|
|
 |
|
Pampoenfontein - Full stall on Swing Astral 6 |
|
|
|
As with many competitions, it is the
flying the day before that pilots often speak of with delight - 'You should have
been here yesterday. It was going up EVERYWHERE'.
It is the first day of the Winelands
Paragliding competition and a screaming south easter has grounded everyone.
.
The Day Before the
Competition.
I was the second pilot into the air
at Pampoenfontein. It was 10h35 and the wind direction for the day was as yet
unclear. The wind socks on take off indicated west south west, but above the
ridge there was a northerly element. It was my intention to stay above ridge
height so I climbed onto the 'highway' of air currents heading south. For the
first 20km it was just me and the Magenta Babe (my Swing Astral 6) and the
ridge. The air was smooth and I flew much of the flight above the ridge,
practicing flying with speedbar and limited turning, learning the art of ridge
flying. At the end of the ridge I was still alone. Last seen, other pilots had
launched but appeared to be gathering in front of take off. Having run out of
continuous ridge it was decision making time? Should I jump the gap to Saron and
continue heading south towards Voelvlei Dam, or return north? I love flying
straight line distance. It is my passion. Optimised tracklogs do not give me
the same 'kick' as straight line distance from take off to landing and so I felt
the pull of potential in opposite directions. The week ahead was about flying a
traditional competition with tasks down wind, cross wind and into wind. I
was in Porterville to learn how to fly faster, make tactical decisions, 'swim
upstream' into wind and become friends with the ridge. Now was the time
for Flygirl to change gears from flatland long distance aspirations to task
orientated goals. I was here to learn new
skills.
|
|
I climbed a thermal near the end of the ridge but did
not take it to the top as I would have in the past. It was unnecessary. There
was plenty of thermal activity around and I was flying comfortably close to the
ridge making use of dynamic lift. Heading north, flying into a gentle head
wind using speedbar, was a learning experience. At one point I found myself
very low over a farm. Oops, it was a fine balance between going fast
and remaining high. |
|
Pilots were approaching, one high out in the flats
whilst the main group of purposeful looking pilots were sticking to the ridge.
I did not want to land just when the others had come out to play, but it was not
looking good for awhile. A bakkie/pick-up stopped on the farm road when I
looked very close to landing. As comforting as it was to know that I had a lift
out to the main road if necessary, I did not want to give up. Not
now. Thoughts of my twelve year old niece, Kiara came into my mind. We had
hiked up Table Mountain the day before. Kiara carries a bit more weight than
is perhaps considered healthy and she struggles in sports because of this.
However, one of the many remarkable qualities of this child is her heart.
She does not give up. Kiara knew she was going to get to the top of Platteklip
Gorge even if it took her a little bit longer than the hour and a half. And she
did make it ... and she was ready to hike back down almost immediately, fuelled
with the sense of achievement. Like she said - 'If I only went part of the way
it does not count. Now I can say I have hiked up and down Table Mountain four
times.' It was this little girl I was thinking of when I searched for that
thermal low down and when I connected to those light thermal stirrings awarded
to pilots who simply won't give up. The extra glide performance of the Swing
Astral 6 had given me a little more time to 'get lucky'. I turned. Thank you
Kiki for showing me through example how patience, tenacity and determination
will help this 'aunty' get up the mountain.
After the low save the rest of the flight back to Pampoenfontein take
off was uneventful. By now I had covered 40km and decided to turn once more
south, this time for Porterville and 'home goal', thereby doing away with the
need for retrieve. That is when I noticed the gaggle of competition pilots
flying in formation heading north towards Bumpy. Hmm ....but what if they flew
really far. I did not think it was a Clanwilliam day, but the wind was changing
and it was more south westerly .... what if..... I agonised for awhile .... and
then turned and followed. I simply could not bear it if pilots flew to
Clanwilliam and I had been in position to do the same and had not taken the
opportunity.
I am very comfortable on
the ridge these days. An incredible achievement for me, one that allows me
to feel quietly satisfied with the direction I have taken my life this past
year. I made one big climb but notice that in doing so, the other pilots pulled
away from me. Unnecessary height gain. I observed hang glider pilot Adam
West take the same thermal with me, but turn out of it halfway up, to continue
ridge running north. From then on I mostly porpoised above the ridge and
combined the Craig Richards lift line theory. I do believe I even gained on the
competition gaggle but when they turned at Bumpy, about 20km from
Pampoenfontein, I turned too at 15km. No point in continuing in the sink I was
in at the time and risk landing where no-one else did. I had no retrieve and
that road to Bumpy is long and very often lonely. Heading into wind I felt how
much stronger the wind had become and moved off the ridge. My GPS showed
I was barely moving forward and I stepped on
speedbar. The others now behind me had already made the move. Over the road
the air was a bit rough but I was confident in how stable the Astral 6 was on
speedbar and the fact that there was plenty of lift over the flatlands and so I
pressed bar to 3/4. All was going well when without warning, I felt my glider
unload and drop behind me. Looking up I saw both wings folded back in what
looked like a text book full stall, before it completely disappeared from my
vision.
