Tony[_5_]
August 16th 16, 02:35 PM
With Sports Class Nationals cut short, Bob and I left Uvalde at 7 AM monday with the Silent 2 Electro in tow. It rained pretty constantly through most of the hill country but by 9 AM we could see the edge of cloudy skies.
I had been looking at the soaring forecasts the night before and thought Winters, TX would be in the sunshine and a good place to start a flight. It turned out that was the case. Cumulus were popping just west of Winters a little before 10 AM. That was about the time we made it to town. I filled up the tank on the Subaru and got some junk food and headed to the airport.
Runway is advertised at 50 feet wide. It might be. There was semi-tall grass on either side of the pavement that would encourage me to hold centerline on takeoff. Rigging the glider went quick and at about 11:20 i launched, found a thermal and started working NW towards the clouds.
Had a struggle getting around Abilene. Airspace wasn't an issue and ATC was happy to provide flight following, I just spent a lot of time thrashing around trying to find thermals. Progress was slow and steady. At one point while digging out from a low point i saw a paraglider coring a thermal just south of me!
North of Abilene the solid cumulus coverage ended and I only had occasional wisps. They were so short lived to not be very useful unless I was very close. A few low points and long glides and also a couple very strong climbs were encountered, one steady over 1000 feet per minute.
Heights were ticking up as I flew along. The wind was also shifting from a quartering headwind out of the northeast to a crosswind out of the east. I was expecting and anxious for it to turn to a southerly tailwind!
A nice cu field was in sight to the north/northwest. I kept trying to angle that way to get to it ASAP. I seemed to fly over 50/50 flat farmland and rough river drainage ground. I had a few low points down around 2000 AGL or a bit lower but was usually able to find a good climb and get out of there.
I had occasional contact with Bob via radio but I was running about 40 miles west of US Highway 83 so it was spotty. My plan was to try to make it to Ulysses, KS or beyond, depending on how the day went.
Clouds were encountered again around Interstate 40 I think, this was also associated with the wind turning southerly. Finally! I was able to get a good series of climbs to get up high for crossing the Canadian River.
As I was setting out over the Canadian valley, I noticed my airport database showed a private strip out there. Cool! The computer in this glider doesn't provide a lot of detail though so I couldn't be sure about runway length/width etc. About that time my friend Jerry texted me and mentioned that that "ranch strip" belongs to T Boone Pickens and is big enough for his private jets and equipped with an ILS! It made a nice stepping stone to make it to the endless flat farmland on the north side.
I could see the end of the clouds again in the distance to the north. My friend Ed in Ulysses had reported it was blue there. My high point came shortly, at about 11,500 feet. And I was able to do a good job of staying up high as I came to the end of the clouds around Hooker, OK.
I caught a few decent climbs in the blue after the end of the clouds which got me a marginal glide to Ulysses from about 50 miles out. I was able to maintain that with a few bumps on the way down and some careful, slow flying in nice smooth early evening air. I arrived at the airport at about 1500 AGL.
The point to point distance between the airports was 399 miles. I extended downwind to get 400 miles from my takeoff point, then landed. Ed was there to greet me on the side of the runway. Bob was only about 15 minutes behind with the trailer. The flight was 7 hours 50 minutes. What a trip!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1857562377
I had been looking at the soaring forecasts the night before and thought Winters, TX would be in the sunshine and a good place to start a flight. It turned out that was the case. Cumulus were popping just west of Winters a little before 10 AM. That was about the time we made it to town. I filled up the tank on the Subaru and got some junk food and headed to the airport.
Runway is advertised at 50 feet wide. It might be. There was semi-tall grass on either side of the pavement that would encourage me to hold centerline on takeoff. Rigging the glider went quick and at about 11:20 i launched, found a thermal and started working NW towards the clouds.
Had a struggle getting around Abilene. Airspace wasn't an issue and ATC was happy to provide flight following, I just spent a lot of time thrashing around trying to find thermals. Progress was slow and steady. At one point while digging out from a low point i saw a paraglider coring a thermal just south of me!
North of Abilene the solid cumulus coverage ended and I only had occasional wisps. They were so short lived to not be very useful unless I was very close. A few low points and long glides and also a couple very strong climbs were encountered, one steady over 1000 feet per minute.
Heights were ticking up as I flew along. The wind was also shifting from a quartering headwind out of the northeast to a crosswind out of the east. I was expecting and anxious for it to turn to a southerly tailwind!
A nice cu field was in sight to the north/northwest. I kept trying to angle that way to get to it ASAP. I seemed to fly over 50/50 flat farmland and rough river drainage ground. I had a few low points down around 2000 AGL or a bit lower but was usually able to find a good climb and get out of there.
I had occasional contact with Bob via radio but I was running about 40 miles west of US Highway 83 so it was spotty. My plan was to try to make it to Ulysses, KS or beyond, depending on how the day went.
Clouds were encountered again around Interstate 40 I think, this was also associated with the wind turning southerly. Finally! I was able to get a good series of climbs to get up high for crossing the Canadian River.
As I was setting out over the Canadian valley, I noticed my airport database showed a private strip out there. Cool! The computer in this glider doesn't provide a lot of detail though so I couldn't be sure about runway length/width etc. About that time my friend Jerry texted me and mentioned that that "ranch strip" belongs to T Boone Pickens and is big enough for his private jets and equipped with an ILS! It made a nice stepping stone to make it to the endless flat farmland on the north side.
I could see the end of the clouds again in the distance to the north. My friend Ed in Ulysses had reported it was blue there. My high point came shortly, at about 11,500 feet. And I was able to do a good job of staying up high as I came to the end of the clouds around Hooker, OK.
I caught a few decent climbs in the blue after the end of the clouds which got me a marginal glide to Ulysses from about 50 miles out. I was able to maintain that with a few bumps on the way down and some careful, slow flying in nice smooth early evening air. I arrived at the airport at about 1500 AGL.
The point to point distance between the airports was 399 miles. I extended downwind to get 400 miles from my takeoff point, then landed. Ed was there to greet me on the side of the runway. Bob was only about 15 minutes behind with the trailer. The flight was 7 hours 50 minutes. What a trip!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1857562377