a good day. Fast packing and out the door to Mt.Leinster. On the way, as usual a quick
breakfast roll at Texaco. Check the forecast and clues from any flags. Decision made we're going to Leinster. WSW wind at the mast and the wind strength is quite low, hopefully it’s not to weak.
Several of the lads take off. It is not perfect but they persist.
Time for me to give it a go, conditions are marginal and I have to work pretty hard to stay up. Tom and Rafal Mac climbed and shot up a few hundred meters over the start, the rest of the team
were in weak lift at the bottom and waiting for their turn. I decided to check out over the half way take off and I manage to gain 500 meters above the start. Now the difficult decision to wait for the right thermal. I can’t see Lubor , he has probably gone over the back already.
I wait for another 1 1/2 hours, during that time I’m ballooning and fighting to stay up.
In the meantime Rafal Mac and Tom went on tour.
Greg decides to check the West car park, but finds nothing there. I still hang on and wait.
The time is 14.45, more than 2 hours in the air, actually in the same place. After a moment
of silence something comes along, a thermal and I try to not loose it. I feel that this may be the
thermal I was looking for. Greg tells me that things aren't going well, and he will probably have land. It is a pity.
I manage to climb 720 meters above the start. The decision - flying Xc. This was quite
difficult as this is the first time I have flown this direction. As it turned out the
wind changed direction and was blowing WNW.
The first goal – windmills, then Enniscorthy. I left the hill and headed crosswind towards the turbines.
Fell to 800 meters above sea level. I thought the quarry could give something and succeeded gaining about 630 m. I now headed in the direction of Wexford.
Earlier Tom reported on the radio that he turned around and flew over Enniscorthy then heading towards Gorey. I thought it was a good idea and decided also to head for Gorey.
I was moving closer to the sea, and had only 600m asl at this stage .
Surprisingly, I got to where a stable and strong thermal average of 3.5 m / s. Before I noticed I had more than 1500m altitude and I felt that I was being sucked into the cloud. With the sea behind my back as I pushed full speed bar and I advanced forward at 40 km / h.
From heights of 1500m the sea looks surprisingly close.
This was the last thermal. I saw how the clouds were falling apart and coming to an end. I managed to
fly a few more kilometres after an excellent flight. I landed at 17.00 after 4.21 h of flight, near
the village Tinteskin.
I flew 59.6 km and in the dog leg 54 km. This was a complete surprise to me and I did not
expect to exceed 50 km.
Big thanks to Greg for retrieving. Thanks Greg
I believe there are only a few days like these in a good year.
I think that flying from a different place and flying with the different wind direction there is a chance to overcome the ''magic'' 100 in Ireland.
I sincerely wish all of you such achievements .What a pity not from Mt. Leinster.
Regards
Mariusz Jachimowicz
https://picasaweb.google.com/109710192550512701305/PictureXC59KmFromMtLeinster#
No comments:
Post a Comment