Weekend Report: Nina tugs her Dad

Saturday

The students that missed Saturday's flying missed out on a great training day. Those of us who flew had a lot of fun and finished the day with Martin doing about two and a half hours, 8500' flight in a KA 8, to Tulbach and back! Gauntleteers eat your hearts out.

In fact the Grunert family did extremely well with Nina doing her first proper tugging duty - she even towed her father! Her flying was excellent and her landings put a lot of us to shame! Well done Nina!

Thanks to all the team that turned up on Saturday to do their duty and Rob Tiffin who changed from Sun to Sat to help out.

Commiserations go to Trevor Johnson who fell asleep at the wheel of his BMW and somehow survived the crash.

Sunday

Sunday was not off to such a good start with one of our instructors saying that he didn’t know he was duty. Come off it guys! The roster may sometimes be a little late, but this is crazy! It’s also irresponsible and you inconvenience a whole group of people.

The weather on Sunday was a great deal better that Saturday and we saw a whole group of single seaters and self launchers take to the skies.

Remember the “Cape Gauntlet with a difference” on Saturday. Remember also to book TODAY for the Saturday potjie with Wally Tamsen (084 774 7777).

Alison

Making the best of it

With everyone worrying about the effect of the fire - Cornelius plans how to USE it (photo from the March Gauntlet).

Just goes to show how one man's meat is another man's poison!

What follows is a report of another day were we made the best of it.


Only Ed pitched for the weather briefing at 09h00 - somehow everyone seemed to figure the 8/8 cloud was going to be the story for the day, but how wrong you can be!

By 10h00 it had burnt off, gone largely blue and there were clearly thermals under teh inversion - at this stage at about 3500ft. The forecast was for excellent instability (the approaching front was very clearly visible in Cape Town ("waiting" for the day to pass so that it could come through in the evening - notice how often the fronts get in phase with the day so thet always pass through in late evening?) after a morning of inversion, lights winds and 'softer' thermals.

After some initial end-game-tennis we settled on 33 and Adriaan took the fist launch (12h45), immediately followed by X32. Herbie disagreed with me that "Jan du Toits" always works in a SW, and as I launched there I had the opportunity to test this - not for long though (it wasn't working). I only just made the jump to Waaihoek (having the biggest BUMP I have ever experienced in the lee of Waaihoek and I sometimes wonder how it all holds together when the weather is that severe.

We climbed on Waaihoek to 4500ft and could see the inversion below the top of Saronberg - thick and unappetizing looking. We discussed options and eventually decided that there was no point in hanging around - and jumped Mitchell's saddle to Witzenberg which was working but quite soft and needed us to trickle along. X32 did not have enough height to jump into 24 rivers so we used the Saron Gap to Porterville. The Portville soft but carrying and we made it to Renosterhoek and back but it was sweaty stuff being close in an as slow as we dared.

I took a climb (unusually) at the south end of the Porterville ridge and a long glide to the Witzenberg. Adriaan struggled with the jump because he missed the climb, but we both got established on the Witzenberg. I again took a high climb at Waaihoek to jump to Keeromberg - the sink was really severe. Adriaan bailed at this point not wanting to risk a land out on Kylie's birthday.

The ridge to Swellendam was cooking but a little rough and I should not have attempted the corner - I started round the corner at 4500ft (high for X32 but it was quite westerly and without the extra the trailer would have earned some more trackmiles). I turned at 100km and made it back around the coner down to just over 3000ft, buit quickly regained the top and it was cooking all the way to Keeromberg.

It was now 17h00 and the front ridge was clearly cooking in the pre-frontal instability. I elected to try and make the jump to Waaihoek by climbing to 5800ft on Keeronberg. But it was mostly heavy sink along Brandwag and I was down to nearly 3000ft at Jan du Toits - which was now working Herbie! - and climbed high for the jump to Waaihoek.

