The 2009 Thermal Safari was a great time. We had perfect weather and big thermals. This was my first "Safari" and one of the best XC events I've done. Bob Huff couldn’t make it so I joined Jim Rolle and Bruce Moore's team, my first time flying on this team after all these years. Four complete teams made the event, Dudley (SBXC) and JT (Sagitta XC) flying tandem in one vehicle, Jim Rolle (SBXC), Dean Gradwell (MXC) and Rich Beardsley (SBXC). By "complete" I mean at least three people (driver, spotter, pilot). This is required for this event as there is really no way to auto-tow launch with only two people (unless you're Joe Wurts and can self launch an 11 pound 14 ft span glider while also communicating with the driver). There were two separate courses for each of the two days.
Day 1:
Saturday's course started a little south of Orland and headed south and east
about 30 miles to Williams. We met at a restaurant in Williams and drove the
course north to the starting point which turned out to be the side of the
highway in a stretch that was clear of power lines. On the drive up it didn’t
look so good. A 10 mph north wind and miles of
green farm fields, flooded rice paddies and no birds or obvious lift generators
to be seen. Dean Gradwell's team had a Rahm winch bolted to the front bumper of
his jeep for our launching which meant Dean was stuck getting everyone on course
before he could launch and pack up the winch. This turned out to be no problem
as his MXC was the fastest glider of the event. The idea of the Thermal Safari
is to winch launch at the start point, head out on course and then auto-tow
launch with a shorter bungie + line if you land out on course. The Safari is not
a race and the entire event was very relaxed. The first few launches did not
look promising, small weak thermals and the only bird I saw was flapping in
sink. The 5-10mph north wind made riding the small thermals difficult. But then
Rich hooked up and his team got away. Things were looking up. My team was next
to get out on course when Bruce found a small thermal at 100 ft on his landing
approach and managed to ride it far downwind to about 1200 ft. Once out on
course things improved dramatically. In spite of all those miles of green wet
fields we never were below 800 ft the entire 30 miles and got as high as 2600
ft. Visibility due to farm dust became a problem at around 2500 ft. (A little
side note on altitude: This was my first
experience flying XC with a talking altimeter that would report every + or - 100
ft in altitude change. What a great device. It really helps in making decisions
on when to stay or go.) On this course big thermals seemed to be evenly spaced
every mile or so the entire distance, it didn’t matter what the ground looked
like that we were flying over. At some points some sort of inversion at 1600 to
2000 ft resulted in non-stop lift for miles. When we turned east for the final
leg the north crosswind had died off somewhat and proved to be no problem at
all. We did have a few problems and exciting moments with pitch control at
altitude on Jim's new SBXC (new plane for Jim but our ship was one of the old
original T-tail SBXC's) but we soon got it sorted out on the transmitter. I had
my usual problems with heading control (cant fly a straight line for the life of
me %#*&*@!!!!). As we arrived at the finish after about two hours I suddenly saw
Dean's MXC at low height right behind us. I don’t know what his course speed was
but it had to be damn fast (30mph average???) to catch us as we left probably a
good hour before him. At the finish we were checking the north side field where
our plane was flying for a landing spot among all the freshly plowed dirt clods
when a farmer who had stopped to watch mentioned "why don’t you land on the crop
duster strip right behind you". Sure enough, right behind us was an actual crop
duster landing strip. All four teams completed Saturday's course and no one
landed out or auto-towed. On Dudley's team, Marty Falarski and Peter
Dannenfelser took turns with Dudley’s SBXC while Jim Thomas flew his Sagitta.
Something I’d never seen before, two planes, flow simultaneously from one
vehicle with no spotter. It was a great day of XC.
Day 2:
Sunday we met at Bill & Kathy's restaurant in Dunnigan and then drove out
west thru the small rolling hills to a farm for the start. Today’s course would
be quite different than Saturday's course which was completely flat (like our
Davis course). This course headed south thru the small hills with lots of turns
and rollers, then headed east to the finish near (Yolo?). About 24 miles I
think. The start was interesting and very scenic being in a small bowl
surrounded by small green hills. Dean set up the winch thru a section of
grassland and the first few launches didn’t result in anything so we siesta'd
and lounged around till about noon waiting for lift to start breaking. Rich was
once again first out on course and my team was soon behind them. We caught up to
Rich and followed him for several miles (thanks for marking the lift for us,
Rich) until we ran out of luck at the turn point heading east (about the halfway
point I think). I had mixed feelings as no one ever likes to land out and I
would have liked to have been able to keep up with Rich but I also really wanted
to experience an auto-tow launch which I'd never seen before. We landed and set
up the bungie (about 20ft of doubled up heavy duty surgical type tubing attached
to the truck and 400 ft of winch line to the parachute). I was driving. The idea
is to communicate thru radios and rapidly accelerate to 25 mph. We waited for
clear traffic and I was given the go signal and took off. It seemed easy until I
soon heard a very loud bang which was a little unnerving as I didn’t know if our
plane was ok. As it turned out, 25 mph was too fast plus the slight 5 mph
headwind resulted in a broke line and a bungie connector failure. A little
discussion and some repair and we tried again at 20 mph and it went well. Bruce
once again saved the day and thermaled out so we could finally leave. The final
leg of this course had varied terrain and some tree tunnels but was still very
scenic all the way to the end where we landed in a wheat field. Rich was waiting
for us and soon Dudley showed up. Where was Dean? Turns out he had some
transmitter setting issues and landed out but was soon at the finish.
Unfortunately, Rich and Dudley did not get to experience the fun and excitement
of auto-tow launching the entire two days of the event. Maybe they'll have
better luck next year :)
The 2009 SVSS Thermal Safari was some of the best two days of flying I've ever
experienced and I'll definitely do it again.
Steve Henke
Youtube Video Links;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygb0FhqFAGk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0zjsLEKGs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdq5aKLHcns