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Back in 1999, a 101 km flight by Craig Richards |
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A Free Flying Adventure by Tickbird
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Found this from the good old days....Bit of nostalgia
Summer has finally arrived in Cape Town, South Africa. The flying is really starting to cook as Porterville (Dasklip Pass) delivers the goods. Porterville is about 140 km North of Cape Town. I have had one short flight at Dasklip in a NW before, and Sunday did not look very promising, being overcast and windy. Being and optimist and with the keenest flyer in the world (radiohead Tom), I found myself at Dasklip pass at about 10.45 watching students thermalling in bouyant air.
A red and a blue glider (Greg Hammerton and Chris Hill) were near cloudbase at 1400m ASL on the ridge above Porterville to the south. I decided to try to follow, but was possibly trying to fly to fast, as I found myself low on the ridge just short of Porterville (~ 15 km). There was lift, but it was very broken up and punchy and I just could not gain height. A blue Arcus with me showed me how it was done, and climbed away to the top of the ridge.
Cross country flying always seems to come down to the choice of a glide to the nearest road and land, or take a chance on finding a thermal and walk a bloody long way. (been there done that) I took a chance and left the ridge, looking for a thermal in a field that had a bit of sunshine and a line of trees. At about 100m AGL I new I was going to land when bang, 6 up, the smoothest, most constant thermal I have ever had the pleasure of using. Straight up to cloudbase at 1500m ASL. I then had an easyish flight to the end of the ridge near Saron (30 km), having to use speedbar a few times to get out of mild cloudsuck.
I had watched the two gliders in the distance cross the gap at Saron. There is a river here that flows out of the mountains The gap to the next ridge must be about two kilometers and the far ridge extends about 500m further to the west. This means crossing a venturi with the wind from the side. |
I could find no lift at the ridge end and decided to leave at about 1000m ASL. I found sink, and with my glide angle would only make it about halfway across. There are large plantations of trees here with almost no landing areas, and I altered course looking to land on the southern bank of the river about 1 km out. At about 200m AGL I found broken lift, not enough to climb with, but enough to maintain height and I skidded across the gap about 100m above the trees. It was decision time again (Long walk, good flight?). What the hell, it was early, so I tried to work my way up the north facing piece of mountain near Saron, but could only find lift on the north eastern side of it, and I was worried about being blown up this narrow valley. Eventually I got to about 300 AGL, and flew around the nose to the westerly side.
This slope had been recently burnt, was brown with no vegetation, and faced into the wind. Had to work right? Wrong, nothing happening, I had lost 50m of height when I decided to leave after scratching to close and nearly decking in a bit of turbulence. As I went round the corner into the lee,bang, a rough 4 up. (maybe there is a lesson here). I got to the top of the Saron mountain and continued south. I could not see the red or blue glider and assumed they were almost in Cape Town by now.
Two low saves, so far, and again halfway to Gouda I find myself in constant sink flying past vertical rock faces that should have lift. On half speedbar I am desparately trying to get out of the sink, but again get low and just scrape over a road that leads out of a small valley in the mountain. There is a small brush covered slope after this and I get here at about 50m above the valley floor. I found at that Chris landed near here. Don't envy him, it looked like a long walk out.
5 Meters above the slope its hot, and little bubbles are tracking through.I desparately hook into each bump and gradually get higher until at about 200m AGL the bubbles join into a more consistent stream and up I go 3 up to 800m. I do not have a clue where to go now and the possibility of landing behind the Voelvlei dam did not excite me.
Radio time. I had unplugged my headset as students were being trained on Channel 2. I radioed for any pilots and Greg answered. In front of me over Wolsely. The swine, I did not know it was him in front, and Dammit he is a long way ahead having and epic flight. Greg is one of our most respected and experienced pilots, but more importantly completely unselfish. I have ever been down the ridge in a Southerly direction, so ask him for advice.
Greg suggests I need 1200m ASL to cross over into the back valley. I laugh, I have not seen more than 900m in nearly an hour, but tell him I will see What I can do, oh and by the way I am coming to catch you :>) As I drop the radio mike, whack, solid thermal, 5 up all the way to 1500m which takes me over the back to the town of Tulbach. Lady luck smiles.
The going is a bit slow and I am in 2m/s sink as I cross the valley, but just over half way accross I find my first thermal, and then plenty of lift all the way to Wolsely (60 km). This is a beautifull valley. Much nicer I think than Citrusdal. At Wolesely I am high enough to consider popping over to Ceres, but in retrospect that would have been a silly idea considering what the NW wind was about to do.
