Final day

On Saturday Bill and I had the last flight of the expedition. At last we got our act together. No more being the last glider to take off! Bill and I strapped in, and our sprightly young crew, (alright I exaggerate, John), hooked up the glider, requested  backtrack clearance and drove us at high speed backwards down the runway some 1000m to give us a good takeoff run. In moments we were ready and having been given clearance from the tower, launched. Alas we soon found out why no one else had taken off, we were too early and the blue thermals we were expecting were non existent. Fortunately we had a cunning plan. The Nimbus at this high altitude climbs very slowly, hence motoring to 3500’ above site took nearly half an hour, and by then the thermals had started. Meanwhile on the ground there was a rush to launch. ‘If glider ‘60’ can stay up we must go’, (little did they know the cunning plan). Soon the radio was full of complaints about the lack of thermals. One very experienced pilot complained of his worse start ever, at Ouarzazate!

Eventually we got away and worked our way up to the mountains. Visibility was fantastic and we climbed to over 15,000’ and headed north east following a ridge. However climbs were disappointing and still blue. After getting low (12,000’) we turned back.  Eventually later in the afternoon convergences appeared and we, climbed above the clouds and followed the ridges that were controlling them.

                                                                     Great Visibility

 

Climbing up the Ridge

Above the Convergence Cloud

 Convergence Clouds following the Ridge

With daylight running out we headed for home, arriving at our usual 4000’ above the airfield. We pushed south to extend our distance and then started to climb slowly in very smooth lift for a considerable distance. Not sure what was happening we turned and saw a brown stain in the air, north of the field. Some sort of dust cloud was approaching. We decided to return home quickly and on arriving in circuit were told to land southerly on 12 in to a slight crosswind. As we approached downwind and about to turn base we saw dust blowing straight towards us at a considerable speed. We asked to change landing direction and just had the height to retrace our path and land in the opposite direction, to find a slight headwind.  A following glider decided to do the same some 1 minute later, but by this time the wind was gusting 20 knts and the glider was blown off the runway, but without any significant damage.

We knew that we were going to have long flights and that external catheters would be needed. One of our group ordered  a box of extra large . When the first one was tried on there was going to be a sealing issue. We now have a box to go to the highest, or largest bidder.

Sunday night and we are in Marrakesh. Tomorrow John and Bill are going to again experience the pleasures of Tangiers Port, and will get back on Saturday,inshallah, whilst I have the bad luck to have to fly directly back to the UK.

                        

                                             Buzzing in Marrakesh Central Square

Graham

Nimbus 4DM

It’s been an interesting experience getting to grips with a Nimbus 4DM. It carries a health warning for being inclined to shed its wings in a spiral dive. Also that amputations are the only way to get the AUW below 850kgs.

I used to fly my ASH in company with Macca flying the 4DM and he said that themalling in broken lift was like driving an artic at high speed down narrow Devon roads. You will say that he is a gloomy bugger and prone to complaining, but to be fair, he was flying it in the wrong conditions. Down here it goes like a rocket, and is a terrific bit of kit.

The 4DM is surprisingly agile for such a big glider, and in particular the ailerons are light and responsive. Changing the flap settings takes a little effort, as the lever has a short travel and needs a bit of elbow. The trim takes some getting used to; the loads are high and it needs a lot of tweaking. It's easy to fail to juggle trim and flaps together when entering a climb. The rudder does not tolerate being mishandled, and it is important to make well co-ordinated turns.

I am new to self-launching and engine management was a bit daunting at first. There are a lot of switches, knobs and levers to juggle, and I have found a written checklist to be useful. Now that I have a few hours, it’s all become quite straightforward. Take-off performance is very good in the UK, and quite acceptable here. Ouarzazate is 3,800’asl with temperatures in the forties

Thanks are due to Graham for being a patient and tolerant instructor.

