Saturday started off with Alto Cu forming to the North with no sign of any ground based Cu. Around midday some beautiful wave clouds formed underneath the Alto Cu as a result of an Easterly wind on the ground and a North Westerly up top causing shear wave.

It only took another 1 hour for the two air streams to mix and the Alto Cu to connect to the ground at which point the temperature had reached trigger point and we were launching. 6 to 8kt climbs were available to Cloud base (7,500ft) and I spent some time trying to find a climb up the side of the cloud without wanting to dump my water.

Interestingly the climbs were on the downwind side under the Cu which makes sense given the mixing of the two air streams. Pete Paine, Craig and I blasted around under the cloud streets until we got separated and then did our own thing.

As the day went on the sky overdeveloped and as Craig was landing I had a long glide from 7,500ft  down to 2500ft in still air back into a sunny patch, thinking that the day maybe finished when things started to bubble again finding a 4kt thermal which quickly turned into 9.6kts all the way to cloud base. A line of cloud then formed from Waikerie to Blanchetown. I had dumped all my water just prior to this thermal which was ideal to see if there was any thermal wave in front of the cloud. I found myself half way up the side of the cloud at 8,500ft using the momentum from the 9.6kts as I approached the base of the cloud. I found 1 kt as I ridge soared the cloud for around 10mins which basically maintained my height as I flew up and down the North Western edge.

The cloud street to Blanchetown drew me away and I zoomed off to Blanchetown at 100kts without turning then back along to Notts Well then Maggea and home.

It was well worth hanging on at 2500ft instead of heading for home and landing as this last part of the flight was most enjoyable and very relaxing. 340kms for the day flying under cloud streets and only going below 5,500ft once.

Peter Robinson, 13 March 2010

During December a cross country coaching week was held at Waikerie. The weather did not co-operate, as usual, but some good flying was had regardless.

Saturday dawned with a cool southerly, and low cumulus, with a base of 4200ft. Peter Robinson and Craig Vinall set a 203km task, WGC – Bakara – Pata – Overland Corner – WGC.

Peter Paine (LS7), Nigel Zimmermann (Discus) and myself (LS4) set off about the same time. We worked lift under scrappy Cu to 3600 for the first half hour on track to Bakara, at which point the sky blued out. I fell a bit behind the others, but arrived at Bakara at around the same time, setting the pattern for my day!

We set off towards Pata into the blue. 10km East of Bakara I found the best thermal of the day so far, reaching 4800ft at 4-5kt average. Peter Paine joined me and thanked me for the thermal!

There were very strong and narrow cores embedded in the patches of lift, which proved difficult to centre, one had to time entry perfectly and  bank very steeply to stay in the best lift. I was cruising with Pete Paine and Nigel most of the way but somewhere along the line Pete found a better thermal and slipped away.

Turning Pata it was decision time, should I cut through the Loxton irrigation area, or divert around it to cross the river further west? After attempting the direct route, sink ensured I was soon back over the paddocks to the east of Moorook and climbing.

I spotted Nigel in the Discus low but circling near the Overland Corner turnpoint, and pointed the LS4 at his thermal. Arriving about 300ft above him I was surprised to find only broken weak lift, so I clipped the turnpoint sector and headed off towards Waikerie. Nige later told me he was drifting with the weak lift into the turnpoint.

A couple of kilometers further on a patch of stronger lift was encountered. After a couple of minutes I spotted Nigel thermalling a couple of kilometers away, and above me – damn how did he manage that! Once final glide was achieved, I set off to return to Waikerie, arriving about 3 minutes behind Nigel.

All in all it was we all agreed a great fun flight, working together at times and separately at others, to get around on a marginal day.

Peter Paine managed 78 km/h, Nigel about 72 and myself 70.8. The difference was just one good thermal that Painey found and Nigel and I missed. (where was the radio call Pete eh?)

Dave L

The 31st of October looked pretty promising, with a trough bringing good Cu conditions to Waikerie.

Of course, as usual the Cu were everywhere but near the airfield, which was in a blue hole about 10km radius.

As the day looked to be a good one I loaded the LS4 with 4 tubs of water (About 90l). For some time I have been trying to improve my XC speed to above 100kmh, by flying 100km triangles, WGC-Maggea-Kingston Bridge-WGC. Last year my last 2 attempts were 99.3 then 99.67 – just a bit annoying!

On this day I released at 2500 over the bend in the river North West of the airfield, finding and then losing the lift in the blue. There were some Cu to the west so I headed over, and to my annoyance every time I got under a cloud and started to climb the thermal petered out after a couple of thousand feet, the Cu disappearing too. At this stage I dumped about 20 L of water, and things improved immediately. I guess the glider was just a little too heavy to circle in the best part of the lift.

Eventually I got a good climb to around about 9000ft. Now 10km East when I looked back towards WGC I was amazed to see a Cu forming just north of the club, offering the chance to climb just outside the start
sector. Even better a street had now aligned itself almost directly between WGC and Maggea. A good climb to the North took me back to 9000, and I flew thru the start sector at 8700 and120KT.

