Annual XC Tour 2005
At the end of every year we head down to Wilderness for 2 weeks of glorious coastal ridge-soaring. Come for a couple of days or come for the full 2 weeks! We stay at the Ebb & Flow Wilderness National Park Campsite.
Then we head down to Valley-of-Desolation & Porterville for some serious XC, with a short stop-over at Cape Town!
What a great trip this was! We flew every day, either free flying or with our motors. One of the really memorable flights was with the two Gary’s, Billie and Debbie with me on the tandem. We launched off the map and flew just short of Buffel’s Baai and back. We must have been quite a sight, with our four blue wings flying in tight formation. Billie Jennings and I were also able to test out my new trike…. It took some figuring out, but we finally assembled it with the correct harness configuration and then we were off on our first flight. It's much more comfy than foot-launched tandem-flying with the motor and the landings are really fun. The take-off needs a short runway, but not much, if there is some wind.
Then it was off to the Valley-of-Desolation for the next leg of the trip. We were only here for a day, but it was still an awesome first-time experience for the two Gary’s, Sean and Keri. Next it was off to Porterville for Rob Manzoni’s great hospitality, excellent camping at beautiful Waterval and booming thermals and personal-best XC’s all around.
The highlight at Porterville was an 80km flight, which Gary Whitecross and I did to Clanwilliam, on our DHV1 Z-One’s. Click here to read about Gary's 80km flight and for the photos. Sean Whitecross also did incredibly well, flying 35km to Citrusdal on his Matrix, with no Vario! I know of very few pilots who have achieved this. Well done Mr Whitecross and Son.
Check out the pics below of our January 2005 Annual XC Tour.