Mood's wings

Today was a day when the ridges were full of 'attitude' - moody as hell - like PMT - Pre-Meditated Turbulence. It really required shifting of gears in order to be able to keep the speeds up and not land out. Adriaan (K17) and X32 flew nearly the same routing and here is what it was like (view or download the flight trace by clicking the title of this post).

First leg to Robertson was excellent proving that we launched to late - all of it above 4500' without turning. Sink at the Robertson corner (always is in a SEer)and then it was a bit 'soft' until nearer Montagu, but good in the run-up to Montagu (it nearly always is regardless). From Montagu to Swellendam it got progressively 'softer' and unless you were prepared to take a climb there was not enough energy to get round the corner, so we turned at just over 80km out.

Didn't get comfotable - back to ridgetop height - until nearly Ashton and the run up to Ashton from the East was very rough (remember to increase your speed as you experience more turbulence - you need better control authority) but it wasn't really working further out (the other option).

Round the corner at Waaihoek and it was working well allowing a jump north over "Mostert's Saddle" into Mitchell's pass. The Witzenberg was working but not up to full strength and the North end was clouded in (below the saddle) so X32 jumped to Saronberg - which was barely working - and flew almost completely round it before getting lift in the Saron gap.

The Portville ridge was barely carrying and we did not get over the top until Dasklip after which it went very soft and needed best glide / min sink to stay in touch. These were some of the slowest speeds we've flown the Porterville ridge and it didn't get good again until the Westerly flows just south of the N7 Piekenierskloof Pass, but then it was gangbusters and a low level (2400') scorcher to the turn at Renosterhoek!

Getting back was almost the same in reverse - I don't think I have had to 'shift gears' on the ridge so often before.

Weekend Report: Let the numbers roll

Saturday

All year it’s training season, but right now it’s also cross-country season, big time. It would be difficult in this issue to leave out Alan O’Regan and Adriaan Hepburn, who completed 780km and 712km respectively. Congratulations, but no PB’s for either of you! I’ve noticed that Adriaan carries little sachets of “goo” which he “sluks” during the flight – could this be the key to success? We will think of anything rather than admit that you are just a top-class cross-country pilot!

Saturday was a rough, unpleasant day and two fairly experienced pilots managed to land in some hilly terrain, quite far from home. Thanks to John Spargo and André Leeb du Toit who led the retrieves. A note of advice: if you plan on going off across country, do leave your car and trailer ready for the first responsible member to hook up and go. It avoids delays and frustration on all sides (note: no names!)

The four students present kept the two instructors busy all day. It looks like Jaco Hartman will be next on the solo list. Bill tugged no less than 4½ hours in MIV!

We are noticing quite a few overseas visitors coming to FAWC – let’s make a special effort to make them feel at home.

Jerry did a lot of work repairing the dilapidated GUC trailer – thanks Jerry.

Sunday

Due to a serious engine problem with MIV (NIG is awaiting spare parts; the Rotax-Falke tends to overheat so is unable to tug), it was a day of winching. This proved very successful and the three student pilots had a good time. Apologies for the lack of information here!

Everything is being done (through Mark) to sort the tug out as soon as possible.

• Expect the December KK later this week.

• Hope you have booked for the annual dinner, this coming Friday 2nd December.

Peter/Alison

Weekend Report: Soaring celebration

Saturday

It was nothing short of a “celebration of soaring” and what we hope is the beginning of a great soaring season! After what looked like a lousy day – thickly blue-grey with an inversion, it eventually became a soaring pilot’s paradise with flights reaching as far as the Sandveld just north of Renosterhoek, Du Toitskloof, Villiersdorp and Ashton.

Added to the usual goings on, we had 11 visitors from Worcester for “air experience flights”. This was a tem-building exercise by a local Worcester company and made a really busy time for everyone at the launch point, especially the instructors, of whom extras were brought in for the occasion. Thanks to Johnny Navarro who joined in this “festive” occasion by supplying borewors rolls at the launch point. One of the hardest worked members on this day was tug pilot, Mark, who was in the saddle from 10h30 to 17h45!

A light note concerns one of the local "air experience pilots" who was flown by Wally Tamsen in a Ka7. This man had already had a beer and was feeling a bit merry - as Wally took off behind the tug, we could hear him whooping and yelling all the way down the runway! I think the beer fumes were quite overwhelming as Wally landed exactly 29 minutes after take off! Wally later told me this guy kept it up for the entire flight! As far as PR goes, this introduction to gliding for so many Worcester folk has made people more aware of our virtually unknown sport and may bode well for obtaining future interest from the local community.

All told Saturday was a “bumper day”. Best flights were in the region of 450km. There were so many pilots flying that I won’t even try to remember all the names.

