De Aar 02 December 2005 wind W 10MPH
Hi,
I hope that all is well back in blighty and that the cold snap has abated(if not coming home is going to be horrible!). As promised here is my second and last update from de Aar, I doubt I will fly again tomorrow as my back is a bit knackered and after today so am I!
Well, I have now been here since Monday and unfortunately after my first message, the weather turned nasty for a couple of days... However,yesterday was better again and i managed another 30KM flight, but cloudbasewas significantly lower and getting to 30KMs really proved a battle.Today, the forecast was for stronger lift and higher bases, so i expected that breaking the 50KM mark would be a doddle, it wasnt! I got away on my third tow this morning and climbed up about 1000M above launch and then found nothing more until i got a very low save behind some trees by a farm about 10Kms from launch, i then climbed back to about the same height and drifted off down wind unable to find anymore lift and landed at about27KMs. I was a little disappointed, but at least felt that i hadn't fallen out of any thermals...
Arnold picked me up and as we drove back to De Aar, the sky looked really good especially a little further downwind than where i'd got to....So rather than going home, we headed back to the airfield and after 4 tows with no lift (that I found), I finally took off into a fast moving thermal that was bubbling along the ground, but not really releasing. I was told to stick with it over the radio and eventually it let go. Initially the lift was very broken up with half a turn in lift half a turn out, a quarter in strong lift, 3/4 in zeros, this went on for what seemed like an eternity,but eventually everything calmed down and the thermal increased in diameter and strength and took me to 3000M AGL.
Fortunately, as the wind had increased I was now covering the ground at a really good pace. I headed off on my first glide around where i=B4d had my low save on my first flight! Being in De Aar meant that i immediately found some impressive / depressing sink5.5M/s, but fortunately with 3000M to play with it didn`t matter as i bombed on downwind at 70KM/H + and eventually found some more lift.At that point everything got ridiculously easy, cloudbase was now at over5000M and the cumuli were no more than 4 or 5 KMs apart, so i just went jumping from under one to another for around the next 50KMs, I then started to get a little low, but another farmhouse provided a nice trigger, with the thermal taking me back to just over 4000M.
Up ahead was a growing cumulus,but it didn't look too dark so i pottered under it and into a slightly snotty 2M thermal that then developed into a large friendly 4.5 M per second thermal... I circled up to 4300M and then headed off on glide again with about a KM of cloud still ahead. This turned out to be a good decision as by the time i reached the edge of the cloud i was almost atbase with 4850M reading on the vario / GPS. By this time my back was starting to hurt and i was aware that i had been in the air for over 5 hours today, I therefore decided that even if i foundmore lift, i would not turn in it. I then just aimed to fly under the clouds ahead and found one absolute cracker, but feeling sure i must have broken the hundred KM mark and bearing in mind my previous self decree,didnt take it.
Instead i just carried on gliding downwind. After what i would guess was 25KMs id burnt off all my height and landed safely by the road, with Arnold on hand to take me home.
Stats
Max speed 75KMH
Max Height 4850M
Max averaged vario 5.5
Max sink 5.?
Collapses - several minor, 1 x big full frontal aka (why i am i in freefall=)followed by a thump and a thwack and all was back to normal, not that thiswas worrying as was over 4000M at the time!
Straight distance 134KMexpected OLC 139KM. Again today, there were bits of snotty lift, but being so high above theground it really didnt matter. The frontal was a result of trying to go as fast as possible with no pressure on the breaks (my fault).
As a winters flying destination it really is fantastic, Des and Arnold do everything possible to make you feel at home and will cater for all levelsof pilots (they train pilots from scratch here) and touch wood, have neverhad an accident with a student or guest.
Fly safe,
Richard
Track http://www.paraglidingforum.com/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=1161
I hope that all is well back in blighty and that the cold snap has abated(if not coming home is going to be horrible!). As promised here is my second and last update from de Aar, I doubt I will fly again tomorrow as my back is a bit knackered and after today so am I!
Well, I have now been here since Monday and unfortunately after my first message, the weather turned nasty for a couple of days... However,yesterday was better again and i managed another 30KM flight, but cloudbasewas significantly lower and getting to 30KMs really proved a battle.Today, the forecast was for stronger lift and higher bases, so i expected that breaking the 50KM mark would be a doddle, it wasnt! I got away on my third tow this morning and climbed up about 1000M above launch and then found nothing more until i got a very low save behind some trees by a farm about 10Kms from launch, i then climbed back to about the same height and drifted off down wind unable to find anymore lift and landed at about27KMs. I was a little disappointed, but at least felt that i hadn't fallen out of any thermals...
Arnold picked me up and as we drove back to De Aar, the sky looked really good especially a little further downwind than where i'd got to....So rather than going home, we headed back to the airfield and after 4 tows with no lift (that I found), I finally took off into a fast moving thermal that was bubbling along the ground, but not really releasing. I was told to stick with it over the radio and eventually it let go. Initially the lift was very broken up with half a turn in lift half a turn out, a quarter in strong lift, 3/4 in zeros, this went on for what seemed like an eternity,but eventually everything calmed down and the thermal increased in diameter and strength and took me to 3000M AGL.
Fortunately, as the wind had increased I was now covering the ground at a really good pace. I headed off on my first glide around where i=B4d had my low save on my first flight! Being in De Aar meant that i immediately found some impressive / depressing sink5.5M/s, but fortunately with 3000M to play with it didn`t matter as i bombed on downwind at 70KM/H + and eventually found some more lift.At that point everything got ridiculously easy, cloudbase was now at over5000M and the cumuli were no more than 4 or 5 KMs apart, so i just went jumping from under one to another for around the next 50KMs, I then started to get a little low, but another farmhouse provided a nice trigger, with the thermal taking me back to just over 4000M.
Up ahead was a growing cumulus,but it didn't look too dark so i pottered under it and into a slightly snotty 2M thermal that then developed into a large friendly 4.5 M per second thermal... I circled up to 4300M and then headed off on glide again with about a KM of cloud still ahead. This turned out to be a good decision as by the time i reached the edge of the cloud i was almost atbase with 4850M reading on the vario / GPS. By this time my back was starting to hurt and i was aware that i had been in the air for over 5 hours today, I therefore decided that even if i foundmore lift, i would not turn in it. I then just aimed to fly under the clouds ahead and found one absolute cracker, but feeling sure i must have broken the hundred KM mark and bearing in mind my previous self decree,didnt take it.
Instead i just carried on gliding downwind. After what i would guess was 25KMs id burnt off all my height and landed safely by the road, with Arnold on hand to take me home.
Stats
Max speed 75KMH
Max Height 4850M
Max averaged vario 5.5
Max sink 5.?
Collapses - several minor, 1 x big full frontal aka (why i am i in freefall=)followed by a thump and a thwack and all was back to normal, not that thiswas worrying as was over 4000M at the time!
Straight distance 134KMexpected OLC 139KM. Again today, there were bits of snotty lift, but being so high above theground it really didnt matter. The frontal was a result of trying to go as fast as possible with no pressure on the breaks (my fault).
As a winters flying destination it really is fantastic, Des and Arnold do everything possible to make you feel at home and will cater for all levelsof pilots (they train pilots from scratch here) and touch wood, have neverhad an accident with a student or guest.
Fly safe,
Richard
Track http://www.paraglidingforum.com/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=1161
posted by SHGC Flying Diaries at 8:42 AM
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