Here are some pictures from yesterday, Friday the 6th:

Blue convergence

Convergence Video

The Atlas mountains form a natural barrier between the Saharan air and the Atlantic sea air. As the two masses meet over the mountains, the air becomes unstable and will rise to form clouds, often following the ridge lines of below. To the north the sea air has a much lower cloudbase, while to the south the high cloudbase will often peter out to become blue. The video here shows clearly the two different cloudbases and by flying along the ridge below, we can be in almost continuous lift. We took Bill's camera and the results were dramatic!

In the video we are approaching the convergence, and then turning left to follow the ridge line and the clouds that are showing us where the lift is.
You can also see this video at a higher resolution  on youtube

4th June 900k

On Wednesday John and I flew over the mountains in a classic Atlas convergence where the Saharan air meets sea air. The first leg over the mountains was around 270kms which we covered at over 170kph, taking only a couple of climbs.Then the conditions started to deteriorate, ahead cloudbase dropped from over 17,000ft  to around 13,000ft, with some mountain tops above this height, we diverted south and slowed down taking more climbs. We were trying to cover 1,000kms for the day, but gradually fell behind schedule, with the latest possible landing at 20 30, we gave up the attempt and came home 45mins early, having covered 905 kms. The visibility was then zero forward, with some sight of the ground directly below, thankfull for the gps, we judged our final glide conservatively, but not as conservatively as on my previous flight as we were above 10,000ft and still on oxygen when we were overhead the field.

Bill and I are trying to involve John in our conversations, but without success. I offered to explain Quantum Mechanics, but he responded that he had managed fine without it for 60 years. Bill and I discussed gliding for a change, but the mention of centre of pressure and its change with flap setting seemed to unnerve John and he retired once more to his shell.

The convergence went on and on.

Links

John shared spot page

Bill shared spot page

OLC Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate

Ouarzazate is a prosperous and fast growing small town on the outskirts of the Sahara. Describing it as hot and dry doesn’t begin to do the place justice. Dust gets everywhere, it blocks your nose, fills your shoes and gets behind your eyelids. Even the water from the hotel taps is dusty, and runs a cheerful canary yellow.

There is a busy movie studio here where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and other, more forgettable, flics. One of the few local restaurants that serves alcohol has dozens of pictures of grateful film stars on the walls.

It is also a base for adventure tourism into the desert.  If you have a 4wd and drive south with plenty of fuel and water you might possibly arrive in Mauretania. What you would do there I have no idea.

The souk is an Aladdin's Cave for anything that you might want to buy or get repaired. Here is a picture of Bill getting an LX9000 calibrated:

The airport has four or five international commercial movements a week and not much else, apart from us. If would care to visit us here, you can get a direct flight from Paris. It supports a staff of about a hundred, all of whom take a close but friendly interest in us. We are well known here now and it usually takes only half an hour or so to get past the daily security, customs and police checks and file a flight plan (same as yesterday, please). At the final check in the gendarmerie, we are invited to share their mint tea. Very good it is too

Dotted around the perimeter are soldiers in small tin sentry huts. They are unused to visitors, very hot and well armed. When I needed to drive past them the other day to do a radio check, I was careful to get word sent ahead.

Bathwater, straight from the hotel taps.

2nd June

Graham and I set ourselves a 300k o/r to the East. Blue today and difficult off tow, until we transitioned onto the higher ridges to the North.

Encountered intrepid walkers at 13,000' on M'Goun, a narrow, exposed ridgeline of scree slopes without shelter. They were nowhere near habitation up there and it must have been hard work carrying enough water for the trip.

We picked up isolated good climbs to 15,000', but could hear a couple of other gliders having a difficult time, so we trickled along quite cautiously and stayed high.

On the way home we could see a dusty, low level gust front spread across the horizon. It was approaching Ouarzazate, so we piled on the speed and plonked ourselves down a couple of minutes before it arrived. Another glider was soaring the gust edge at low level and on returning to land found it a challenging arrival, with poor visibility and a crosswind.

