent for doing some soaring. Ilya and I got ready to fly mid-day again. I told Ilya that I was going to leave my radio behind for the flight. He objected and asked me if I would bring comms so he could make sure his gear was working. I thought that was a smart idea, not out of the ordinary, and brought my comms up so we could test them. We were up flying around for a little while when I heard,"Crystal, can you hear me?" and thinking that I just missed him trying to contact me previously I responded that I could. He then asked,"Will you marry me?" We were a couple of miles apart and I was in a climb, I forgot everything I was doing and responded,"What?" He again asked me if I would marry him. I said,"Are you fucking serious!?" And I could hear with his response and the tone of his voice that he was very serious. Of course, I said YES. I ended up booking to where he was and sharing a climb with him for a bit before we left to land. 

Proposal flight

I was elated. Ilya landed first and I was on final. I was so excited to get to him that I landed about 50' behind him in the LZ. He presented me with a gorgeous custom black opal ring that he had stashed away in his harness and asked me again in the LZ. He said he had been planning this since the prior flying season but wanted the perfect ring and for both of us to be in the air. I mentioned awhile back that I always wanted a black opal stone. My great-grammy had one and when I was little she used to tell me that the stones have the whole universe inside of them. Ilya nailed it. The stone looks like it contains a nebula and the custom ring has two little airfoil-shaped cutouts. Ilya and I met each other flying. It's perfect!

Airfoils

What seemed like it would be just another boaty flight around the park has gone down in history as the best flight I've ever had in 19 years!

On April 8th Ilya, Max, and I began our clinic with Mikey Barber which began with doing ground-school. It was a lot to take in but a lot of things clicked that we had experienced in the air before but had no explanation or name for. It also happened to be my birthday and I was under the impression that I was going to slip under the radar without it being noticed by anyone aside from Ilya, my sister, and my father. Unbeknownst to me, Ilya had mentioned this to the gang and they later surprised me with a small party. I hate surprises but it turned out to be really nice.. thanks guys! 😁 

We spent the two following days with Barber trying to absorb all of his teachings in ground school. 

We then towed up with him and flew around, trying to further the learning. I got to base in 400-1000fpm climbs up to around 4,000ft with Mike and we waited. Ilya was working on a low save and Max went in for a relight. I had tuned my Sport 2 over the winter and was finding that it had become even worse to control than before. I was getting thrown over my basebar and tossed around like a rag doll so after an hour I radioed that I was uncomfortable and was leaving to land. Mike flew with Max and Ilya for a bit and landed a little later. He stated he was also getting tossed around and that the fun-factor wasn't there so I think the conditions played a larger part of the control issues than my glider. Ilya and Max ended up flying with Mike the following day while I spent it on the ground returning my glider to stock tuning. They ended up doing the local milk run to Quest- about 22 miles away! If you've never done a clinic with Mike Barber, you need to get your life together and do it. He is an incredible teacher with every aspect of aviation, no matter how short or long of a time you've been flying. 

Mike Barber giving Max some info on the mechanics of landing

A day after our clinic WillsWing rolled in with the trailer full of toys.. It was time for Demo Days! I was interested in flying the Sport 3 135 and the T3C 136. I quickly learned that they did not yet have the T3C 136. They only had the 144 available, which is too big for me. I'm still hesitant to dip my toe into another topless experience after that season on my Litespeed, but the T2C in 2016 flew like a dream and from all accounts the T3C was even better still. To the point where it was described as "a topless U2". I'm intrigued..

I set my sights on the Sport 3 135. I was directed to the already set up full-mylar one and decided to take it for a spin in chunky conditions. I was in a full left correction around 600ft and the glider wasn't responding. After a few seconds of this I decided to release when I realized I wasn't able to get the glider back in line with the tug. The flight was uneventful but I ended up flaring early, going up a few feet, and lawn darting the keel into the ground to the point where the downtubes ripped out of my hands and I was left standing there with the glider standing upright behind me on its own. I looked over to see Aldrich and Wolfie getting a chuckle out of it. Aldrich said that almost everyone going from a Sport 2 to a Sport 3 does the same thing. The new glider doesn't need quite as much of a cresendo flare. When I was asked how I liked the glider, I told Steve with my shoulders slumped that it felt just like my Sport 2. He insisted that I take the full Dacron Sport 3 out instead, so I set it up.

 

The glider was my exact colors, had the carbon winglets, and even a carbon stinger. It was fate. I got a proper length hang loop from Steve and rolled out for an evening tow with Ilya behind me on the T3C 144.

