First Impressions: U2 160

It's the middle of Team Challenge 2013. I’m not competing but the forecast was awesome so I headed out to get some goodness with the assembled sky brethren and sistren. I started the day with a sledder on my new U2. First flight on this U2 for me, and only my second fight on a U2 with one test fight I did 2 years ago. I really enjoyed it. Hit the morning calm just as the sun was hitting the ground. It felt a little sluggish compared to the Sport2, but also very stable in comparison. I did a simple flight practicing a few coordinated turns along the way. Honestly my launch and landing kind of sucked. I popped the nose on launch. There was no wind, and the U2 is a bit more tail heavy than the Sport2 is. Actually the U2 is a bit heavier in general. Landing was also unsatisfying. I had a nice approach but I hesitated to flare and ended up going late. Ran a couple of steps and set the base tube on the ground.

The second flight was in active mid day so I busted out my trusty Sport2 155. Good launch and landing. I got up in light ridge and a nice thermal straight away. In my mind I decided it was a good day which is the point at which I blew the flight. In reality the lift was inconsistent at that time and as soon as that climb faded away I needed to be in survival mode. Instead Brandon and I flew South looking for something under the clouds but all we got was flushed. I headed over to the ridge for a refill and found nothing! I was barely able to squeak enough lift out of it to get back in range of the main LZ. I missed a thermal on the way back which Ethan was able to find and climb up to cloud base in.  The difference was that he was willing to execute a search pattern and risk losing his glide to the LZ while I was playing it safe. I guess there comes a point when one simply has to commit. There’s always the bowl field.

Third flight of the day, and the second on my U2. This time the valley was glassing off. Smooth 10 mph wind blowing straight in. It was fantastic. A really smooth launch. Based on the first attempt I was much more aggressive with the nose and I had a very strong launch. There was lift everywhere. I suppose it was ridge lift but it extended all over the place. I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to get to know my new glider. I noticed a few differences very distinctly. It is definitely stiffer in turn. It doesn’t require a whole lot of extra effort, but it takes a moment or two before it responds. If you try and muscle it around you’ll be over-shooting your turn every time. The Sport2 responds almost instantly, while the U2 has a momentary lag. As a result I had to always be thinking ahead of the game just a bit. Make a turn input, then back to center and wait for it to happen. If I held my turn input until the glider started to respond it would end up swinging around much steeper than I wanted and I would have to jump to the other side of the frame to get on track again. It is certainly not going to be as forgiving for flying up against the trees and such.

The second thing I noticed was that this glider loves to climb. I’m closer to the middle of the weight range in the U2 160, closer to the top on the Sport2 155, and maybe this has something to do with it. I felt that I was thermalling very sloppily, and I know I’ve got some time to put in before I’ll be truly dialed into the U2. Even so, I was able to climb just about as good as anyone. Brandon and I were in one thermal where he came in about 100 feet below me and I was able to keep him there. Ultimately I left it about 1000’ to early because the cloud looked to be darker out front. Sadly the lift didn’t fit my plan and I saw Brandon up at cloud base a while later. I never did get there on this flight. Sing it with me… “Love the lift you’re with!!” Throughout the entire flight I was able to keep up with everyone and was at the top of the stack for a good long while. The U2 likes to climb, what can I say? I can’t wait to see what I can get up to with this glider when I’m in the zone!!

The final thing I noticed was the glide speed and associated sink rate. It was really nice. :) No doubt that it out glides the Sport2 155.  It’s wrapped up with the VG being a lot more meaningful as well. There’s a lot more rope to pull, and it makes a big difference. With the Sport2 I felt like 50% VG was default, and the only other setting was 100%. With the U2 there was a distinct difference in feel between 0, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Each step gets tighter and tighter. At 100% VG the U2 was definitely a bear to initiate a turn, and a bit skatey in yaw, but man I could fly at 40MPH and the bar pressure was minimal, as was my sink rate. The Sport2 would be plummeting out of the sky at that speed. That doesn’t appear to be the case with the U2. Perhaps it’s not really anything to brag about, but I was able to overtake all of the PGs at will without ever losing a foot of altitude on them, and some SS gliders as well. I was also able to make the 2 mile glide across highway 111 into the wind and arrive at the north face there with plenty of altitude in reserve.

The flight ended with a very nice landing. I think the 2 hours of getting used to flying the U2 set me up very well for a much better landing. I got popped a little bit on final and ended up overshooting the cone by about 50’. My landing was a smooth and gentle 1 stepper in no wind. The light bar pressure is going to take some getting used to on landing as well. I was keeping a gentle touch, but when I thought it was at trim and gave it a little push to test it out it turns out there was still some energy left in there. I climbed up a couple of feet. As soon as the climb stopped I paused a moment and flared and it was nice. I actually flared a little weakly or else I would have had the no stepper. Next time!!

All in all I am very pleased. I will miss the easy handling of the Sport2 and the almost careless way I could toss it around the sky with precision. I probably won’t be so bold in flying close to stuff, be it terrain, trees, or other gliders. The Sport2 is an amazing wing. I think Wills Wing has squeezed out as much performance as physics will allow while keeping single surface-like maneuverability. On the other hand I am going to really enjoy being able to stretch my legs a little bit. The U2 definitely is going to get me higher, farther, faster. I think it will be worth the trade given the increased climb and the fantastic glide. I am really excited to get dialed in and see what we can do. I think my playground just got a little bit bigger!

