[Amigo] > [Skippy flight index]

Flight Articles from the August 2006 Big Spring Comp in Texas (in order of posting time stamp)
[Tony de Groot 1] [Tony 2] [Tony 3] [Skippy]

Anne-Odile Thomas Flight Log Index (aka Skippy)
August 2006
Big Sprint Comp

[Pictures]

My longest furthest flight…
60.8 miles to goal plus a couple more (~ 63 ish?) to take the day and win the task...

Big Spring was a blast, although I had my ups and downs (literally).  I was feeling pretty discouraged after the first two days of flying, only going about 4-5 miles each time and then hearing the rest of our crew brag about how far they went, how high they got and how much fun they had…  I’m supposed to have the hot ship (Icaro Relax), yet I was getting the shortest flights out of our group.  My problem so far was that I was so concerned about not landing in the mesquite fields (3-inch spine bushes), shortly after leaving the airport, that I decided to land in the few open areas for fear of not making it across that bad area.  Instead, I could have tried harder to find more lift, and kept on going…  I was so mad and angry with myself for having given up so soon that I was determined not to make the same mistake the next day.  Yet, I had no intention to go as far as I eventually did…

In the morning of Day 3, they called a 60+ mile task that included a quarter-mile cylinder turn point at around 42 miles.  The first leg was supposed to be straight downwind, going North, and the wind was then supposed to shift to the SE to make it easier for us to make the second leg, towards the NW.  Well, the wind prediction didn’t quite pan out; it blew mostly from the SW, which meant a cross tailwind the entire time (bummer).  We would have to avoid skidding off course along the way.

I didn’t really care about the task at first, as all I wanted to do was to go further than the previous 2 days, and hopefully go past 10 miles.  I didn’t even want to think too much about passing my previous longest XC distance of 12 miles as I thought this might be a stretch…  I also thought it wasn’t realistic for us to have a quarter mile cylinder turnpoint after 40 miles (instead of a larger one) as the odds of us hitting it would be slim if the wind was anything else but what was forecasted.  I didn’t really care anyway, as I thought this was way out of my league, which I mentioned to Davis Straub…  I would just do my thing, try my best and see if I could go further than the previous days.

So, off we went.  I think I got towed after David Duke, and Tony, but before Greg.  The tug pilot gave me a great tow, and dropped me in a light thermal upwind.  I worked it for a while, but it fizzled out, so I went on glide hoping to find something else.  I could still glide back to the runway and get towed up again if I got too low.  I soon got to the point where I had to take the decision to keep going or go back to the runway…  I couldn’t make up my mind, and it only took a few seconds before it was too late to go back to the airport, so off I went…  Here we go again…  Let’s hope I can make it further this time.

I headed out towards my previous LZ (a nice field where the ranchers came out to greet me the day before), and got low again.  I could see that a glider had already landed there.  This time though, I was so determined not to land there that I kept gliding hoping to find something that would take me past the mesquite fields (yikes!).  Well, right over my LZ, I did find something and worked it all I could.  I kept on drifting with it, and this beauty took me to about 7k msl (the flats are at about 2500’).  I was so stoked to have made it across the initial bad land area.  From then on, it’s just LZs everywhere, as big as you want them, with many roads leading to them, so you don’t even need to worry about it.  This is just a dream when you want to go XC. All you then need to do is focus on the flying, as landing isn’t an issue (what a concept!).  I was getting close to the 10-mile mark and was so stoked about it; I would reach my goal for the day.  I then decided to up my goal and see if I could pass my previous best XC distance of 12 miles.  Now, this would make my day…

By then, Tony was starting to catch up to me after taking a second tow and Greg was also on course.  David was still ahead of me, but was starting to struggle around 20 miles or so.  I got up to around 8k and saw Tony a few thousands lower working his way up to my cloud.  I was hoping to glide with him from there, but my lift pretty much fizzled out, so I decided to go on glide for the next cloud.  I found some more good lift, so I kept going.  It was awesome.  Seeing the Big Spring airport get further and further away was a beautiful sight.  Seeing all the clouds littering the sky was another beautiful sight…  I was in awe of where I was.  This was sooo cool.

