Gliding is a Mental Game

Things go to shit when you don't stay calm, measured, and focused on doing the current task well...

Here’s the mental dialogue of a recent flight that went to shit:

-10 mins: Everybody is staying up. Should be a great day for a long flight. I’m going to go for 2 hrs! The L33 should be able to climb like a champ in this booming cumulus.

0 min (take-off): Good clean take off. Not much wind to break up thermals.

+2 min (on tow): There’s some lift out here. Bumpy tow, but I’m not going to release early. Go to 3000’ and maximize my chances of finding the first thermal.

+6 mins (still on tow): Yep. Clouds look great. Where are we going- we’re north but not near any clouds. The good clouds upwind look a bit far. Hmmm…

+7 mins (release): at 3000’ AGL. Releasing. What? A couple knots of sink. Let’s head for those clouds out to the west. They look dark and straight underneath and promising.

+8 mins: 58 kts, pushing towards those clouds. Wow- there’s Mt Wachusset. I’ve never been this far before.

+10 mins: Ok- almost there, but I’m getting a bit far. I want to search under the middle of this cloud, but I’m already down to 2400 AGL… and I’m a bit far out. I might need to turn back now if I don’t find some lift immediately.

+10.5 min: Goddammit. No lift. I think I could find something deeper and downwind in this cloud, but if I don’t, I might have to land out. Not many fields to choose from, and landing out in a club plane is bad. Shit- Sterling is looking pretty far. I’m turning back now.

+11 min: OK- still in this blue hole- flying through the same area of no lift that I just flew through. Crap. At least the airport is getting closer. I might have to fly straight into a downwind leg if I get too low. I’m pushing through at 54 kts to get home.

+12 min: OK a little bit of lift. 1 kt bump. I’ll try it. Shit- not big enough to circle in. Can’t stay in it more than 3 circles.

+15 min: Phew- around 1600’ AGL. Back over the airfield. I’m not going to land out. Maybe I can still save this flight. No clouds nearby, but a small thermal over the IP. Usually not a good idea to thermal here, but I’m going to do it.

+17 min: Shit. Still at 1550’ AGL, not climbing. I might have to start the landing sequence soon and give up this flight. So much for 2 hrs of soaring.

+18 min: Hmm- now down at 1200’ AGL. Really shouldn’t thermal over the IP. Time to do the landing checks. Gear is fixed. Airbrakes work. Land at 51 kts today.

+19 min: OK field looks clear. A bit embarrassing to fall out of the sky in booming conditions like this, but I’m in the lowest performance glider out here today. I’ll relaunch.

+19.5 min: on final, clear field, all looks good. Some sink on final- attitude looks fine- high descent rate, a bit weird.

+20 min: OK I flared a bit high, but speed is fine, hold off and let the plane get to the ground. Bounce. Crap. Don’t PIO. Bounce. Shit. Hold it steady. Don’t overcontrol- let the plane settle out. Bounce and swerve to the right… Fuck. Steer us back straight. OK still rolling, but slowing down. OK stopped. That was the worst landing I’ve done in a while. Who saw it? Phew- only Tyson and Tony and a couple other guys on the field. They won’t rat me out and hope nobody has that on video. What the fuck just happened?

+21 min: Shit. That was bad. How did I muck that up? I’m done flying for the day. I need to reflect on this. I had a great flight yesterday in the new glider, and maybe I can fly tomorrow as well, but I’m done for today.

+23 min: Airplane looks OK. Landing gear looks OK. Could have been worse. At least I’m not stuck in a field 4 miles west of here with a bent plane.

+25 min: Ravi’s coming in for a landing in the towplane. Whoa- he ballooned to but caught the second descent with more throttle. Good man.

+27 min: Bill is landing long in his 1-35… he bounced too. Now I don’t feel so bad.

Flight Report: Lessons Learned from a Challenging Day in the L-33 (26 May 2025)

Today (May 26, 2025) was supposed to be a booming day for soaring, but instead, it turned into a challenging and frustrating flight in the L-33. A series of poor decisions led to a tough experience, but the plane is back on the ground, and I walked away unharmed. The aircraft is ready to fly again, which means some good decisions were made amidst the chaos. There is much to learn from this flight because you don’t just write about the good ones — the bad flights often teach the most valuable lessons.

