My instructor saved my life, without knowing it...

[Nacho]

On Saturday I was flying to Potch with a friend. He had his wife on board I were solo. As we crossed over the ridge approaching the dam just before Potch, approx 36 miles from Crosswinds, I felt a bit of shaking on the bar. I noticed this immediately as the flight was extremely smooth thus far, even with the tail wind taking my ground speed up to 85 m/ph in some places.

The next moment I was looking straight up at the sky. I pulled my bar hard towards me to get penetration and level the aircraft out. I just managed this, when I went down in a spiral towards the earth. I dropped from 5600ft to ground level in a few seconds. I had serious trouble and had to fight hard to keep the aircraft in the air. I saw a road and radio'd to the other aircraft that I have trouble and will attempt a emergency landing on the road. After that my radio work were done, and I prepared to make an emergency landing on the road. The aircraft was violently going wherever the wind wanted to take me. I managed to dodge two trucks, but at this stage I was pushed far from the road again. My arms started giving up, shoulders were getting heavy, then all of a sudden I heard my instructors voice in my ears, "onthou jy is n man op n perd" I composed myself again, actively thinking and fighting off the adrenalin pumping through my vain's, so not to freeze up. I got her lined up on the road again, but traffic was bad, and I couldn't land. Desperately I called the other pilot asking him where he was and if he had a visual on me. He replied that he was at 6000ft and things were bumpy, but that he can at least control her. I replied telling him I will try and climb out of this sh*t. The wind however kept me from getting altitude. Once again, my body started giving up, then I heard his voice again. "Never stop flying the plain, until the bitter end" "lose your mind, lose your life" I pushed the throttle down hard with my foot, and pulled the bar in to get maximum penetration. My Cobra's 582, was screaming, the Spirit 15 wing making violent flapping noises as the wind did with it whatever it wanted. Eventually, after which felt like a lifetime, things started to calm down at 5800ft, still busy, but nothing remotely as bad as down there.

I flew straight back to Crosswinds, most of the time playing with my IPOD to distract myself from what just happened. After landing at Crosswinds, I was exhausted. I waited for 10 minutes, looked at the windsock and decided that the weather is still good enough for another flip. So I got into my flying machine and took off, for another lil flight. http://www.youtube.com/wvbosch

Flo, thank you. Without the guidance and knowledge you shared with me, I would have died on Saturday.

ZU-DLP

[Alpha]

Hi Nacho,

Glad you are ok...

tell me was this just the wind that had you or was there something else wrong?

[Dries303]

Nacho:

Well done! I think you managed well to keep your cool having been "bliksimed" severely by wind/turbulence. And to furthermore battle to land and not being able to due to traffic on the road, is to cause insult to injury. It is terrible to experience such turbulence where you are so scared to take one hand off the bar just to press the ptt or buttons on the GPS. In the curcumstances that you experienced, it was better to move up to higher altitude. Maybe it is better to move up to higher altitude as soon as it becomes turbulent?

[Nacho]

Well I am just happy to be here, and as I said, I have my instructor to thank for that. I have been qualified for a few years now and have been up their for an hour or two, but must admit this has been the worse experience ever. Turbulence happens at different altitudes. Sometimes its better up their @7000ft, sometimes its better at 5500ft, its not an exact science.

[bobthebuilder]

As we crossed over the ridge approaching the dam just before Potch

Now here is something we can learn from - thanks for the post.

Were you flying down wind, (tail wind) when youcrossed the ridge, and got sucked in over the ridge, right?

What is the rule of thumb for this, a safe crossing altitude would be at least 1.5 times the height of the ridge - Am I right?

Glad you came back in one piece.

[nicow]

Now here is something we can learn from - thanks for the post.

Were you flying down wind, (tail wind) when youcrossed the ridge, and got sucked in over the ridge, right?

What is the rule of thumb for this, a safe crossing altitude would be at least 1.5 times the height of the ridge - Am I right?

Glad you came back in one piece.[/quote]
I agree with bobthebuilder.
Glad you made it ok.

[Ranger]

Sounds like you got caught in a rotar.

[topflight]

I had a similar but not that terrifying experience close to Harties...it is better to get the altitude right before you want to cross a ridge.

[Nacho]

Yeah I agree. next time I will make sure I have the altitude. I was high, but obviously not
high enough.

Safe flying!

[Tracer]

Hey man, well done Willie......

[Nacho]

Amper my Cobra gebuig, sou nie nice gewees het nie Ek laaik nie om so te leer nie!

[Suesing]

What a lot of rubbish.

[pietmeyer]

What a lot of rubbish.

Well done Willie. Weet presies hoe jy voel om in n gemors te beland

suesing, what do you mean with rubbish?

[wiskeyfoxtrot]

Well done Willie, glad to hear that you made it okay,very very scary.

Also dont understand the quote Sue, please enlighten us!

Later

[Big-D]

"Man op 'n perd" - I like it


Well done, I also got caught a few times, somehow happens less and less as one builds experience - Maybe still get caught, just does not feel quite as traumatic - No substitute for this kinda experience you had - Take the learning, it obviously has build confidence - Which is great - Next time you will know that you can handle it easily

D