Bloemfontein South Africa Report, Flying Day 13 (last) – December 4

Today promised to be a good day and 5 of us declared 750km flights while others declared 500s. The course was a giant hour glass shaped one with turnpoints at Hertzogville, Kroonstadt, Pramberg and return.  The 3d leg of the course was over 300km long! But – it was also my last day and I really did not want a 7:00pm “scrape it back home” end to my flying so I resolved to keep things reasonable for the last day. This was my 13th straight day flying,  and my third day over 5.5 hours in the hot sun – so not a time to go crazy with a marginal last hour of flying.

All gliders got back home, 5 did 500kms ( one new Norwegian pilot did his first) , 2 pilots did 750s, and myself  and another turned at Emmaus 250 km on the long leg and we flew 650 km. I was in the air 6.6 hours.  Here is a See You map:

I’ve reached the end of my flying time here this year. I flew 57 hours on 13 straight days, with total cross country distance of slightly over 4700 km (2900 miles).  I saw a lot of South Africa I had not seen before (and some I still can’t pronounce) and had a great time with my friends.  With two  650 km flights and four 500s including the 500 km around the TMA, this was probably my most successful trip here.  If you love flying gliders cross country – there is no better place to go.

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