Big Triangle in the Midwest.

This year's spring/summer time is unlike to previous years here in the Midwest.
Most days are cold, overcast and rainy. Farmers are late about 2 weeks with
their planting schedule. The corn and bean fields still have exposed soil what
is a perfect source for thermals during a sunny day.

We are very hungry for any flying days here because of the gloom so the BlipMap
is the most popular site on our computers this year at this time. Last
Wednesday's early morning forecast for Thursday(June 4th, 2009) was very
promising for a good chance of flying. Unfortunately a couple of hours later my
BlipMap subscription was expired. Paying did not help immediately, but I emailed
Dr. Jack and my problem was resolved in 15 minutes.

Checking most maps it was obvious that much better XC condition would be at the
Whitewater WI flight park than at Enjoy Field IL. The Thermal Updraft showed
450-500 fpm, Thermal Height up to 6000ft was predicted just west of Whitewater
with almost no wind (5-10mph from shifting directions). My decision was simple,
FAI triangle.

I figure that if I fly with an average speed of 25mph I can fly 150 miles in 6
hours. This is realistic, if I can take off at noon or before noon because there
are probably still thermal's around 6pm here in June. So the final decision was
made quick. My first turn point I declare west of Rockford and East of Freeport,
exactly 50 miles SW from Whitewater. The second turn point I declare 50 miles
straight North from the first turn point. I also added 2 restricted airspaces
(Janesville and Madison) to the GPS to avoid some unexpected surprises.

On Thursday morning the weather forecast had not changed much from the day
before. Now the adrenaline begins working. I made a quick call to Joel who is
the tow pilot at the flight park. Another quick call to Greg Krzyszkowski
(PG-pilot) and Tom Klecha (HG-pilot / driver) and after a 40 minute meeting at
work I was driving north to Wisconsin. Greg with Tom arrives there just 5
minutes after me. Greg was planning to static tow his PG on the NE runway. The
first Cu's showed up about 11:30 exactly where the BlipMap predicted.

Just 10 minutes before noon I was in the air with my Litespeed RS. Joel left me
in nice 400 fpm lift. After a couple more turns the lift increased to 600 and
finally to 700 fpm. I knew that I'm too late in the air. I have already lost at
least ½ hour of nice thermal conditions.

Flying in these conditions was easy and enjoyable. On the way to Janesville I
already had one thermal of 800 fpm with top of the lift at 6500 AGL, just a
couple of minutes after noon! What a day! Passing Janesville I loose GPS
coverage many times, but the most important thing for me was holding the planned
average speed. Everything is going smooth so far, average speed was 25 mph or
even a little better. Flying closer to the first turn point, on my way was a
thick but not wide cirrus cloud which was moving to the South. To reduce the
risk to slowing down my flight I changed my plan to fly instead another 5-8
miles to SW, I begin flying more West to Freeport.

Again hitting cloud base around Freeport I begin flying almost straight north.
My Flytec showed 5-10 mph headwind. It was better than I expected. Almost every
other thermal was 800 to 900 fpm. Unbelievably strong conditions! It reminded me
of an average day at Ovens Valley. I did not lose time working in 600 fpm lift.
I was looking for stronger cores and I find them almost every time! What a day!

After 25 miles into the second leg searching 2 clouds in row I get low but
finally I find a strong one over ground. Many times the clouds were working in
different ways so there was no simple recipe this day to find fast best core but
when you find it this was strong stuff. When I get to the second turn point I
was late by 20 minutes. I noticed that along the way of my 3rd leg, the Cu's are
not close, just a big blue hole. I made a decision to fly a couple more miles to
NW and wait what happens with this blue hole. After a short time hanging around
the 2nd turn point under a huge and weak Cu I begin forcing myself to fly into
blue sky. The only way to make goal, is to just fly to goal. It was a good
decision. After a couple miles flying SE (to avid Madison air space) I find a
nice 600 fpm thermal.

The conditions begin getting weaker. Average lift was 400-500 fpm. When I pass
I-94 with few lift symptoms I thought that again I would be short. At just about
1300 ft AGL I find a very weak one. Patience, only patience can help me. Now I
take any small spot with the smallest lift, every raising air molecule was
valuable for me. I'm about 13 miles away from Whitewater. After using all
possible lift on this last thermal I begin final glide on a SE direction with SW
wind. I landed 0.4 miles from runway closing the FAI triangle with total length
159.5 miles after 6.5 hours of wonderful time. I believe this is the biggest
triangle that has been flown flex and rigid wing in the US.

See track here:
http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightbook.html?sp=2009&st=holc&rt=holc&pi=37974

Greg Krzyszkowski using static tow (on the relatively short runway space), was
able tow his PG up to 400ft and fly 18 miles XC to the wind. Gary Solomon made a
triangle (almost unavoidably) over 20 miles because it was his longest flight
(about3 hours).

There were about 8 pilots playing hooky this day. Many flew without GPS, so I
don't know their flight paths. Dale, John, John, John, Stan, Kevin, and Terry
(in the superfloater) were all in the air 3-4 hours. All were very cold, and
very happy they took the day off!

The original story appeared in the Whitewater Hang Gliding Club forum located here

Discuss Kris Grzyb's achievment with us in the forum here