Let me start by saying, I fly paragliders most of the time, but I have also been flying hang gliders since 1979. I love to fly them both, each in their own way. A couple of weeks ago Peter Birren mentioned the Cosmos Challenge XC Classic that was held here in Minnesota the weekend of May 10 & 11, 1996. It was a weekend that forecasts would seem to indicate as being awash......ah wet. As a member of the local organizing committee led by Dave Dybsand (great job), I felt an obligation to show up rain or shine. My HG partner and myself also had a new glider to deliver to a customer driving in from Wisconsin, so I had a monetary reason to play like a golfer (it never rains on a golf course) and go.
Competitors were going to be scored both as individuals and as a team. The team would be made up of the three pilots assigned to a particular tow rig. Three to four tow rigs would be assigned to each tow road (there were 4). Curt Knutson (my hg business partner) and myself had brought our rig and would be using it. Dick Mertz, a local paraglider pilot, asked to join us, since Curt had the most experience in towing paragliders, namely me. There were so many rigs available, some never turned a drum all weekend. I had brought my Ram Air and Space to cover myself for most any conditions. Given light and varible conditions I prefer the paraglider, but this day, which was forecast as 5-12 out of the north turned out to be more like 15-25 and northwest, definitly was a diver day.
We got to our assigned tow road about 11am and it looked as if we had a cloud deck moving in. We prepared ourselves for a day of high tows with sled runs. While, I set up the XC with its new owner and went through the delivery stuff, Curt got the tow rig ready to roll. When we each were done, we switched, Curt pre-flighted the glider and I did the same on the tow rig (a different set of eyes).
When we test gliders our general routine is Curt flying the glider and me running the tow rig, this started many years ago and we are stuck in this rut, but it works well for us. Since the day did not look promising we were set-up and ready to fly as most others were just starting to get going. The tow although in fairly high winds was un-eventful. Curt towed to 1600' agl release and started circling....hmmm, maybe just maybe. Anyway, Curt cut out of the lift he was in and brought back the XC. After a on the road landing, he wasted no time in starting to set up his Ram, while I gave Dennis C. a tow up on his new glider.
The activity level increased among all the pilots after Curt's test/wind dummy flight. Dennis towed to 2000' released from tow, into a thermal and disappeared down range. Last I heard he had a 30 mile flight....his first flight on a new glider. I heard he likes it, and BTW it did have winglets. The lemming rush was on!
Let me try to get to the point of this rambling write-up. Dick (the PG pilot) decided that since conditions were a bust for paragliders, he would learn to run a payout winch and drive retrieval...did I mention he's a nice reasonable sort.
I, of course, now had a bad case of the setup, getup and be gones. I went back and set-up my glider, while Curt dealt with the spare part needs of a couple of pilots. Funny how parts only become important just before you are ready to fly.
I loaded my wing up. Dick would be running the tow rig for the first time alone. The tow went real well.
Pat: Dick, is the winch drum turning?Dick: Yes.Pat: Slow or fast.Dick: Yes.Pat: I think you can slow down a little, but keep the drum turning.Dick: I think my speeds OK.Pat: OK, then take up the pressure a little.Dick: OK.
The tow progressed well...well, right up to the point where:
Dick: Pat the line is almost......get off!!
As I hear this, the line goes slack and the line recovery chute pops out of its bag. Wow, a drogue with a 4400' tail. After the initial surprise. I did a quick check to see if the line, chute, anything was hung up on the glider or me, then released the line.
I felt pretty stupid, because I, like those looking for parts, had kept promising to mark the line about 200 feet from the end some night after work. I also didn't do a very good job in warning Dick how fast the line can disappear toward the end. I landed to help, retrieve and rewind the line. This took about 45 minutes and during that time the recovery chute held about half the line in the air....did I mention the wind was blowing.
Curt now was real ready to go, so we loaded him up and gave him a yank. We had gone about a 1/2 mile down the road and he was going through 1600' agl, he asked me to stop to reduce the line tension when he released. By the time I stopped he had cleared 2000 agl..... I think he was in something. He disappeared too. Everyone was now in full rut.
By the time I was ready to go again (3:30PM), I was the only pilot and glider left on the tow road. Everyone else had gotten up and away. The sky had OD'd pretty badly and the pressure to not be left skunked at the road was mounting. Is this starting to sound like one of those frustration nightmares where you can't seem to get out of the house without something else going wrong. You know, the one where you trying to get someplace quickly, but as you leave the house you notice you're only wearing underwear.
