TWO NOVELTIES
“Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.”
I witnessed two peculiar natural occurrences my rookie season, which at the time I took for granted must be quite common… but have never seen either one again. The outfit where I learned to fly was named Dust Devil Soaring, and propitiously so. It was in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a smaller version of California's San Joaquin, and though local devils were usually small and feeble, they were generally more common than cumulus.
I was circling atop such a devil at something less than 2000 AGL, and happened to be sighting straight down its core as it rolled across a stray barn. It lashed away at the structure from all sides, ripping shingles from the roof — and breaking itself apart in the process. Then immediately I felt the lift begin to fade where I was, a quarter mile up.
Of course this may have been a coincidence; perhaps the lift was about to die anyway (Lord knows it surely would have soon enough). Or maybe I just lost it, as happened too soon with nearly every thermal those first couple of seasons. Either way, it’s intriguing to think that some kind of hydraulic shut-off could act so quickly… Not for me to say.
Also that rookie season, circling in similar two-knot lift, I watched a red-tail hawk edge in ever so slowly until it hung right over my canopy, close enough I could see individual feathers on its lower surfaces ruffling in tiny pockets of drag. Once it got within what felt like arm’s reach, it extended its claws as if to… attack? Perch? Did it even know what to do? Then it looked further down, made eye contact face to face, and instantly folded its wings to dive away. That describes the entire encounter, which lasted only seconds from beginning to end.
Both of those vignettes occurred within my first twenty solo flight hours, and it was reasonable to assume I’d see see each of them happen again and again, in one way or another, as I continued soaring. I did go on to fly more than anyone might have guessed at the time, accumulating two full years worth of cockpit hours, all in gliders — and have been blessed to observe marvels galore, but never yet witnessed either of those first two curiosities a second time… How much longer do you suppose I’ll have to wait?