Larry Bunner <<lbunner>>
writes:

On the 27th, my birthday, I went to Hang Glide Chicago in
Chebanse, Illinois for a big triangle. Looking at the conditions it
appeared that a 200km triangle would be possible. I put two tasks in my 6030,
one for 160km also.

I didn't think the lift would start until 1 PM, but on the long drive down
south the cu's were popping at 10 AM. This isn't really a good sign as it
usually indicates overdevelopment later. All the meteorological data showed
strong lift as high as 10,000' and no wind, but the CAPE showed a lot of energy
in the air.

I set up as quickly as I could and missed securely fastening my hydration
bladder seal which kept me nice and wet the whole flight, but everything else
worked well.

I launched shortly after noon and climbed to base at 7500' (which indicates that
I should have been there earlier), and hopped from cloud to cloud down the first
leg.

At 10km from the first turnpoint, I saw that a line of clouds to the west
quickly overdeveloped. I kept my eye on them as I headed east into the blue. The
lift softened and I had to divert south east to find better looking wispies.

The large black bottomed cu's to the west were gone on my original proposed course line. I climbed
out to 5800' and saw that the line to my west was now dumping profusely and
getting wider as it slowly drifted east. I radioed to John and told him my plans
had changed. There was no way to go west from the first turnpoint and be able to
make it back to Enjoy Field, Hang Glide Chicago, as the band stretched as far as I could see. I
decided to head east northeast and still try to get a 100 mile triangle.

The clouds in that direction were much better looking so I headed in that
direction. I was just able to stay ahead of the shadow of the now towering cu's
to the west. The farmers had to love it as it was dumping very hard. The band
had thickened even more and I became concerned that it would eventually shade
out my return path to Enjoy field.

The clouds to the northeast were good like the first leg and over 8000'. Gary
Solomon reported that base was over 9000' at Enjoy. I was calculating how far I
needed to go to get 160km by triangulating from the first turnpoint and Enjoy. I
headed to a cloud to the northeast where base was almost 10000' (9975' on
my instrument as I put the carbon base tube to my knees to stay in visual
contact with the ground).

There was another beautiful cu to the northeast, however by my calculation I
already had enough distance on this leg to get the 100 mile triangle plus there
was a nice line of cu's heading right to Enjoy.

I went on final glide from 40km out. The line worked rather well giving some
really nice climbing glides under the fat flat bottomed cu's all the way in. My
landing wasn't so nice as I flew into the lee side of the hangars and slid in to
the field slightly dropping the nose (too slow). All in all, a great birthday
present, a 160km triangle, one gain to almost 10,000' and 5 hours in the air.