Weather Conditions

Around 10:00 AM, cumulus clouds were booming over the airfield and upwind. The sky showed patches of blue, but promising cloud streets were forming. The sniffer took off around 10:30 AM but couldn’t find much lift. The "Great White Fleet" of master glider pilots began launching around 11:00 AM. I launched at approximately 12:20 PM. Most pilots were staying aloft and ended up flying hundreds of miles over 5 hours. A couple gliders, including an LS-8 and 1-35 landed shortly after I took off. Talking with one pilot afterward, he mentioned releasing at 2,000 feet into what he thought was lift but being unable to find anything.

Takeoff and Initial Flight

I launched in the L-33, and the tow was generally smooth with not much turbulence below 2,000 feet AGL — a sign I should have noted that thermals were not going very low. At 3,000 feet AGL, I released in a large blue hole. I should have asked the tow pilot to take me two miles farther to a dark cloud where I might have climbed to 4,000 feet. Instead, I released and pushed at 55–60 knots toward the most promising dark cloud, about 2.5 miles away.

After two minutes of flying, I reached the edge of the cloud but had descended to 2,200 AGL feet. Flying crosswind at high speed was a mistake; I should have flown at best glide and taken my time. The sink didn’t seem terrible, which made my faster-than-necessary speed an error. The headwind at that altitude was 12–15 knots from the north but manageable.

At the edge of the cloud, I found weak lift but grew nervous about how low the airport was on the horizon. After half a turn in the lift, I was down to 2,000 feet AGL. I could have searched downwind of the cloud for the lift’s core but feared being blown too far downwind to safely return to the initial point (IP). Instead, I flew crosswind back to the airport, through the same blue hole I had just traversed, at 55–60 knots — again, too fast.

Struggles to Stay Afloat

I stopped briefly in weak lift around 1.5 knots but couldn’t stay in it for more than two or three circles. Although I held altitude, I wasn’t staying centered in the lift due to poor bank angle control at 35°. I headed upwind and crosswind closer to the initial point (IP) at around 2,100 feet. Over the IP at 1,900 feet MSL, I found another 1.5 knot thermal, completing six circles before losing contact with it.

Landing Incident

Circling over the airfield above the crosswind pattern is in the way of traffic, and I began the landing sequence feeling rushed and disappointed. I performed my UFSTALL checks and turned downwind at 900 feet AGL. The circuit was normal, and I turned final at the correct height (350–400 feet), but I settled into using the airbrake without properly cross-referencing speed. I was likely coming in at around 60 Knots, instead of my target of 55 kts. At about 60 ft when I was about to come over the light pole, I felt the glider sinking with an increasing descent rate. I didn’t check my ASI but I was at half airbrake with a relatively normal attitude. I wasn’t diving towards the ground.

Because of the higher descent rate, I flared a bit early, and the glider settled into ground effect about 3 ft above the ground. I didn’t balloon, but I nosed up a bit to hold off the landing. This likely caused a stall which caused the glider to come down and bounce on the main wheel. I became airborne again after the bounce, back up to about 2-3 ft. I bounced four times in total — though the oscillations and bounce height didn’t worsen. I avoided over-controlling and didn’t manipulate the airbrake excessively, which kept the situation from escalating further. While there were a couple of hard bounces, none were severe enough to raise concerns about the aircraft’s structural integrity.

The landing included some roll correction, but I should have applied more wheel brake or used full airbrake earlier. The wing may have caught some wind, which contributed to the messy landing. I slalomed a bit, on the ground, likely because I didn’t disassociate rudder and aileron. Ultimately, I stopped short of the cross taxiway. Fortunately, no gliders were on the ground at the time. The landing felt sloppy — reactive rather than calculated — and I felt behind the airplane throughout the approach.

Reflections and Observations

Looking back, my frustration began early due to the inability to find lift. This agitation grew as I got farther from gliding range to the IP, and the frustration compounded as I circled low near the airfield. This stress negatively impacted the landing circuit, leading to rushed flying and poor lookout. I did, however, maintain awareness of the tow plane and other gliders near the airfield.

After landing, I observed several other pilots struggling with their landings:

• Ravi (towplane pilot) ballooned on landing and corrected it by adding a bit of power to arrest his descent. Ravi noted thermals near the airfield that disrupted normal round-outs, flares, and ground effect.

