Around Kalkan, Kas and Olu Deniz.

Annie and I are now in Ankara, in central Turkey, bang in the middle of a low pressure system. There was a powerful storm yesterday, and there is no XC flying this weekend.

We arrived in Turkey on the 14th August, enjoying the first 12 days at my dad's newly built house, 3km north of Kalkan in Islamlar on the SW Lycian coast. At 500m it's perched on a north-south ridge, and looks onto 15 miles of Mediterranean coastline. There is no other building to clutter the view. To the west there is a breath taking panorama of Patara beach and the Xanthos plain, birthplace of the Homeric hero Sarpedon, son of Zeus and King of Lycia. Sarpedon was fated to die in the Trojan war, and before he died on the battle field Zeus sent a shower of bloody raindrops over the Trojans' heads expressing his grief. This is the very same plain that Jocky Sanderson flies over in the 'flatland XC' section in his latest 'Performance Flying' DVD. It is over his historic plain that Jocky wonders if he should fall asleep he's so relaxed. Jocky takes off from Baba Dag, which can also be seen across the plain from the house, 35km away. With a telescope you could possibly see paragliders taking off from Baba Dag while relaxing by the pool! Would this be possible at that range?

Our arrival coincided with a heat wave, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees in the area. During our stay near Kalkan a forest fire raged for six days just a few miles up the coast near Kas [news link]. Similar soaring temperatures blasted the rest of Turkey. Yesterday though a stormy cold front passed over Ankara and the temperature has plunged to a chilly 12 degrees outside. This came as a shock to both of us, and reminded us how cold it can get in the winter here in the interior.

Below dad's villa there is a regular thermal trigger in a westerly above which you find swifts, hunting for insects being lifted skywards. The swifts also swoop close to the pool. On the first day we watched a bird of prey climb here and continue north up the east valley to far above the col. Within range of dad's place there are a number of established flying sites, going from closest to furthest as follows:

1. Kalkan ridge, 900m (N 36 deg 15'18.2", E 29 deg 27' 17.0"). Visible from Kalkan. Taking off from here may allow you to ridge soar along the entire 1000m E-W ridge behind Kalkan. Access is via the Yesilkoy Valley, up a good track leading up to a prominent electric generator. This is a well established site with a cleared take-off area and wind-socks. It takes a SW (?). It is prone to strong valley winds. I drove up to take-off on 3 separate days and it wasn't flyable each time. This may have been party due to the unusually intense heat causing valley winds. It's only 6.8km from the house direct, and you can get to the take-off in 30 minutes! There aren't many landing options around Kalkan. The harbour is off limits apparently. There is a good field next to a main road at N 36 deg 14' 48.0", E 29 deg 26' 24.6" which should be fine. During our stay in the area, a local pilot was killed flying from this mountain, flying tandem. His passenger survived barely. He was a diabetic, from what we heard, and went unconscious mid-flight. We wonder if the heat was a factor too?

2. Dumanli Dag, 1956m. (N 36 deg 22' 44.9", E 29 deg 26' 37.1"). Dad, Annie and I drove our rental car to the mountain track via Ikzce, and made it part way up but we needed a 4x4 to continue up. The peak of this mountain is visible from dad's place. It's 8.5km away. You'd only need an average glide of 8.5/1.5 (under 6:1) to get to dad's, but the only landing strip there would be very challenging. Better to go on down to the Kalkan landing field. Or if you wanted to fly west, you could probably get away with landing in the Byzantine road of ancient Xanthos (11.3 km from take-off, N 36 deg 21'24.0", E 29 deg 19' 14.3''). Do it in the evening when the officials are gone. What damage could you possibly do. Those columns and limestone plaques are solid as anything.


Xanthos landing zone with Dumanli Dag in the distance.

3. Patara Dunes. (N 36 deg 16' 07.8", E 29 deg 17' 52.3") About 11km away (direct) from the villa. Patara beach is near 12km long. There are some large soaring dunes for 'surfing' as one of the pilots from Fethiye called it, although it sounds like it is important to watch out for breeding turtles. Flying may be illegal but this isn't the impression I got from I didn't get a chance to fly here, although one night we had a magic evening swim off the Patara beach under the Milky Way. This would be a good place to camp and do some waga if conditions are fairly consistent. I don't know if they are. It would be exciting to turn up at this beach by boat.

4. Kas ridge (approx 1000m). A little over 20km away. Sky paragliding seems like a good enough company to introduce you to this flying area. Talk to Arzum (meaning 'desire' or 'my wish') if you can (0535 376 0028). Although she is not an experienced pilot in the team, she is lively and charming and can tell you about local inland XC flying too. It's 30 YTL each for transport to the top, so it doesn't come cheap - and the take-off is only 1000m. You pay the same or less to get to the top of Baba Dag further up the coast. On the day we tried flying here, the cloud set in and after waiting for a couple of hours we had to give up. Kas (pronounced 'cash') has to be one of the most attractive and magical town on the SW coast of Turkey. Unlike Olu Deniz and even Kalkan, it is a real town. It's bohemian soul shows itself off at night.


At the Kas takeoff. We thought the cloud might clear.

5. Baba Dag (Olu Deniz). Various take-offs up to nearly 2000m. In view of dad's place at 32km and a little over 1 hour's drive. We got transport from Sky Sports. Murat (Turkish) & Nicolet (Dutch) who run it are very helpful. You can get weather reports if they know who you are by phone any time. I flew from the 1750m take-off 3 times on three different days and Annie flew twice. I got more familiar with the mountain on each flight and I was thermalling for an hour along the NW-SE ridge on my third flight, but I couldn't climb above 1,800m. Why not? Was there a real ceiling or a psychological one. It's quite intimidating if you're not used to that scale. Coming down on a reserve wouldn't always help you. Lots of spiky rocks and chasms about. But I was getting used to it. The thermals were sometimes quite turbulent and I got one or two collapses on my Gangster. Annie got an asymmetric on her Sol Yaris (DHV 1-2) too. None of them was any problem though. I did an 11km circuit around Olu Deniz, and saw some pilots fly off on a glide to some forested hills further to the north. I don't know what they were trying to do over there. Anyone have any idea? Over the sea on the way down I practiced big wing-overs. After building up the energy so I was above my wing I got a major collapse which told me my technique and feel needs work. One excuse: they are easier in a coastal wind. When there is no wind the dynamics are completely different.


Annie over Olu Deniz.

The well-known Akcalar brothers - Hakan and Kagan - did a flight from Baba Dag to near Kalkan, within a glide of dad's villa, in 2002 (see Google Earth track below). I was half hoping to repeat this flight in the first week of arriving, but I wasn't ready for it. I believe I would be ready next time though.


Flight track from Olu Deniz to near Kalkan (Akcalar brothers 2002)

I e-mailed Jocky Sanderson asking for advice on this flight. This was his reply:

Mark

That flight log looks about right as he may have caught a sea breeze. It would be easy for you to go to Kalkan. It is important to go around 12 with the first thermals. That way you can go towards the sea without a sea breeze. Best time to cross valley is 12.30-13.30

good luck

Jocky

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If anyone reading this blog has any experiences flying at any of the sites (other than Baba Dag) or others in the general area please let me know.

'Bork'.

On August 16th I was ordering pancakes with Annie and my dad on the Olu Deniz boardwalk. 'What's your name?' the Turkish cook asked to keep track of his orders. 'Mark' I said. 'Bork' he said, mishearing, and wrote it down on his pad. After 10 minutes he summened me for the food by shouting 'Bork'! My dad laughed. 'A good name for you!' he said. Annie liked it too. So it stuck.