Robin Hamilton <<Robin.Hamilton>>
writes:

After the great unseasonably warm (temps in the 80’s) and dry
weather we got last week, I offered up the brave challenge to try to fly an off
season 100 miler from Wharton over the weekend.

Driving down to Wharton from Houston on Saturday morning under the low claggy
sky and rain showers, it was clear something ugly had crept in from the Gulf
overnight and that maybe the big Halloween flight idea was just crazy, scary
talk. I got a fairly mirthful reception from Tiki and the assembled when I got
to the airport. But undeterred, I quickly rigged and launched around 2pm ahead
of some dark clouds and rain closing in from the SE, just upwind of the airport.

Good solid 300-500fpm lift off tow up to base at around 3,500’agl. Drift was
around 8-10kts from the SE. Hoping to stay high (and dry) I couldn’t quite wait
for Mick who had just got off tow below me and I headed to the first isolated cu
downwind of Highway 59. Was a good looking cloud but it didn’t really work –
sometimes happens when we get a blast of moist air in from the Gulf in the
morning. It was also raining downwind of the airport below the adjacent Oding
street. A pretty rainbow arc’ed across the shower line but I was now wondering
if it would be “one-and-done” for the day.

I targeted the next best-looking cloud about 15km out that was also the
beginning of a broken street running up over the meanders of the Colorado river.
Got there below 2,000’ but it was Boom, solid 500-600fpm up to base now just
over 4,000’. I then ran the lift line in delightful air, turning only in lift
over 300fpm and often gliding at over 75km/h (~40kts) to keep out of the cloud.

About level with Garwood, 35km out, the cloud line quit and didn’t seem to start
again for another 6-8km – this would happen most of the flight. Also the drift
was swinging round more southerly. A long quiet glide to west of Eagle Lake was
rewarded with another solid 400-600fpm climb from low downwind of the Pipeworks
up to another broken street with base now up to 4,500’. Taking stock, I was now
around 50km (30miles) out after an hour in the air. Maybe this day was going to
work after all.

Despite being high and happy at Eagle lake, I took the decision to go get some
“low save thrills” again by crossing over to the street to the west as it looked
more solid way up ahead and also to get me over some of the familiar terrain of
the stretch downwind of our other aerotow site at Columbus.

Arriving low over the river meanders on SE side of Columbus and below a broad
cloud, I got a lot of help from the many hawks and buzzards that are everywhere
in the Texas sky right now as they migrate south for the winter. Just as I
thought I was in the best lift, I’d spot hawks downwind going up much faster. It
was fun – they also seemed to follow when I would set off on glide. Go figure.
There were hundreds of them up there.

I had a slower stretch for about 30km downwind of Columbus over the mainly treed
terrain. The colour in the trees and the unfamiliar (for Texas) chilly air
actually reminded me again that yes, it was Autumn and no, this was not a normal
flight.

Coming up on 4pm, around 100km out from Wharton, the clouds looked to be
thinning out up ahead but the lift was still fairly regular 300-400fpm and the
base had gone up over 5,000’. The tailwind had backed off to 6-8kts. I needed to
plan my route over and/or round Lake Somerville as although it is only 1-3miles
wide, it is over 10miles broad and even on good days it does a great job of
suppressing thermal activity downwind. Very pretty lake to cross but usually
very sinky.

I did my best to stay high on the upwind (S) side of the lake and crossed with
maybe 3,600’ to be met with the usual 8-10km of dead air on the other side. As
usual though I was not alone and my feathered support crew was out in force and
after getting suckered into a couple of their “fake” thermals, I connected with
another gaggle and a solid 200-400fpm back up to 5,300’ and one of the last
clouds in the sky. By then I realized I had the “Crazy Halloween 100miles” on a
glide and that the sun was going down less than an hour and half later. And that
I wasn’t sure if or where a retrieve truck might be. So I just glided quietly
down through the autumn air to land in nil wind on a big ranch on the west side
of the Brazos valley at 106miles out. Fun, fun, fun. Flights like that let you
remember why you really fly.

Mick and Joanne who picked me up a little later as night fell and we would our way back down to Wharton.