My Flying

Bloemfontein Camp - Day 0

So now after months of preparation and hard work the trek up north had began. The trip from home to Bloemfontein turned out to be just over 700 km and with two short petrol and food stops it took just on 9 hours to complete.

Bloemfontein is recognised as one of the best gliding locations in South Africa, and also the world, as the temperatures often reach 35ºC which can result in cloud bases as high as 16000 ft AMSL (11500 AGL). The landscape is also very flat for hundreds kilometres around Bloemfontein with many ploughed fields, which of course offer plenty of outlanding options.

This was my first time towing a glider trailer so far and it turned out to be, thankfully, pretty uneventful. My little 1.6 litre bakkie did a very admirable job hauling itself and the trailer through two short mountain passes during the journey and climbing the 4500 feet to Bloemfontein.

So after our early departure at about 5:30 am we comfortably reach our destination well before sunset and parked the trailer at the airfield before heading off to a guest house for a good rest in preparation of the following day's activities.