Task: Miller-Guymon-Clayton-Miller (declared) Distance: 276 out of 331 km Ship: G103 Twin II (13K) Time: 4:30 Max alt: 14 kft Avg alt: 10 to 12 kft. Track: 20010709-1.igc
July
7-12, 2001, Dalhart, TX. It was great flying. The soaring wx was very good.
The heat on the ground was 100+F so we all tried to get high and stay high for
as long as possible. I had six straight days of flying in our G103 (13K). I
did a few PR rides, flew locally, and flew a few xc flights. I also got to practice
off-field landings --- quite a bit. Here is a story.
This was the third day of flying. As firmly established during the two previous days, the objective was to have as much fun as possible. To accomplish this, I decided to fly xc with my brother Damjan in the front seat, and declared Miller-Guymon-Clayton-Miller triangle which is 331km. Around Dalhart, there are so many landout options. Along Miller-Guymon leg, there are airfields every little while, and in general there are very good farmers fields suitable for landing everywhere. This is a great place for xc flying.
I launched at 13:30 and released at 6.2kft (Miller field elevation is 4kft), and then climbed to 9kft before I headed towards Guymon. Thermals were cycling pretty fast, so to find good lift I was going for the cloud wisps. Still, on the first leg I wasted a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to get to the cloud base (-500ft), and I was accepting thermals that were not very strong. After turning Guymon, although I had tail wind, I calculated that my time was not great (it was only 59 km/h). Nevertheless, I decided to press on, since the skies were looking great in all directions and the lift was everywhere. There I figured that if I were to make it, I needed to speed up, so from there on I decided to take only thermals that were 5kts or better. This yielded 76 km/h on the Guymon-Clayton leg.
From Guymon I followed the lift in the direction of Clayton. Abeam Boise City, the lift and clouds started drifting N. A big blue sinkhole formed in the direction of Clayton. I considered following the lift even further to the N, but I figured that it would drag me too far away from Clayton and Miller. To the W of Clayton, there were some CU's visible. I had 13 kft, so I decided to zoom through the hole. By the time I got close to Clayton, those CU's were gone, and I was accepting thermals of any strength. Just N of Clayton, 11nm into the hole at 8.5kft, I finally got 3kt lift off Cattle farms in the blue where I climbed 3 kft. This thermal was actually misleading since it made me think that there was still good lift working elsewhere in the blue. However, for the rest of the flight I was not able to find anything decent.
After turning Clayton I headed for Texline hoping to find some lift above it. Over Texline I got only 500ft that topped at 7.3kft. I had a 15yr old sectional chart borrowed from Oak Smart, so I was not sure whether the airfields on it were up to date. I was looking for Circle H Farms airfield which was supposed to be within glide distance to the S, but neither I nor my brother could spot it. So, I assumed that the airfield was gone, and decided to continue on along hwy 87 in the direction of Miller while intensely looking for landout fields and discussing which ones are better than the others. As the thermal gods did not show any mercy meanwhile, it was time to land. I picked a triangular corner of a farmers field next to hwy 87 which had easy access from the hwy, and which appeared to be the flattest one around. The circle was yellow and also looked nice and flat, but I could not make what kind of crop it was and how high the crop was, so the primary choice was the triangular corner. The ground wind was S at around 5kts. I dove some 200ft to see and confirm that the field was good, and then went into pattern and landed. The landing was bumpy and exciting.
It was 18:05, 30nm NW of Miller, and I completed 276 out of 331 km. We pushed 13K to the gate, tied it down, and called for retrieve. While waiting, I checked the circle. It was wheat stubble and it would had been a better choice than the triangle. In hindsight, in order to avoid off-field landing, I should have been more conservative and selected distance and altitude at which I would have been able to turn back to Clayton.
Across the hwy, there was a picnic area so we moved to lounge there while waiting for the retrieve crew. However, we did not even get to start reading the books that we took with us before our super fast crew, Phil Grandmason, Rod Smythe, and Jim Spelman showed up --- thanks guys! There was a bit more suspense driving back and betting whether we will have enough gas to get to Dalhart, but we made it.
Two days later, I was trying to do Miller-Guymon-Castleberry-Miller which is 329 km, and landed out (again) in the same configuration (13K with my brother in the front seat), just after crossing another sink hole and not finding anything on the other side, at about the same time in the evening when lift ran away from us; but that's another story...
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