I see Greg now for the fist time against the Waaihoek mountain. He is climbing a sheer rocke face with a ugly black cloud above his head. I was a bit worried about following, but he assures me the lift is smooth. About 5 minutes after he leaves I arrive. SMOOTH ??? He must be off his head, I get whacked about going up at about 5 m/s average, before I manage to break out. This must have been the NW starting, because Greg now radios and suggests I steer clear of the mountains as the wind on the ground is starting to blow. As I pop round the corner I can see Worcester in the distance, but am surprised to see Greg low below me setting up to land. He had found extremely strong sink and could not get back up.
Greg wrote an excellent story about his flight and I have taken pieces from his story without permission. I hope he will forgive me ;>) This is how Greg described his landing.
"I stamped on the speedbar, and got low, repented, got low again, and limped into the mountains behind Wolsely. This is where things started to become a bit challenging. The peaks seemed to block the wind slightly, and I managed to climb up the north-ward facing slope with a little penetration. But once near the crest, the wind began to push through. Looking to the west, I could see the classic band of orographic cloud forming over the Hottentots Holland mountains, kind of the reverse effect of what happens in a howling South-Easter. The wind was about to come through, ooh boy, she looked mighty angry about something.
When I got to the next mountain foothills, I noticed something was decidedly wrong. My Spear seemed to have lost all ability to go forwards. I angled to the left, and was alarmed at the speed - someone had inserted afterburners in my harness, and the groundspeed was 75km/h on trim. Hmm. I radioed to Craig that the mountains had now become a baaaaad idea, and that he should head for the flatlands. Tramping the speedbar, I edged out into the valley, all the while skidding unavoidably downwind. A lower level of bouyancy at just above tree-top height allowed me to sneak out a bit further, and add on a good few kilometres, until a mighty powerline ended play. Now I'm stuck in a shallow river gully, going nowhere, and its rough as a witches tit down low. Thankfully I landed in a safe heap, and collapsed the wing rapidly. 77km via Saron. A mellow one-hour walk-out on flat, sandy roads. "
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I watch Greg execute a perfect landing in nasty conditions. He is on speedbar, but has no forward speed. Ok!. Greg suggests I continue as the wind should drop as it fans out into the Worcester valley. About now the NW cork pops and I start to scream down the valley at about 80 km/h. I use a couple of ridges that stick out and manage to maintain height at about 500m above the valley, but am surprised at the amount of rotor they are kicking of. There are lines of lift and sink, and I try to spend as much time in the trashy lift as possible. Side on to the valley my ground speed is in excess of 50 km/h. Oh shit!
I scream over Worcester at about 300m. The first real signs of what is to come is the dam. It is covered in white horses and some SPRAY! All that tar, and shiny roofs, but no lift over the town. Constant 2m/s down.
Onto the Robertson road and still no lift. At 100m AGL the air is ROUGH and I overtake cars on the road below. I guess I am doing about 100km/h. I pass Zwelethemba township to my left, and then a rubbish dump just after the Hex River. There are mounds of sand here and the sand is being whipped off by the wind. A white tick bird is being blown backwards. Estimate the wind to be in excess of 70 km/h. I decide on the flat ground just after the dump and start to turn into the wind.
Greg says the following about this sort of landing --
"Ever been in a car accident? Remember that last second, where you know you're going to hit? Stretch that over a few minutes, and take away your side-impact protection beams, airbags, seatbelts and metal bodywork, and you get an idea of what such a landing feels like"
I knew I was travelling fast, but after a few minutes you almost get used to the speed. I got a shock as I turned into wind. I was doing 40km/h backwards and getting pitched through about 40 degrees. There was no chance of using speed bar, and at about 10m AGL the glider pitched violently forward and I hit the deck hard.
I had angled myself as far forward in my seat as possible. PLF was not an option backwards . It was to rough to consider undoing any straps, or turning around at the last moment to face downwind (who wants to land at 40 km/h forwards either). I left it up to fate and hoped all the Kevlar and foam in my APCO contour harness would do the trick. Legs first, then backside, back, then a loud wack as my helmet hit the ground. I had already taken a lot of the load on my harness, but still did a somersault over my head. Rolling onto my side I was being dragged, but between the bushes and my 95 kg I managed to pull in my brake lines. Tearing one off the trailing edge and damaging two others.
Hand over fist, crawled over to the glider and collapsed on the madly thrashing canvas, eventally managing to tame the wild beast. Oh, whats this trailing behind me, looks like a reserve. It had deployed on inpact, but thankfully was still in its nappy.
The adrenaline was screaming through my veins, but I stood up and did a quick check. Two arms, two legs, blood?. Everyhing looked OK. Not a scratch. My head was a bit sore, and a slight twinge in my right shoulder, but minimal damage.
As I write this I have pulled all the muscles in the front of my neck either side of my voice box, probably because I did not tuck my neck in properly, and have a slight headache, but looks like nothing major thank goodness.
An epic flight. 101km. Roll on summer!
Regards
Craig |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 January 2008 )
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