Sounds like a very manageable slope.
Yes you can probably fly halfway up successfully.
Two thirds might be better.
Slope landings are basically done across the
slope, as close to into the wind as you can get
without flying away from the slope.
If the lift is strong, you have to start out down
below you, and bring the plane across the slope
face while climbing up the slope to slow the
plane. In gentle slope lift, you can just make a
slightly lower pass, bring the pass in close to
the slope, and slow the glider down by climbing
just a little faster than the lift can support,
and swish, a gentle sideways landing, wings level,
or tilted just a little to match the slope, into
all that tall grass you mentioned. When this
becomes more familiar, it's not at all impossible
to refine this technique so that you fly your
slope pattern down below you on the slope, and do
this 'climb to land' pass directly into your hand
for a catch. In consistent slope lift, one nice
thing is that you can almost always abandon a
landing attempt and try again, simply by turning
back out away from the slope. So it's often
possible to try 10 or 20 landings before actually
touching down.
Dangerous Alternative:
On a slope with a soft surface, you can use your
height and speed to dive directly towards the
slope below you, pull up at just the right moment
for the conditions, come screaming up the slope,
bleeding energy into a downwind stall just a few
feet off the deck, and mush the plane into the
grass, headed directly up the slope. You should do
this landing after you have a few thousand
successful landings under your belt and the slope
is so familiar to you that you can fly an
aerobatic routine, eat a sandwich, and instruct
two or three newcomers all at once. Not for the
faint of heart.
If you can find a part of your slope that has a
flat, or even better a concave surface facing the
wind (called a 'bowl' in the world of sloping),
this is particularly nice. A conVEX slope has the
lift deteriorating off to each side, and a flight
too far across the slope to one side or the other
is hard to return from. A 'bowl' concentrates the
lift into a reliable crescent band, and makes it
easier to pass back and forth in front of you
without worrying as you would on a convex slope
about going too far off the sides where the lift
gets ragged and turns into turbulence and sink.
Lift,
Scobie in Seattle
-Original Message-
From: ggareth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 6:20 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [RCSE] Please help me assess slope!
As you might have guessed I am a newbie
on the brink of buying a
foamie trainer.
Anyway, today I went out and did an
examination of my local slope.
I've never seen anyone flying there and
it's not listed as a site.
Since I do not own a car this location
is my only option.
The slope is actually a huge man-made
conical hill which was once
used for skiing. It's 100m (300ft)
high with slopes varying from
vertical to a gentle slope. It has
faces in every direction meaning
that it should provide lift with any
wind direction. Furthermore
it's covered in high grass!
That's the good news. The bad news is
that there are floodlights,
pylons, lifts and overhead cables.
Most of these are concentrated
towards the top of the hill.
I'm wondering if would be possible to
fly half way up the slope where
there are less obstacles. Is this
possible from a lift/turbulence
point of view?
Then I'm also curious about how to
land. I know that aircraft always
land into the wind but that would mean
flying away from the hill...?
Thanks in advance
Gareth
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