FRESH AIR it's all about flying © Greg Hamerton 2006. FRESH AIR is published whenever I feel like it.	PORTERVILLE TO ROBERTSON The route south To subscribe or leave the list email greg@eternitypress.co.za.
	Last weekend I had a rare opportunity to break my personal best at Porterville, flying south past Worcester to Robertson. First off I must highly recommend the forecasts produced by Dr Jack. If you go to click on the image you'll go to his site. Then click on 'BL Avg. wind - 1400LST' you'll get a pretty picture of tomorrow's flying conditions, like the one on the right. So because of the forecast, I knew it would be light westerly all day in Worcester. This is so rare, because before a front, the wind usually screams through Worcester. All previous attempts I'd heard of had ended backwards in the 50km/h+ winds at Worcester. Walter Neser was even overtaking cars on the N1 while going backwards. Not something I would choose to do. I had the new Swing Astral5 to test, and on my last flight on it I'd broken the site record at Koringberg (71km) with Craig Richards, so I knew I had a good chance to do something special. It's a superb thermaller, and it has a great feeling in the air. My kind of wing.
	FIRST SECTION - Ridge run I left Pampoenfontein launch at 11:30. Since all the gliders I could see were boating around above ridge height, I knew there was no need to thermal. It would only get better, and there was bound to be enough lift on the ridge to maintain. Speed was important if I was going to go far. After climbing in one thermal to 1400m to get established, I flew the rest of the ridge without turning much, cruising on three-quarters speed bar. Light tailwind. MP3 player blasting. Heaven. SECOND SECTION - crossing to Saron I got stuck at the end of the ridge at ridge height. I should have climbed high at 3km before the ridge end, and headed out into the flats (Ian de Vries was out there, nice and high). It took me half an hour to snivel around and find a few 0's and 1's to get across the wide expanse of vineyards and sandy riverbed. I was being very careful not to drop out here.
	THIRD SECTION - Saron Peak and over the back Funny air, felt a bit in the lee of a SE, but probably just the odd shape of the mountain making the air swirl. I got a good climb and held onto it, topping out near peak height. Since I seemed to be at an inversion layer at 1300m I glided south, not wanting to waste time. (I've got up here before and crossed into the back valley, only to lose all the height in the lee.) But Cape Town TMA starts just to the south of Saron Peak. I'm still going to get clarity on this, but the airspace charts indicate that there is a small slice of airspace down at FL45 here. That's 1300m max, which is frustrating. If you go south, you've got to descend below Saron Peak height, and then the best place to go over will be the low point (the pass) behind Gouda, so you have the most clearance. There's often a big thermal near the radio mast in the saddle. But 1300m ASL isn't enough here. I had heavy sink in the back valley and only began climbing again from 100m off the deck. Then after a glide towards the back range, I was on the deck again, ridge soaring the bottom curve of the foothills, chasing gusts through the protea bushes. I slowly clawed my way upwards, into the dramatic jagged peaks. Wow! This terrain is quite intimidating. Thankfully the airspace ceiling goes up to 2500m (FL85) again as soon as you're past Tulbagh town so you can at least stay comfortably above peak height.
