GARIEP 1999
Report by Peter How
The
camp started officially on 11th December and ended on 14th January. Some
of the overseas self launching pilots started a little earlier and flew
a little later at the end.
There were 40 pilots altogether and 22 gliders. 18 pilots were from overseas. All the overseas gliders were well utilised with crews coming and going throughout the period.
The weather was definitely better than that up north! In the period of 12 Dec to 13 Jan when there was a tow plane, there was flying on 23 days. Several visitors such as Karl Abhau and Norbert Leuring had some very good flying in the period mid November to just when the camp started. Norbert flew two 1000k on successive days at 117kph. Thereafter, there were quite a few shorter tasks like 750 and 500 triangles and o/r flown. A few badges were flown, varying between 50km and 500km. Some German and Japanese records were flown. In all, the task sheets show that there were 55 flights completed which were over 500km. There were 20 flights which were over 750km.
Even though the weather was not fantastic, two important factors make Gariep the best place for long distances. One is that the thermals go on late into the day and landings at 1900 are not uncommon. The other is that many of the gliders have motors, which give some extra confidence or at least the knowledge that an all night retrieve is unlikely. The pilots are also not racing, and can take their time to creep along in poor areas. The terrain is not safe enough for the dare devil competition pilot who pushes on down to a few hundred feet.
Everyone had a good time. The longest period of no flying of 4 days gave us a rest, so many had a good holiday anyway. We had some great parties, especially on Christmas Eve and at the dawn of the new millennium overlooking the lake. Gariep must have some of the most beautiful sunsets on earth. Many thanks go to Margaret and Christine Burki for the decorations.
Most
of the overseas visitors are really enthusiastic about Gariep. Norbert
Leuring has put up a web site at www.leuhring-online.de. Sigi Baumgartl
has promised an article for AeroKurier and is also scheduled to make an
audio-visual presentation about Gariep to a large group early in 2000.
He bought a fancy new video camera for this. The Morinaki's from Japan
will also present their experiences with some very nice video footage
they took. We also had a lot of help from Walter Binder, who was always
ready to assist when anyone had motor problems. He ensured that many of
us had a flight in his wonderful, special self launching 27m ASH25.
Quintin Maine, helped by his son, gave up his holiday and towed for us with a Super Cub loaned by MGC. Uys Jonker was also a star, towing and ferrying during his unpaid leave.
The weather forecast from SAWB was pretty good and everyone liked the format.
We only had about 6 outlandings, and the most serious damage was a tail skid which had to be re-glued. We had a few novices, but we all kept a careful eye on them and they had fun generally.
Having taken over the management of this camp one month before it was
due to start, I was a bit stressed out most of the time, but managed a
couple of 750 and a few 500km eventually.
I can't wait until the next Gariep long distance gliding camp.
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