Sport 3 135 demo (Photo: Max Kotchouro)

Ilya in the T3C 144 for a demo

As soon as I left the cart I was in love. The pitch pressure was noticeably lighter than my Sport 2. And once off tow I realized that it also turned much easier. I then pulled the VG and was stoked to find that it was like butter with the extra pulley system and I could do it effortlessly, not like with my Sport 2 where I had to turn my body and make grunting noises to get past 1/2 VG. I found a 50fpm boaty evening thermal and started turning. It handled like it was on rails. After a few minutes I spotted Ilya across the park to the North in the T3C. I scooted over to fly with him and even the glide felt a little zippier. We got one turn in together but he pulled VG and flew away, later stating that he thought it was another topless and didn't realize it was me. The icing on the cake was the landing. The glider took a little adjustment on my part doing a more gentle flare, but it was effortless to land. My Sport 2 had been returned to stock and was fine, but I was so enamored with the Sport 3 that I couldn't imagine not flying it.

 

I nervously asked Pearson if I could use the Sport 3 135 demo for the Nationals and, much to my surprise, he said yes.. I couldn't believe it! 

We had our big Wallaby Ranch bash the evening before the competition then ventured over to Quest to get some sleep before the first Task. Ilya and I were stressed, to say the least. I wasn't sure what we had got ourselves into and sleep eluded us for most of the night.

04/15/19 - Task 1: 69.7km Race to Goal

Watching Open Class launch

 

We awakened to our first safety meeting followed by our first pilot meeting. The first task was on a day that was blue and a bit windy for my personal liking. Open class towed out first, then sport class second. But people were hesitant to tow in open class because of the marginal conditions, which in turn delayed the sport class. It got to the point where Belinda stated that any open class pilots who didn't tow (about 20 of them) would be immediately placed behind the Sport Class. With that, there was a flood of the remaining pilots. But this then delayed Sport Class even further. We didn't begin towing until around 3:30. I was so nervous about the conditions that I was going to take a DNF for the day and remain grounded. Ilya and Max towed up and went on course, finishing 16th and 18th respectively. The launch window was closing at 5pm. At about 4:50pm I decided that I wanted to at least get in the air, so I took a tow behind Mitch Shipley. We got up to a couple thousand feet and he pointed out a sailplane circling that I had noticed shortly before. I pinned off and headed for where he was, only to find out the reason he was circling was because he was getting ready to land. Whomp whomp! I headed back to the park to land. The tow and landing were a bit chunky, but nothing terrible. I didn't go XC, but I was just glad to get a few points and get into the air briefly. 

04/16/19 - Task 2: 39.2km Race to Goal

The second task, and the one I was most nervous about. I have never successfully completed a triangle, or square, or tetrahedron, or whatever shape the fate deems. It was a blue day, so it was going to be a blind ground-trigger hunt cross wind to the first turn point. Ilya and Max launched first. I lost Ilya, but ended up in a gaggle with two others. Max was a bit lower in a different climb with Mick Howard. We found initial climbs, but once topped out I discovered that the two people with me were not really helping venture out to find anything. It was a repeat of last year so I pushed out ahead to try to find lift. I was hunting for all of the ground triggers that Mike Barber had told us to look for and was lucky a couple of times. Max and I ended up climbing together but he and I split off from each other and I again pushed ahead alone while he went a different direction. His line later proved to be a better choice because the direction in which I decided to go (closer to the turn point) yielded a huge row of power lines and no lift within reach. My 6030 beeped that I had tagged the turnpoint, which I wasn't even aware that I was close to due to being so focused on staying aloft, but I was down to about 400'. There were two other pilots in the field below helping point out the wind direction, but I was hoping that I wouldn't need the assistance. I spent some time working, using the broken lift off the back tree line to get me back up. I was able to get back up to 650' but the drift was taking me directly over the power lines with only 100-200ft of clearance. I conceded and ended up landing, at the turn point. I was gutted. The elusive triangle course had proven to be unbeatable for me, again. Ilya placed 10th for the day with 22km. Max placed 13th with 20.59km, and I brought up the rear with 20th and only 11.24km. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

 

04/17/19 - Task 3: 37.9km Race to Goal

Early Bird launch

 

