An Interesting Midsouth Soaring Flight

Day two of our annual Fun Fly produced some unusual results. After finishing sixth in a field of seven the day before, I wasn't hoping for much. But, I drew number one in the launch grid and that made all the difference. There was a chance for overdevelopment, but no one gave it much thought, even though the cu's started strong and early. Dave Cahoon, contest director, called a 114 mile task from Cherry Valley, South to Lee Co. Airport at Marianna, Northwest to Woodruff Co. Airport and back to Cherry Valley.

Despite the beautiful cu's and strong conditions, four pilots never got away from the field, and the three that did landed out, with me coming closest to finishing, only 14 miles short...sweet revenge for the poor showing the previous day. You can spare yourself the details by stopping here. (Fig. 3 shows an overview of the flight.) But if you're a glutton for punishment, read on.

Gary Angelo towed me SW to perfect, forming cu where I released and turned directly into a 5-6 kt thermal to cloud base (Fig. 4). The strong South winds placed me perfectly for a gentle right turn over the start gate (the club house). Full of confidence, I headed straight South through a blue hole to Vandale, ignoring obvious lift on the left and right.

The run South to Forrest City was easy, but lift was hard to locate under the cu's. Basically, it was "bump and run" with many exploratory turns. I found no strong thermals until reaching the Sanyo plant North of Forrest City (Fig. 5). The strong lift cores were there, but I had trouble finding them. No pattern was evident.

By the time I reached Forrest City, about 30 miles South, the clouds were thinning and the lift was only remnants. Nevertheless, I ran on South for Marianna. Nothing worked and I found myself at 1000' planning on a straight in to Lee Co. Airport. Desperate for a save, I hung onto a scrappy piece of turbulence that did little more than keep me on glide path for the airport. But in time, as they often do, it became stronger until it was clear that I would go all the way to cloud base, around 5000 feet. Fig. 6 shows the save looking SW to Marianna.

By this time the radio chatter told me that most others were having trouble getting away from Cherry Valley. So, I relaxed and shifted my plan to just making it around the course, not racing. I'd get to cloud base and stay as high as possible working every bit of lift I found. After Marianna, there would be a tailwind on both remaining legs.

Then Steve Corlew announced that he was arriving at Marianna below me at 2800 feet. He was still racing. It didn't matter, if he didn't switch to survival mode he'd be on the ground soon. So, I suggested that he too switch to survival mode. Just completing the course at any speed should be enough.

I worked a second thermal for extra altitude on the run South for the Marianna turn. Just West of Marianna another strong Thermal took me to cloud base again. Fig. 7 shows the Marianna save, arrival and departing thermals from the SW direction. It seemed to take an hour to get around Marianna.

On the leg NW to Woodruff, I realized that I was using lift on the leading edge of a developing cu-nim. There was a rapidly enlarging rain cell, a gap and a ring of cu's in advance of it. I was under the ring. Lift was easy to find cruising ring in the general direction of Woodruff. Clouds of vapor were sure indications of strong lift. But one proved to be a slushy mixture of rain and sleet. That was it. It was time to get out of there, so I pushed the nose down until to run clear of the precipitation and clear off the wings. Fig. 8 shows the run around the T-storm and the long slow cruise in dead air to Woodruff. The view is from Woodruff looking back to Marianna. The T-cell is marked with the competition letters QZ. From there to Woodruff the air was absolutely dead. The best cruse speed was 43 kts, at which I gained slowly on the glide computer's glide slope. Crossing under a line of clouds, I hoped for lift, but only found a little turbulence.

Arriving at Woodruff Co. Airport in total shadow, I was encouraged to see that the airport was graced with a shaft of sunlight. And, sure enough, arriving at 700 feet, I found the airport kicking off a thermal and another save was in the offing. My spirits ran high, until I realized that another cell was forming just upwind of me and would be rolling over the airport soon. So, I rolled out East on the final leg. But that way was all dark and misty and a third cell was rolling in from the South. What to do?

I decided to simply go as far East as I could and land in one of the dirt fields that were everywhere. The trick would be landing behind a cell and not in front of one. I was 16 miles out and there were some cu's near the cell between me and Cherry Valley. So I headed for them, hoping to gain enough altitude to put me on a glide path home behind the cell. Fig. 9 shows my three last efforts to do that, and my landing. The view is from the SE. The lift in these last thermals had exceedingly strong, violent cores. In one case, the glider was slapped on the bottom as if by a giant hand. You can see this in the strong red colored part of the trace on the left side of Fig. 9.

It was a crosswind landing down the rows of a new bean field, stopping 1/10 th of a mile from a North/South road, near a small house. The family was at home and graciously called the owner of the field for me. I called the club house and gave directions to Dave Cahoon, who, together with his grandson Baron, came for the retrieve. Meanwhile, the land owner arrived on a four wheeler and offered to pull the glider out of the field. We used a chain attached to to tow hook and pulled it up to the lawn of the house, where we put on a show for the family sitting on the porch, as we disassembled the glider and packed the trailer.

Flight time was 3.3 hours and the achieved distance was 99.5 miles. Scott Jednez, winner of the first day, landed at Woodruff Co. Airport behind the cell that drove me out. Steve Corlew landed on a private strip, short of Woodruff, in wing high grass (no ground loop), in the rain. Unfortunately for me, the rule for our fun fly was "no finish, no score," so I received no credit for the flight and the winner of the contest was the winner of the first day, Scott Jednez. Nevertheless, I drove home that night with a smile inside.