Cape Albatross Fly-away
Just to keep up with the flight log...
Went to Porterville for a Cape Albatross Hang Gliding Club fly-away. 7 pilots showed up for the weekend. On Saturday we were all hoping to go far. We set a goal of the field near Constriction I had landed in my previous flight, but with the condition that if we could we would go further. After an early launch and sink out from one of the best pilots, we chilled on the take off for an hour until conditions turned on a bit.
Launching close to 2pm, myself and a rigid wing pilot got up and headed north. The rigid disappeared while I chugged along in my Ultrasport. While I waited to gain height for the crossing into the back valley at Bumpy Peak, I was caught by three pilots flying toplesses, who blazed over the top of me. I looked for their thermal, 1000ft below, but couldn't find it. I stuck around looking for height, but eventually gave up on crossing their and carried along down the ridge.
I got to the Pass low and looked around for lift, eventually finding a good thermal that took me high enough to drift over the back to Citrusdal. I was convinced that I had been left behind and so was happy when I found good lift over Citrusdal town that took me to 2000m ASL and gave me an easy glide to Constriction.
Nearing Constriction I made a poor call. I wasn't sure I was high enough to continue into the narrow valley towards Clanwilliam, so I turned around looking for extra height. My search wasn't sucessfull and I ended up flying back into wind and landing at the goal field. In retrospect I was plenty high enough to continue, I just lacked the commitment to head into the unknown valley alone.
I landed convinced that all the other pilots were miles ahead and I had been left behind, but it turned out that they had all bombed out earlier, not finding lift in Citrusdal after their earlier crossing. I ended up flying the furthest for the day.
The next day the conditions were poor and every one had short flights. Made me wish I had gone further the day before. Still, I was very happy with the weekend. Had two flights, one of them really good, and hung out with some great people. Really good to fly with the club and looking forward to more outings like this.
Airtime: 3 hours (Sat) + 15 mins (Sun). Distance: 47 km (Sat) + 5 km (Sun).
Went to Porterville for a Cape Albatross Hang Gliding Club fly-away. 7 pilots showed up for the weekend. On Saturday we were all hoping to go far. We set a goal of the field near Constriction I had landed in my previous flight, but with the condition that if we could we would go further. After an early launch and sink out from one of the best pilots, we chilled on the take off for an hour until conditions turned on a bit.
Launching close to 2pm, myself and a rigid wing pilot got up and headed north. The rigid disappeared while I chugged along in my Ultrasport. While I waited to gain height for the crossing into the back valley at Bumpy Peak, I was caught by three pilots flying toplesses, who blazed over the top of me. I looked for their thermal, 1000ft below, but couldn't find it. I stuck around looking for height, but eventually gave up on crossing their and carried along down the ridge.
I got to the Pass low and looked around for lift, eventually finding a good thermal that took me high enough to drift over the back to Citrusdal. I was convinced that I had been left behind and so was happy when I found good lift over Citrusdal town that took me to 2000m ASL and gave me an easy glide to Constriction.
Nearing Constriction I made a poor call. I wasn't sure I was high enough to continue into the narrow valley towards Clanwilliam, so I turned around looking for extra height. My search wasn't sucessfull and I ended up flying back into wind and landing at the goal field. In retrospect I was plenty high enough to continue, I just lacked the commitment to head into the unknown valley alone.
I landed convinced that all the other pilots were miles ahead and I had been left behind, but it turned out that they had all bombed out earlier, not finding lift in Citrusdal after their earlier crossing. I ended up flying the furthest for the day.
The next day the conditions were poor and every one had short flights. Made me wish I had gone further the day before. Still, I was very happy with the weekend. Had two flights, one of them really good, and hung out with some great people. Really good to fly with the club and looking forward to more outings like this.
Airtime: 3 hours (Sat) + 15 mins (Sun). Distance: 47 km (Sat) + 5 km (Sun).
posted by AGW at 10:21 am
1 Comments:
I'm not just the ZA national HG champ, I'm also a doctor! :) Nice one.
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