928 km ohne einen einzigen Kreis!
So etwas gibt es normalerweise nicht. Bostjan und Klaus fliegen an einem eher bescheidenen Tag mal stundenlang nur geradeaus. Einfach so,,, 928 km weit.
What a turnaround from poor thermal conditions to exceptional cumulus lines in Namibia with starting point at Veronica
A relatively late take-off, just after 12:00 with poor thermals did not promise a very special day. The struggle in poor blue thermals (up to 1 m/s) was present all the way to Gobbabis, where some stronger thermals indicated that it would be only slightly easier in the future also due to the first cumulus clouds that soon developed stronger and formed into lines in the northwest – southeast direction.
When we reached the cloud base, our path continued in the northwest direction in an increasingly strongly developed cumulus area. After a little more than 100km, the first rain appeared. Our turning point north of TMA Windhoek was at the end of the line that was closed by rain.
In the southeast direction, the first priority was to stay on the sunny and at the same time southern side of the cloud field. On the LX, I set the SE Knee turn point, which was about 300 km away. The game of finding the best line followed. After about an hour, the instrument showed 190 km flown. That was the first time I thought about 300 km flown without circling, which further motivated me to find the optimal line. The aforementioned SE Knee point was in the rain zone when we approached it, so it was necessary to move south a little. According to the time plan that was being created on the fly, the moment of return in the northwest direction was at 16:20 about 40 km southwest of my planed turn point SE Knee within Botswana.
At the moment of the turn, the cruising speed increased to about 140 km/h, which gave me hope that 1000 km could be achieved.
The game of finding the optimal line while maintaining a safe altitude for good progress continued and I roughly estimated that during the approach, our distance flown without circling was well over 500km.
The real test of the non-circling sequence followed a good 100km to TMA Windhoek in Omaheke region where we due to rain and changing the line dropped from a comfortable 4600m to 3000m.
With a lot of luck, I gradually gained meter after meter under the field of dark bases. In a good 20 minutes, I managed to gain 1000m, covering about 60 km of the route. The moment of the necessary orientation towards home was increasingly present, as the end of the day was mercilessly approaching.
With increasing altitude, the strength of the lift comfortably increased. The time and distance to home with the achieved cloud base of 5100m allowed me to place additional positions with the goal of achieving a distance of 1100 km, and this was still with the fact that my last 360° turn in thermals was at 14:15.
An hour before sunset, we headed towards home near SW Knee, 170 km away from Veronica.
The high altitude of 5100m and a good wind component fulfilled my silent desire to reach the destination without circling.
The final distance of the non-circling flight was 928 km :-).
Namibia is probably one of the few flat areas where such long non-circling flights in thermal conditions can be made.
You can see our flight with Klaus at: https://www.weglide.org/flight/502871
Boštjan Pristavec
