BTW, what was your McCready STF in that sink? 200+ MPH? Like the bumper
sticker says, "Sink Happens".

Bill Daniels

"Clint" wrote in message
m...
Bruce Greeff wrote in message
...
AHem - sorry about not being explicit on the non-imperial nature of our
weather reporting system. The thermals are pretty good at present with
cloudbase last weekend at 20,000 foot MSL (15,300"AGL)

One club member recorded a 13kt thermal in an L13, pity he had to
abandon it to let his nauseous passenger disembark...

Last Saturday - I launched into the South African Free State sky with
the expectation of reaching 18000 ft. Oxygen on - the whole works.
Released straight into lift and thought - this is it - gold height
stuff - tentatively planned a 300km - the whole works. Promptly lost
the thermal and five minutes later was sitting in a farmer’s
field happy to be in one piece. Coupled to the incredible lift was the
most vicious sink I have ever experienced. It felt as if I had no
control of the glider as it was falling from the sky. I am just
thankful that my glider is as solid as a T61 tank and could take the
pounding of a poorly selected landing field, as I had no choice in
where I was going down. Luckily the wind/sink subsided sufficiently
that I could at least land with the ploughed channels at the last
minute. There was a thread recently on RAS about gliding not being an
adrenalin junkie sport - well the extreme lift/sink at this time of
the year in this part of the world makes one wish for a little less
adrenalin at times.

Clinton
LAK 12