The day closed with a beautiful still evening and a most pleasant gathering of pilots, wives, girlfriends and dogs around the braai.

The only bad news from Saturday is that Ian Forbes, while trying to prevent the Twin Astir colliding with the tail of the tug after an aborted lake off, broke his arm and dislocated his elbow as he collided with the hard runway surface. He’s had one or two operations already and is being discharged from hospital today.

Sunday

The day commenced with a weather briefing from Alan – thank you Alan – more of this would be most edifying. The weather turned out to be more or less a repeat performance of the previous day, but quite a bit more tricky. The Porterville, Witzenberg and Langeberg runs were boiling away with thermals. Early in the day the Swellendam mountains were dead, and later they picked up but were hampered by very low cloud bases. Alan and Sven both landed out, for which they both get 100% for trying hard. The best flights were in the region of 650km.

Sunday duty pilot, Coen Marais, did a splendid job of keeping the peace by getting everyone launched in order. This even included the pilot who phoned his name in. Listen guys, this kind of thing is not on. When you arrive at the field put your name on the list – don’t get someone else to put it on before you get there – it is selfish and sets a bad example.

Peter W & Alison

1000 with a night stop

It perhaps sets the tone for the season that Peter Wooley was able to complete a long weekends flying (460 on Saturday and 660 with Martin on Sunday - over a 1000km with a night stop!) after a lay-off. How about getting rid off the night-stop, Peter?

Not satisfied with a 1000+, Peter set off on a retrieve from Fischer's field where he had -er- visited before (according to Peter: "a really welcoming couple - a true gentleman and his lovely girlfriend Karen). For those of you unaware of where fischers field is - it is about 30km from Worcester, perfectly situated between Worcester and Robertson fields.

. . and now the weekend report:

Saturday

It was nothing short of a “celebration of soaring” and what we hope is the beginning of a great soaring season! After what looked like a lousy day – thickly blue-grey with an inversion, it eventually became a soaring pilot’s paradise with flights reaching as far as the Sandveld just north of Renosterhoek, Du Toitskloof, Villiersdorp and Ashton.

Added to the usual goings on, we had 11 visitors from Worcester for “air experience flights”. This was a tem-building exercise by a local Worcester company and made a really busy time for everyone at the launch point, especially the instructors, of whom extras were brought in for the occasion. Thanks to Johnny Navarro who joined in this “festive” occasion by supplying borewors rolls at the launch point. One of the hardest worked members on this day was tug pilot, Mark, who was in the saddle from 10h30 to 17h45!

A light note concerns one of the local "air experience pilots" who was flown by Wally Tamsen in a Ka7. This man had already had a beer and was feeling a bit merry - as Wally took off behind the tug, we could hear him whooping and yelling all the way down the runway! I think the beer fumes were quite overwhelming as Wally landed exactly 29 minutes after take off! Wally later told me this guy kept it up for the entire flight! As far as PR goes, this introduction to gliding for so many Worcester folk has made people more aware of our virtually unknown sport and may bode well for obtaining future interest from the local community.

All told Saturday was a “bumper day”. Best flights were in the region of 450km. There were so many pilots flying that I won’t even try to remember all the names.

The day closed with a beautiful still evening and a most pleasant gathering of pilots, wives, girlfriends and dogs around the braai.

The only bad news from Saturday is that Ian Forbes, while trying to prevent the Twin Astir colliding with the tail of the tug after an aborted lake off, broke his arm and dislocated his elbow as he collided with the hard runway surface. He’s had one or two operations already and is being discharged from hospital today.

Sunday

The day commenced with a weather briefing from Alan – thank you Alan – more of this would be most edifying. The weather turned out to be more or less a repeat performance of the previous day, but quite a bit more tricky. The Porterville, Witzenberg and Langeberg runs were boiling away with thermals. Early in the day the Swellendam mountains were dead, and later they picked up but were hampered by very low cloud bases. Alan and Sven both landed out, for which they both get 100% for trying hard. The best flights were in the region of 650km.

Sunday duty pilot, Coen Marais, did a splendid job of keeping the peace by getting everyone launched in order. This even included the pilot who phoned his name in. Listen guys, this kind of thing is not on. When you arrive at the field put your name on the list – don’t get someone else to put it on before you get there – it is selfish and sets a bad example.

Peter W & Alison

Weekend Report: Blown in

Saturday

The weather had us well and truly fooled this weekend with big black skies on Friday night, thunderstorms and torrential rain. It was the same for Saturday night.

During the day on Saturday we had a 35kph NW and 8/8 cloud. The Vliegklub had a very successful “fun rally” with breakfast served in the Clubhouse, which was also well supported by CGC members. Thanks guys! The rest of the day's gliding was very quiet with no lift -just a few check flights by the visiting pilots, Hans from Switzerland and Piet from Holland.

