Page 7 - Sept 2018
P. 7
So “the day” came and I was ready, I took off 30 minutes
after the first sign of Cumulous clouds and energy lines
forming along my planned route. Once I was 20 km away
from my home airport I realized the conditions were
looking favorable and I continued carrying on. From
Saskatoon Soaring Club Cudworth I flew close to Wakaw and continued to Duck
Lake and then to Leask. Once at Leask, I turned around
We had been temporarily off-line as we needed to and headed to Melfort. However; few minutes later I was
fly in order to have more stories. Thank you for trapped in a lot of sinking air over a wooded area. The
following us. ground looks closer and closer and stress starts to build.
It is important to stay focus, as only good judgment and
The 2018 season opened a little later than usual but
quality flying can assist during those moments where
it arrived in full swing. Glider pilots really look
your stomach sinks as fast as the glider does.. As I had
forward to Spring as it is usually the best time for
‘soaring’ of the year. Soaring is sustained flight that previously planned in such situations, I cleared my mind,
headed for the closest sign of lift (while staying in range
allow us to climb high (often over 10,000ft) and
of Leask’s airport) and asked God to bail me out! Long
remain there for several hours, enabling us to travel
long distances. story short, I was rewarded with a 6+ hr flight that
extended 415 kilometers through my pre-declared
Many of the Cross Country pilots at the Saskatoon turning points and an additional 155km flight leg that
Soaring Club wait patiently for these conditions for took me shy of Humboldt.
several months while preparing gear and flight plans
in order to accomplish personal goals or simply the I felt all the hard work of planning had finally paid off.
best personal flights under the conditions mother Seven weeks later I challenged myself to perform the
nature may give us. same route, this time with a lower ceiling and sparser
sources of lift for an added challenge. I prepared as much
During the winter months(no gliding) I set up and
as I did the previous time and set off to do for what I
practiced using my flight computer and relief
systems, in addition to food, water, and other well- hoped would be a good flight. Again, 20 km from home I
thought it would be challenging but do-able, but as soon
being essentials to soar for extended periods of
time. as I arrived to Duck Lake, I saw a big open hole in the sky.
Not even one Cumulus cloud between Leask and me to
In my particular case, I was seeking to accomplish a suggest any lift. At that moment, I was faced to take a
300 km flight in a triangular course with “Pre- decision. My options were to risk it and head for Leask, or
Declared” turning points. It is not such easy task waiting around for Cudworth to move in, or to alter my
when you don’t have a motor. My route was task and return home.
planned to start at Cudworth Municipal Airport-
Leask-Melfort Airport-Cudworth. I set it that way so
I could land the glider at either of those points or at
any of the airstrips along the way just in case
something went wrong and I ran out of ‘’glider fuel’.
When you fly a glider Cross Country, the looking
into the near future also becomes a key component,
ie: what will the weather be doing in 3 hours from While I was circling over town thinking about my options,
I could see the seemingly endless Prairie all around me,
now? Will the thermals be dying at 4 PM? 5 PM? Is
and what the gamble to carry on might represent. It was
a different air mass moving to my return route?
Etc… this is especially important because long glider with a heavy heart that I took the sensible decision to
turn around and thermal my way home. At first, I was
flights in the Prairies take 4-6 hours depending of
disappointed, but short after I felt I had learnt much by
the length of the course.
turning around ( I still flew to Birch Hills where I got
under a Cloud Street that darted me back to Cudworth!)
