soga-2014

The Skydog Report

Ken Kinzie's Amazing 170 Mile Flight

Saturday July 5, 2014 In Canada
Friday evening the soaring forecast looked very good for Saturday July 5th. Dr Jack showed very good buoyancy/shear ratio and high top of lift. The ideal wind was forecast at 15mph veering around Pearson airspace from wsw at Arthur to west at Bradford to wnw at Port Perry. It also showed convergence north of Lake Ontario. So if the forecast was correct the potential looked good for a long flight. Saturday morning it was good to see the forecast was still holding so I warned Mary I could be calling later for a ride from east of Toronto and rushed out the door.

However at our airfield south of Arthur conditions at noon were not so encouraging. WNW (not wsw)10-15 and blue except for a few clouds far past Orangeville to the East. Willie asked “where to?” and I replied “where do you want to pick me up?” He agreed to retrieve and we planned a very optimistic (I thought) flight to Peterborough via Keswick to clear Pearson airspace. That would be a personal best for me of 175 kilometres.

At 12:34 Steve towed me upwind toward Arthur. The climb on tow was slow and smooth once above tree top level. No sign of lift until finally at around 2000 feet we encountered some light stuff and I released. Circling and slowly gaining altitude the drift took me directly over our airfield and eventually over Bellwood topping out at only 3500. So with meagre altitude, the drift toward Pearson and seemingly sparse thermal spacing I almost turned back for the field. In hindsight that would probably have resulted in a ½ hr flight.

Deciding there was nothing to lose I decided to crab 45 degrees north from the wind trying to avoid Pearson airspace and see if I could track north of Orangeville. Finding some lift along the way I arrived at the outskirts of town around 1000 over rd 109 then veered downwind in survival mode. Tracking over the barren ground of new housing development, then Caledon Forest Lake hoping it was triggering but nothing until my last chance over a potential landing field. I encountered strong lift barely large enough to bank up and circle in and rapidly climbed over Orangeville Golf & Country Club. Thank you Lord! Just south of Orangeville I was now under the outer ring of Pearson airspace, so I pulled out of the thermal at 3000 and continued to crab to the north. This scenario repeated for the next 50 kilometres, getting low and finding lift just when it was desperately needed to keep the flight alive, then pulling out of strong lift doing my utmost not to enter the floor of class C and crabbing to the north. When leaving a rocket south of Tottenham I must have travelled at least a kilometre straight in lift with the bar stuffed! I was thinking the gps track log is going to be very interesting! (Later the track log was found to be corrupt and only recorded the last 150 kilometres) How good it would be not to be restricted in altitude! Finally at Holland landing my gps showed I was clear of Pearson. How ironic it was then for the next while as I struggled to get above 3000!

After finding better lift and getting the highest climb of the flight to 6300, The view was awesome overlooking Lake Simcoe to the north, the Toronto skyline to the south and Lake Ontario to the southeast. Not needing to crab any more my track took me over Port Perry. Continuing on near Blackstock was the first time I reached any clouds. There had always been a few to the east but dissipating before I arrived. The clouds ahead now were not dissipating and lined up marking the convergence north of Lake Ontario. Cloud base was 5500 and I made sure to maintain proper vertical clearance as I drifted over Peterborough Airport. Surprisingly the lift was lighter and didn’t seem to be any more plentiful but the clouds were helpful in showing not to go any closer to the lake.
Next I altered course to follow Rice Lake as it stretched to the north east. Unknowingly this was a very good thing as I narrowly avoided the CFB Trenton control zone. I had forgotten about Trenton until Willie mentioned it later during retrieval! In hindsight it should have been entered in my gps.

It was around 5:30 and with vanishing clouds I thought each climb could be the last. Amazingly it wasn’t till around 7pm that final glide commenced and I veered towards hwy 401 for easier retrieval. With a buoyant quartering tailwind from the sw I kept overflying and reselecting landing fields until finally committing to a nice one that just happened to have a flag upwind of it, on the edge of a town near the 401. Touchdown in a pasture field at 7:30 pm after 7 hours in the air was not very graceful but at least not a whack.

I knew the flight was going to be a personal best but had no idea how far from Metz I was. Intentionally I had only used my gps for monitoring my proximity to Pearson. During the flight when starting to think about distance traveled I told myself to stop the train of thought. On other flights when starting to think they were shaping up for a personal best I ended up on the ground soon after. I reminded myself to focus on the tasks at hand of centering in the climbs and navigating to find the next one. So after keying in “go to Soga” it was hard to believe when it said 281 kilometres… I almost fell over! I’d been dreaming of a 100 mile/160 kilometre flight for close to 30 years. My previous personal best was 150 kilometres 14 years ago so this has been a long time coming!

Immediately I called Willie to give my location, let Mary know I was alive & well & had a ride, and returned a number of text messages concerning my “missing in action”. By 7:30 it was unusually late to remain airborne and there were concerns when no one had heard from me. While on the phone I was greeted by a herd of curious cows that I had to keep shoeing away when they kept trying to lick the sail of my glider. A little later the farm owner came over with some feed to lure them away so we could open the gate to get my glider out of the field.

A huge thank you to Willie who already traveled 100 kilometres and had been waiting patiently at Keswick for my call. Then cheerfully continued for another couple hours to my location. Unknown to me he was using his phone to create an entertaining video of the retrieve: http://youtu.be/kGUxNDFIEEY So on his arrival a couple hours later I wasn’t sure what was going on when the first thing he wanted to do was get us in the vehicle lights to continue his production. We arrived back at the hanger at 2am and Willie got home after 4am. Good thing he had no plans for Sunday morning!

Word traveled fast as Armand called with congratulations less than ½ hr of landing. His Ontario record of 212 kilometres had held for 12 years. “Easy wasn’t it?” Says he. My first thought was all the thermaling work but it really wasn’t very difficult or physically demanding with the plentiful and smooth lift that day. Post flight I was not as tired or sore as flights less than half the duration. Anyone with good xc skills on a comparable glider could have done the same or better given the conditions. I thank God for setting the stage for an unforgettable flight!

Towing

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Steve Younger

Skydog Glider

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Set Up

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Patrick and Flash

Flash is Hot

Steve Tows

Another Fun Day at SOGA