HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 35 July | August 2019 an eternity. The wind was intent on punishing me. It seemed as if I was being tested to see how badly I wanted to beat that PB. Behind me, the menacing leafless gums with their pointy branches threatened to snag my wing. With every passing moment I was getting closer to giving up. Finally, the risk of ending up in the trees was too much and I slipped sideways around the hill to land. The PB would stand for another day. What happened next couldn’t have been scripted better. Just as I conceded defeat and turned, the elusive thermal materialised unexpectedly out of the side of the hill. The wing pulled up suddenly as one of the tips entered a 3m/s ripper. Cranking hard into it, I couldn’t contain my excitement and let out a few loud whoops! Thermals this close to the ground are usually not that strong and increase in strength with height, but as soon as I entered this thermal, I knew I was going back up to cloudbase – PB, here I come! Beyond the PB Comfortable in a solid climb, I looked up and thanked the Maestro for performing so well. I was never that keen on the bland design of the glider, but nothing looked sweeter than this orange wing against the blue sky at that moment. After firing off a quick message to friends, I started a long buoyant glide eastward. Ahead the open fields slowly changed back to undulating hills and dense forests beyond. Having beaten my PB and feeling quite cold, I was now getting a bit ambivalent about distance. My glide had subconsciously veered towards a road. Beyond the road was a small rocky outcrop. To the east of the hill was a long cloud street, the first on this side of the blue hole. I thought to myself that if I could make that cloud street, I could get to 150km. Emboldened by the successes in predicting thermal triggers earlier in the flight, I was confident the rocky outcrop I was aiming for would produce a thermal. Sure enough, it did and I was soon at cloudbase again! The sun was getting lower and flying in the shade of clouds was chilling me further. Every so often I’d shiver uncontrollably. All day I’d tried to reach cloudbase before going on glide, but now I was happy to go on glide as soon as I got too cold. Thankfully the air seemed to become more buoyant and the glides stretched longer each time. For the last hour, my bladder had also grown incessant in its reminders. Having a full bladder can be a surprisingly strong factor in decisionmaking. I tried not to think about it, but the streams flowing below didn’t help. Still flying the cloudstreet, I marveled at the scenery. I’d been watching for a while what had initially appeared to be upside down mountains to the south. I now had some time to admire these deep canyons forming intricate fractal patterns on the ground. The sunny side of the deep fissures stood out strikingly in the long shadows of the evening sun. Below me, rolling hills appeared stunningly three dimensional in the low evening sun. Past a farmhouse, a stream meandered through the valley flanked by trees with brilliant yellow leaves. In a country where trees don’t change colour in autumn, it was a picturesque sight. It wouldn’t be a bad place to land and hike out from, but I was now only one valley away from 150km.