Leg
3, Estrella to Las Cruces - Sunday, June 22, 2003:
From Jim Payne:
Yahoo! After the somber start of the last two days, we now have a race!
l landed about an hour ago and about 30% of the participants are now on
the ground in Las Cruces. Due to the wild fires a turnpoint, "Ruby
Star", was added extending the length of the leg by about 40 miles
around the SW side of Tucson. For about the first 40% of the task altitude
topped out at about 9k, but then it opened up over the higher ground with
attitudes of nearly 14k. Tom, our scorer, just arrived at Las Cruces about
the same time as I did and is busy setting up to process the scores.
Jim Payne - 6pm, Sunday, June 22
From Tom Serkowski:
A very interesting day. Thermals are forecast to not much above 11K, and
we'll have a tailwind. Then there is the fire on Mt Lemmon which is right
on course. The task is from Estrella to Ruby Star, a private strip just
East of Green Valley, to Las Cruces, for a distance of 348 miles.
This forces us to go around Tucson to the South and keeps us upwind of
the fires and also out of the tiger country on the direct line from Estrella
to Las Cruces. The launch begins shortly after noon and I take off at
12:45 about in the middle of the motorglider pack. I hook a nice thermal
at about 1,000' AGL, reduce RPMs a bit and shutdown the engine just over
2K. The start is a 5 mile cylinder around Estrella with a top of 8K MSL.
I moved over to a group of other gliders circling within a couple miles
of the field, and we slowly climbed to near 8K.
The open and 18 meter gate is opened at a little after 1pm and the few
of us near the top of the thermal head out on slightly different headings
out of the SW edge of the cylinder. For most of the first leg we bump
along between 6 and a little over 8K MSL, which keeps us mostly above
3K AGL. Not high, but not so low that I'm worried about finding the next
climb. It seems that I'm the leader of a group of 5-6 gliders for this
leg. I'm the top guy in the gaggle so end up taking the lead on most of
the glides. It also seems I'm cruising a little faster than the others,
as I get a couple miles ahead at each new thermal. After 2-3 turns to
center the lift, here comes everyone else to join me.
After the first turn, I get a little worried heading into the hills and
almost have to backtrack before finding lift. By now the others must have
decided on different tacks and I'm alone for a while. About half way to
Las Cruces, I again join up with Dick Mockler in IT. He's really making
that LS-8 go in the 15m configuration, and without water. Estrella has
no water on the field so everyone must fly dry. As I'm about 100lb under
gross with the engine and all 16 liters of fuel, this really makes no
difference to me. But the 8.4 lb/sq ft wing loading is a bit of a handicap
while climbing. Then again, it helps on the glide. As the day progresses,
the thermals get a bit more scarce, but they go higher and I see a few
climbs to above 12,000'. However, they don't get any easier to center.
Nearly every climb consists of 2-3 turns in a nice core, followed by a
lazy meander looking for where the core disappeared, followed by another
few turns at a nice stable 6-8 knots.
At Deming, I reach final glide altitude and start for the finish. I arrive
at 6:54pm, and just like at Jean, am the first finisher! It appears my
speed is around 74mph. Being the first finisher isn't always good as I
was accosted by the local newpaper reporter. We had a nice chat for about
20-30 minutes, so we'll see what the article looks like in tomorrow's
paper.
Well, it's getting to be well past my bedtime so time to sign off. Tomorrow
we try for Hobbs.
Tom Serkowski - Leg 3 flight information on Aerokurier
site
From Dave Nadler:
Estrella gliderport is not far south of Phoenix. As you drive out of the
city, agricultural fields are being developed into housing as the city
grows, but not far out it reverts to agriculture and grazing
land - pretty arid country.
Launch goes smoothly and thermals are plentiful at noon; perhaps we should
have got going a bit earlier. Easy climb after shutting down the Solo,
leave the thermal under 8k and wait for all the gliders to get ready so
we can start. Forecast is blue, blue, blue, with tops up to 11k. Again
not really as high as would be comfortable but the terrain is not as high
and rather less forbidding than the last leg. Today we're given a turnpoint
at Ruby, to swing us well south of Tucson and keep us away from the fires
and smoke plume north of Tucson, which makes the task distance about 350
miles to Las Crucas.
Start out the top of the cylinder and head out along the boundary of the
arid country and agriculture, which should act as a trigger. Promptly
get caught by a gaggle trying to effectively find and work lift in the
blue. Maybe not so effectively... I head south into the hills and fly
mostly by myself. Join up with Natalie in her ASW-22BLE in the high ground
south of El Tiro gliderport, and then head off by myself (perhaps not
a good move). Into the high ground south of Ruby, can't get high enough
to easily cross the next ridge-line on course. Struggled all around Ruby
and eventually I'm joined by a few other gliders that help mark the areas
of lift. They pass me and swing north of course to stay near interstate
10, but I follow the higher terrain along the courseline. By myself again,
its slow going in the blue.
A fire-bomber passes by to dump a load on the big fire north of Tucson.
It looks like the films we've all seen of a volcano - the top of the mountain
is completely hidden by the thick smoke column and the fire itself is
not visible. Scary! Thermals over the higher ground later in the day are
stronger and working higher. Switch on the O2 and inexplicably punch through
the inversion to 13k+, but the climb rate is too slow to see how high
it might go. I have a terrible time picking where the thermals
will be - seems like the sun and wind facing mountains have got to work,
but the my best thermal of the day is in the middle of a basin over agriculture!
Time is starting to be a big concern, and no other gliders marking lift
along the route I've chosen. Perhaps not wise to go it alone on a blue
day; sure would be nice to have some big fat clouds marking the lift as
is normal for good soaring conditions in this region ! I've been checking
alternates on the ILEC SN10 often, next is Lordsburg north of course.
Still agriculture and safe options for landing along the courseline until
I pass Lordsburg - then its just high desert. Not high enough to reach
the next airport at Deming, I have to turn and fly back 10 miles towards
Lordsburg
until I find a weak thermal and climb high enough to reach Deming. Deming's
only 45 miles out of Las Crucas so this is starting to look doable, and
another weak climb gets me to within 2000 feet of an MC 3 glide with 1500
reserve into Las Crucas. With absolutely no landing options, I need these
safety margins; if there were landing options it would be no problem to
reach Las Crucas at MC 2.
Swing south of course to a small mountain range facing the wind and setting
sun, has to work, right? Nope, its just too late. I swing past the last
landing option (Solo Airport, 25 miles from Las Crucas) but find no more
lift. Oh well, fire up the motor and climb the last bit to reach Las Crucas.
Land on with the setting sun in the still evening air, after 6:30 in the
cockpit. Some of the better pilots made it, but many landed in Lordsburg,
and a few other motor glider pilots used the iron thermal. I guess I did
about 325 miles (500km) - slow, but fun flight !
Next leg - Las Crucas to Hobbs New Mexico.
Best Regards, Dave