It has been a month since my best flying friend of 3 decades passed away in a flying accident. He and I thought alike and dreamed up big flights that we then went out and completed. I miss him dearly and much so on this particular day. He was one of the best XC pilots in the world. Here’s my story from 7-3-23.
The various soaring forecasts for the day looked excellent although HRRR3 and the Skew T were a bit optimistic. I planned for the best and opted to set an aggressive 239km task going SW to Janesville, east to Bristol, then NNE to Hartford and finally SW back to Twin Oaks. This route was selected to advantage of an expected convergence line migrating west from Lake Michigan.
The two anomalous forecasts predicted cloud base over 9000' and early cumulus by 1100. To go big, it was critical to arrive and set up early to be ready when the clouds appeared. They showed up on time and I launched at 1130 in L&V winds. Tim spiraled up in a thermal and I pinned off in 400-600fpm taking it to cloud base at 4800'. The clouds lined up well to Janesville and the lift was consistent at 300-400fpm. Just before the turn point a strong thermal averaging 550fpm took me close to the white room at 5800'. The course line now turned to the ESE toward Bristol. The clouds weren't as well defined for the next 15 miles, the next four climbs were weaker and broken and netted less than 4600’. Twice less than 2000’ and groveling down low I did a mental reset and resolved to take the next climb to cloud base again. Luckily, I meandered around under the next cloud and finally found a decent climb over 500fpm to cloud base at 5750’. The cu’s were lined up to the east and the next five thermals kept me high, the top of the lift was now over 6000’ but alas even though the clouds further east on course looked great, I flew under the next three clouds without finding any lift and was soon at 2200’agl in survival mode circling in small bubbles of lift but not really climbing. After circling but not climbing for over 10 minutes in the same area, a nice looking cumulus slowly drifted toward me from the west.
My friend Kryz’ mantra came to my mind “never give up, never give up!”. It was time to leave the weak area and go for the cloud. I descended quickly to less than 1000’agl! Unzipped with a nice landing field nearby, I was now under the cloud and began turning in broken lift. After ten turns and only 200’ higher, a red tailed hawk appeared off of my right wing signaling me to follow him. Yeehaa, 300fpm soon took me high enough (4200’) to head NW to another cloud. I thanked my guardian angel for showing me the way and soon I was skirting under the bottom of the cloud at 6200’.
Even though the cumulus clouds were prevalent overhead and to the east, it appeared that at my altitude I was in the sea breeze portion of the convergence (no lift) so opted to abandon the Bristol turn point and continue toward Hartford to the north. Several good climbs over Burlington and west of Fox River put the previous low save out of my mind. I pushed on toward Hartford expecting to hit strong lift under each cloud only to be disappointed. It was time to refuel so I gorped down a Clif Energy Gel and chased it with water. In five minutes I was feeling good, the tired feeling in my back was gone. However the climbs were again elusive and perhaps my patience was waning as well. It is easy to get duped into thinking it will be better under the next cloud. The problem is that pushing on loses altitude and soon I was down to 1300’ looking for potential landing fields again and wind indications on the surface. A tractor was cutting hay in an acceptable field so I headed there and was rewarded with a solid 483fpm climb, gaining 4460’ before leaving at cloud base at 6500’. Some days it pays to be lucky.
The cumulus clouds to the north continued to look robust. The four low saves however took a lot of time to recover from so the next turn point at Hartford was now out of the question as the day was getting long. Not having a planned driver to pick me up should I land out was preying on my mind. It turned into a bit of a game; how far north can I go and and still make it back to Whitewater? The clouds to the southwest were thinning out yet I was consistently climbing above 6500’. A nice line of clouds toward Oconomowoc were well spaced and still building so I continued north almost to Highway 94 before turning back to the SW. The next climb was elusive but eventually netted my highest climb yet at 7110’.
It was 15 miles to Whitewater with a 14:1 glide needed to make it in. With a slight westerly headwind it was certainly doable but still figured a couple more climbs were needed. The next thermal NE of Palmyra averaged 446fpm to 7474’, the highest of the day. My 6030 showed a 9:1 glide and an arrival altitude of 1500’ at goal. Now confident that I would make it in I headed west of Palmyra toward the chicken coups to get some insurance altitude under a group of clouds. I left at 5300’ and glided comfortably back to the airport and had a good landing. While I circled the field a plane did a touch and go. No worries as he left, or so I thought. The winds were slightly out of the north so I came down the runway from the south throwing my drogue chute at 100’ to shorten my glide. Just as I was about to touch down, the plane did another touch and go on the NE-SW runway 150’ in front of me! WTF! Had I not thrown the drogue I would have landed right on this runway! Needless to say I was not happy but thankful to be alive!
Totals for the day were 6:01 in the air and a 168km flight. This FAI triangle of 161km scored 258 points on XContest the global scoring system for XC flights. This was enough points to move me ahead of Jonny Durand into second place in the world. Woohoo! Below is a picture of my track mostly in blue and the FAI triangle in red.
Ciao
