Flying Day 7, November 28

After yesterday’s surprise storms none of us were very confident about the weather forecast and so the task today was designed to keep us reasonably close into the airport if storms developed again. I selected a 500km task from New Tempe up to Christiana, and then down to the diamond mine at Koffiefontein. At the midpoint of the course I would be only about 75km from New Tempe – if storms developed locally. But – there were storms to the north and I had to select a substitute  turnpoint just south of Christiana.   I had no trouble to the north but I got hammered with sink as I rounded the second turnpoint near to the mine and got down to around 2200’ agl directly over it.  I dumped all of my water ballast to climb better and was able to get back to cruising altitude and ultimately to New Tempe around 5:00 pm. My total distance was 470 km and I was in the air for 5 hours 21 minutes. I’ve now had 3 straight days of flights over 5 hours and I am getting a little tired. But it’s fun and the reason I come here.

The mine is a 1500’ deep hole in the ground and it is still an active diamond mine. Here is a photo:

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