Turkey XC

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 06/14/01
Remote Name: 207.178.212.114

Comments

Launched from Cocolez (5K) in central Turkey at 11:30 a.m. Winds were steady at about 12 mph, with numerous cumis developing over launch. I was first off and expected to wind right up to cloud base. It was the 7th straight day of flying for me and I was feeling like I was on top of my game.

Unfortunately, flying doesn’t seem to work that way. I scratched hard to maintain my altitude at launch level while all 11 other pilots launched and climbed to base. I was trying everything, scratching so close to the trees I even kicked a branch one time. I began following pilots as they launched, nothing was getting me up.

Finally, after the leaders had already gotten on course, I worked a ratty thermal (it felt ratty to me anyway) up to 10K and got on course, last in line like the kid that wants to play with the others but can’t keep up.

As I headed out over the valley, the clouds began to over-develop and some even began to drop rain. A little nutty perhaps, flying next to a rain storm, but a fascinating experience nonetheless. The rapid cloud development also gave me lots of lift, so I maintained my glide at 10K while the others seemed to be cruising along about 1K agl.

Two or three pilots landed as I headed to a small village rendezvous near the edge of a large canyon. Jocky was leading the pack and he announced that they didn’t have enough height to cross the canyon so unless they could get up at the village they were going to land. Having at least 5K extra on the rest of the pack, I thought I could easily make the canyon and perhaps end up as top dog after all. I was keeping blue sky above me as I skirted the edge of the OD.

Jocky landed in the village and shortly after requested everyone that was still in the sky to land there as well. I had mixed feelings about doing so considering my abundant altitude, but I figured I would go with the program. Pilots below me started pulling big ears but I thought I would boat around for a while before coming down, might as well get the time if not the distance.

After 10 more minutes or so I realized that my vario would not stop beeping. I began looking for sink and only found more lift. Jocky’s voice over the radio had become emphatic. One pilot had a dead radio and was maintaining course. I missed a thunder clap that many others heard, but I picked up the near panic in Jocky’s voice as he continued to try to radio in the wayward pilot.

Feeling it was now a priority to get down, I pulled big ears. But still went up, faster all the time. With big ears and full speed bar I was climbing at 1000 ft/min. OK, next option was the newly acquired skill at B-lining. Holding myself off my seat by the B-lines I was able to silence my vario, but the wind turbulence made the stall pretty active. Plus it’s quite hard to hold that pose for minutes on end. As the wing would wind around to a downwind position, and then begin to oscillate beyond what I thought was reasonable, I would release the B-lines, settle things down, face back into the wind, take a breath, and then pull again.

It took a long time, but the B-lines got me down. I hated the spiral dives from the SIV course so I really didn’t want to have to use one to get down, but that was my next option if the B-lines didn’t work.

I landed nicely in a soccer field. More frightening than the landing was the sight of hundreds of children running toward me, so excited they seemed to want to tear me to pieces. Many of them screamed things in Turkish, but when one said, “My name is? My name is?” and I replied “Brendan” then they all either said my name or repeatedly said, “My name is?!”

The children certainly did not want to tear me to pieces, but they were a little overwhelming with their curiosity. Sort of like a bunch of puppy dogs that just want to jump all over me. I kept instructing them to stay off my lines and to move back so I could fold my glider. At one point I yelled “back, back, back!” and they thought that was great, probably sounded like a duck. So they all yelled “back, back, back!” and then laughed hysterically, which got me laughing, which made them all say it more. 15 minutes later they were still saying “back, back, back” and giggling.

They really were cute kids. Very disheveled clothing, many without shoes, but many of the boys wore neckties which must have been part of their school uniform. I’m certain that every person in the town was standing on the roadside as we left in our very luxurious chase van. They waved to us like we were royalty. What an experience!

The wayward pilot with no radio landed about 30 minutes later on the other side of the canyon without incident. It took us an extra hour and a half to retrieve him so he had to buy us all a round of beers.

Brendan