Dasklip distance mission (Dec 2009)

Just back from 5 great days in Porterville. 12 HG pilots gathered to do some XC flying and see if we could break the existing record of 203km set in 1983. To spare you the suspense, we didn't break any records. But we did have some great fights and had a fantastic time hanging out with old (and new) flying buddies.

Day 1 (Sat): A flight to Pakhuis and Klawer

Eric, Pete and I arrived on launch at 11am. Conditions were good and there were some PGs in the air practising for the comp starting Sunday. I thought this might be the best weather day for the 5 days and was keen to make the most of it. I launched first, straight into a boomer that took me to 2000m ASL.

2000m ASL over launch looking north

I was about 10km down the ridge by the time Eric launched. We flew at similar speeds and maintained that gap as we headed down the ridge. I got low before Constriction but found an excellent climb that got me back up and to 2200m at the base of the Clanwilliam Dam.

2200m looking north over the Clanwilliam Dam

Looking back through Constriction to the Citrusdal Valley

After a long glide into Clanwilliam I got stuck very low again, and Eric (who had taken an excellent line through all of that) caught up to me. Eric headed for the mountains and crossed over Pakhuis Pass, landing about 85kms out. This is the first time this has been done for a long time and broke new territory. Very cool.

View into the Cederberg from along the course through Constriction

While he was doing that, I was digging myself out of a hole in Clanwilliam. I was 100m AGL, scratching a little back ridge in the hot, turbulent air hoping for a coherent thermal to come through. I thought I was done several times, but luckily a thermal arrived and took me back to 1500m ASL. Stoked! From there I pushed on north, connecting with the back ridge in time to ride a 25kph SW all the way to Klawer, doing the last 50km in an hour.

I think the heat and the low save had taken their toll and on the way to Klawer I felt pretty airsick. I opted for sacrificing a few kms in order to land somewhere nice. I don’t know Klawer, and couldn’t pick a good spot from afar while soaring the point, but then I remembered my GPS. I punched up “FOOD” on my GPS and it told me the Klawer Wimpy was 3.8kms away. I flew towards the Wimpy and landed in the veld across the road. I was 131km from takeoff and had been in the air for 5 hours.

After derigging I walked to the Wimpy and bought 3 Energades, 2 grandpa headache powders, a coke and a burger and chips and then chilled until picked up by Pete and Eric in the dark, a couple hours later. Thanks Pete for chasing us!

Pete and Eric had dinner there too and then we all headed back to Porterville, getting to Waterval at 11pm and then still having to set up camp. The Bulwer contingent had also had good flights and were fast asleep already (it gets dark early there you know), so Eric and I finished the evening sitting under the stars at our camp talking and drinking whisky until the wee hours. A good day!

My tracklog is here:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/292427

Day 2:
HOWLING easterly. Never been so content about a day off. Hammock time, swimming, waterfalls, gear maintenance, lots of flying talk and catching up with buddies, a braai in a dust storm, sleep. Good times.

Day 3:
Still Easterly. Aborted Dasklip after the PG task was cancelled and instead rallied to Koringberg. We were taken up by Dr Freeze and attempted to scout out a launch. Everything was overgrown and there was no possible HG launch into the SE and we returned with our tails between our legs.

Scouting for a launch on Koringberg

Back in Porterville, we heard from the PGs the easterly had mellowed and we raced up to launch. Eric, Pete and myself rigged quickly and got off just as the day was dying. The 3 of us and 2 PGs (Gaynor was one) thermalled together over the road drifting north. Good fun and good practice. In the end we landed after 6pm, a couple of kms down the road after a nice 45min flight. Gaynor managed to push on down the ridge to Renosterhoek. Very impressive and showed us what we could have done. Lesson learned. Finished the evening with a lekker braai at Waterval.

Day 4:
Strong northerly. PG task cancelled third day in a row :( We do a bunch of hang waiting on the ramp before heading down to Koppie Coffee to regroup.

