Two worlds colliding and the Black South Easter

Saturday rolled in and overnight every wind prediction managed to conspire to get it all wrong.
On this skinny little piece of land called the Cape Peninsula, nature has it’s own idea
and weather predictions turn out to be just that. Predictions.

Saturday was supposed to have a nice little South Wester on it, but delivered a pap
little north wester, and following the predictions from the weather office,
we ran for the Kommetjie slope site and got skunked.
Not to be outdone by nature we took to a series of failed launches until somebody produced a bungy cord
and we were alble to launch ourselves to the heavens and ride what lift we could find…
right at the top of the slope behind us. In the end we had a good laugh trying to get the most out of really
crappy conditions, but enjoyed it none the less.
This all resulted from a weak frontal system approaching the coast, but without
getting sufficient a head of steam it failed to make an impact, other than slowing down the existing systems

Sunday promised to deliver a South Easter blow that looked to steeple chase towards unmanageable by the afternoon.
So meeting at a relatively early hour we plodded up to St James to meet the wind head on.
And true to form. After 2PM the wind just gathered a head of steam that was unbelievable.
We flew till we could no more and marched back down the hill trying to tidy somewhat ruffled feathers
and hairstyles that would have had any punk band proud.

Sunday evening saw a Black South Easter develope as the weak frontal system climbed
over the resident South Easter and started feeding back in to it,( that’s about as far as I understand it!)
giving the south Easter just a wee bit more push!
This double whammy just produces the most amazing forces and wind velocity overnight reached 130km/h,
rain poured down and hail stones the size of golf balls peppered anything left outside.
Good time to bring the cat in!
Talk about two worlds colliding.
As I type, the cold front has eventually developed enough to stop the South Easter in it’s tracks
and is finally building towards a decent cold front.

Here’s to next weekend and a little less of natures blessings, but on the other hand,
just enough to slope soar would be nice. Please…

Note the calm conditions on the water. pre SE slammer

Grant puts his Mustang through it's paces, it's out there somewhere!

Marc Beckenstrater in the combat zone as nature gathers its forces

Nature finally gets an attitude adjustment and goes berserk… Just look at the white horses in the bay!

Slope DS Aerobatics with the new Vector 3

Ok, gotta have one, soonest, and maybe we can add this next year to the TOSS Aerobatics Competition!

Just for  a Sunday variance on a theme tune…

The uphill slog to nirvana

Saturday turned into a really good southerly blow, from what I gathered from Bill and Lionel.
So they had a good afternoon of sloping up at Kommetjie, above the lighthouse.
A good few of us opted to wait for the promised South East blow and waited for Sunday to deliver… and it did.

Whenever the prediction is for 45km’s an hour of wind, generally St.James will deliver the goods.
Heading up early, Jeff and myself made landfall at about 11:30Am and were greeted
by a beautiful breeze whistling up the St.James slope, while seagulls cruised by watching the
sweaty endeavors of men who want to fly toy planes and have to stomp up a mountain hike to get
to the promised land…

Carry as many planes as you can, endure the 1.7km hike up the path and then fly as many planes as you can. Simple.
During the next hour Uncle Bill, Damien, Carlo, Malcolm and Marc all joined the merry hike up to the site.
The landing area was superbly easy , the combat just awesome, and there were very few injuries
to man or machine on the day.
The crowd grew as the day waned, and in the end there was quite a large crowd up on the slope.
Based on the experience of the day, it was refreshing and humbling to see this comment posted by

Russell Conradt from Durban.

“you guys make me sick, those slopes of yours are flippin awesome, look after them. Our beloved Derek’s Dale outside Durban has three hundred squatters in the area where we used to park our cars, they are not overly friendly and where I used to fly in the early westerly morning breeze, I certainly won’t be going there by myself, anymore. Our local intown slope has been used as a garbage dump, so I have to come and fly your slopes,hope you don’t mind, Russ”

Lets keep in mind that certain powers that be, can and will kick us off the slopes
without the slightest hesitation and at any time.
Slope sites like St.James are on what is considered to be a very environmentally sensitive area
of the Peninsula and we as slope soaring individuals and as a group need to have a common vision
on how we can protect, keep and maintain sites like St.James.

Do we really know how lucky we are?

Damian see the sea swaying softly…what else was I supposed to say!

Malcolm, Bill, Jeff, Carlo and Damien up the hill and on the front of the slope

As per usual, Pye was only tooo happy to be out and about

Something interesting?

