Morning over development threatened.  Wind sometimes over the back.  Late afternoon free flying amongst the CumulosCongestous.....

During the day we experienced sporadic rain in the town as well as hail, however lots of pilots were champing at the bit and we filled two of the big coach busses to go the take off for free flying in the afternoon. I joined them on the bus with my glider, but was not brave enough to fly even though I saw others enjoying smooth, easy flights.

A few days ago, the last day of the XC Open, I broke one of my rules and two of my fears - I took off with a twisted riser and continued to fly instead of landing and I went through the Pass at 1600m ASL.  I am super cautious about going through passes and normally I would do this section at 2500m plus or 2000m and in a thermal.  I went through the Pass low that day because I was left in a dying thermal by almost all other pilots in the gaggle and felt I would land where I was on the mountain if I did not move to follow them.

I wanted to get over the Pass, judged that the wind was light at that time and I could handle the mild rotor and so I followed...... like a lemming.  My bravery dwindled quickly however, when I saw them hug a small secondary ridge that had loads of trees and a sharp, v-like gully between it and safe landing.  I don't have their glide so I stayed in the main Pass valley. 

I sunk below the Pass crest and found a lee-side thermal that was wicked with irritable rotor.  All I could think of was Nicky Moss breaking her back here a little over a year ago.  I held onto my gyrating wing and could see Rene Bormann high above me take a small collapse.  I knew that this was my last chance thermal, that I could get up in it if I managed to keep my wing open, but so close to the ground, I realised that I stood little chance of recovering in time if I took a big collapse and I would hit the deck.  The sky was stupendous and I really wanted to keep flying, but the risk at that point was more than I was willing to take and so I left the rotor thermal and found some clean air on the slope to land in.  I did not even make it to Villa Torro, but I landed safely.

I am really glad that I am excited about flying again, but I have to monitor myself.  For some reason I am taking more chances than I would normally do and this might be influenced by the competition atmosphere.  When I see other pilots flying I want to fly with them too. Today I was so close to launching for a free flight.  I wanted to fly, to play in the air even for 15 minutes, but the sky just looked plain wrong to me.  As it turns out, all the pilots I spoke to had easy smooth flights and the Swiss, who I am sharing a house with could not understand why I chose not to fly.  They said the massive clouds were not sucking, that they were dead in front of take off, although they agreed that behind take off the clouds were growing at a rapid rate.  All hard towers of 'cauliflower' shooting up.  I will chat with Burki today to find out why so many thought it was ok to fly and why they appeared to be right, because I still have reservations.

I did not fly today, but I made the correct decision for me.  It is just too easy to 'follow everyone over the cliff.'  I don't want to become the kind of pilot who cannot assess the sky for myself and who lets others make these kind of important decisions for me.  It is important to make my own assessment about the sky I fly in and if I get to fly less than others because of that, then that is the way it will be.  Education will however, give me a better chance of maximising my air time.

To that end, I bought a really interesting book called Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens.  Burkhard, or Burki, is competing in both competitions and is very approachable.  The book is a hardcover, glossy book with short, easy to read and understand chapters and loads of colour pictures to illustrate.  It even has a section on flying in De Aar.  I have not seen this book in South Africa, but I can really recommend it.  You can buy it online through Burki's website

So, Burki stopped by at Steve's house at breakfast where I am staying with Swiss and German pilots and we had a discussion about the clouds.  The clouds were CumulusCongestus which equals very big clouds well on their way to becoming CulumusNimbus - nasty clouds for paraglider pilots.  What made it possible to fly is that after a little bit of rain, the sky cleared up in a small area above us and a blue hole appeared.  There was a short flying window where one could fly. How short is the gamble a pilot takes.  Burki and Steve Ham chose not to fly because the clouds were very big and the area that was possible to fly in was very small and local in front of take off.

Those who did fly kept a sharp eye on the clouds and their own climb rate. They watched each other and if it became too easy to gain altitude - 1ms, 2ms, 4ms they would have taken action to reduce their altitude and fly away from that sucking cloud.  As the case turned out to be, the maximum height gain appeared to be 2ms so no problem.  One pilot said that the clouds were collapsing into each other - something I did not recognise and will lookout for next time. What did send them to landing was an approaching wall of rain cloud.

In South Africa and Australia,  I have experienced clouds that suddenly dump rain and push gust fronts ahead of them, with winds of up to 60kms an hour.   Personally, I still have reservations about flying in these conditions, but at least I can now try to read the clouds better with the information I have learned from my fellow pilots.  Never be afraid to ask questions and get different view points. In this way I make my own assessment - which will always be subject to evolution with new experiences and information.