We thought that today would be a great day so we had our pilot’s meeting an hour early with most of the gliders on the grid by 9:00 am. I declared an FAI type 750 km triangle (no leg less than 28%) with turnpoints at Klerksdorp and Reivelo. Each leg was about 255km. I launched at 10:30 am and was on course by 10:45 and made good time up to Klerksdorp cruising between 10 and 12,000’ and at about 160kph (99 mph). I made the turn at 1:00 pm and headed west toward Rievelo. Unfortunately, as I got toward the midpoint on the second leg it appeared ominously dark directly ahead. I radioed New Tempe  for radar information and they confirmed a thunderstorm directly ahead. I abandoned the task at Lindberg (about 110 km on the second leg) but that still put me some 205 km from home.
The trip home was complicated by high altitude blow off from the thunderstorm but  the ground held it’s heat and I was able to get back to New Tempe just as another storm hit the airport. With difficulty two of us landed in the storm and we got the gliders put away before the heavy rain started.  One glider landed out at Bultfontein.

I was in the air a total of 5.4 hours and subtracting the time climbing off tow I flew 570 km in 5 hours for an average speed of about 70 mph. Without the storms I think that the flight could have been done.

Here is a link to a screen capture of  today’s flight:

This is what the morning grid looks like here:

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