Flight of the Month - this award is decided at the monthly club meeting and recognizes the best flight of a CAHGC member in the preceding month

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November 2010

November 24, 2010
This month's flight of the month went to Ian de Vries, for his class-winning flight at the recent Gatskop competition. Ian's story:


climbing under a cloudy sky at Dasklip (photo A. West)
 

So after a quite a few Rondebossie trips, and two weekends of no flying at Porterville, I was pretty fired up to fly my hang glider there.  The long range forecast looked really good the whole week, which helped build excitement, and it turned out accurate. So Saturday dawned and it looked fantastic. 103 pilots registered and a great atmosphere at Pampoenfontein, with goal being set at Eindekuil. Pilots already going down ridge by about 10:30. Eric, Grove and myself went off to Dasklip and I rigged as fast as I could with a continuous stream of paragliders flying past overhead going down the ridge. A priceless moment that will stick in memory permanently (well as long as memory lasts at least) is when one of those paragliders turned out to be my lovely partner Maylene on her second cross country ever. She cheekly called out as she flew overhead that she would see me in goal! (She did not make it but made it to bumpy which I was very impressed with). Continuing on rigging, I was testing out a pod harness, which I had tested from a hang point and seemed to fit great. However, with reserve, kit, and water it was reeeally tight but it was all I had and I wanted to fly.  So I was first up at launch (second launch ever from Dasklip) and thanks to Eric and Grove who were a great help. Wind was very cross as usual, but launched in a good cycle it felt great. Fly into a real bumpy thermal straight afterwards, and I wanted some clearance from ridge to get into that pod, so decided against working it until I was in pod. Flew straight out of it, managed to get into pod, but did not zip up. Flew back to ridge but nothing so made a decision to fly straight for gulley in front of rescue ridge where I know there is a house thermal. I had to work the gulley in front at zero lift for a bit, but slowly managed to find something more solid. Pretty soon I had some PGs with me, but flew with "very strong" intentions so they gave me some space. Unfortunately the space was usually vertical space as they easily out climbed me  :<(. I climbed out above rescue ridge and I finally got brave enough to do up my zip and try get comfortable in the harness, which I managed to some degree. I feet and knees seemed really squashed but I figured that it must be normal. Back to flying. I had already decided pre flight that I was going to take it slowly and stay up at all costs, as I wanted some airtime in the HG. I also very quickly realised that there was no way I was going to scratch in the low foot hills like I would in a PG, so I would need all height I could get. It was a light wind day with nice big cumulus, but also large areas of shadow. This meant a little strategic flying. I had a great bonus in that I had string of thermal markers in front of me in the form of danglers. With all this in mind I watched clouds and danglers down the ridge. I was now at end bit of the rescue ridge where there is a low saddle for a stretch in the ridge. Usually easy to get a thermal at end of that saddle, but now there was a whole gaggle of danglers scratching in the foothills and shade. Decided to bide my time and stay where I was in lifty areas (mostly zero) until I saw then getting up and then I would use that speed I had to cross. This worked out great, as when PG's just started to climb, I went for it and actually got there at roughly the same height as they were, in a nice thermal. After that it became a little easier to stay up, but a lot more hard work to keep glider at reasonable attitudes. I must admit that I feel a lot more comfortable in turbulence in a HG (if I have some height) than in a pg. It is not comparable though in the amount of physical work you have to do. Just before bumpy found a reasonable thermal at made it 1600m asl. PGs were still higher than me which was a little frustrating. Decided it was a good time to go flatlands and aimed to cut the corner of end of dust road - and join up with the other dust road coming from the N7, and chose a route under best looking clouds. From then on it was quite easy as over the dirt road I finally managed to climb to cloud base 2000masl. At cloud base I pulled in bar and "zoomed" towards goal.. yehaa that was a really great feeling .. eating up km at speed and not having to worry about frontals.. from then on did not need to turn and just picked route under clouds. I did go "over the falls" though for first time and then into hectic lift where it felt that I had to stuff bar to my knees at least to stop going over backwards ..but afterwards had a good laugh at myself. Arrived at Eindekuil still at 2000masl.. considered going down road to mouth of valley but was physically and mentally quite tired so decided to call it a day. Flew around town a bit trying to lose height and eventually went looking for some sink. I was still very high and decided to unzip and stretch my legs.. thank goodness I did. My feet and ankles were not asleep, they were comatose. I suddenly became very good at flying with one hand and massaging ankles with other hand until I got some feeling back. Picked a big field with PGs in and did a reasonable landing in almost no wind. Carried glider to edge of field and then lay on ground for at least 30 mins to get enough energy to derig.  It was my second flight at Dasklip, a PB in a hang glider and overall very enjoyable flight.