I picked this interesting bit of info about KF aerofoils off RCHQ this morning.

http://www.rcpowers.com/forum/blog.php?b=20

Makes for some interesting watching and a few very interesting ideas.
Thanks to AnakinSkywalker who posted it at RCHQ.

Hermanus 2009 Registration OPEN

Hi Guys
The AFC Hermanus Slope-Fly for 2009 will be held on the weekend of the 27-29 November.
Registration is Open, so get on and register soonest to book your place.
Bill beat everybody from TOSS and got there first.
Register at:
www.atlanticfc.org.za/AFC15/

See you there!

Tim beat us all to the slope on Sunday

Saw this in the comments section, so thought I would post it.

Note that Tim was up on Chappies in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and had good conditions.

As the day heated up, that’s when it all went pear shaped…

In Tim’s words:

“I gave Saturday a miss because I thought that the wind was dying off. Got up early on Sunday with a north wester making noises. 08h30 on the chappies slope and spent an 1/2 hour scanning the slope for the lost Alula to no avail. NW wind started pushing through and launch the Bee and had a good 1/2 hour of aerobatic practice (Cursed the late sleepers for depriving me of combat). Launched the primarius and also practiced some aerobatics (great with no one else up) until suddenly no elevator and the plane plunged headfirst into a bush on the left. Except for dented pride and broken wing mountings there was amazingly no other damage. Packed up and called it a day.”

TOSS 2010 Aerobatics Competition

Online entries for the TOSS 2010 Aerobatics Competition are open at www.toss.co.za .

Dont delay, there are only 20 slots

Funny weekend that one

Roll-out of bed on Saturday morning and intercept a phone call from
Bill and Peter telling me the southern peninsula was blessed with a nice South Easter.
Red Hill should be cooking. Best get out there soon.
But the Cape is never what it seems and each nook and cranny delivers a differing story.
So sitting up at Red Hill in Zero wind conditions and watching an approaching frontal system
kick the life out of the South Easter, Bill and myself stared gloomily at the horizon.
What to do with a glorious but windless day?.

The mercury was peaking at about 30 degrees, so it was not exactly cool either.
So we went hiking.
For those who have stood at the Red Hill site and looked over your shoulder,
you would have seen what looks like old forts on the hill top at the back.
So off we went for a little walkie, uphill…
right up to the forts.
As we got there Bill unfolded the amazing story behind them. Apparently built
when the marines were based as Simonstown in the 70′s and were tasked with carrying all the rocks,
cement and water to the top and building these miniature medieval styled forts.
There are 3 in total on top of the highest rocks in the area.

Bugger me is about the best summary of that physically draining feat.
Those guys sure must have been fit.
The view is spectacular, and uninterrupted and well worth the wee walk
when your hanging around waiting for wind.
In the end we also did a wee bit of 4×4 driving up the back of the hill and had a good giggle,
followed by a round of beers at Dixies. Not a bad day after all.

And so we moved on to Sunday…based on Saturdays performance we ere not too sure what was going to happen…
So as the Front had now made land fall and a North Wester now gathered strength we made a dash for Chapmans peak
Still seriously hot form the day before and with the wing slightly off line,
the conditions were somewhat miserable. So a change of tack was required.
Because Cape Town has so many hills there is always the possibility of finding a more exposed area
and the Sandy Bay slope proved to be that place. A fresh WNW wind, although still a bit weak in the lift department,
caressed the slope and those who made the journey across the bay were rewarded with one hell of a fun day.

A new sport was born – Trail Gliding. Brendan started the lark, and soon 4 of us flew
and walked our planes for a good kilometer and a half up… and then down the trail
to test out the lift conditions on each part of the lengthy slope bowl.
Now you can get fit, and fly a glider at the same time!
Notably, one could realistically walk/fly/hike from Llandudno all the way across Klien Leeuwkoppie, to Sandy bay
and eventually to the Sentinel at the far end on good North Wester, without landing once, while hiking a mountain trail!
Possibly 8km’s of flying…. Who’s up for it?
Combat was furious as usual, the glass ships screamed around in the ever
improving conditions and in the end 5 happy, smiling and relaxed individuals left the slope at the end of the day.
Too much laughter had by all!
All in all, a possibly awful day turned out to be a peach of a day, and brilliant fun all round.

Bill Dewey at the top of the hill in fort no1

Looking back at the second fort

Peering through the "windows" at Simonstown below

Looking down at the 3rd fort

Trail gliding gets airborne, Brendan, Damian and Marc all testing out their handeyeleg coordination

To see how hard the wind was blowing, Check out Damian's aerial!