Spring is Breaking Out All Over!

April 20, 2013. Epic forcast. Confab with Dean, Barry, James, and me about flying XC. We were talking about Marion County, or maybe even Lookout Mountain. Conditions on launch were strong but the gusts were predictable and the between cycles were quite mild. It looked good, although totally blue. A few people launched and were fighting ratty and inconsistent ridge lift. James Dean launched and got over the ridge, but shortly after that got flushed out into the valley and went to land. Bummer.

7000'... what a cool place to be

I launched about 30 minutes later right around 3:30. I got up in ridge lift and it was squirrely. There were lots of lift bubbles but they were impossible to work in a full 360. It was a matter of milking it until you got a couple of grand over and from there you could catch a real boomer. I eventually found a thermal south of launch. Tipper came over and helped me max it out and we climbed to 7000’. Dean Funk, Jeff laughrey, Rob Dallas, and Mark Bolt had already headed south. I pointed my nose that way and followed suit.

The glide was painful. Nothing but sink the whole way. From 7k I was only able to glide about 5 miles despite going downwind. I hit another little thermal there that got me to Dr Dales. I found another little climb that was drifting fast and wasn’t really turning on. South of Dales the LZs weren’t good so I wanted to get high before moving further down range. While I’m working this little fart Barry Klein comes blazing through below me. He flys by me and manages to spot some birds working a thermal about half a mile ahead. It’s a better one and he soon climbs through my altitude. I leave my piece to go join him. I hit it and start climbing reasonably fast. I think “I’ve got it made... another climb to 7k”. Well, after about 4500 it starts to get a little squirrelly. There’s a strong core but I find myself doing half a turn in lift, the other half in sink. Barry calls that he’s averaging 700fpm and is out over the ridge while I’m a bit over the back. Right there is where i blow it because I decide to leave my climb to find whatever Barry is in. I can’t find it, and neither is my climb still working when I go back there. It’s all fallen apart.

Dr. Dales in my sights

I play it safe and head out into the valley towards Dr Dales. It’s an upwind glide and I want to make sure I get there with extra altitude. The glide is slow and I find almost no signs of lift anywhere. I get there with just enough altitude to do a single 360 before bringing it in on final at speed. I get a wing lifted and try to run it out but I end up dropping a corner of the bracket onto the ground. Not pretty, but workable.

Overall I give myself 9.5 miles on this flight. If I had made good on that thermal I would have easily had 16 or 17 miles. Most likely I would have gone all the way to Marion County Airport where Barry and Mark landed for a 25 miler. Rob and Jeff landed at Lookout. Dean pushed on and made it 10 miles short of Fort Payne... call it 60 miles! Somehow I didn’t think that I was prone to making such rookie mistakes, but the fact is... I’m a rookie when it comes to XC. I love it. I can’t wait to try again.

Raptor Heaven

April 22, 2013. Me and Marc Fink setup down at the Whitwell PG launch. It looked a little nicer for self launching. Marc launched at 2PM and had an extended sledder. There had been cycles coming in all morning but it got quiet just as we got set to launch. I launched half an hour later and hit a nice one right off of launch. I counted to 3 and banked up hard climbing well. Then I fell out the back and did an unscheduled launch dive. I tried to get back in it but by then I was below launch and too close to the trees. Not a single bump all the way to Castle's LZ. There was something breaking off over Castle's and I managed 3 or 4 turns in zero sink at about 200' over the ground. It didn't pan out and I landed.

Dave Pugh was around with some visiting PG pilots and he drove Marc's truck down and picked us up. Marc threw in the towel but I set up again at the HG launch and got off again at 4. Once again Dave came through for me offering to drive my van down to the Church where he and his friends were going to be kiting their PGs.

Wasn't strong enough to ridge soar. Got nothing much to speak of and headed toward the church. About halfway there I got something over a clearing with a house and pond. I worked a search pattern and finally found a broken climb. It was mostly parallel to the ridge and very slow going.

Star Gap

It slowly edged me closer and closer to the trees. I was drifting closer to the LZ so I didn't mind just hanging out. At the exact moment I reached ridge height it turned over the back and started to increase in strength. I rode it up to about 4500' before it fell apart. I flew back out and caught a new bubble in exactly the same spot. That one did exactly the same thing. Finally topped it out at 5500'. There was a stiff inversion there and I tried for literally 20 minutes to punch through but I was unable to get it. It was late and the thermals weren't strong. From there I could see Galloway's and I knew there would be lift enough in the valley to get me there. If I got half way there and hit another decent thermal I could have probably made Henson's. However it was getting late and my car was at the church and I hoped to get home in time to tuck the kids in bed.

Time to go to church

After that I headed out into the valley and that's when the magic happened. Right in line with the church LZ are those brown fields. There was a sweet little lift line that was working between 2500 and 3500. It was some of the smoooothest air I've ever had the pleasure to have flown in. It was close to 6PM and the sun had that amazing golden evening color. After a few minutes a few black vultures broke off of the ridge and came out to join me. Then a hawk I didn't recognize came right out and started swapping turns with me up close. About 8 or 9 turkey vultures came out and started messing around on the ridge. A while later 2 bald eagles flew over. Within a mile of me in any direction there were a dozen soaring birds of varying species all just floating around enjoying the same beautiful glass I was in. It was one of those life moments when you just have to say "Damn, is this possible? Am I really experiencing this?" It was better than in my dreams.

This was pure freedom and joy.