Gariep 2002
Report by Peter How
The
Gariep long distance gliding operation seems to run smoother every year.
Instead of jack hammers and concrete mixer noise, we could hear the
fish eagles crying again, and yours truly was not running around sorting
out contractors much of the time.
Our new flight operations office from where Andrieka could see the launch point, worked well, and enabled us to keep a closer watch on runway operations. The only facility not completed in time, was the automatic local weather station.
It was pretty busy. We ran from 24th November though to 9th February and during that time 110 pilots flew from our airfield. Its truly cosmopolitan, with 10 countries being represented, the largest contingent being from Germany (42%), with UK and South African pilots at 15 and 18% respectively. For the first time ever, we had Russian pilots, who used our super conditions to lodge some badge claims.
2 containers arrived, one from Germany and the other from Slovenia. The owner of a specially modified ASH26 planned an attempt to fly back to Germany, but was thwarted by an engine problem leaving Windhoek. So after a long journey back to Gariep by truck, we loaded him into the container in the nick of time. He plans to try again next year. Container handling at Gariep works well now, using two huge vehicle recovery trucks from Colesburg.
As
predicted, El Nino produced a dry season. We debriefed pilots every
morning and logged weather information each day. Over the entire 2 ½
month period, there were only 7 days that we did not fly. Of the days
that we did fly, there were only 11 days when it was totally blue. It
was so dry, that when any storm cells did appear, mostly no rain appeared
and generally the pilots carried on flying. As usual it was occasionally
windy and our records show winds of 15 knots or more at levels where
the gliders were operating, were reached on about 14 days. However,
with the sort of thermal strengths our guys were getting, the wind was
often not an issue.
Cloud base exceeded 14000ft on 25 days and average climb rates exceeded 4m/s almost as often. Of course there were many claims of 7 to 8m/s climbs, but those just mess up my statistics! There were several days with the base over 18000ft, but the legendary 24000ft of many years ago, still remains a legend.
This year, with the permanently rolled back Kimberly and Bloemfontein TMAs, the only additional airspace needed was the lifting of the base of 3 airways to FL145. This procedure worked well, and it seems as if it will become standard.
The
record breaking frenzies of years ago, seems to have passed, and we
are finding pilots more relaxed, and enjoying a gliding holiday, under
super conditions. So, our showing on the Aerokurier OLC took some time
to appear, but soon we were on top on many days. From the briefing each
day, we were able to log total distances flown, and from that the average
flown per glider that day. There were 18 days when the fleet flew 500km
or more, the best day being when the average flown was over 700km. Just
bare in mind that we had between 2 and 3 dozen gliders flying most of
the time. Several 1000km flights were flown, but by pilots who had done
it before, so no new badge claims for this were submitted. Mention must
be made of Artur Zahn from Germany, who flew over 13500km in 20 days
in a DG800. He just took off first and landed last, every day. At the
other end of the experience spectrum, we had two 50km silver C claims
and quite a few 500km flights claimed. The club provided loggers.
Except for 3 incidents on the runway with gear collapses, no out landing damage stopped a glider flying immediately afterwards. In fact there were only about 12 out landings during the whole period. I think that this is mostly due to the fact that gliders from Gariep operate at higher levels than elsewhere, and its easier to reach the next lift. The low out landing statistics are not due to engine use, since less than a dozen gliders were self launching or sustainer types.
The
furthest out landing was Ludi Pio, at about 150km from base, which took
most of the night to retrieve. What was appreciated by our visitors
was the fact they did not have to have a crew or even a tow car. Our
airfield assistants took care of all that. Farmers were as ever super
friendly and especially helpful with directions to their farms for the
crews. Our English pilots knew how to handle small fields, to the extent
that in one case they did actually land in the proverbial potato patch.
I’m still not sure how they managed it.
Towing generally went very well, and yours truly became fairly good at thermal ling the Samba on tow. The figures showed that with the new constant speed propeller, climb rate in still air was about 2m/s at 120kph with a fully laden 15m Ventus. For next year, we intend having a more powerful tow plane for the big two seaters.
Uys brought his group of German youngsters to Gariep, after giving up on the wet weather up north, and they had a ball with a couple of Cirrus’ and ASW20s. Some days the local bar and steakhouse was foreigners only. Many brought young families, who seemed to find all sorts of activities when dad was flying.
It was sad to pack up eventually. The weather was still good until the end, and in fact a flight on 1st March still yielded 4m/s and 14000ft, with clouds until dark.
Our next season is from 23 November until 31st January. Lets see some more South African pilots this time. Believe me, if you want some really good, consistent flying weather in mid summer, Gariep is the only place to be.
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