In the Air, Wishing We were on the Ground!

Landon and I went out to the Short Divide today for an afternoon flight together. Upon arrival at launch conditions looked great - a few stray cumulus, about 85 degrees, and blowing straight in at 16-18 mph. I set up quickly and completed my pre-flight as a hawk soared stationary about 30' directly above us, screeching for us to come join him!

After a hang check we walked out to launch together. Conditions were about the same, but a big cu-nim was forming just west of Nucor Steel. I told Landon we would have to keep an eye on that in case it OD'd and decided to collide with our local flight plan. We paused briefly on launch, wings level, neutral, "Clear", walk, jog, run, airborne - going up!! Our launch was seamless, and we quickly transitioned to prone. We soared along the lower ridge, finding a few thermals, one of which allowed us climb to about 500' over launch. We drifted back toward the mountain, but fell out of the thermal and lost altitude too quickly to bench up.

We explored the lower ridge with a couple of hawks, playing cat and mouse for a while. After being in the air for about 15 minutes I looked to the west and saw a huge, dark wall near I-15, extending from the top of the cu-nim complex clear to the ground, where an obvious gust front was rapidly rolling right toward us, loaded with dust and debris. It was still about 4 miles away, but I could tell it was moving at about 40-50 mph - which allowed us only about 6 or 7 minutes to get down safely. I said to Landon, "We have to land NOW" I stuffed the bar and headed out over the valley, but I was still level with launch and going up! The shadows of the cloud complex had overtaken us and seemed to be taking us up. I didn't let Landon see just how urgent the situation was, but I know he sensed the need to be on the ground right away. I continued on a southward path with the bar stuffed, going further out over the valley to find a place to put down away from the mountain. We went to an upright position and did some tight 360 reversals allowing us to finally lose altitude and descend to a safe stand-up landing nearly a mile south of our normal bail-out LZ.

I hurried and took a picture of the approaching gust front, and within 2 minutes of landing it came through and flipped my glider over like a toy. I managed to flip it back over without any damage, and then quickly de-tensioned and began frantically pulling battens as Landon held on to the upwind side wire for dear life. My Sport control bar does not easily go flat until I can release the front flying wires and remove the base bar. I managed to get the wings folded and down on the ground just as the front hit with winds of at least 50 mph. Landon and I hunkered down and held on to the glider as we were pelted with big stinging drops of rain and hail. Then the wind suddenly shifted 180 degrees without warning, and the rain continued. After about 15 minutes it let up enough to allow me to finish glider breakdown, and I then phoned home to let Keri know that we were safely on the ground.

We carried the glider and harnesses back to the road, by which time the storm had past, leaving clear skies and a stiff north wind. After retrieving our pick-up, I opened the glider up to allow it to dry before putting it away less hurried. On our short ride home we were both very thankful - not only for a nice flight - but also for a safe landing and retrieval. I was also thankful that my inner ear seems to have healed completely and did not give me any vertigo or airsickness problems!! Yay!

Airtime: 24 minutes!