Continuing the write-up about a typical race flight, I was going to describe the Climb and Cruise phases, but after yesterday's epic Final Glide it seems more appropriate to jump to that today.
During the Climb and Cruise phases you continuously gain height in the climb and lose height in the Cruise (Glide). There comes a point where you may think you have enough height to cruise for home. Remember, every time you stop to climb (turn) you are not going forward, so you want to climb as little as possible. At the same time, you can't predict what the air ahead of you is doing, the air is constantly moving up and down and you may lose more height in the final glide than you think. It would be a disaster to be in the lead 10 km from home only to land just short of the home airfield and lose all speed points.
So you must judge the last climb and glide perfectly. Too much height and you lose time, too little height and you lose the day.
Imagine the scene is, your flight computer is saying you need 1000 feet more for the final glide, this will give you zero margin. You arrive at a 400 feet per minute climb, this is not as good as climbs you had before, but you are thinking "it's late in the day, the sky ahead are not looking so great, this will do.". You take the climb.
You climbed 500 feet and the climb rate drops to 250 feet per minute. This is annoying! You want some margin, say 600 feet, so you still need to climb 1100 feet and at 250 per minute, that's 4.5 minutes. "Oooff", you are thinking, "it was going so well, why can't this bl**dy climb sort itself out..!".
You see other gliders that you were chasing leaving the climb just above you. "Do they have enough?" you wonder, "should I go?". Sometimes you go, find better climbs and win the day, sometime you stay, and lose time, sometimes you stay and win the day because the guys ahead couldn't find anything better and had to slow down, the permutations are endless. All these options and eventualities are constantly spinning around in your head. This is a critical phase of the flight and the adrenalin and emotions are running very high. Yet you have to make a rational choice. Very hard to do.
Yesterday I cut it down to the wire. I thought I had plenty of height to get home, but didn't account for the increasing head wind as we were getting lower and lower. The last part of the glide was very low over crop fields and I just managed to get in to the airfield.
The results as it happen were very good, won the day and 1-2-3 for the GB team..
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Monday, 8 July 2013
Tight game
The half time talk helped and I had a much better day yesterday and am back in the race. Things are hotting up and there are seven pilots still in the running for top spot with 80 points of each other. There are 4 flying days left with 4000 points on the table looks like this race will go to the wire. The last days should be fascinating..
Sunday, 7 July 2013
2nd Half
Today is half way mark and here is a post from my 2009 blog about the second half and parallels with football.
Second Half
This time it's me doing the chasing. Currently in the changing room eating oranges and getting an earful from my coach...:)
Second Half
This time it's me doing the chasing. Currently in the changing room eating oranges and getting an earful from my coach...:)
Update
The lack of updates on my blog is not because nothing is happening down here, rather the opposite. After three days of sitting on the ground with bad weather we had two very long days with very long tasks. We've been flying around 7 hours a day and finishing well after 7 pm.
My results have not been very good and i've dropped down to 7 place. I found the conditions very difficult and got bogged down in couple of place losing a lot of time. But, I am still in the mix and there are still five flying days and 5000 points on the table and everything to play for.
My results have not been very good and i've dropped down to 7 place. I found the conditions very difficult and got bogged down in couple of place losing a lot of time. But, I am still in the mix and there are still five flying days and 5000 points on the table and everything to play for.
Friday, 5 July 2013
Result
Good result today. Won the day with a good margin and now top overall. More tomorrow as need my beauty sleep..
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Flight
So what is it like inside a glider cockpit during a race? I'll try and describe what goes on during a typical racing flight.
You get into your glider about 10 minutes before the launch and get yourself strapped in and comfy. Glider cockpits are very small and mine in particular is a snug fit, you could say put my glider on rather than get into it. The time before the launch can be quite nervy, particularly if you really care about the day's result or if the weather is difficult. You try to relax and go through the plan, look at the task on the map, make sure all the instruments and various flight computers are set and operating correctly. You feel your mind sharpening and focusing, now you just want to get on with it.
During launch the priority is safety, you just want nice and event-less launch. Once above say 1000 feet you start looking for other circling gliders, marking lift. You get dropped at about 2000 feet, raise the undercarriage and now the priority is to find a climb, any climb and get high. If you on the front of the grid you may have 45 minutes to an hour before the start gate is open. You spend that time finding your team mates, trying to relax, getting a feel for the weather, sampling clouds and lift, and most importantly, eyeing up the opposition. The start line is 10 km long so on a cloudy day it can be tricky finding your rivals. If the weather is difficult or blue then the pre-start period is much more stressful. Sometimes you are just trying to stay in the air.