I can honestly say I have not had a more difficult day (these jumps were brutal) making around the corner (Keerom to Waaihoek and vice versa) and Adriaan certainly had a similar experience - it is interesting to me that these days (where there is NO chance of a 1000 are often the ones where you really learn stuff or use all your knowledge). My method for rounding the corner (Keerom to Waaihoek) is to climb high and then fly the risge as though it was working - hoping (as usually happens) for lift in the rotor. I either got it wrong today or it wasn't there, but I doubt a lower performance ship would have made it.

From Waaihoek it was gangbusters to past Dasklip. The big concern was not to stay out too late and as it went soft as the ridge got lower I decided to turn just before Piekeniers - a good call as it turned out because it felt like I got the last out of the Witzenberg on the way back - trickling along to make it climb, and on Waaihoek there was nothing - zero. I suspect another 15 minutes (the time it would have taken to do the extra 45km to Renosterhoek and back from the place I turned would have been enough to render the ridges unworkable.

So 680 OLC (720 track)km from a 13h00 start - we certainly had an afternoon of a 1000km day and made the best of it.

HotRocks above the inversion?

Well the overnight Tephi indicated the strongest, shallowest inversion I have ever seen - nearly 18 degrees C in 1400ft. And it was clearly visible at 08h30 with fires below it having no impact. A little depressing, actually, given all the other wonderful indicators of a great day. The thermals thought so too and there was not a breath of wind.

Since I was already in Worcester and had arranged a 10h00 launch with Mark S (who was ferrying MIV to Stellenbosch) I had to take a launch or abandon the day. It was petty clear to me that it wouldn't be working but some stubborn streak (which goes right alongside my many-dented ego) urged me to launch anyway, these opportunities for mid-week days don't come along so often. Ed, stalwart that he is, ran the wing and checked my wildly optimistic declaration (a 1000km triangle).

The aerotow was smooth - horribly smooth. But at Jan du Toit's we go a big kick - the vario was indicating nearly 6m and I pulled off and after some scrabbling climbed to 4800 by getting in close to the rocks. I pushed to Waaihoek, but had not yet sussed it that only the hotrocks were working and it took me a few passes to figure it out - it was also very early on the day and there was some inconsistency about the lift on the ridge.

You could have blown me over with a feather that there was such good lift clearly above the inversion - helped by the fact that the airmass above the inversion was almost super-adiabatic, but it is worth remembering.

I flew out to Botha and through the start gate and set course for Nieuwoudtville - the Waaihoek run was ridiculously buoyant now and I was able to jump Mitchell's saddle at 5400ft and head straight for the Witzenberg. Fortunately I did not 'change gear' to the sort of energy Waaihoek was demonstrating and X32 trickled at a minimum acceptable airspeed along the Witzenberg never making it to the top and down to 4000ft by the top of the Tulbagh valley.

Rob Manzoni had reported and inversion also in the Porterville valley and not much wind, but in for a penny in for a pound, so I jumped the Saron gap and joined the Porterville ridge at 3200ft (I am guessing you are seeing the height trend here). The Porterville ridge was only just not carrying - from past experience I suspect the long-wings would have been just fine but I was down to 2800 abeam Porterville and it frankly looked like more of the same to the North.

I turned, thinking that will a little bit of luck I could make it home and was able to climb back to 3000 at the Southern end of the Porterville ridge. A jump to Saron berg saw me down to 2400ft and it did not work until the southern tip just before the Gouda gap, but it was clearly no a good position to be in - with not enough height to jump to the Witzenberg, I tried anyway - overflying Tulbagh in the process but to no avail. Plop - a great field right next to the road.

Mr Spargo did the honours and came to get me after I initially tried to hitch back, but like some thermals, the traffic just wasn't lifting! See John arriving at the field in the picture - and if you look very closely, you'll see a cloud at 8000ft over Mitchell's Pass laughing quietly. Thanks Big J!

If I had this condition again (Hotrocks above an inversion), I would run east and stick with the high ridges. And although it wasn't that successful, it was a great day out! And thanks again to Mark, John and Ed who made it all possible!