On the last day of 2017 while staying at Omarama I took ZK-GOR up into the wave alone. The previous day my instructor and I had been thermalling and ridge soaring while exploring the area. After a short discussion, I was cleared to go solo.
It was very obvious that wave was present, clearly defined lenticulars were present across the entire valley. So, I discussed wave flying with my instructor and where to go to get the best chance of entry and returning to the field. With the glider DI’d and ready on the grid, my instructor briefed the tow pilot (also an instructor) and off I went. I pulled the release in a place that I thought had good lift based on my briefing about where the lower down lift (rotor) will be in relation to the cloud lines and some lift indications from the variometer. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out and I couldn’t make any progress so I headed back to the field and landed it next to the other gliders waiting to be towed so I could have another go.
Obviously, theory and practice aren’t the same. So I asked my instructor some more questions, discussed what happened and how I should approach it now. The tow pilot also came and spoke to me and we discussed some more options and techniques for identifying and then climbing in the rotor. Armed with some more information and an agreed plan with tow pilot, time for another attempt.
The tow pilot got me right into the rotor and even radio me to say we were definitely climbing and this was a good place to try. So, I pulled the release and had another attempt. This time I was between the cloud lines and circling and figure-8 climbing. The rotor I was in worked out pretty well and got me up into the wave.
The wave was smooth and I was able to travel along it a decent distance in each direction. After a while, I decided to try hit 10,000ft. This is the highest I can get before oxygen usage is required. Below 12,500ft you can stay for 30mins without oxygen, but I wasn’t about to try this alone. The cloud had other plans.
I got over 9,000ft, above the cloud base but clear of the clouds, before the cloud starting closing in. VFR into IMC is an emergency, I have some training from powered flying, but the glider has limited instruments and there was no reason to continue. I made a plan to continue my current flight path at a faster speed because there was still a hole in front of me then pull-up to slow down and deploy the airbrakes. If my target hole had disappeared I would have pulled the airbrakes anyway. I made an about turn taking me back in the direction of Omarama and continued the descent to be well clear of the clouds. Not long after resuming normal flying I had to make another airbrake descent as the cloud base lowered again.
After a while, it began raining. Visibility decreased so I decided that further flight in rain was not a good option. I made another airbrake decent and turned towards the field. I got myself lower than my original tow release. A bit of looking around didn’t find any immediate lift. So I started planning a decent and determining which vector I could land on.
While getting ready to join the circuit and still with a bit of height to lose, I found an area of lift on the end of a ridge. Still happy that I had enough height to do a full circuit even if I couldn’t climb I started circling and managed to climb back to 7,500ft before I was limited by clouds. The clouds were still filled in so wave flying wasn’t an option. I started exploring an area north of the field that I had been the previous year. No problems with sink, but not much lift either I managed to explore further than I had been with my instructor. Keeping a careful eye on my 20:1 over field arrival height I flew as far as I could manage before I got concerned with it indicating not being achieved.
I made my way back towards the field. Had a go at dominating the ridge (one wing either side) on the way back. Didn’t find any lift. Back at the field I lost some height and flew completely around the field. This gave me a chance to see how close the mountain on the south really is and see if I could find any lift there. No lift anywhere I was comfortable being so I flew crosswind to join downwind. Landed and then had to find a helper because instructors were nowhere to be found.
Wave is definitely my favorite lift source. Getting into it can be challenging but once in you can stay as long as the clouds allow. It also has my favorite feature of flying, being far away from the ground. Being far away from the ground is good because it gives me plenty of height to recover if I make a mistake or my powered airplane suddenly becomes a glider.
I learned a lot from these flights. It definitely gave me a better understanding of why VFR into IMC is an emergency. Visibility disappears very quickly as the cloud forms. When I was first training I was aerotowed into the cloud with an instructor, I didn’t know what to do and fear kicked in, my response was to announce the situation but take no further action. Being alone didn’t afford me this option. I identified the problem (continuing current flight would result in VFR in IMC), determined this was unacceptable and devised a plan to resolve the situation. If I was on a Coastguard boat the procedure is to Stop, Assess, Plan. Stopping flying isn’t an option so I had to stop thinking about everything else, assess my options, make a plan (with a backup) and execute it.
Descending meant abandoning my flight goal. I like having goals for my flights because it gives me something to do, otherwise I get up there and just randomly wander around. My goals for gliding are always: land back at the launch airfield, stay flying as long as possible. These are a good start but I need to work on a number of my flying skills and if I don’t include them in my goals they won’t improve. Gliding is very weather dependent, which means goals can’t always be achieved. I need to remember that I must be willing to abandon my goals whenever it’s unsafe to proceed. Get-there-itis and just a bit more are how accidents happen. There is always going to be another chance to achieve that goal, but only if I land safely. One day that is going to mean landing an aircraft somewhere I didn’t originally plan, such is life.
The other thing these flights really drove home was about asking someone else if you’re not getting it. Not everyone is going to be able to explain to you everything they know. Sometimes you’re going to have to seek out someone else to get that knowledge from. While in this case, I was on the ground talking to instructors, this equally applies to if the instructor is in the seat behind you. Instructors have different methods of teaching the same thing, and not all of those methods will work for you.