The few minutes just before the start are very critical and you feel the stress levels shoot through the roof. Ideally you want to start just behind a good group or at the very least, with them. Sometimes if you mis-judge the times you find yourself all alone, trying to climb up to start height with everyone gone, very stressful.
OK, so you crossed the line, you're on your way, sigh of relief to finally get going. You put your foot down to cruise speed, try and work the energy lines ahead and look for the first climb. Ideally you want the first run after the start to be as long as possible to get away from anyone starting behind you. At some point after the start you also radio down your start time to your team captain who will relay this to the officials. You have 30 minutes to do that and the team captain will hold on to you start time until the last minute. You don't want other pilots knowing that you made a start.
Let's assume the day is a reasonably good day, with cumulus and cloud base going up to 5000 feet with climbs between 300 to 600 feet per minute. In an ideal world you will stay as high as possible, staying high means you have a lot of options, you are relaxed and you can make good decisions without worrying about possible land-out. However, things are never ideal.
Couple of things to bear in mind about climbs before we continue:
1. Climbs are narrow and difficult low down and get wider as you go up
2. Climbs are strongest in the middle and get weak very quickly as you approach cloud base
3. It takes time, typically 1-2 minute to find the best part of the climb (centre)
So you want to take fewer climbs as possible, centre as quickly as possible, climb the maximum possible height, and leave as soon as the climb rate drops, well below cloudbase.
As you glide, you lose height, normally around 1000 feet for each 10-15 km. So 15 km down track, you are now down to say 3800 feet and you find a 300 feet per minute climb. You know there are 600 feet per minute climbs out there, that's twice the climb rate. Do you stay or do you go???
Let's say you are feeling confident and you decide to push on, you glide another 15 km, you are now down to 2500 feet and you find a 400 feet per minute climb, do you take it or wait for the 600 per minute climb? Possibly, you now have less options ahead because you are lower. Let's assume you decided to climb, you climbed up to 3500 feet and the climb rate dropped to 350 feet per minute, do you stay or do you push on??
Now you see gliders circling ahead, 30 degrees left of track, a single glider climbing dead on track and a really good looking clouds slightly right and downwind of track, which way do you go? Go with the safety of the pack, upwind (good) but close to airspace (bad), do you go with the single glider that looks like she's climbing really well, or do you go on your own to the right, great looking cloud but down wind of track??
This conundrum / dilemma / decision making process is relentless and is the heart of gliding racing. The great guys are very good at this process and also very good at ignoring decisions that went wrong and just getting on with the next decision cycle.
More later.
You get into your glider about 10 minutes before the launch and get yourself strapped in and comfy. Glider cockpits are very small and mine in particular is a snug fit, you could say put my glider on rather than get into it. The time before the launch can be quite nervy, particularly if you really care about the day's result or if the weather is difficult. You try to relax and go through the plan, look at the task on the map, make sure all the instruments and various flight computers are set and operating correctly. You feel your mind sharpening and focusing, now you just want to get on with it.
During launch the priority is safety, you just want nice and event-less launch. Once above say 1000 feet you start looking for other circling gliders, marking lift. You get dropped at about 2000 feet, raise the undercarriage and now the priority is to find a climb, any climb and get high. If you on the front of the grid you may have 45 minutes to an hour before the start gate is open. You spend that time finding your team mates, trying to relax, getting a feel for the weather, sampling clouds and lift, and most importantly, eyeing up the opposition. The start line is 10 km long so on a cloudy day it can be tricky finding your rivals. If the weather is difficult or blue then the pre-start period is much more stressful. Sometimes you are just trying to stay in the air.
The few minutes just before the start are very critical and you feel the stress levels shoot through the roof. Ideally you want to start just behind a good group or at the very least, with them. Sometimes if you mis-judge the times you find yourself all alone, trying to climb up to start height with everyone gone, very stressful.
OK, so you crossed the line, you're on your way, sigh of relief to finally get going. You put your foot down to cruise speed, try and work the energy lines ahead and look for the first climb. Ideally you want the first run after the start to be as long as possible to get away from anyone starting behind you. At some point after the start you also radio down your start time to your team captain who will relay this to the officials. You have 30 minutes to do that and the team captain will hold on to you start time until the last minute. You don't want other pilots knowing that you made a start.