Sunday

Sunday was far better for soaring but got off to a slow start with the weather looking to be the same as Saturday. Fortunately it quickly improved. Sven had a long soaring flight and Piet from Holland followed him down the ridge in GUC (Piet said that he had read all about our amazing flights from Worcester) Hans will be staying on for a few days. Both pilots were astounded that we do not fly during the week.

We did 20 flights on Sunday with a few “Air Experience” flights. William Whittaker flew some friends in GOK; Alan Procter and Ari took turns at tugging and gliding; and Henry Barnes did a splendid job of Duty Piloting all by himself (because his partner did not turn up).

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BOOK FOR THE “END OF THE TEAR” PARTY WITH WALLY TAMSEN – TIME IS SHORT.

Alison

Weather & Visitors

Saturday

The weather had us well and truly fooled this weekend with big black skies on Friday night, thunderstorms and torrential rain. It was the same for Saturday night.

During the day on Saturday we had a 35kph NW and 8/8 cloud. The Vliegklub had a very successful “fun rally” with breakfast served in the Clubhouse, which was also well supported by CGC members. Thanks guys! The rest of the day's gliding was very quiet with no lift -just a few check flights by the visiting pilots, Hans from Switzerland and Piet from Holland.

Sunday

Sunday was far better for soaring but got off to a slow start with the weather looking to be the same as Saturday. Fortunately it quickly improved. Sven had a long soaring flight and Piet from Holland followed him down the ridge in GUC (Piet said that he had read all about our amazing flights from Worcester) Hans will be staying on for a few days. Both pilots were astounded that we do not fly during the week.

We did 20 flights on Sunday with a few “Air Experience” flights. William Whittaker flew some friends in GOK; Alan Procter and Ari took turns at tugging and gliding; and Henry Barnes did a splendid job of Duty Piloting all by himself (because his partner did not turn up).

Alison

CGC collects Aero Club Awards

This last weekend, Alison and Johnny Navarro attended the prestigious annual "Aeroclub Awards" in Gauteng. The club is indebted to Johnny and Alison for travelling all the way to Gauteng to wave the CGC flag for us at the Aeroclub - especially as the considerable expense of attending the function was borne by themselves. What follows is Alison's report.

Peter

Weather for entire weekend in Johannesburg consisted of phenomenal thunderstorms, Saturday evening being no exception. The Aeroclub Awards event was held in Mark Beckley's "Skyraiders" hanger at Rand Airport. This hanger is especially rigged out for events of this nature and there were 27 tables set up for the approximately 250 guests - most of them wearing their green "Bokke" national colours blazers.

The Soaring Society was represented by Dave Mortimer and his wife June, Bob and Carol Clifford, myself and Johnny, and Brenda Bradley, together with Douglas and Jennifer Bradley.

The entire event was professionally organised and the master of ceremonies was Niel de Lange. The awards were handed out by the Aeroclub Chairman, Stan Oliver. It was a very proud moment for the Cape Gliding Club when the names of our five cross-country pundits were read out (Sven Olivier, Alan O'Regan, Martin Grunet, Reinhold Lawrenz and Peter Farrell), for whom I collected the awards. It was also an emotional moment when the two young Bradleys collected their colours! Peter will send out some photos of the event soon.

We saw a lot of "old faces" at the meeting, including Rainer and Barbara Freibose, and Dale de Klerk (Francois' brother).

What I discovered while there, is that the other Aeroclub sub-sections are also very proud of their members' achievements, and many of the microlighting and aeromodelling bodies had proposed their members for awards. Quite a few of these folk subsequently received certificates and trophies for their achievements. In future we at the CGC must look more towards nominating our members for the due recognition for their achievements in soaring, as they deserve similar recognition as in the other aviation disciplines. This in turn will have the effect of heightening an awareness of gliding in SA, especially Western Cape gliding.

The trophies received on Saturday will be presented to our pilots at our CGC annual dinner at Stellenbosch Flying Club on the 2nd December, 2005. Details of this event will follow later this week.

Alison

CGC's youngest pilot

Earlier today CGC's youngest pilot, Sam O'Regan (aged 7) took to the air for the first time with a gloriously smooth flight to Vic Peak, unusually in a North Easter. A smooth run part-way to Villiersdorp set the scene for a cross-country career, but prudently, he was back in half an hour.

After the flight, Sam proudly announced "It weas great fun, and I didn't even get sick!".

There were many other notable flights on the day with Cornelius von der Heyden & William Whitaker doing a lead and follow to Robertson and Villiersdorp.