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By paicolman
#403751
This was a nice flight in my home site, Haldigrat. One hour thermal and ridge soaring. Unfortunately, I expected strong wind at the landing so programmed my brain to "no flare", but 2 meters over ground the wind stopped, due to trees at the end of the LZ. Result was a minor WHACK! and another lesson learned. Luckily no damage to me or the glider, just a bruised knee.

Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/eISjz9BhW9c
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By raquo
#403770
Gorgeous site!

If I may offer some critique, it doesn't seem like your problem started at 2m AGL. It looks like you weren't pulling in for the last 10m of altitude at the very least. A no-flare landing doesn't mean that you should come in at trim speed. You should always have extra speed on final, and you should maintain that speed until you're in ground effect.
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By paicolman
#403771
Thanks for the replies. Yes, it's really a beatiful site. With all the alps around we have lots of nice places to fly here in switzerland...

And yes, raquo, you're right. I need to pull further in, thanks for the feedback!
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By klh
#403773
Nice ramp and surroundings! Good launch!
That was such a long series of fields that you flew over on your landing approach. Could you have gotten lower earlier and landed somewhere near the middle? That way you would have been farther from the wind-shadow of the tree line. I usually figure it's better to land with more field in front of me than behind me. In certain cases that's not practical but in wide-open flatlands (with lines of trees) it is doable.

And that was almost not a whack :)
#403777
What a beautiful place you fly. Thank you for posting the video.

Be careful letting your hands get too high up on the control frame before you're in ground effect. It makes pulling in much more difficult and would delay your roll response if you got rocked by a thermal while low.

Fly safe,

Dan
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By paicolman
#403800
Thanks for the replies, your advices are valid and accurate, but...

Landing in other fields: knowing the grumpy swiss farmers, whacking is the better option... :lol: (We do pay a yearly fee to the farmer of the "official" LZ, and the farmers of the nearby fields feel like "no money, no landing in MY field" legally you can land anywhere, but then those pitchforks are really pointy...!)

Hands too high up: I did this without noticing, I thought the same looking at the video... bad habit!

Pushing to the front instead of up: Also a bad habit, but actually the head was tuned in "no pushig, due to high wind" and then "oh, no, push", but then I did it wrong...

Anyway, thanks for the replies, you never end learning. And yes, many sites here are really a beauty. Small but scenic country.
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By andylongvq
#403852
Every time I watch one of your videos, I'm reminded of the fantastic time I had flying in the Alps for 2 weeks back in 1987.

Regarding your landing, here's what I think happened. There was enough of a surface wind to create a pretty significant gradient between, say, 50 feet up and the surface. So, as you started to drop through the top of the gradient, you didn't have nearly enough airspeed to then round out and ground effect before slowing down and then flaring.

If you had had more airspeed, you could have probably rounded out, slowed down then had a tip toe gentle landing with a slow flare in that nice surface wind that was moving the grass around in your video.

That's one of the things I remembered about flying in the Alps; green, grassy fields to land in... often times filled with flowers!

Cheers,

- Andy