Let's assume the day is a reasonably good day, with cumulus and cloud base going up to 5000 feet with climbs between 300 to 600 feet per minute. In an ideal world you will stay as high as possible, staying high means you have a lot of options, you are relaxed and you can make good decisions without worrying about possible land-out. However, things are never ideal.
Couple of things to bear in mind about climbs before we continue:
1. Climbs are narrow and difficult low down and get wider as you go up
2. Climbs are strongest in the middle and get weak very quickly as you approach cloud base
3. It takes time, typically 1-2 minute to find the best part of the climb (centre)
So you want to take fewer climbs as possible, centre as quickly as possible, climb the maximum possible height, and leave as soon as the climb rate drops, well below cloudbase.
As you glide, you lose height, normally around 1000 feet for each 10-15 km. So 15 km down track, you are now down to say 3800 feet and you find a 300 feet per minute climb. You know there are 600 feet per minute climbs out there, that's twice the climb rate. Do you stay or do you go???
Let's say you are feeling confident and you decide to push on, you glide another 15 km, you are now down to 2500 feet and you find a 400 feet per minute climb, do you take it or wait for the 600 per minute climb? Possibly, you now have less options ahead because you are lower. Let's assume you decided to climb, you climbed up to 3500 feet and the climb rate dropped to 350 feet per minute, do you stay or do you push on??
Now you see gliders circling ahead, 30 degrees left of track, a single glider climbing dead on track and a really good looking clouds slightly right and downwind of track, which way do you go? Go with the safety of the pack, upwind (good) but close to airspace (bad), do you go with the single glider that looks like she's climbing really well, or do you go on your own to the right, great looking cloud but down wind of track??
This conundrum / dilemma / decision making process is relentless and is the heart of gliding racing. The great guys are very good at this process and also very good at ignoring decisions that went wrong and just getting on with the next decision cycle.
More later.
Lunch
Yesterday after the day was scrubbed we chilled out at base camp and as we worked our way round a large stash/feast of croissants, pain-au-chocolates, pain-au-raisin, baguettes with butter, jambon, cheese and Natela, chocolate mousse and Tart tatin for desert, all topped with red wine, we were wondering how the French manage to stay slim eating this sort of wonderful carb/fat/suget-rich, heart-attack type food...
Apparently the secret is the French Lunch.
Apparently the French have a light breakfast, a very large lunch and light dinner. We know all about the French lunch because all activity stops around midday for Lunch. I do remember this is the way we too used to eat when we were kids back home. It's amazing that in France they managed to retain the Lunch culture.
I am seriously thinking of adopting this way of eating when I get back, it will be an interesting experiment. Not sure if I will manage to stay awake in the office after a big lunch though...
In the meantime, here is another picture of the French team having Lunch...oops no, sorry, they are actually preping for the flight, but it's a nice photo all the same!
Apparently the secret is the French Lunch.
Apparently the French have a light breakfast, a very large lunch and light dinner. We know all about the French lunch because all activity stops around midday for Lunch. I do remember this is the way we too used to eat when we were kids back home. It's amazing that in France they managed to retain the Lunch culture.
I am seriously thinking of adopting this way of eating when I get back, it will be an interesting experiment. Not sure if I will manage to stay awake in the office after a big lunch though...
In the meantime, here is another picture of the French team having Lunch...oops no, sorry, they are actually preping for the flight, but it's a nice photo all the same!
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Race Sequence
I was reading my last post and I thought it would be useful to describe the structure of gliding race flight for those unfamiliar with the sport.
I will split the flight into four main parts:
1. The start
2. The climb / Glide sequence
3. Turn points
4. The Final Glide
The Start - as in sailing the start phase is critical to get right. You want to start at the right weather window but also at the right racing window with the right people. The start can be nerve racking.
The Climb / Glide sequence - this is the main part of the flight. Gliders gain height by stopping to climb in thermals. These can be anything from 100 to 1000 feet per minute and typically we will climb around 1500 to 2000 feet in each climb. If you climb 1000 feet at 100 feet per minute, that's 10 minute; if you climb the same height at 500 feet per minute, that's only 2 minute. Any minute that you climb is a minute you don't go forward. So you need to find and only stop in the very best climb and ignore the weak climb.
Once you climb you then in the glide phase. You glide forward at around 70-80 knots, that's about 80-90 miles per hour for club class glider. As you are climbing you lose height. The faster you go, the faster you lose height, so it's a game of constant trade off. Any height you lose in the glide you have to gain in the climb. You can improve the glide phase i.e. lose less height in the glide, by varying your route to pass in areas of air which are going up, that;s why the best route is never a straight line in gliding.
