I Learned About Flying From That: A Wave From Above

Adam Alpert

Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 01:26 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The author successfully passed their sailplane checkride, earning their pilot's license.
Shortly after, during a celebratory flight to experience mountain wave lift, the weather rapidly deteriorated, trapping the pilot above an obscuring cloud layer without instrument training.
Facing a dangerous situation, the pilot successfully performed an improvised emergency spiral dive through the clouds to break out and land safely.
Despite a reprimand for getting caught on top, the pilot retained their license and gained a critical lesson about the unpredictable and rapidly changing nature of weather in mountain wave conditions.

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I had to land within 200 feet of the white mark to pass the last phase of the checkride. Easy, I thought, as I turned the Schweizer 2-33 sailplane onto final. I’ll show this guy how good I am. I’ve got to hold 45 knots, 300 feet — that’s a little fast; let’s apply more dive brakes. Beautiful, I’ve got it. Shushhhh, down, and within 100 feet. Not bad! He’s going to pass me.

John Machone, Warren-Sugarbush Airport’s sailplane examiner, sat behind me. “Congratulations, Adam, you are a sailplane pilot.”