You would think that having a
'blow out' on 3/4 speedbar on an new glider would be frightening, but strangely
enough, it was not. Perhaps it was because I had plenty of altitude to recover
at leisure. In saying that, I did notice my legs shaking a bit from the spurt of
adrenalin that was injected into my system to help me deal with the 'fight or
flight' scenario my body detected. What surprised me was finding out how fast
a glider could 'disappear' without any warning. One moment I was punching into
wind over flatlands and the next it was disappearing behind me.
I weigh-in within a kilogram or two of the maximum
weight range of 95kgs, which makes this wing very dynamic in its movements.
Knowing this, I expected a mighty leap forward as the glider tried to recover
airspeed. I may have been slow to step off the speedbar, but it was the
following mistaken action that exasperated the clean recovery of the
wing.
Having never had a complete
collapse on this new glider, was unsure as to how sever the impending dive was
going to be and how to react. A front collapse requires hands up and a full
stall requires hands and brakes down below the bum, lifting them up only when
the glider comes back overhead. The glider appeared to full stall and did not
recognise it as anything like a front collapse and so I made the mistake of
taking the middle road and putting my hands and brakes to just below the
karabiners. Not the right action. To make it worse, my hands where not always symmetrical and this caused unnecessary
gyrations as the glider fought to recover its shape. In effect, as the glider
dived forward, it was simultaneously held back by so much brake so that it
simply could not recover. The wings stayed folded back and I was thrown around
the sky a bit as I 'sat on the fence' and hoped it would all fix itself without
anything too exciting happening. I soon realised that if I did not take
decisive action I might get a twist or cravat or some such unpleasantness and so
I made the decision to full stall the glider properly - pushing the 'reset
button'. It did the job. The glider came overhead, I released the brakes when I
could see it and we slipped smoothly back into flying mode with the wings all in
the right places as if nothing had happened.
Why did the collapse occur whilst on speedbar?
There was a lot of lift around at the time. As soon as I
recovered the glider, I was going up again without turning, and it was a bit
rough. Perhaps an unseen whirly? The birds below and up front were diving
around in something invisible. I did not realise at the time, but Martin Van Der Merwe was flying behind me in the Andrew Smith gaggle I had been
chasing and he had taken a big collapse moments before, recovered, only to see
me in front 'lose' my glider in what he thought looked like a full stall that
went wrong. We pushed on into the strengthening wind, but several minutes later
everyone decided it was getting a bit edgy for a day of fun free flying and
landed. Spoke to a number of pilots later, some who said that around the same
time line they experienced inexplicable collapses as well.
Having made the decision to end the flight,
I spiralled down in upwardly mobile air, pressurising my glider against further
collapses. Exiting the spiral I found it was rougher than expected closer to the
ground and my glider was thrown back and sideways. It was a little wild. Not
happy about so much movement with wing tucks in the 'danger zone' (within 50 m
of the ground), I took perhaps an unusual decision, which I thought about for a
few seconds before implementing.
The goal
was to land as quickly as possible and safely, but even close to the ground I
was getting pushed up into the sky. Hovering in turbulence seemed unwise, so I
'Big Ears'ed' my glider (creating higher wing loading) and stepped on a little
speedbar to bring the angle of attack forward to negated the 'hang-back' and
prevent being closer to stall point. I did this because my wings were taking
little collapses anyway, so my thoughts were, might as well get them out of the
way.
Some knowledgeable people advise
against undoing the 'Big Ears' just before landing because of the possibility of
a stall close to ground, but having lost enough height to set up for landing, I
felt I needed to shake out the ears a few meters above the ground as the
situation was wild and I wanted full manoeuvrability moments before landing. The
landing was fine albeit in the strong conditions.
Note on wing tips folded in/'Big -Ears'.
The Swing Astral 6 wing tips do not come out on their own.
Once in, they stay in, requiring concerted pumping out. It has been
suggested by Walter Neser, South Africa's SIV instructor, that I pump out the
ears one at a time.
Final note on the
days flying:
Paraglider pilot Wallis
flew south beyond Saron to the beginning of Voelvlei Dam and then north to
Rhenosterhoek - about 95km optimised.
Hang glider pilot Adam West flew north through Citrusdal, over
Clanwilliam where upon his hungry tummy was grumbling and he used his GPS,
whilst still flying, to find the nearest eatery which happened to be the Wimpy
in Klawer. Lock on that waypoint!!!! - about 130km
Another hang glide pilot jumped the Pakhuis Pass - not sure of
distance, but it was another very good flight. Way to go!
What a day!!! You should have been here
yesterday. It was going up EVERYWHERE. | | |
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 18 December 2009 )
|
Add comment
|
| |
|
|
FREE FLYING STORIES