Cool Flight

It's a hot July afternoon in Las Vegas, with the base of the large developing cu's at about 11,000 feet. Several ships have been towed to minimum altitude and released to climb to cooler air.

Our towplane and glider are now poised for take-off while waiting for a strong "dust devil" to cross the runway. Two minutes later the throttle is opened and our formation leaves the ground in 100 degree heat. We struggle off the end of the runway and out over the desert wash and rocks, going from zero lift to 300 foot sink and then to 200 foot lift. After ten minutes on tow we are now 1,000 feet over the airport and entering 1,000 to 1,200 foot lift.

The glider releases, turns, and sharply climbs while the towplane throttles back and banks off to the left. The lift is a steady 400-500 feet per minute and the desert floor starts to sink away. We trim the ship and pull a notch of flaps in this serious thermal. We are now climbing in quiet, clear and cooler air; leaving behind the noisy engine, dust and heat of the gliderport. As the altimeter shows us passing 8,000 feet we close the window and air vent in the much cooler air. Looking up, we see a 2-33 climbing toward cloud base several thousand feet above us.

Approaching 10,000 feet, the lift starts to break up and the 2-33 is still some 500 feet above. Even though the altitude record for the day is not ours, we drop our nose and trim for the descent. Passing through 6,000 we open the window again and head for the field. At 5,000 feet we increase our airspeed to 120 mph, the propeller starts to turnover and the engine comes to life again on our Piper Super Cub towplane!

On the ground again, cool and refreshed, we open our sailplane logbook and enter a 6,000 foot altitude gain.

The lesson in this story is: when you want to go soaring but don't have another tow pilot, soar the towplane.

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