The Gliding
We have now been here a week and
are gradually learning how to fly here and get into a routine. Due to the
daytime heat, we aim to start out to prep the glider at 07:30, I come down for
coffee at 07:15, Bill is there working at his computer having finished breakfast.
He complains that the rolls are stale. I wait until 07:20, when fresh rolls
arrive, Bill still complains. At 07:29 John appears, having been dragged
backwards through a hedge. I comment to this effect and he mutters something
about pot and kettle. John does a lot of muttering. We try to get him into the
conversation, by discussing interesting subjects such as quantum mechanics and
ultimate tensile stress in stainless, but a strange look comes over his face.
Bill is very lucky, there is an
Australian called Pete staying here, so he has a compatriot who can
understand the language. Aussies and Kiwis get on so well together.
My first long flight with Bill
showed his good and not so good attributes. On the plus side his judgement of
where to fly under cloud gave us one glide of 197 kms without turning under
a convergence.
10 knts on the averager in straight flight
We did 620kms at 120kph. We flew north from Ouarzazate
to the main mountain range, then followed the range north east until both the
mountains and the lift petered out. We then flew back along the convergence
line and went west of Ouarzazate before turning to home, where landing on a
3,000m runway was straightforward despite a crosswind. http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightbook.html?sp=2014&st=olcp&rt=olc&pi=1519
His judgement and help as a navigator, tactician, flight engineer, slip string observer, speed control commentator were quite out of this world. However on the minus side, his performance as a flight attendant was of a very poor standard. We had ordered rolls for lunch, and he spent the first part of the flight sitting on one of them. He then decided that the one he had been sitting on was mine, whereas his was in an immaculate circular shape. He passed me my pancake without even an offer of a glass of champagne to compensate. A video of some of our convergence flying can be seen on http://youtu.be/gAGTzYPgnpo
His judgement and help as a navigator, tactician, flight engineer, slip string observer, speed control commentator were quite out of this world. However on the minus side, his performance as a flight attendant was of a very poor standard. We had ordered rolls for lunch, and he spent the first part of the flight sitting on one of them. He then decided that the one he had been sitting on was mine, whereas his was in an immaculate circular shape. He passed me my pancake without even an offer of a glass of champagne to compensate. A video of some of our convergence flying can be seen on http://youtu.be/gAGTzYPgnpo
The next day I flew with John. He
has a very laid back, reassuring style, but is right on the ball when it came to
making tactical decisions. As on all days here so far, it was blue at Ouarzazate,
with clouds developing over the mountains, so takeoff time was rather guesswork
for us. We followed a similar route to the day before, but with the mountains
pushing out thermals rather than showing a strong convergence line. We spent most
of the day at around 17000’ and only had one tricky moment when we dropped to
13000’ with ridges and mountain tops looking worryingly close. We then went much further west than on the previous
day as we had launched nearly 2 hours earlier and covered some 820kms on
OLC. In the west there was a clear ingression of sea air, and we were able to
climb well above the adjacent clouds. John became more laid back as the flight
progressed, and later we discovered that he was out of oxygen.
Thermals from the ridge top
Sea air coming in from North west
There are virtually no landing options in the
mountains, and the engine would be worse than useless at these altitudes, so it
was good to have the mountain flying experience of Bill and John.
Graham
