Wave Flights 2017
Ryan was a senior at Harwood Union High School during this wave flight. He climbed to over 10,000.
The first time I flew mountain wave was June 11th, 2017. I flew with Jen Stamp. It was a brief 20 minute flight in which I ascended to 10,000 feet. The rotor was rough that day, lifting me into the air at times, seeing bits of dirt and grime float up through the floorboards and slam back down again. At the end of the flight, I kept looking up; up to where I had been previously in the bright blue sky. It was there I decided the wave was something I wanted to continue to fly in. And the wave agreed with me. Almost every single day I worked during the season, there was wave. (I worked around 30 days) I began to gain experience in the wave, but the place I saw the most improvement was on a flight in July of 2017. I flew with Tom Anderson who informed be that I would be PIC for the whole flight. On the tow, everything was going great. There was a good amount of rotor but we pushed through. At around 3,500 feet AGL. I felt a solid bump from the wave which pegged the variometer. I released. This was over the Sugarbush parking area. The wave I had previously felt was nonexistent. I moved left to the Lincoln Gap road and found about one or two knots of lift. I began to feel out the wave, moving up, left, right and backwards. Coordination was key through this whole process. Every foot of altitude had to be fought for, and couldn’t be lost by a careless, skidding turn.
Crackling through the radio we could hear that there was strong wave over the Sugarbush North parking lot. So I set my sights on that parking lot. We had been in the weak wave for 20 minutes “balancing on the head of a pin” as Tom would say. We had about 4500 feet of altitude MSL. I put in a wicked crab and began to work my way towards the parking lot. I was quickly shot down and turned back to the weak wave. We hung there for another 25 minutes and reached around 5000 feet. I once again began to crab my way towards the Sugarbush North parking lot. I watched the altimeter go around and around until that voice behind my head told me it was time to head back to the airport. So we did, the wind took us and our ground speed increased exponentially. And then the variometer began to go upwards and so we turned and pointed our nose into the wind and began to climb.
That flight was the turning point in my skill in general in flying. I learned coordination between the rudder and the aileron. As I previously said, every skidding turn meant a foot lost instead of a foot gained.
I learned to love the wave and the vicious crosswinds that come with it. (The incredible views are just a plus) Without meaning to I set one last goal for myself. I wanted to make it to Camels Hump in the wave. On my last flight of the season in 16VT, Tom and I took off into steady wave. We followed the ridgeline sloping off of Sugarbush and made our way to Camels Hump, finally arriving at it with 8000 feet of altitude.
That flight capped off an amazing season with even greater people. I set my goals and all of the Sugarbush Soaring staff helped me to achieve that goal. First to solo, then to fly the 1-26 and finally to fly to Camels Hump. It was a great season, and hopefully the coming season can be better!