	FOURTH SECTION - the back range at Wolsely Another speedbar run, similar to the Porterville ridge, only higher. I was starting to feel concerned about lack of penetration high up, but every time I checked I had 5-6km/h forward speed while on brakes (which meant I had a reasonable margin of another 20km/h speed). Still, there's a big gap at Wolsely, very similar to the Saron Peak jump, and I worked my way out into the flatlands here to avoid being pinned in the venturi. It was still nicely sunny, so I opted to try the flatlands route and avoid the nail-biting peaks around Waaihoek. Besides, the sailplane guys warn that the corner at Worcester is best avoided, because it is inevitably in the lee and full of sink at some point. FIFTH SECTION - the valley flatlands near Worcester Now it started to get really hard. The wind was NW, becoming more N as I approached Worcester, doing probably 20km/h. Even though I'd been getting up to 1700m near Wolsely, I glided and got no climbs, and ended up scratching around over a farm-house (climb 0.5m/s and broken, hold onto it, hold on!), then ridge-soared a stupid little hill beside the road (no ridge lift! scratch scratch boom! strong thermal, no penetration ... can't follow the thermal over the back so low .. bail off the end of the little ridge and scud out over the fields, desperaaaat). I worked every blip and bump. I couldn't relax for ages. And then, I spotted a Richard's-style dust-devil swirling off a brick-factory / quarry closer towards Worcester. Speeeeed baaaar. I got in with enough height to survive a thrashing. The lift was rough and strong, I had to turn the wing at the negative spin point just to stay in it. This happens when you try to climb in a rotating lift collumn like a dusty, because the rotation tries to throw you out if you're flying in the same direction as the rotation. I didn't want to lose track of where the lift was by banking out and coming in from the other direction (better lift that way, less centrifugal force trying to spin you out) so I just cranked it and weight-shifted hard. Back up to 2000m. whew! Now I could relax. SIXTH SECTION - back to the mountains I floated over the new Worcester mall, watching the jetski's making patterns on the lake. I looked around for sailplanes, but couldn't see any activity on the runway or in the air. There wasn't much wind on the Voelvlei Dam, and I seemed to be drifting E, so I floated along, staying as high as I could. The sky was overcast with thick cirrostratus - very moody and dramatic, but it would kill the thermals. I couldn't race at all. Now I had a big choice - follow the tar road towards Robertson, way out in the flats, or go into the big scary mountains and try to get thermals in the peaks. Man, or mouse? I couldn't bear the thought of having a squeaking devil on my shoulder saying "you're a mouse, you're a mouse, that's why you're landing!" so I clenched my teeth and went into the big stuff. I suspected that out in the flats the lift would die off soon, with all the high clouds around. At least there was more chance of getting up in the peaks. It was just ... remote. The deeper in I went, the higher the climbs, until at last I was sitting at over 2000m again, looking down into the end of the Montagu valley, with some big walk-outs beneath me. Beautiful.
	SEVENTH SECTION - all alone I was starting to get worried about the wind. Any strong wind through this terrain and I'd be trapped in a mess of gullies and ridges. There isn't any nice clean mountain face here, it's all a jumble of foothills with deep river erosion. The only place to fly is right up against the back face, or waaay out in the valley. I flew as fast as I could, checking my penetration every ten minutes, straining my eyes to see towards Worcester. Was the howling Westerly coming through? I couldn't see, but my penetration had dropped to 0 on brakes if I pointed W. Run run run away. EIGHTH SECTION - the corner and a surprise It was about 5pm, and I knew any thermals now were miracles. I could see Robertson town coming up, partly obscured by a solid hill that runs out from the ridge like a barrier. The ridge kinked at this point too, running SE where I was then more E from the corner. I've learned to never trust corners. You never know what's going to happen at a corner. I got to 1500m and went on glide. 'Just give me light lift ... light lift..' I prayed as I neared the saddle. I was just going to squeak over it, and then I'd be set up for a ridge run to Ashton and beyond. Waaaaaaah! moaned the vario. Waaaaaaah. Down we go, 5 down, no penetration. No penetration? What's up with that? I drill the speedbar. Still no penetration. Waaaaaah. I watch the saddle rising in front of me. Hang on. If I'm in a headwind here then .. I'm in the lee! Shit. I'm not going to clear the saddle, and I can't land up here, it'll take hours to walk out. I bank away, flying with the unexpected tailwind into a deep valley. Groundspeed touching 65. Aargh, the rotor is gonna get me ... I soar a hillock, jump to the next one, and the next, trying to hurry away from the wind and get out to safe terrain. Whadum! The first of the turbulence hits me. Then again. This air is nasty, I need lots of space, my flight path is random. I head out for the flattest widest field I can get to, and spiral down the last few metres to land. It's calmer down the bottom, the landing is tiptoe. Whew. A big sigh of relief. I hadn't expected the SE wind, but there it was, ending my flight at 117km straight line. A new site record from Pampoenfontein! NINTH SECTION - getting home I'd been keeping in touch with my wonderful wife on the cellphone while I was flying. Tracy had done a short xc at Porterville and was chilling out with a beer, and she was quickly on her way down south in the bakkie. The farmer on whose farm I'd landed was so excited about seeing a paraglider he drove me out to the road. From there I got a ride into Worcester pretty quickly, and met Tracy for hugs and kisses. So now the route past Worcester is officially open for the summer season! Good luck, stay high and be careful of corners.
	Kind regards, Greg Hamerton
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