The cold front we have been outrunning forced us to continue east. A 135km task from Vidalia, GA to Allendale, SC was called. The winds were a little stronger than yesterday with a slight chance of overdevelopment. The town of Vidalia was good to us. The chamber of commerce came out in the morning with the "Yumion", an onion suit that some poor soul had to wear in the sweltering heat. I took the time that I would normally spend rigging my glider to mount the Go Pro.
Vidalia, GA
The Yumion
I was going to line up early, but the sky was still blue. The first few pilots had trouble finding something that stuck. As the tows continued a flush cycle sunk about 5 pilots. The wind direction switched enough that we changed tow direction and then again. I got off late, but there were so many re-lights I wasn't terribly behind. Russell pinned me off in solid 400fpm in the upwind segment of the start circle. I climbed about halfway to cloudbase and glided downwind to link up with Eric and Mitch. We left together a few minutes after the last start.
Looking Down in the Start Circle
The lift was light at first, but Eric and I worked together to get closer to cloudbase with each climb. John was one climb ahead and on his own. After about 50km I caught a core that Eric missed and went to cloudbase. I was on my own, but could see random gliders out ahead. The clouds were dissipating and forming fast, making it hard to predict where the climbs were. At cloudbase I was close enough to catch the thermals before the cloud dissipated, but down low it was a different story. In hindsight I should have focused on searching the lift line itself rather than marking downwind clouds.
Good Looking Clouds
I had a really long glide at 70km and got low over an airport south of Sylvania, GA. I was gliding in a straight line for the center of the airport when I spotted a bird at my four O'Clock. I broke hard right only to see that it was a crane. Luckily on the other side of it were a few vultures. They marked a solid climb that I took from 2500' all the way to cloudbase. I was able to get within ten feet of one unsuspecting bird that reluctantly tolerated my presence.
A Good Climb After Getting Low South of Sylvania, GA
At cloudbase I could see a large forest before goal, but I still had a long way to go just to get to the edge of it. I was about 50km out, but above 7000'. I pushed out on glide into a large blue hole because it was shading heavily below me. I think I inadvertently angled out of the lift line chasing another group of clouds downwind. I should have shifted gears, conserved my altitude and flown off course to the south parallel to the lift line. At 35km I was at the forest boundary and down to 3000'. I had altitude to search for lift, but hadn't hit a thing. I angled north of course because there were more thermal generating sources there. I searched and searched drifting deeper over the forest but couldn't find a thing. My last resort was to look at the sun and shade boundaries where something usually lives. I found random 150fpm bubbles, but couldn't hook anything.
At Cloudbase
The Edge of the Forest
I was deep over the forest and would soon have to make a decision. It was painful. I was one climb away from goal and motivated to make it. Finally, when I was about to loose glide to the last good field before the sea of trees, I turned away from goal and tracked back upwind to land. I made the field at 300'. It was rectangular but the long end was aligned crosswind. I decided to split the difference between the length and the wind. For the first time in my life I threw my drogue chute. It deployed perfectly just as I turned base of the tops of the trees. I dove in and had a perfect landing. There were two horses in the field who's curiosity over came their fear and ran up to check me out. I was worried that the land owner would be angry, but they greeted me with friendly southern hospitality.
The Last Good LZ
Curious Horses
Cambell saw me on the ground and landed too. I can not understate how friendly the land owners where. They brought us a pitcher of ice water and offered to help us in any way they could. Their hospitality will be one of my fondest memories of the comp.
Cambell Joined Me
Friendly Southern Hospitality
Total flight time 3:15, Distance 107km.
1 comment:
I love the horse picture!!!
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