 What a cracker of a day in Porterville, a new site record of 135km (xc distance 143km), from Pampoenfontein in Porterville, with the Swing Astral 6 small. Leonardo Track Log
We have a few guys on tour, Cape Town was very strong SE, so we went to Porterville. As we have new clients we did a detailed briefing on two possible options; flying to Rhenosterhoek and flying over the back into the Citrusdal valley and beyond. Discussing best routes to take and good trigger points along the way, and altitude to be before flying further.
I launched with a tandem client first at 11am and we thermaled
up easily and got high above launch with not much drift, I thought this
was going to be a good day. After 20 minutes we landed as the pax was
feeling a little motion sickness.
I mentioned to Wayne H and
our group I would like to fly to Klawer, launching between 11.30am
and 12 O clock. Good thermals right in front of take off, but, little
wind at launch as the thermal were basically going straight up. I was
the last to launch so had a bit of catching up, flying on half bar, I
caught up with the others half way to Teenage, we had some very good
climbs but also big sink.
Irene from Norway was flying with me just before Teenage, we hooked a
very good thermal the pressure in the glider increased and I could feel
the pull through the harness, then the vario started screaming, that’s
good ,and turning into it, the glider banking and biting into the
thermal, climbing at about 6.5 mps, within a few turns from 850m we
drifted over the back at 1675m heading east to the back ridge, some
slow climbs to 2000m asl, then heading north to Citrusdal. It wasn’t
long before the others followed, going over the back at Bumpie, we flew
fairly close together.
The wind in the Citrusdal valley was light west. As quick as one
climbed high you were also scratching over the small foot hills and
possible trigger points. After Citrusdal I was very low, then with
patience climbed to 2250m but once again very low at Constriction, only
475 asl, which was only about 200m above ground.
Mike Riley, Irene and Stein landed just short of constriction, Wayne
Heuer had landed 10km short of Clan William, so I had to fly further.
Patience was the name of this game, I struggled in a scrappy thermal
which took me to 1200m so I was happy to go through Constriction, later
on I got another big and strong thermal, the pressure increasing, the
glider carving through the air as I spiralled up this time holding on
to it, the ground was disappearing fast, what a feeling of, joy,
excitement, nervous, but in control, I topped out at 2504m asl. With a
light tail wind, I flew towards Clan William but headed for the
mountains east of the town, which worked, getting late now, the
thermals were weaker. Passing Bulshoek dam had some challenges and
nearly put me on the ground, creeping very close to the ridge, I
managed to soar up with light thermals assisting. The ridge passing
Trawal was easy, a nice westerly helping me to soar the ridge and relax
a bit. One more hurdle, to get onto the Klawer ridge. I arrived low,
but got a nice late evening thermal taking me above the ridge; the
rest of the flight was in the bag to Klawer, landing 5km past the Shell
garage after Klawer.
XC Distance 143km, my personal best, flight duration 6hrs10min, max Alt
2504m asl, best speed 73km, with climbs of 6.5mps and sink of 5.5mps.
Barry Pedersen
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