More tomorrow.
I will split the flight into four main parts:
1. The start
2. The climb / Glide sequence
3. Turn points
4. The Final Glide
The Start - as in sailing the start phase is critical to get right. You want to start at the right weather window but also at the right racing window with the right people. The start can be nerve racking.
The Climb / Glide sequence - this is the main part of the flight. Gliders gain height by stopping to climb in thermals. These can be anything from 100 to 1000 feet per minute and typically we will climb around 1500 to 2000 feet in each climb. If you climb 1000 feet at 100 feet per minute, that's 10 minute; if you climb the same height at 500 feet per minute, that's only 2 minute. Any minute that you climb is a minute you don't go forward. So you need to find and only stop in the very best climb and ignore the weak climb.
Once you climb you then in the glide phase. You glide forward at around 70-80 knots, that's about 80-90 miles per hour for club class glider. As you are climbing you lose height. The faster you go, the faster you lose height, so it's a game of constant trade off. Any height you lose in the glide you have to gain in the climb. You can improve the glide phase i.e. lose less height in the glide, by varying your route to pass in areas of air which are going up, that;s why the best route is never a straight line in gliding.
More tomorrow.
Yesterday
Day 2 started late with weak climbs in the blue. Blue means no clouds to mark thermals (climbs) so gliders tends to congregate in gaggles even more. There were two large gaggles over the forest near the airfield, both not going up very much and not going down very much. There was a lot of juggling for position and the flying at times was quite dangerous as some pilots got to close for comfort. I in fact had a very close call with a Czech glider passing less than 20 feet below me. Blue days are like that.
The problem with blue days is the start. Once the start gate is open you can start whenever you want and also come back for a restart. If you start early, you may be marking thermals for later starters who can then catch you up very quickly. On blue days with no clouds to hide behind you can be seen for miles so starting early is like giving the opposition a nice present in the form of 100 points on a plate. The absolute rule is: never start early on a blue day. You can read more about starts here: Starting in gliding competitions
So what happen is we go round and round and round behind the start line and wait for someone lose their nerves and go. Normally once a few leave, the rest of the class will also leave.
Yesterday it was the Germans who left first and we started 5 minutes behind and caught them up after 15 km, which proves the point. After the first leg we got into a good area with cumulus and going into the 2nd turn I was sitting comfortably on top and in the lead. I then pushed on a bit too hard, ended up low and lost the main gaggle. Going in to the last turn point I was very low and it didn't look clever. Luckily Kay from the standard class called me a good climb which put me back in the game and I had a very good finish and fast final glide.
Good result, third on the day and third overall so far.
The problem with blue days is the start. Once the start gate is open you can start whenever you want and also come back for a restart. If you start early, you may be marking thermals for later starters who can then catch you up very quickly. On blue days with no clouds to hide behind you can be seen for miles so starting early is like giving the opposition a nice present in the form of 100 points on a plate. The absolute rule is: never start early on a blue day. You can read more about starts here: Starting in gliding competitions
So what happen is we go round and round and round behind the start line and wait for someone lose their nerves and go. Normally once a few leave, the rest of the class will also leave.
Yesterday it was the Germans who left first and we started 5 minutes behind and caught them up after 15 km, which proves the point. After the first leg we got into a good area with cumulus and going into the 2nd turn I was sitting comfortably on top and in the lead. I then pushed on a bit too hard, ended up low and lost the main gaggle. Going in to the last turn point I was very low and it didn't look clever. Luckily Kay from the standard class called me a good climb which put me back in the game and I had a very good finish and fast final glide.
Good result, third on the day and third overall so far.
Scrub
Today we were Grid Squatting. In gliding terms this is like being all dressed up and nowhere to go. We were 50 gliders on the grid all ready but the weather didn't want to play, so finally at 2:30 the director called the day off.
The sort of weather we ideally need for a good competition day is sunny with some cumulus clouds and light winds. The sun heats the ground, the ground heats the air, which then rises and cools down as it's rising, forming cumulus clouds at the top.
The sort of weather we normally get in gliding competition is wet, windy and cold...
Tomorrow the weather is looking pants so probably not flying again.
The sort of weather we ideally need for a good competition day is sunny with some cumulus clouds and light winds. The sun heats the ground, the ground heats the air, which then rises and cools down as it's rising, forming cumulus clouds at the top.
The sort of weather we normally get in gliding competition is wet, windy and cold...
Tomorrow the weather is looking pants so probably not flying again.
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