I stayed in Oacoma, SD for a couple of days on our way to Wyoming for the Solar Eclipse 2017 and, between family sight seeing including a couple of dams and the capitol at Pierre, I got in a bit of flying.
We stayed at the Arrowhead Cedar Shore Resort in Oacoma that is right across the Missouri Rover from Chamberlain, the HQ for many a slope trip to South Dakota. Mostly just passing through but since the resort is right on the shore of the Missouri River I thought, maybe, I’d get a chance to fly a bit. As it happened, time was short but the SE wind was a decent direction for a gander op the shoe north of the resort. I hit pay dirt about 1.5 miles north of Cedar Shore on some Public Land that had about a 30 foot slope with the wind coming straight in at about 15mph.
My first bird in the air was, of course, the Weasel. I was only moderately hesitant to throw the plane in the air, not because I didn’t think the slope would work but because I’d left the wing screws and the Blenderm tape back at the hotel! No matter, I figured the magnets holding the Weasel-Trek together were strong enough for an exploratory flight and, after about 20 minutes I was proven right on both counts. The plane held together and the slope worked!
Even though I had no problem with the Weasel holding together with no wing screws, I didn’t want to try the same with the Ahi. That, and I wanted long pants to trek through the tall grass to get a bit further down the slope. So, back to the hotel I went. 15 minutes later I was back at the hill putting together the Ahi with wing screws and tape!
As I was putting together the Ahi I decided to add 2 ounces of ballast because the lift was a bit bumpy and I wanted to try to smooth it out a bit. Seemed to work fine as the Ahi grooved right out of my hand. By this time the wind had also picked up close to 20mph. I had a good flight just getting to know the Ahi and, while the lift was OK, I think the increased wind velocity started to blow the lift band out a bit. No matter if it stays int he air I’ll fly that thing!
My final flight of the day was another Weasel flight with the full confidence of a screwed and taped bird. Wonderful!
If you find yourself in the area and don’t want to drive to the bigger slopes outside of town, this is a very flyable shoreline slope that worked well in a Southeast wind. I think 12-15mph would be ideal for the dream-flight dream team of the Ahi, Weasel and Alula!
8/17/17
Pilots started arriving early in the AM of Thursday, October 4th and were welcomed to the first sloping location by South Dakota resident and slope finder, Rob Hurd. Rob has done extensive research and travel to find the best locations for sloping in South Dakota and the next 4 days would prove that his search was not in vain.
Many of the new arrivals chose to stay at the spot near the parking area. Several adventurous types followed Rob to a different hill that was about a 10 minute hike from the parking area. Shazam! It was a great spot for DSing! Several pilots took DSing 101 from Rob as most of the attendees had never done the DS thing before. We spent several hours finding our DS wings with Rob patiently looking on and offering advice.
Saturday and Sunday were spent front siding at another private ranch about 5 miles from the first site. The slope here was spectacular! The ridge is about 250 feet above the land immediately below and then it slopes down another 300 feet or so to the Missouri which is less than 3/4 mile away. The bowl shape of the site would make working it from different wind directions possible although it was pretty consistent on the two days we were there.
