From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 08/12/01
Remote Name: 207.178.212.115
Saturday evening Kristi and I camped with Jocky and Zvi near the BlackHawk launch. Warm night with good campfire conversation. Lots of laughter at Jocky’s animated story-telling.
Sunday I had agreed to help out with the class as I had already received my share of instruction. Initially it seemed that I might be needed to drive, but later we decided that we could retrieve a car and that way I could fly as well.
Launch conditions at 11:00 a.m. were light but improving, with nice cummis developing. Jocky launched to “sniff the air a bit” and give an in-flight lecture on ridge soaring and thermaling directly in front of launch. I resisted my typically urges to launch early, and instead stuck around to act as launch assistant for the group.
It took quite a while to get everyone in the air. Complicated by a group of local hangies that were trying very hard to fit the stereotype but who were eventually softened by persistent graciousness by Bill, Benson and Bob.
Around noon I was finally alone on launch and spreading out my wing. Eddie returned with Benson for a second shot before I was clipped in. Fortunately Benson helped after I botched my first launch attempt. On the second try I was snatched off the ground backwards and climbed quickly above launch as I spun myself around to face forwards (which still left me flying backwards).
From launch I headed West and maintained at 6000 for several miles, stopping a few times to gain back a few hundred here and there. There was lots of chatter with people going down and reporting in, people on retrieve, and people on course. Relaying coordinates and retrieval instructions, several people talking at the same time, it was all driving me a little crazy. Then two old geezers came through the frequency, casually chatting about how many times they had been married, how many girlfriends they currently have, and the appeal of the local widows in their area. Jocky quipped about fighting for his life in the rowdy air at 13000 feet whilst two old chaps were comparing the length of their ladders!
Between the abundant chatter, and day two on my batters, my radio gave it up a little over an hour into the flight. Silence at last I focused on making the convergence for the jump across the 18 to the mountains to the North. The jump was not difficult. A little rough with lift that wrapped my vario more than once, but not much sink and only one or two 30%ers.
When I arrived at the junction of the 18 (running East to West) and the convergence (running South to North), it was time to make a decision. I was clearly on course and could continue on for some time. My altitude was around 8000 and gaining and the cloud street stretched forever. But to cross the 18 meant going into “no-man’s-land” with no radio, no easy (or known) retrieval, and no buddies. Since Bill and Jocky were the only ones in the air when my radio went out, for all I knew everyone was already on the ground. By continuing on in the convergence I would likely be requiring a lengthy retrieval effort from a group that I was trying to assist or at least stay out of the way of. In all it seemed irresponsible to continue into a remote area with no radio. So my decision was to head West along the 18, perhaps all the way into Victorville.
Within 5 minutes I was on the ground, 5000 feet lower and about a quarter of a mile further West. Leaving the convergence put me in a light headwind and massive sink. Full speed bar and my descent alarm screaming the whole way down. The convergence party was over and the rule of the day was, “you’re either IN or your OUT.” The experience helped my appreciation and understanding of convergence. I mean you can learn about it in theory, but until you experience its features first hand it is difficult to visualize what’s happening.
Once on the ground next to the 18 in the desert, I pulled out the contents of my harness and began to lay out my wing. As I was doing so a gust of wind came through and scooped up my glider bag. I yelled, “Hey, I need that!” and chased after it as it danced over the brush, but then the gust turned into a dust devil and I saw my glider bag core and climb out. I stood underneath and watched with my hands on hips and a smirk on my face as my bag hit 500 feet AGL and kept going. Last time I saw it it was just a speck probably around 1000 AGL. I expect it made the convergence and got on course. Had my radio been working I would have asked Jocky to watch out for it.
Retrieval took a while to coordinate, but everyone eventually ended up at Coco’s restaurant in Victorville with cold drinks and lots of interesting war stories to tell.
Can't wait to read Bob's posting.
My total flight time was 1:45. Distance from launch 17.47 miles.
Brendan
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