When I passed the 12-mile mark, I was elated…  I did it!  I just broke my personal record.  I was so stoked.  I then set my eyes on the 15-mile mark (wouldn’t that be awesome?).  I was really high then, so I knew I would probably make it.  And so I did.  Wow, insane…  Could I now even hope for 20 miles?  Am I dreaming?  Not really.  This entire time though, I was looking at my GPS to make sure I was on the right track.  The cross tailwind was pushing me off course as I was thermalling, so I constantly had to make corrections between thermals to get back on track.  Somehow, this worked.  I looked for clouds to go to, but always tried to top out before making the jump, as I knew I would only get one chance each time I would make that jump.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t just go downwind along the cloudstreets, as we would go way off course.  We had to jump across from street to street.  When this became clear, Tony asked on the radio if everyone would be ok if we changed the task to open distance so that we could just go downwind.  David had just landed at around 20 miles, and replied it was too late to change it since he had just landed.  So, we continued with the current task.  Tony and Greg were already starting to drift off course, while I was able to maintain the correct heading.  Again, getting as high as I could before going on glide each time I left a thermal.

I then got to the 20-mile mark, and realized I wouldn’t be last today, and would go further than David.  I just couldn’t believe I had made it that far.  I then started thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could try to make it to 30 miles…  Let’s keep on playing this game and see if I can make it…  I still had no intention to shoot for goal, nor even the turnpoint.  At that point, I started having a little problem: I had to drink a lot in flight to remain hydrated, but this was taking its toll on me!  I thought about landing to relieve myself, but then thought it would be stupid to land now when I have the chance to get a longer flight.  I would just have to hold it…

A little while later, my GPS reflected that I had made it to 30 miles…  Unbelievable.  This was beyond any of my hopes…  And I was still high, and on course for the first turnpoint of LaMesa.  I starting thinking that maybe I would be able to make it there.  I could now see it in the far distance.  If I pushed myself, and got lucky, it would be awesome to get there.  I could then land happy, and wait for my retrieve.  Forget the goal, this would be good enough for me…

Greg and Tony were then about 4 miles off course, still heading towards LaMesa, but getting pushed away from course.  I think I was still ahead of them by a mile of so, but they were catching up.  As we were working our way to LaMesa, we could see a few Pre-World pilots flying past us in the opposite direction on their third leg of a triangle.  This leg was upwind for them, but they were still getting a better glide than us…  Not fair…  It was pretty awesome to fly with them though…  Around that point, I got the highest in my flight at about 9500’ below a beautiful cloud.  It was cold, and I was getting some cloudsuck, so I headed out to the blue before I got too close to the base.  It was so awesome to be able to climb up to cloudbase, yet easily be able to get away if necessary.  The tough part was figuring out how to pick the right clouds, and where to find the best lift, especially with the wind we had.  I had just read the chapter about it in Dennis Pagen’s book the night before in the trailer, and I think this helped me some, as my system seemed to work pretty well, especially when jumping streets.  I had also recently gotten an email from Linda Salamone (current US National Champ) who advised me to get as high as I could before gliding, and to stay upwind of the course line as much as possible.  I kept reminding myself of that advice, over and over again.

As I got in sight of the airport, Tony was struggling, and would soon land.  Bummer.  Greg was still working it, although a few miles off course.  On my end, I realized that I was in the perfect spot to make the turnpoint.  All my efforts so far were starting to pay off.  I thought I might make it to the airport on glide, but decided to continue working every lift I would find along the way, and not break my rule.  If I got to the airport low, I would have to land.  Since Greg was still in the air, I would have to do my best to go further than him…  No quitting at this point…  I had been flying for about 3 hours, and was getting pretty tired. I was also starting to get a bit airsick from turning so much I think.  I kept on drinking, but that didn’t help my bladder situation…

