Over the last 3 years between Christmas and New Year we have done this relaxed and informal slope soaring trips and so was the 2010 event. Every year as we set out towards Volksrust there is always the concern about the weather and lately even more so because of the extreme weather conditions we experiencing. So you can land up with no slope soaring possible at all or on the other hand the conditions could be perfect.
It so happened this year that we had a perfect day one on the North West slope and the next two days with very light and variable winds. It is for this reason that you have to take an assortment of gliders that can handle from no wind to a howling 40 kph wind. This means taking more than one glider and depending on conditions you could end up flying some of them and the rest could not even get assembled.
However what made this year’s planning more difficult was that after the 3 days on the mountain we were set to travel down to the KZN South coast to spend the a few more days on the coast and while we were there we were to meet my younger daughter at the King Shaka airport to spend some time with us and afterwards travel back with us home.
Before we left we had a small rehearsal as to make sure all of us knew what space were available as I had no tow–hitch fitted to my personal vehicle and therefore could not use my trailer. Obviously as you will see in the next pictures my plans did not worked out as planned.
If somewhere in the future you land up with a similar situation you could do what I ended up
doing on the home leg of our journey.
