Sunday August 3rd, Herrie ten Cate departed on a cross-country flight. How did it work out? Herrie and his retrieve crew relate the story:Nothing ventured nothing gained. The forecast looked promising and with Anthony Kawzowicz's coaching, I prepped the club's Jantar and took to the skies just after 11 on Sunday morning, for an attempted 500KM triangle. The task was Rockton - Flesherton - Thamesville - Rockton. I fought a strong headwind on my way north to Flesherton and then turned southwest towards Thamesville.
I was a little overconfident and was suckered into an aerial dance with a promising little thermic number that was all tease and no action. Needless to say, I was back down on the ground after three hours of airtime. I chose a cut barley field that was at least 4000-feet long ... so the outlanding was a piece of cake.
The highlight of the afternoon was meeting the curious on-lookers who stopped to gawk. I'd landed right beside a small county road. Three local Mennonite men parked up their bikes for a closer look. I showed them around and even let them sit in the cockpit. If circumstances were different for these guys, I'm sure, would love to learn how to glide.
I've promised to mail them a copy of the photo ... email and the Internet isn't part of their lexicon or lives. Needless to say, meeting these guys made landing out a great experience. My 500KM flight will have to wait for another day...
Les Waller and Rob Russell came up from SOSA to retrieve Herrie and the glider. Les said "Herrie picked what must be the biggest field in Ontario ----about 5000' long in my estimation----Whatever grew there had been harvested,
'could have easily put a Dak (DC-3) in it or something bigger even!