 

 

October 2010

October 21, 2010
This months Flight of the Month goes to Greg Gibson for a nice Rondebossie session. 

 

 

 Greg's story:
I arrived at Rondebossie at around 3.30 on Saturday afternoon. The wind was perfect, quite smooth at around 25kmh. I rigged as fast as I could and took off at about 4.00. I played around the hill for about half an hour and was really thirsty so top landed, had a quick drink and took off immediatly. This time I was up for about 1 hour. There was consistent lift with very tight but strong bands o...
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September 2010

September 29, 2010
Despite being winter time, there was lots of flying this month, mainly at Rondebossie. Some guys getting nice airtime in preparation for summer. The flight of the month went to Adam for a solo flight at Signals. The story here:


 
"
Saturday afternoon turned into a wonderfully mellow Signals day. I headed out there late and just caught the tail end of the day. Not a day to get high or go far, but a wonderful day just to enjoy flying! 

Follow this link for a video of this flight...



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August 2010

August 16, 2010
Some good flying this month. In the end the FOTM went to new HG pilot Ross Hofmeyer for his first soaring flight and top landing at Rondebossie. The sweetest flights are not always the longest. Nice one Ross! 


Ian flying the Sonic at Rondebossie (pic Ross Hofmeyer)

From Ross:  
In the light of Eric's really great flight I feel a bit sheepish accepting the award but appreciate the support and enthusiasm offered to new pilots by the club.  It's a great encouragement.


I was really keen to fly that d...
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July 2010

July 14, 2010
This month saw the reopening of one of our favorite old sites, Rondebossie. While there was some flying at Signals, most of the flying happened at Rondebossie, with several new pilots dusting off the cobwebs and getting some airtime. One of these was Ross, who had his first HG flight in over a year. It is great to welcome Ross back into the fold and look forward to more flying from him. Some pictures from flying at R'Bossie are below (all pics by Kyle Zietsman):


Adam, just after launch


Ross c...


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June 2010

July 14, 2010
This month's flight of the month went to Eric van der Walt for a solo Signals Flight.
  

Eric in front of Lion's Head (look closely) - pic by Adam West

Eric's description of the flight:

I was up on Signals yesterday from about 2 pm, and it looked good, if slightly stronger and gustier than I would have liked to deal with on my own, especially with a new glider -- only the second flight with the U2.  So I sat and waited to see if the wind might drop a little, which it did. Eventually I rigged, a...


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May 2010

June 25, 2010
Paul Laros won this month's flight of the month for a perfect, 26km Signals to Kommetjie run. Well done Paul!
(all pics by Adam West)
 

Paul on his new Airborne Sting about to hit the Apostles


Climbing up Table Mountain

  

 Looking good for the crossing into Hout Bay

 
Happy landings in Kommetjie...
 

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April 2010

June 25, 2010

Lots of flying this month in Wilderness and on the Peninsula, but the flight of the month went to Ian de Vries for his first thermalling flight in a hang glider at Segdefield and his relaunch at Kleinkrans for a Paradise ridge run. Ian has shown lots of enthusiasm and commitment to making the transition to HG from PG and is a worthy winner of this month’s FOTM.



 
Ian's story of the Kleinkrans-Paradise Ridge run below:
Tyronne, Dick, Kenny and Myself arrived at Holiday Inn to find a strong SW b...
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February 2010

February 17, 2010
Another good flying month, with many fine flights. The flight of the month was awarded to Adam and Eric for their flight from Dasklip to Piekenierskloof Pass and then across the flats to Piketberg. 




A description of the flight can be found here.  Well done!

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January 2010

February 3, 2010
We had some really good flights this month, with several in the +80 km range and one of 131km. Adam showed tracklogs and pictures from the December Dasklip trip, including flights from Porterville to Klawer and to Bree Rivier. Eric described his exciting flight over Pakhuis. Really cool, ground-breaking stuff. This led to a good discussion about how to go over the back of mountains efficiently. There was some flying at Wilderness and Sir Lowry’s too. 

 Ultimately the Flight of the Month was ...

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