Task 3, and we finally had clouds! It was a dogleg task with a slight crosswind section. I wasn't doing so hot in the standings which meant I was going to be launching almost last in line at the later part of the day. I decided to throw my name into a raffle for the early bird launches and won #3 of the 5 top spots. Score! Open class took off first with only a couple of the pilots relighting. I was on the cart second in line when I tried a radio check with Ilya and got nothing back. I could transmit but he and Max couldn't talk back to me. I was on my own again. I got towed up by April and dropped into a poorly formed 200fpm climb to the NE of the field. I worked my ass off but I wasn't able to break 2,000' and the broken thermal I was in vanished. I spent about 10 seconds hunting and heard Barber on my shoulder yelling "stop waffling in the shit!" So I pressed on downwind and was getting low. I worked broken lift coming off the treeline of the park when I spotted about a dozen vultures in a decent climb, but they were about a quarter of a mile downwind and it would mean I wouldn't make it back to the field for a relight at my altitude. It felt like the right decision so I left the park and any chance of a do-over at only 800' to get into the middle of the gaggle and it took me to 4000'! On the climb up I had one of the birds give me a look over his shoulder that felt almost inquisitive, probably wondering what the strange giant blue thingy was that was climbing with them. I topped out and went on glide towards the first turn point. I was stuck, again, with the same two pilots from the prior day. And again I pushed out front, would find a climb, and look back and see them vulturing towards me. I was very relieved to fly over the field that I had landed in the prior day with thousands of feet to spare and pressed on. Using Barber's tips, I spent a lot more time looking up than I had ever done before which helped me find the most lifty line. Throughout this ordeal I was unaware that Ilya was only one climb ahead of me the entire flight. I caught up to Max when he was low and watched him head towards a development trying to work the ground triggers. I noticed he was circling but not climbing. I then watched in amazement as one of the pilots who was tailing me the last 10 miles peeled off and flew towards the sinking pilot. Wtf? So I continued on my buoyant line further to the West of Max where I found a 600fpm climb to base again! I radioed twice when I initially got the climb for Max to peel my direction and later found out that my radio stopped transmitting entirely and he never heard me. (At this point none of us are surprised when our comms don't cooperate.) While circling I found time to fly one-handed while opening and slurping down my gel energy squeezie, a testament to the stability of the Sport 3. As I was climbing though I also noticed my distance to waypoint.. was increasing? How can that be? I pulled my map page up and saw that I was SouthWest of the cylinder and the climb was drifting me even further from it. I was way off course! It was now 3km directly upwind. I decided around 3,800ft that I had enough altitude to press upwind and tag it rather than take the point penalty and skip it for goal. I chose a decent line around -100 to -150fpm but on the push upwind I noticed a huge shadow coming. I was only 1.15km out and almost turned tail and ran but I was too close to give up now. My 6030 beeped that I hit the cylinder, but when I turned downwind to head for goal I was completely covered, there was no sun hitting the ground every direction within a mile of me and I felt it slowly shut the lift down. I was desperate, I was working every single ground trigger that I could pick out. Buildings, black greenhouses, intersections, treelines, moving cattle, even the fields with the shorter grass. I ended up over a small industrial looking building that was my last resort and spent a few minutes at a few hundred feet trying to work the scrappy 50fpm off it to no avail when *pop* my shoulder came out of it's socket and popped back in (luckily). Yes, the same shoulder I just had major surgery on two years ago. I used the flag on the building for wind direction and landed in the field behind it. I was already yelling expletives while on final. I was so pissed. This was the closest I had come to making goal and I was landing. AGAIN. I broke down my glider and packed up my harness with pain in my entire right arm and continued to have it for the next few days. Nothing a little ice and ibuprofen can't shut up. Lessons were learned that day though, and I had a perfect landing to top it off so it wasn't a total downer. The best part of the day though was Ilya made goal for the first time!
Our track logs for the day:

https://ayvri.com/scene/31jnp8eekd/cjuoe80is00033e5dd1wo9qfe

 

04/18/19 - Task 4: 148.7km Race to Goal

Ilya getting ready to launch

Max getting ready to launch

 



With the bad weather approaching, this appeared to be our last task for the competition. A huge dogleg to the north. And another chunky day with winds at TOL almost 20mph. Without even making it to the launch line, I decided to take a DNF and not fly for the day. I was in a glider that didn't belong to me in conditions that I was uncomfortable with to begin with so it was a no brainer. Ilya and Max saddled up and flew it though. I can't say with detail as I wasn't in the air with them, but Ilya said it was a challenging day of trying to jump cloud streets to get to the waypoint with heavy drift. He was an impressive 9th overall for the day with 31.51km and landed just South of the Villages in an incredibly technical/difficult LZ. Max made it part way with him to 18.8km.

Ilya and Max's track logs for the day:

https://ayvri.com/scene/31jnp8eekd/cjuoelfjz00023e5dbxk29lsl

And that was that. The weather shut the last two days of the comp down. In the standings out of 28 pilots (with no handicaps given to the Sports against the Geckos, U2s, MastRs, etc.) :

Ilya - 13th

Max - 17th

Crystal - 22nd (1st women's)

 

It was hands-down my worst performance yet. I was initially upset but realized nobody probably cares other than me. I had set my sights on making goal but that unfortunately didn't play out so I wanted to at least place first in women's like last year, which I was able to do out of 4 female pilots. And from what we saw during the competition the Sport Class was basically a side-show anyways. People just want to know what the 'big boys' are up to in Open Class.

 

I got to fly in a Sport 3 all week, got to use the intel from Barber during the comp, and I was safe with perfect landings the whole trip. I was also looking at the bigger picture. I got married, I'm happy, and that gorgeous Sport 3 that I had been flying all week followed me home.

 

Best trip ever!