SUMMER SOARING ADVENTURES

SUPPLIED

1730KM BY TERRY DELORE

THE HARDEST AND MOST SATISFYING FLIGHT OF MY LIFE

If you try long enough and hard enough, about one in twenty five times you can succeed on the really hard flights! After a perusal of the long-range weather areas of awesome wave mixed in with weak charts it seemed that conditions would be broken wave in places. The airmass was right for a big flight around the beginning of smoky, hot and dry and as I moved up the February. After several days of preparation, South Island the day to the north did not the ASW27b Romeo Xray and I were ready, look encouraging. At Blenheim I considered and we headed to Omarama in anticipation. abandoning the task as all my usual wave On 3 February I declared a 15m 1730 km Out and Return. If I was successful and fast enough, 136 kph or more, this would qualify for a 1500 km Out and Return world record, 1730 km Free Out and Return and a Declared Out and Return world record. sources failed to produce the goods suitable for a safe crossing of Cook Straight. At Blairich, just south of Blenheim, the weak wave supported a slow climb to around 20,000 feet from where the primary wave over Lake Wairarapa was clearly marked through the smoke from the Aussie bush fires. It was Tom Berger towed me at first light from so smoky I had to wear my mask to breathe. Omarama. I quickly contacted the wave and The smoke in fact marked the wave reasonably headed to Clyde Dam for the start. I was lucky. clearly in the otherwise clear blue sky. Clyde was very nearly shut down with rain and frontal cloud. If I’d been five minutes later, it would have been game over. At 11.30 I was over the middle of Cook Strait and could see the wave off the Rimutakas was working reliably but looking ahead, the Napier My first leg was Clyde Dam to Whanawhana, area looked near on impossible - blue and 18 nautical miles west of Napier. There were unmarked except for two or three tiny wisps that formed just now and again. My team at home breathed a sigh of relief that I was back over land, but I still had to do it in the other direction to get home. I had flown this area before in hopeless looking conditions and been pleasantly surprised, so we carried on. I took a high climb to cross the usual cloud and moisture coming through the Manawatu Gorge then a top up at Mt Bruce that got me to Kereru, another good wave producing area about 30 kilometres short of Whanawhana. Just as I left this weak wave a text came through from Abbey. She said Matthew Scutter had been studying his SkySight weather and said, “Get as high as possible. It doesn’t look good!!” Too late. We were well on the way. Just then I got a report from Air Traffic Control, the sea breeze had come into Napier from the East. This was not what you want to hear when you are 800 kilometres from home trying to soar westerly wave!

Slowly and very carefully I weaved my way

Clockwise from left: five minutes after starting from Clyde, and the weather had closed in, bee-lining for Wellington coast, up high, smoke from Aussie bushfires, Terry on landing celebrating, messy at the finish with 65 km to go

round the turn at about 2pm and got back to the Rimutaka wave which was now living up to its name, the Lake Monster. It was COOKING!

I was coming up to the part of the flight that keeps you awake at night. Ahead was a crossing; 87 kilometres of water, in an area that is notorious for gale force winds and rapid cloud formation. But it wasn’t to be a problem today. I got a nice climb to 27,500 feet, and just as SkySight predicted, the wave went over half way across the Strait. We cruised out, climbing on track and reached the South Island at about 22,000 feet. Yahoo!!

By 4 pm I was back over solid ground and on track but wasted a heap of height trying to play it safe. I ended up pushing on through the Kaikoura Ranges in very poor air, most of which was descending. I passed Max Stevens on his final northern leg for a 1500 km diploma and carried on south very carefully, taking anything more than 2.5 knots as high as possible until finally getting back to North Canterbury where conditions were very good. I had to get to Clyde by 8.43 pm and finish above 6,520 feet to claim the 15m World Record. I made Twizel at 6.15 pm with 150 km to run. It was looking good. Long story short, I got back to the finish at Clyde just as the southerly front arrived. I was dodging cloud in the rain and taking great advice from John Robinson who was on the ground at the finish point. Five minutes after I finished it was shut down. I had used the whole day.

I made it back onto the ground at Omarama at 8.47 pm, just before CET, having completed the hardest, most challenging and satisfying flight of my life.

A massive thank you to Airways New Zealand for their support and assistance, as Abbey says, dancing around a small yet speedy 15m soaring weapon. Thank you to my friends from throughout New Zealand and around the world for all your kind comments and wishes. I set out to fly as far as absolutely possible on the day and fly to the best of my ability. I did both. There was nothing left.

The fear of failure is what stops most of us, on this flight I remembered my past failures and that helped me succeed.

I am so very lucky to have the support of my family, club and so many top calibre

pilots from everywhere. Your support is very humbling. The next big one is not a record, it is Bluff to Cape Reinga, the length of New Zealand with my co-pilot and daughter Abbey.

And for the record, it looks like the free out and return distance is in the bag but the declared 1730 km o/r and 1500 km o/r speed are in doubt due to missing the start line by 200 metres. I was in quadrant, but the rules have changed! Hard lesson!

15M FAI WORLD RECORDS

Out and return declared distance 1730km (TBC)

Out and return free distance 1730km

Out and return speed over 1500km (TBC)