The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.

logo
The
 Oz Report
email
?
older newer
May 29, 2018, 7:56:06 MDT

Bunner south of Chicago

Triangulating

Larry Bunner

Gary Solomon|Larry Bunner

Flytec 6030|Gary Solomon|Larry Bunner

Larry Bunner «lbunner» writes:

On the 27th, my birthday, I went to Hang Glide Chicago in Chebanse, Illinois for a big triangle. Looking at the conditions it appeared that a 200km triangle would be possible. I put two tasks in my 6030, one for 160km also.

I didn't think the lift would start until 1 PM, but on the long drive down south the cu's were popping at 10 AM. This isn't really a good sign as it usually indicates overdevelopment later. All the meteorological data showed strong lift as high as 10,000' and no wind, but the CAPE showed a lot of energy in the air.

I set up as quickly as I could and missed securely fastening my hydration bladder seal which kept me nice and wet the whole flight, but everything else worked well.

I launched shortly after noon and climbed to base at 7500' (which indicates that I should have been there earlier), and hopped from cloud to cloud down the first leg.

At 10km from the first turnpoint, I saw that a line of clouds to the west quickly overdeveloped. I kept my eye on them as I headed east into the blue. The lift softened and I had to divert south east to find better looking wispies.

The large black bottomed cu's to the west were gone on my original proposed course line. I climbed out to 5800' and saw that the line to my west was now dumping profusely and getting wider as it slowly drifted east. I radioed to John and told him my plans had changed. There was no way to go west from the first turnpoint and be able to make it back to Enjoy Field, Hang Glide Chicago, as the band stretched as far as I could see. I decided to head east northeast and still try to get a 100 mile triangle.

The clouds in that direction were much better looking so I headed in that direction. I was just able to stay ahead of the shadow of the now towering cu's to the west. The farmers had to love it as it was dumping very hard. The band had thickened even more and I became concerned that it would eventually shade out my return path to Enjoy field.

The clouds to the northeast were good like the first leg and over 8000'. Gary Solomon reported that base was over 9000' at Enjoy. I was calculating how far I needed to go to get 160km by triangulating from the first turnpoint and Enjoy. I headed to a cloud to the northeast where base was almost 10000' (9975' on my instrument as I put the carbon base tube to my knees to stay in visual contact with the ground).

There was another beautiful cu to the northeast, however by my calculation I already had enough distance on this leg to get the 100 mile triangle plus there was a nice line of cu's heading right to Enjoy.

I went on final glide from 40km out. The line worked rather well giving some really nice climbing glides under the fat flat bottomed cu's all the way in. My landing wasn't so nice as I flew into the lee side of the hangars and slid in to the field slightly dropping the nose (too slow). All in all, a great birthday present, a 160km triangle, one gain to almost 10,000' and 5 hours in the air.

Discuss "Bunner south of Chicago" at the Oz Report forum   link»


  ‹@
contact email list
Wills Wing
Flytec
Social Responsibility
Learn to Fly
Last Seven Issues
Back Issues
Goodies
Store
Cloudsuck
Support Us
Subscribe
Classified ads
Advertise
Forum
Calendar
Site Guide
Resources
Web Services
Facebook Page
Facebook Group
Facebook Community
Facebook Events
Blog
Google Earth
Coverage
Other blogs
Other forums
Mainstream news
Memorials
RSS & OPML
privacy policy
play Pilotle (mobile)
web proxy

How to subscribe to (support) the Oz Report



You can send $20 or more for a yearly subscription / donation. To pay for your subscription with your credit card or PayPal account:



If you'd rather just send a check for $20 or more, please feel free to do so. The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I'm at.

Payable to:

Davis Straub
PMB 1889 PO Box 2430
Pensacola, FL 32513

Thanks for your support by subscribing to the Oz Report.

Oz Report Hang Gliding Discussion group

Want to discuss hang gliding? You can join the Oz Report hang gliding forum. Click Oz Report Hang Gliding Discussion Group.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing to the e-mail version

You are in charge of your e-mail subscription to the Oz Report. If you wish to unsubscribe or subscribe, click: Subscribe.

Credits

Gerry makes the Oz Report portal much smarter. He is a web consultant and a PHP expert. He's the brains behind the Oz Report, so contact him for PHP programming services. David Glover heads up the Oz Report Radio

To view the Oz Report on the web click Oz Report.

If you want to send in an article to be published in the Oz Report, send it to me here.

Davis Straub
Oz Report