tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
well today was my day to fly the glider. weekends that I have in Ames are few and far between to begin with and I am scheduled to tow tomorrow. Gave a ride to an AerE buddy of mine in late morning. it was a slow tow with DA's already approaching 3000 and temps pushing into the 90s. nothing was working except for some zero sink at 1000 feet.
got some lunch, got the glider ready. hoped that something would be working by 1 pm. there was a fairly good sized tstorm building to the south as i was pulling down. could hear thunder in the distance. launched. good lift but could see bigtime shadow/darkness to the south. climbed to 4500 agl pretty easily. sometimes the vario was showing up to 600 fpm! i decided to head east and stay in front of the storm as it headed north. thought that there would be good lift all along leading edge. oops.
the outflow seemed to start about then and killed all the lift. i kept heading east trying to get in some sunlight or under that really good looking cloud etc. no joy. some weak stuff or something that was really broken up was all i could find. at 2000 AGL and unwinding i noticed i was near a grass strip on US Highway 30 that i always pass on my drive. decided to stay in the neighborhood. 1500 I realized the wind was significantly out of the south now. that Tstorm was exhaling. I beat it to the grass strip still hoping to find something on the way. nothing worth working and entered a downwindish kinda thing and turned final and landed.
crew is on the way i knock on the farmers door. old fellow very kind, tells me that they had just taken the hay bales off the runway today. THANKS!!
glider was home and I was cleaned up easily in time for supper and lies. lotsa fun even on a short trip. bout 15 miles in 45 minutes total.
got some good pictures but ill have to post them tomorrow.
got some lunch, got the glider ready. hoped that something would be working by 1 pm. there was a fairly good sized tstorm building to the south as i was pulling down. could hear thunder in the distance. launched. good lift but could see bigtime shadow/darkness to the south. climbed to 4500 agl pretty easily. sometimes the vario was showing up to 600 fpm! i decided to head east and stay in front of the storm as it headed north. thought that there would be good lift all along leading edge. oops.
the outflow seemed to start about then and killed all the lift. i kept heading east trying to get in some sunlight or under that really good looking cloud etc. no joy. some weak stuff or something that was really broken up was all i could find. at 2000 AGL and unwinding i noticed i was near a grass strip on US Highway 30 that i always pass on my drive. decided to stay in the neighborhood. 1500 I realized the wind was significantly out of the south now. that Tstorm was exhaling. I beat it to the grass strip still hoping to find something on the way. nothing worth working and entered a downwindish kinda thing and turned final and landed.
crew is on the way i knock on the farmers door. old fellow very kind, tells me that they had just taken the hay bales off the runway today. THANKS!!
glider was home and I was cleaned up easily in time for supper and lies. lotsa fun even on a short trip. bout 15 miles in 45 minutes total.
got some good pictures but ill have to post them tomorrow.
