| Koringberg Pools and Rhenosterhoek - 2006 Oct 14/15 |
|
|
|
|
Six pilots went out onto the flats on Saturday with Craig 'Tickbird' Richards (Swing Stratus 5) setting the first site record of 61kms straightline/79km with TP to Rhenosterhoek. Craig took a straightline between the N7 and Porterville to Eendekuil road. He elected not to jump over to Graafwater because the inversion had a firm lid on height gains above 1200ASL. His wingmen were Mark Marshall (Aerodyne Dune) with 50km to the N7 Piekineers Pass Awesome gaggle flying by Mark, Craig and Jaco who were in constant radio contact working the flats together. The air was fantastic although the climbs were stunted by a strong inversion at around 1200 ASL. I struggled through twice and was rewarded with a view of Table Mountain wearing a white collar of cloud above the pee-soup. Very relaxed and pleasurable flying for the most part. Then on Sunday..... Greg 'Hammer' Hamerton was understandably disturbed by events (Tickbird holding the record) and stayed overnight in order to get an early start the next morning and set the record 'straight'. We called him on take off where he reported that there was a strong SE on the mountains near Saron as shown by clouds pouring over, but that Koringberg was now in a SW 15-20km. The conditions were stronger than yesterday, with an unusual mix of winds earlier in the morning, but pleasant enough at the moment and he was about to take off. I left Cape Town with its screaming SE winds and full table cloth over Table Mountain and headed north on the N7 . The wind was blowing hard up until about Moreesburg (about 15kms from Koringberg) where it stopped and the clouds on the mountain range to the east drew back. On the mountain we found Tracy, Gregs wife, floating around in front of take off in conditions that appeared almost too light to inspire confidence that we would be able to stay up let alone get away. How bizaar. It was around 11am. It was an orange glider day like any other day. If you had a lot of orange on your glider you got away :-) Flygirl, Bernie, Earl and Hammer where fortunate to have the required glider colour.
Got thrown around a bit with a little collapse mixed in for good measure. Didn't speak to anyone for a while as I attended to house keeping. The ladies did not follow and I was on my own again heading for Piketberg. I dithered for about an hour in this area drifting towards the mountain range and then flying this way and that, up and down it, trying to decide whether I should go right in the direction of Rhenosterhoek of left towards the sea. By now Bernie was in the air and heading for the quarry. He radioed that it was SW and that he was heading for Rhenosterhoek. I really wanted to go the other way (sound familiar Des?) When you get to the range the direction of the wind deflects off to the left so I thought it was a good call as my speed was higher in that direction. But there were no other takers and so I decided to tag along with Bernie on his U3 and see if I could learn anything.  Bernie flew in low over the quarry and caught a strong thermal. I left the foot of the mountain range and followed suit although I was hesitant to put on more than 25% speedbar with the tricky air. I made this move way too late and Bernie took all the good stuff leaving me with the scraps to save myself with. Watched him speed off down the N7 as I tried in vain to find the mother load. Didn't. Eventually drifted off downwind, all thoughts of tagging along with Bernie gone. Went back to marking gullies, farmhouses, sun facing red slopes and water. I was doing ok until I saw Bernie two thermals ahead getting up over Pools. I made the mistake of making Pools a beacon in my mind. I suddenly had an urgent need to fly over Pools silos. Deviated from my butterfly flitting from one likely thermal trigger to the next and started to head cross wind a bit to the N7 on my left and Pools. So yes I flew over Pools, but landed shortly thereafter when I could not find its thermal. Only to pack up my glider, glance up and see Hammer come in low out of 'no-where' and work the lightest of thermals that had eluded me. Sat on the road and watched as he and the TriAlp wafted over my head and out of sight down the N7 towards the Pass.Bernie landed on the other side of Eendekuil - 48km. Earl made Picketberg - think that is almost 20km. Tickbird is still King with yesterdays 61km flight to Rhenosterhoek straight line, 79km one TP ........ unless ........ Hammer is still flying? At 1100 m ASL the inversion was chronic throughout the flight. Best climb 4.5ms, sink 5ms, climbed to 1200ASL frequently and once to 1450m ASL (1021m ATO) in a tight thermal that kept all the horrible air at bay. Took two hours to fly 31.6km straight line. Flygirl must learn not to dither. The air was never going to be smooth with all the mixing and strong south easter only about 15kms away and the table cloth set over Table Mountain. But it was good to be flying the flatlands and necessary toughening up for the rest of the Porterville and De Aar summer. Now we know that when the SE wind is screaming in Cape Town, it might be very, very flyable from Koringberg. Now that is good to know :-) Thanks for the retrieve Mark! More images in the Gallery www.flygirl.co.za/gallery |
|
| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 September 2007 ) |
If cross country flying is your game.....
The conditions appeared somewhat light, but Lesley was game and took to the skies and found a lovely thermal off the ridge left of the SE take off. Tracy took off again followed by Flygirl. I ended up scratching low after my thermal left without me and headed for Lesley's spot managing to save face with a very low save. Decided to stay with the light thermal and drift over the spur left of take off heading in the direction turkey and the site farm house. At the same time Tracy was executing another low save over the farm house at the bottom of the powerlines. It was all girl power with the men were still on the ground. Tracy climbed back up to a hundred or so meters above take off and I was still drifting north. I think Craig asked if I wanted to do some spins or other squiggly manoeuvres and get a lift up with them as I was not really getting much above ridge height over turkey. I declined. Wasn't going to land if I could help it. It was all rather vague this thermal until the Shaolin and I drifted over the Koringberg tar road to my favourite thermal trigger. *%@#!| < Prev | Next > |
|---|