Here comes article from Krzysztof Jozefowicz about his very long flight with Atis 2 glider.
My flight took place on Sunday during last weekend of August 2009 and it was my longest flight in terms of distance and time.
From my point of view Sunday’s forecast shown that it should be flyable after Saturday cold front went through.
I changed my mind when I got to airfield. Sunday conditions around Leszno (town with airfield between Poznan and Wroclaw, one of the main gliders center in Poland) were amazing – with full sun shine ,temperature on ground level was below 20 C with moderate 5m/s wind with gusts up to 8 m/s and sky full of cloud streets. I knew that this can be very interesting day.
Me and my girlfriend were the fist ones on spot around 10 o'clock – soon enough to have a time for tea and cookie in restaurant.
Rest of the crew came around 11, around 12 winch was ready. There were around 15 pilots but just few of us decided to fly – maybe because of the wind or they did not want to be first, who knows. I quickly managed to prepare myself – I put a patch on my belly (ancient anti sickness method ;),took some meds (locomotiv + apap for headakes) , adjusted speedbar and harness , but some winter clothes (even though I fly in cocon harness ),listen about airspace restrictions ( some nearby TMAs ) and checked and rechecked my gear.
I was second in line – first pilot didn’t catch any thermals. My tow was really pleasant and easy – I ended on 620m AGL and right away I cough gentle lift and slowly got to the cloud base together with another glider. Looking on cloud shadows on the ground I saw that I am already under long cloud street – with ground speed above 60km/h it was really easy to do make first 50km in constant lift. I recognised familiar places from previous flights – towns , main roads, village when I previously had landed. After 50km , two friends cough up with me – Greg and Andrew – just on time when we had to make decision where to make a transition – we chose the northern cloud street which looked longer but it moved us closer to TMAs , hopefully cloud base was far below lower level of TMA. Together it was very fun to fly – we were able to penetrate wider area under the clouds to look for thermals then alone plus it is always nicer to talk with the friends.
After 100km we got above very interesting region around Konin and Kolo – we had a highway under our feet, some open coal mines, rivers etc. – very beautiful . At that time other pilot reported that cirrus was shutting down thermals so we should hurry up ,at that time it was already afternoon so clouds were smaller, lifts were weaker. Greg decided to land close to highway, Andrew flew little further away so we landed almost together close to the village. GPS showed 165km from takeoff.
Some people came to welcome us, we got instant lift to meeting point where our girls already were waiting for us.
I went to bed on 2am very tired – more because of driving than flying.
For all of us it was flight of the life – longest and furthest, we were very happy, full of joy and energy. This day was like a gift for poor, rainy 2009 season. I hope that in 2010 someone will get +200km flight from Leszno – good that this is my favourite place to tow :).
Big thanks to my girlfriend who provided quick pickup, to guys from Leszno to allow us to fly in this remarkable place and to Greg and Andrew for amazing flight.
Hope to replay this in next year. http://www.xcontest.org/…8.2009/10:36
Unfortunately I did not take my camera with me so I only have photos of my friends – they agreed that those can be used. You can use any from those 2 albums on picassa:
http://picasaweb.google.pl/…erpienLeszno
http://picasaweb.google.pl/…090830Leszno
Krzysztof Jozefowicz