Our plan had been to head up at 4pm to check it out. We get up there at 4:45pm to see nice conditions. Damn, we are a bit late. Frantic rigging and I launched at 5:30pm after Tracy King and another PG pilot. Lucky to get away in time, I decided not to hang about and went off down the ridge and had a fantastic 36km flight all the way down to Skerpheuwal. Above the ridge, conditions were bouyant and smooth, but with surprisingly strong thermals. I shared one with a flock of swallows at 6:15pm that went to 1500m ASL. A line of convergence from Bumpy to the Pass made it a straight glide the whole way there. On the back side of the convergence, it was very light N and I glided smoothly to the ground.

Landed in a big field and met a friendly farm worker, Daniel, who helped me carry back to the road while teaching me a hell of a lot about cows, wheat and sheep farming. Awesome. Then spent a really nice hour watching the sunset before getting picked up by Eric with Pete and Tracy as it got dark. Thanks guys.

The flight here:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/292429

Day 5:

An epic day for all! The PGs get their first task in, fly like demons and 30 make goal. Happy faces at dinner time. 5 sailplanes mix it up with us on the ridges. All the HGs get away and proceed to spread ourselves as widely across the landscape as possible. Some head north and get to the Pass and beyond. Some out towards Piketberg. The rest headed south along the Porterville range, sharing thermals along the way. Great stuff.

"Old school" - South African hang gliding legend Tony Egan preparing to launch

(photo by Pete Ablitt)

A textbook, fast and aggressive launch by Tony Egan

(photo by Pete Ablitt)

Tony climbing out the to south of launch (photo by Pete Ablitt)

Yours truly launching (photo by Pete Ablitt)

Heading south along the ridge with Saron Peak in the distance

(photo by Pete Ablitt)

At the end of the Porterville Ridge, Highlander, myself, Paul, Bruce and Roelof all jumped across the gap to Saron. Paul and I were forced to slow down there there while Highlander blazed ahead followed closely by Bruce and Roelof. I got to the Gouda Pass just as Roelof left a thermal high to chase Bruce and Highlander on the front ridge running to Wellington. Again I got stuck down low at this pass and had to try and be patient. While I was there Paul caught a boomer to the north and charged overhead to chase the others. Oh dear, now I couldn't blame it on not flying a topless ;-)

The boys all pushed on towards Wellington, but my intention had been to head to Worcester and I needed to get up a bit to go over the back to Tulbagh. Eventually I gained 300m and went over the back. As I glided to Tulbagh, I found a thermal from the municipal dump that smelt like rubbish. It was a beauty and took me right over Tulbagh towards the Witzenberg Range.

Thermalling over Tulbagh

I had my lunch at 800m over Tulbagh and thought to myself that life is pretty good. After lunch I glided onto the Witzenberg and climbed up there with 2 sailplanes.

Heading south to Mostershoek. Note the 2 sailplanes

in the bottom of the image.

I ran the ridge to the end before Mostertshoek, enjoying the epic views of this range and over the back to Ceres.

The Ceres Valley from over the back of the Witzenberg Range

The jump to Mosterts is long, and landing is not plentiful, but just as I was getting nervous, I found a climb. I lost the climb before the top of the peak and so headed around the mountain too low to make the next range. If I couldn't find lift I was going to have to land in whatever the next town had to offer. As I came around the corner, my heart sank at it was just vineyard after vineyard, but, I was still plenty high and easily made a perfect field in the middle of the valley where I landed, 4 hours and 71km out from Dasklip.

The farmer was awesome and gave me a ride and filled me with beer and chips as we sat outside the farmhouse and watched the golden evening light on the mountains. A big thanks again to Eric for coming to get me.

The view of Mostertshoek and Waaihoek from the farm

The others all had good flights too, around the 80-85km mark. A very good day. The only tragedy of the day was I forgot to turn on my tracklog, so no Leonardo track from this one ... rookie mistake :(

Here is a Google Earth approximation of the flight:

Sadly this was our last day for this trip, and while no records were broken, there were several very good flights, and most importantly a good positive vibe that will hopefully lead to many more trips like this one.