Bork's Blog

28th July - Racon Tepe and Heat Stroke

Özgun, Annıe and set off to Racon at about 10.30am from Bilkent. We got back at about 6pm. There was almost no protection from the sun throughout this time, it was close to 40 degrees out there, and humid!

I had already overheated by stupidly flying off the hill after rushing to the top, missing the thermal cycle completely, and landing at the bottom having to hike 200m up to the top again - in the worst heat of the day. At around 1.30pm the thermals came round to the NW face (from the south), and cumulus were beginning to form above the dirty haze. Özgun and I both took off into a thermal at the same time, and climbed high above the hill with very little drift. Annie was cooling off down at the water trough.

Özgun high above Racon.

Özgun climbed very efficiently, hunting for cores (they were 4 ups), and was way above me by the time I reached my highest altitude of 2,670m (8,760 ft) ASL, gaining 4,500ft above take-off. At this point I saw him to the south heading towards a huge cloud cell which looked like it was overdeveloping. I decided to fly east with the wind drift. I took a line south of the hills east of Racon, and pretty immediately decided that the clouds were too tall and threatening and I needed to land. I pulled big ears and descended - travelling at 65kph with the wind! I landed 13km ENE of Racon, about an hour after taking off, next to a road just beyond a small village. Communication was better with Annie this time - I called her on the mobile and read off my coordinates from the GPS which she located on her map. She did some good navigation and found me in about half an hour. I was feeling nauseated from the heat. We returned to the water trough at Racon where I doused myself in cold water to try to cool down. As I was to find out, it was too late!

Now where was Özgun? For three hours he was out of radio contact, and we couldn't reach him on his mobile! Annie last saw him heading south, a dot in the sky, so we slowly took the main road in that direction. Eventually we made contact by phone. He had hitched back to Racon. When we were all in the car again, heading back to Bilkent, we got the story from Özgun. He had climbed to 4,200m (13,800 ft) ASL on the edge of the cloud I'd seen him heading towards! He was wondering the whole time whether it was a cu nimb. Then he saw a continuous grey curtain between the cloud and the ground in the distance, so he decided to try to head back to Racon for an out and return. At this point he was 22km out. His ground speed changed from around 50kph to 10kph as a turned back into wind. He landed 6km later - 16km from Racon. He said that the air was OK above 2000m ASL, but lower than this it got turbulent and he said it was difficult to keep control of the wing. He got a frontal collapse higher up, and as he was coming into land - really low - it became frighteningly violent and he used some sort of mantra ('not now!', 'not now!' was it?) as he came through it. My theory was that the air below 2000m ASL (1000m above the plain) was all the mixed air being sucked up into the cu nimb. Above 2000m it would have become more organised, with the warm and cool are being more homogeneous.

Özgun got a lift with a guy who told him that it was hailing further south! So the decision to turn back away from the cu nimb was a good one!

Anyway, all respects to Özgun for flying like a nutter towards a cu nimb, getting up to 4,200m where the temperature was around 0 degrees, and living to tell the tale! His GoogleEarth track can be found here.

When I got back to the apartment my body pretty well packed in. I got heat stroke with all the symptoms except mental confusion! My temperature rose dramatically, and I couldn't sweat or have a pee. I could barely move I felt so tired. Annie spent the next few hours wrapping me in cold towels and ice to bring my temperature back down.