After Mike’s epic flight yesterday, he volunteered to drive the rig and Mia and I had the opportunity to get a little airtime.
Soaring numbers where not bad, looked to be some west wind so I thought I would try and duplicate Mikes flight. Lots of dust devils at the tow site with the winds switching from West to East and a little bit of North to allow a tow.
I was up first, Pinning off after a 1300ft agl north tow in some 500 up over L+13. The lift wandered off someplace (or I did) at around 3900ft asl. No panic as a good looking dust devil was brewing just SE of me. I did not quite take into account the heavy sink getting between A + B so I was happy to find some smooth lift at 1000ft agl and was able to work my way gently over to the real core as…. as “I got up to a good altitude to deploy?”. Truth is, dust devils at this time of year look much more intimidating then they truly are. Lots of bark but very little bite, guess it the fact the soil is as “dry” as it gets and sun is not quite as powerful as mid summer, this generates plenty of dust but not the power of the mid summer spectacles that deserve so much respect. Eventually I peaked out at 7500+ft asl and pushed south. In the meantime, winds delayed Mia getting on the tow rig (strong cross). Mia was up and away (after a low save) as I reached Dry Falls heading to Wilson creek.
We had started off with a band of high cloud many miles to the NW but it soon became obvious that it was coming our way. By the time Mia had pushed a low easterly crossing of Banks Lake and I was heading north to Wilbur the high cloud started to become a factor. Mia managed to miss most of it by heading south toward Wilson Creek but I drove into the darkest of the shadow when I arrived in Wilbur. Soft lift was not going to be getting any better with high cloud cutting off the sun.
High cloud, taken by Mike in Hartline (note the Mammas cloud nested in the middle) :
Mia saw that things might get challenging and started working her way back to the lake and heading home. At one point as I struggled low near Almira I thought she had landed? Turns out she climbed out in a smooth 900 fpm having managed to escape the effects of the high cloud. Eventually I cleared the shadowed area and was pushing NW but the ground was now being “scrubbed” by a stiff north breeze and only the strongest lift was breaking free. Mia got one last gain and pressed west to Mold across Banks Lake. I on the other hand, could not find that last needed gain and landed in a nice smooth LZ picked out by our expert ground crew (wind sock, dirt kicking, cut field…. that Mike… what a pro….. what the hell he drank all the beer?) In the mean time Mia had crossed but ran into the same decaying lift and was forced to land in a good Northerly breeze NW of Mold (perfect cut field).
Mia's 75km flat triangle, My 134km FAI (150 km attempt)
With a little bit of sadness our Mansfield season appears to have come to an end, soon it will be back to work and the grind of “life”. Mike, Mia and myself, tipped a couple Becks, chowed down on a big feed of pasta (boy can Mike put away the pasta!).
Till next year… maybe?
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