My Flying

When I planned my trip for Bloemfontein I set for myself two objects. The first was to fly my short (50km) cross country so that I could tick that final box on my blue training card for my glider pilot's license and the second was to complete my 5 hours for my Silver C. Both of these objectives were important as both are rather difficult to complete back home from where I normally fly. There was also a third and over riding objective - to bring the club's glider back home in one piece. This sort of set the scene for my flying in Bloemfontein: To fly very conservatively, i.e. keeping as high as possible and not venturing too far away from base.

I had planned to be in Bloemfontein for a week with six flying days. Today was Day Six, and thus my final flying day and I still had one of my objectives to complete - the five hours. So with this in mind I paid extra attention during the morning's briefing.

The weather for today was predicted to be reasonable with 2.5 m/s average thermals and the normal light westerly blowing upstairs with no thunderstorm activity for the afternoon. The only small problem was that from early afternoon they expected the air to dry out and thus there would be no nice cumulous clouds to mark our way.

To maximise my available air time I made sure I was right near the front of the grid. I was actually the second glider to arrive, but took off as number four as I let two guys go ahead of me as they apparently needed to catch flights later that afternoon.

I was aero-towed from runway 36 at about 10am. It was a little earlier than normal, but it was already hot and starting to get really sticky. By now I had become pretty well organised in getting the plane to the launch point and organising all my kit into the aircraft, and I felt like quite the pro. The tow went off well, but today I really had to work damn hard behind that tug and I was pouring with sweat by the time I needed to release after 3½ minutes (though it felt more than 10 minutes). It was extremely bumpy and we were both being tossed about; and during this whole time I was thinking to myself that the lift was going to be really great today.

Shortly after release I found a stonking thermal and climbed at 2.5 m/s (average) to 11 000ft AMSL in like 10 minutes. As it turns out, that was to be my best thermal of the day From that high it looked like I could fly just about anywhere and I headed off in the general direction of the dam. My main objective for today was to stay high and to stay up for at least five hours so therefore I planned to take just about every thermal that I found as I was never really planning to go anywhere.

By the time I reached the dam (after many detours) I was at 11800ft AMSL and just over and hour into my flight - four hours to go and mmmhhhhhh, what to do with myself? I hang around the dam for about an hour and a half not really gaining any height and getting a little bored. I looked towards Dealesville and the last few cumulous clouds were beginning to look rather sad! About halfway to Dealesville was a rather pathetic looking cu which looked like it was already in decay and over Dealesville there were still a few small clouds.

Just passed the dam I hooked a thermal to 12500ft AMSL and thought to myself: As they say - nothing ventured, nothing gained and off I headed towards that sad looking cloud between the dam and Dealesville with about 2400 metres (or 62km @ 1:26) in the bag. Of course, and as I expected, my sole cloud on route disappeared before my eyes as I flew towards it. On the way to Dealesville I didn't find much lift and by then the sky was starting to get rather blue. Just short of Dealesville and at about 9500 ft AMSL (which was way out of gliding range to get me home) I found a nice little thermal that gave me extra height and some encouragement to soldier onto by objective.

By now the dam was looking VERY far away and home base was just a distant dream. On the way back, after reaching Dealesville, the sky was a clear blue, but I fortunately managed to find two thermals that helped me out on route. However, both were not that great and I arrived at the dam at my lowest altitude for the flight (8500ft AMSL) and just within gliding distance of the airfield; though it sure did not look like it, but this is what the glider computer said. By now I was about 3½ hours into my flight and still needed another 1½ hours - which was NOT going to happen at this altitude. When I originally left the dam for Dealesville I made a mental note of a fairly decent thermal on the edge of the dam and hoped like crazy that it would still be there when I got back. Thankfully it was and I managed to claw back much need height, but I still needed to survive for another good hour or so.

I began to explore the area between the dam and the airfield for some lift and I found a very nice 1.5 m/s average thermal that took me to the highest point of my flight, 12818ft AMSL. Unfortunately I lost this height surprising quickly by just floating around the sky pretty aimlessly and with no real plan. By now I was 4½ into the flight and I was starting to get a little tired. Luckily I found two small thermals close (12 km) to the airfield that sustained me for the last half an hour and I arrived back at the airfield with tons of height.

I flew a very wide and high circuit around the airfield making my radio calls and listening to the traffic. As luck would have it five other gliders were also arriving back at the same time and I needed to try and fit myself into this sequence. As my experience level is not that high and I now had to again land on a different runway (my first time using 18) I gave myself a very long high final - which I later heard confused the guys on the ground as they generally expect planes to come in low and fast.

As there was already a plane on the runway that had been half pulled off I aimed to float GLH down the runway (brakes closed) and to touch down after this glider. Only problem is that I have never really landed like this before and I wasn't quite sure how to get the plane down as they do tend to float and float and float. I opened the brakes, but perhaps too much and the plane come down, bounced and was airborne again. So I closed the brakes, settled her and tried the same again. This time she thankfully stayed down. So not my best landing ever, but with a 50 km flight, a 1000m height gain and 5 hours that one Silver-C in the bag!!!

So after all the congratulations the glider was quickly derigged and loaded on the trailer ready for the trip home early the next morning. Rather a pricey, but VERY well spent 957.55ZAR, including 360.00ZAR for the tow.

The stats for this flight are rather interesting. I flew for 5 hours 23 minutes that included 3½ minutes for the tow. I gained 1970m that included 457m for the tow. I thermalled 98 times for just over 3 hours or 58% of my flight at an average of 0.8 m/s. So I spent a lot of time going in circles!!! Fortunately I never even felt close to getting my problematic motion sickness. The L/D of the Astir averaged at 28:1 which I thought to be pretty good and compares to what I have read that this glider is capable of and not the 33:1 claimed by the manufacturers. Most of this was done at about best glide of 95 kph.