So I loaded the glider on the trailer and went through the tow rig, launch and tow scenario with Dick, then hooked up and in. I told Dick to go to cruise and after about 50 feet he hit the horn (30 mph airspeed reached), did I mention the wind was blowing.....Ever notice how much harder it is blowing when you're the one hooked in and ready to go versus when waiting for the pilot ahead of you to get going and you can't figure what the holdup is.
Dick gave me a real nice tow. I, of course, with the wind and thermal activity was doing the wicky -wacky -nosewire to nosewire line dance, and we ain't talk'n country-western, at my end. Ever notice how the more active the tow up the better the longer the ride down (range) and the smoother the tow up the shorter the flight down. At 1600' I pinned off into zero sink, as a general rule when coming off tow and looking for my first thermal I don't leave zero sink (air must be going up at at least the sink rate of the glider). After 2-3 360's it started to pickup some speed and before long I was climbing at 600-800 fpm. I got on the horn to Dick and told him to park and lock the tow rig grab my Tahoe and give chase....if he would be so kind.
It was ordained that I would get up high and head out, since I had put on only a windbreaker and my map was secure in my harness pocket. I topped out at 6700' agl in the first thermal... in the snow...hey wait a minute this is May.....ground temps in the 50's ...so let me see 50-(7 * 4)=22 (This is my hypoxia, no hypothermia test, but if I was experiencing either of these maladies, the questions is would I know if my answer was wrong?), hey its cooold up here. By this point I was 10 mile and 20 minutes into my flight.
I can hear Curt on radio, he is quite aways south, but still in the air. I start giving Dick expert directions on where I am. Jeez, it's hard to read water towers from the air?
Pat: Ahh, Dick I am over a bunch of green John Deere tractors at an intersection of a main highway between two good size towns south of the tow site.Dick: A ya, ok, ah, gotcha. Pat.
Dick, being the astute pilot he is, allowed me the time to clarify my position.
Pat: Ah, Dick I seem to be flying down a road that goes from pavement to dirt when it cross' that big highway between the two towns I mentioned.Dick: Aaaaa, OK
Dick, having watched my drift as I headed out knew he was west of my track. So he looked at the map and made a guess at the towns and highway, drove south to the highway and headed east , looking for a bunch of green tractors and a road that was paved going north, but dirt heading south.
I then made the bone head decision that can doom a promising XC flight. I stopped to look for lift. Needless to say with a wind of 30+mph at altitude. Stopping when not in lift means one thing...you are going down without covering any ground. I have been told time and again keep going downwind looking for lift don't stop unless you find lift. Even if you fly yourself into the ground you will have covered more ground. I don't know....maybe its a gene problem. So here I am with 2800' agl and I figure this is a nice field to check out. So I start trolling in it....upwind. I blew that bank account pretty quick.
About the time I knew it was TIME TO LAND, Dick came on saying he had me spotted. Great, a witness to my ability to core sink.
Now the Murphy's Law of LZ selection came into play: "When given the chose of numerous acceptable LZ's the worst will be picked." I selected a field that was newly plowed and damp (read muddy). Dick, who had by now arrived, decided that he had done his part and elected to wait for me to carry my glider from the field.
We were now in the hunt for Curt.
We were talking to him on the radio and heading the right direction, so when he said he was about to land, we figured fine we will talk to him after he's down. Confidently, we figured we would be there about the time he was packed up and ready to go. Ha!
We were not able to talk to him once he was on the ground. Through a relay with another pilot we heard he was at the intersection of Hwy. 4 & 22 near St. Peter. We kept trying every few miles to make contact, which we did when we got into the general area. When we got to where he said he was, he wasn't. We began the "is the signal stronger routine", because it became quickly obvious that he didn't know where he was either.
As we drove along his signal got weaker, so we turned around figuring that we had passed him. We back tracked to where the signal had been the strongest, but now we could make no contact at all. We were now 2 hours into the Curt part of the retrieve. As luck would have it when we though we had passed him because his signal was weaker it was actually from a battery going dead and we had been less then a mile from his location.
After criss-crossing the area for a couple of hours we called into a restaurant we use for backup communications with pilots. Curt was at a Dairy Queen, having dinner, 30 miles back waiting for us. When we picked him up he went back to within a mile of where we had been to pick up his glider and gear.
This was a pretty phenomenal day. Every pilot that towed up, got away. The next day was even better with multiple 100+ milers.
Well, now to the moral of this story. Ever notice the longer the post the less meaningful the ending.
Anyway I though this was a interesting story for all pilots, those who have been there and those who will. Between Curt and myself we have been flying gliders for almost 40 years and each time its an adventure, no matter the kind or turgidity of your wing. BTW, when conditions are good for the PGrs, Dick gets his behind in the breeze first, we kinda owe him.
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