• Bill, flying his 1-35, landed long and bounced during his round-out. He rose about five feet before coming down again with airbrakes deployed. He reported a hard bounce that broke the wire connection on his seatback — his worst landing in this glider, by his own admission. It actually didn’t look that bad from the ground.

• Given where Ravi and I started to balloon, there may have been a thermal around the end of the starter strip. This might be consistent with the sink at the southern edge of the airfield by the light pole. There may also have been a gust at round-out, though I think it is less likely. .

Broader Observations from the Day

Several far more experienced pilots struggled to stay in lift despite the promising cumulus clouds: I suspect they got low (3000 MSL) and couldn’t reach the next cloud.

• One pilot in his LS-8, couldn’t find any lift below 2,000 feet, and what he did find was broken and difficult to center.

• Another landed out in Fitchburg.

• An instructor also landed after 35 minutes.

• Another landed out in Southbridge.

Clearly, I wasn’t the only one having trouble staying in consistent lift. Even on a day with widespread cumulus, the lift was elusive and broken below 2500 AGL.

Next Steps and Analysis

To learn from today’s flight, I plan to:

1. Calculate how far apart the cumulus clouds were and analyze the likelihood of finding lift between clouds in the blue. (see above)

2. Determine how long I could have stayed aloft if I had towed higher into a cloud and climbed to 4,200 feet MSL.

   1. Starting from 3000’ AGL, assuming I was in average 2 kt sink and a 25:1 glide ratio in a dirty-winged L33, I should have flown at 45 kts at best glide instead of 55 kts.

   2. Assuming clouds base was at 4000 ft and developed up to 6000 ft, the distance between clouds was 2.5 x 6000 ft, or 15,000 ft. Assume I started in the middle of a blue hole and had to travel 7,500 feet horizontally. 7500 / 25 = 300 ft of altitude lost. I should have arrived at the cloud at 2700 AGL. Instead I arrived at 2400' ft because I went too fast.

   3. If I needed to turn back to the airfield and arrive at 1500’ AGL to start a circuit, then I would have needed 500 ft to get back (assuming I drifted downwind a bit while searching). This means turning back to the field at 2000’ This means I would have had 700’, or 3.5 minutes of flying time, at which point I could have covered about 2.9NM. The lesson is, when you aren’t in lift, fly at best glide. Push through sink at 6-8 kts faster, but then go back to best glide.

3. I need to start using a glide computer, and also plot range rings on the aeronautical chart for how far I can glide. Know where you are, and know how far you can glide. Trust the math and geometry.

4. Consider how the flight might have unfolded had I consistently stayed above 4,000 feet MSL. Others stayed up for 5 hrs and flew for 250 miles.

5. Let each event in the flight be a new one. Don’t let the frustration of not finding lift, or being far out ruin your concentration for centering in the next thermal.

6. Practice rounding out on Condor (simulator) covering the ASI (Air Speed Indicator). Figure out how to recover from rounding out too early at 3 ft without stalling. In real life, check the airspeed indicator every 2 seconds on final and especially before the flare to ensure I don’t have excessive energy.

Conclusion

Overall, today was a messy and challenging flight, but it offered plenty of lessons. From the importance of towing to a better position to managing frustration and stress during difficult conditions, I have a lot to improve on, but it’s all within my control. The day proved tough not just for me but for a few others. Despite the struggles, I’ll be back in the saddle next week.

Here’s how it should have gone:

-10 mins: Everybody is staying up. Should be a great day for a long flight. I’m going to go for 2 hrs! The L33 should be able to climb like a champ in this booming cumulus.

0 min: Good clean take off. Not much wind to break up thermals.

+2 min: “Birddog, glider under tow. Request you take me to the clouds at 1 o’clock”

+6 mins: Yep. Clouds look great. We’re in lift. I’m going to release here.

+7 mins: Good thermal - 2 kts.

+13 mins: Not bad - up to 4000 ft! Sterling is just to the south. I’m going to explore crosswind and catch the next upwind cloud here. That street to the West looks decent.

+1 hr: Awesome! 6500 ft! I’ve never been up this high at Sterling! Let’s keep going!

+2 hr: OK- sky is still booming - 8000 ft. I could do this all day. Let’s head north to Gardner, then work our way back S.

+3 hr: Solid fun. Back over the airfield. Let’s I’m starting to lose focus, but it’s a great flight. Time to land.

+3 hr, 15 min: Good landing. Amazing flight. That was good fun.