One of the other pilots arrived in his Gulfstream IV, so Bill polished the Nimbus.

On the way....

Downwind. Dusty gust front approaching.

Bill

 The Rig leaving England Oh My God!!! What have I let myself get into? 

Don't we need an Irishman and a Scotsman to complete the joke

 On board the Chunnal brilliant piece of engineering. Hard to imagine it's now twenty years old

I was told by John this was going to be a budget tour and we needed to be careful and watch our spending. The accountant in him coming to the fore? First nights accommodation that John sorted, pic below, I only had two words to say, 'Yeah Right'

 I let the side down really, doing hand washing in the bath of such a fabulous place my room third on right at top. However after being on the road for a week I was down to my last set of underpants,  The trailer made for great mobile dryer in 30 degrees heat on way down to Spain with no chance of it blowing off the line?

 

 Then on over this fabulous bridge at Milau, Designed by an Englishman?

 Not sure how that happen the designer must of been cheap? but it was sure a magnificent structure

John down on his knees praying to be let onto the ferry at Barcelona

 At last going aboard the good ship 'Fantastic' unfortunately not literally speaking but OK.

Probably it was more the clientele that had more to do with it?

                                             Leaving Barcelona harbour bound for Tangies

On arrival at Tangies Med. It was all about keeping ones composure

 Spent three days trapped behind this wire fence in Tangies Med port.

 Thank goodness we were aloud out at night but unfortunately the rig remained.

We were told we didn't need a carnet, those same two words came to mind

 At last out of the port and made Marrakesh at 11am to meet up with our buddy 

Graham Paul who had arrived two days ago.

Graham at top of pass in Atlas Mountains, around 7000ft

The Rig at to of pass in Atlas mountains has anyone noted the bikes we are taking for a ride? 

A dream come true first Glider flight for us at Ouarzazate International Airport runway 30.

 John was feeling poorly after all that travel, Yippee!!!! So Graham and I had the most memorable flight, even if he couldn't keep the string in the middle. I was being so careful not to pass wind as it had traffic in it

 Nice convergence trust there are many more to come

No place to land

31st May, 1,000k

Bill and I did not set a task today, but set off with the intention of exploring as far East and then as far West as we could. We started at low level on the ridges, to please Bill, but there was not much wind, so we used a bit of time to climb to cloudbase at about 15,000'. There was overdevelopment and a few showers out to the East, and we returned to better conditions in the higher ranges. In this area we could have run back and forth to clock up a big OLC distance with streets running along track at 18,000'. Instead we headed out to the West to play in another convergence where cold air was encroaching from the Atlantic near Agadir. This turned out not to give us much potential for distance.

At about 6pm we had covered about 650km. We decided to see if we could ramp that up to 1,000km on OLC before sunset at 8:20ish, by doing an out and return to the East. It worked out rather well, as by now yet another convergence was humming out to the South East. It was probably the best I have ever encountered: cloudbase 19,000' and off the clock lift in all the good bits. We finished with half an hour to spare

Early ridge run

Midday convergence

On Final Glide

Phugoid

Phugoid at 20,000 feet

A poor forecast today, with a northerly flow and blue conditions. Bill and I were the only ones to launch. We managed 400kms and reached over 20,000' under cloud. Scrappy in the blue. Flew over convergence cloud, but had to to move when our cloud started raining. 10 knot thermal to 15,000'.

We had taken off in a virtual calm, and were concerned when the tower called us up to give 30 knots with a 30deg crosswind. We returned to Ouarzazate, to find the wind had abated to 25 knots, but it was an interesting landing.

At one point in the flight Bill took over and soon did a fairly steep pull up in some sink. Realising his mistake he put the nose down to build up speed, but then did a second pull up. Bill's flying can be aggressive but this seemed extreme, especially as he then put the glider into a very steep dive.

"What are you doing"  I shouted, "Nothing" was the reply. We were both hands off and at high  altitude the glider became unstable, following a flight path known as a phugoid.

Graham