My Flying

I had checked the Aerosport's website earlier that morning and they had predicted really good thermal activity for Uitenhage at about 2pm. So I arranged with an instructor for permission to fly the Falke and met up with another club member in his own motor glider to explore the skies looking for thermal lift.

The temperature on the ground was 36˚C and to the North and to the West there where lots of puffy white CB clouds. We took off and I soon fell way behind the other faster aircraft. Climbing out a moderate revs the engine started to get really warm and after about 10 minutes I elected to turn back. I also throttled back and pushed the nose forward. During the trip "there" and back to the airfield I found basically zero lift and was very disappointed and confused. Was it me or was the lift simply not there?

Once back at the airfield I explored within gliding distance looking for lift and other than a few bumps I found nothing. I elected to call it a day and practiced two landings before finally landing. During the second landing I practiced my side slipping and it went off rather well.

So at the end of the day I was rather (very) disappointed. I was expecting some really good thermal lift and instead found nothing! Cost = 208,40ZAR.