After refueling one last time just on the edge of the airport, and getting back up to about 8k, I knew I would make the turnpoint.  It was only a quarter mile cylinder, so you had to make sure you got right inside it to get credit for it.  It took a bit of effort and focus to hit it.  I was right over the runway, yet didn’t enter the cylinder yet… I mentioned it to Greg who then replied that as long as I was over the airport, I had hit the turnpoint…  Well, not according to my GPS…  I decided to fly with my GPS, zooming in on the turnpoint, and finally made it inside the cylinder.  I made sure that my pointer was completely in the cylinder before heading out towards goal.  Wow, I was actually going towards goal…  I think I was in a daze at that point, or in some sort of zone…  I had already flown about 40+ miles, and in the lead to get to goal…  What the heck, let’s give it a shot!  I have nothing to lose at this point…  The problem was that I had to cross a big blue hole to get to the next cloud street, and would also have a stronger crosswind for that leg.  I hit some heavy sink and thought I was toast…  I unzipped and was ready to land, just in case.  As I finally got close to some small clouds, I hit some very light lift…  I turned in it, pushed out all I could and started drifting with it.  I kept going with it, but was drifting way off course.  I had to make some other correction, and glide out to another cloud across yet another blue hole…  Aaaaargh, this was killing me…  Would I be able to hang on long enough?!!  I was pretty low at that point.

Greg just flew over the airport and was trying to make that same jump to my position.  He started his glide lower than I did, and didn’t make it, and had to land…  Unfortunately for him, when he flew over the airport, he didn’t look at his GPS and simply assumed that he hit the cylinder…  Well, the airport was big enough, and the cylinder small enough that you actually had to make sure you hit it.  Simply flying over the airport didn’t guarantee you would hit the cylinder.  Greg wouldn’t get credit for his last couple miles since he didn’t officially hit the turnpoint.

And then, there was just me…  Amazing!  I knew I would win the day, but would I make it to goal?  It was now so close, yet so far away.  I started counting down the miles over the radio (13, 12, 11, 10.5, 10, 9.5,…)  still unsure of whether I would make it or not.  I was about 4-5 miles away when I realized that I was probably too low to go on glide for the 1-mile goal cylinder, especially since I was drifting off-track with every turn.  I really needed one more thermal to make it.  I could see a cloud across that would be my ticket to stardom, but it seemed so far away, that I wasn’t sure I would get to it…  I hesitated, but in the end, went for it…  I just went for broke on that one…  My breadpan Robert’s vario was music to my ear when I heard it sing again and realized that I was hooking that last thermal that would get me to goal…  I continued counting down the miles on the radio (3, 2, and… 1).  I saw the goal cylinder on my GPS, and made sure I got right in the middle of it…  I had made goal…  To top it all off, there was a nice cloud right over goal, and I was starting to climb again…  I could probably have made it back up to 7-8,000’ again, as this was strong lift, but I decided to leave it and go land just past the hamlet.

The task distance was 60.8 miles.  I probably landed at around 62-63 miles (I still haven’t checked…).  In hindsight, I should have kept going downwind, and see how far I could have continued, but I was so exhausted that I stopped there.  I had flown for 3 hrs and 45 mins.  I was so stoked, yet it didn’t really hit me at that point.  The landscape is so flat here and looks the same all around you that you don’t realize how far you’ve gone until you check your GPS track log.  You could have flown 5 miles, like you could have flown 100 miles, it all looks the same…  It’s weird…  There is no real point of reference to help you with it…  The lift was for the most part very nice and quite smooth.  Most of the time, I was in some +/-200 fpm, sometimes getting to 400 fpm and the occasional 600-1000 fpm.  The lift was usually quite broken and light lower down (your typical SB flying when you try to hang on at the antenna farm…) but stronger and smoother as you would get up in altitude, closer to cloudbase.  My Relax delivered this time, and took me further than I had ever been before.

As I pondered about it all on the side of the road, some locals stopped by, and asked about where I came from, or if I needed a ride somewhere…  They are all so nice out there.  They are very curious about us, yet perplexed at the same time…  Tony, Greg and Bryan (our driver) showed up shortly afterwards and picked me up.  They had been encouraging me on the radio along the way, and especially on the last few miles, in total disbelief that I had made it…  I started to realize how far I had gone on the drive home, when it took much longer to get back to Big Spring than on my previous 2 flights… Wow…

Skippy