From: colin@cs.uq.oz.au (Colin Millerchip)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: SOARING: First solo.
Date: 26 Aug 92 02:36:34 GMT
Reply-To: colin@cs.uq.oz.au

Solo.  

At the start of the weekend I'd had 38 flights, but it had been a month
since I had last flown. I knew I was close, but just felt that it
wasn't to be this weekend: too many other distractions at the club to
warrant the attention necessary to check that I was ready. Saturday had
the right conditions for sending a student solo -- little or no wind,
warm conditions. I hadn't done a simulated cable break or wave off by
the tug, so knew that one of these was to come before the big S. After
three good flights I was expecting something to happen, but nothing
like what did happen...  

Take-off was good, and we started to climb into the air. At 200ft the
tug started unexpected "manoeuvers": rudder waving from side to side
slowly. [All together now...] "Secondary effect of rudder is roll in
direction of ruddered turn." Hence wings are also rolling. Wings
rolling mean hit the release.  

So at 200ft, with the end of the strip in just that spot that means
200ft is designated "non-maneouvering height" at our strip, I release.  

The boss in the back jumps on the controls, full airbrakes in our K7,
which starts a realistic impression of a greased brick, round out at
about minus four inches to avoid a long ground run, and skid pushed
onto the ground ensures that we pull up short of the wire fence at the
end of the strip. But between the wire fence and the line of tyres
which defined the "end" of the strip. Eek.  

Three seconds after exiting glider, and I'm walking around the cockpit
looking for something more meaningful than my hat to hit myself with. 
The instructor is making conciliatory noises about the slow rudder
signal and how confusing it appeared to be. But *come on!*, no-one is
waved off at 200ft, unless it's a genuine emergency! Anyway, tug
re-lands, and we go for a wing-down take off (twenty yards to those
tyres!). Obviously the instructor has gone for a chat to the tug pilot,
ostensibly to ensure that the next rudder waggle is crisp, but I'm
suspicious... 200ft, and there's the rudder waggle. Turn to the left
and at 500ft the wings are going.  Plink. Right hand turn, and we're in
workable shape for a slightly modified right-hand circuit.  

One circuit later and off I'm sent. It is the biggest anticlimax of my
life: the only differences being that there's more noise coming from
the back -- the instructor isn't there to block out all those
extraneous noises that come from way back in the fuselage -- and the
landing is lighter, and thus popping the airbrakes away a fraction to
allow the ground run to finish a little further up the strip caused the
glider to lift about 6 inches off the ground. I guess that this
anticlimax is what they want: first solo should be just like any other
flight that had been taken in the last few weeks.  

And hence the lack of an exclamation mark after the opening word. The
following day was a typical gliding day in Australia: check flight to
1500ft, dropped in 4 knots of lift which varied smoothly up to 8-9
knots, and with little work got me to 6700ft before we pulled out at
cloud base minus 200ft.  Flying at 70 knots I was still in 2 knots
going up! In the end pulled airbrakes and flew fast to get out of the
sky. The solo flight was just as bad -- worked a thermal from 1300ft up
to 6300ft, and was in danger or running into cloud base minus 200ft
until I pulled airbrakes and found 3 knots of sink at 60 knots ASI :-) 

Flying again in two weeks time. The days are dragging.  

Colin.  

--
|Colin Millerchip           | "And all this science I don't understand,|
|University of Queensland,  |  It's just my job five days a week"      |
|Brisbane, Australia.       |   - "Rocketman", Elton John              |
|colin@cs.uq.oz.au          |                                          |
Newsgroups: rec.aviation