Half way to Maggea, at Holder I saw Robbo circling to my right, but the climb rate did not feel too good, so I pressed on. About 2 km further on track I hit a ripper climb and spent 3 minutes in 4kt back to 9000ft. I then continued to Maggea, turned for Kingston and then hit the big one, 5.8kt for another 3 minutes put me on final glide, only 30km into the flight. From there it was simply a case of cheering along the LS4 at 85-105 kt for 23 minutes. The last 20 Km was under a dark overdevelopment which gave no lift at all, lucky I had climbed to 1300 above final glide in that last thermal!

I finished at about 500ft, 120kt dumping water over the pad, followed by a normal circuit and landing.

Flight stats were;  100km in 43 minutes with 16% climbing and 84% straight. Speed was 142.88 kmh. Average climb 5.1kt!

My best flight from an all round perspective so far, and great fun!

I will buy a $30 bottle of Red of your choice for the first better this in a Standard class club glider this season!

Dave L

The phone went at 13.00. “Are you looking out to the north west?” It was Brocky.

“Yes I can see’em. I’ll get back to you a bit later”.

Later came and on the way back up to the airfield I rang Brocky, “Are you free this afternoon? I’m on my way up to the hangar.”

We launched into a reasonable norwesterly at 14.10 with the plan just to motor out northwest until we contacted wave.

Made a few turns in some of the better thermal lift on the way as I felt we were not going to be at a good height when arriving at location. Also didn’t want to stop to climb too much as all we would be doing is going away from where we wanted to be.

Cloud base was about 4500 but I really wasn’t taking much notice of that. We motored on norwest heading toward a good looking formation about over the Golf Club.

In the wave

At about 6,500 I contacted reasonable lift and nosed a bit more north, shut down the “wanger”, then moved back and forth looking for the strongest lift.

It wasn’t very strong, best at 4kts but mostly 1 to 2kts. It took a bit of chasing as it was really thermal shear that stood up as the clouds came under the wave line above. There were about three levels of lennies about the place but they appeared and disappeared constantly as if being fed by the cloud streets beneath.

We did a lot of searching about as things shifted and moved with the ever changing conditions. Eventually we found our way up over Bungonia Station north of Morgan at 9,500ft (yes and Brocky made 9,800!!).

Wave

The wave frequency was very shallow and you could glide into wind a long way in zero to minimal lift but it really only made 1.5 to 2 kts or better when a cu street line came under the wave line. You could see the cu turn smooth on top then a lennie line form above, it stayed for awhile then dissipated as the cloud line moved easterly.

As the day started to shut down with the ever increasing overhead cloud we started to venture south looking at the smooth top cu’s for that next white ridge ride. Unfortunately that never eventuated and so we let down below cloud over Cadell and headed for home. Two hours twenty air time, just a nice afternoon. Can’t wait for the wave season proper to arrive!!

Mark Morgan

The May issue of “Out of the Blue” is now available. Coming Events… the Hangar Ball, what the committee is working on, planning for the Multiclass in January. “How about 750 on a 650 day”, a riveting read from Craig Vinall. Well done on the 750, too!

by Dion Baker

Before Christmas, while I was organising going to Waikerie, I made a bit of a resolution. In the past, I’ve done long flights, and a few cross country flights, including a couple of 300km ones, but I’ve never been one for declaring and claiming badge flights and the like. So, with this in mind, I finally decided that it’s probably time to go for my Silver C distance.

I’d tried this twice before, in ‘06, and never had much luck. The first attempt went pretty well, until I got back, went to spray my baragraph trace and, like many before me, has smoked the drum with no alfoil on it. My second attempt ended with an outlanding. Ray Lawley, David Lawley and myself decided to try our Silver C all on the same day. All three of us made it down there rather quickly, but on attempting to get back, found that the headwind home was so strong, we were essentially going backwards. Pretty soon, it all turned topsy turvy and all three of us ended up landing in the same paddock.

So, on the morning of the 4th of January, the day I had planned to go home, I talked to the weatherman and he told me it would be fantastic conditions, right up to 10,000ft with little wind upstairs. I decided that I’d been putting it off for too long and to go for my Silver C. It was a very rushed preperation, and upon my DI I found that the battery charger had been turned
off, and the battery was flat. I got a spare, tested it, and put it in. Long story short, a quarter of the way to Loxton, all the instruments went haywire, the Colibri started beeping and I decided to call it off. The other battery had gone flat too.

When I landed, I believe my fathers comment was “You don’t have to come this low to notch, you know.”

On the way home, I decided to come up on the Friday and give it a go again. This was the last day I could fly my glider before Form 2 ran out, so I was adamant I was going to do this.

8th January, I came directly up after work, and sorted out most things that night. In the morning, I went to the briefing and while a task was set, the weather didn’t look good. But I didn’t mind. I’ve never been too scared of a bad day, because you never know what might happen.

I was somewhat unsure if I was to fly yet, as people who were on the grid were looking up at the sky and putting their gliders away. The day had been cancelled for the SA Comps, and there was still heavy cloud cover, blocking any sun getting through. Ray took off in AUGC’s Libelle, GMI, and was radioing back the conditions. It didn’t sound good, the thermals were topping out around 4,000ft, but I decided that I was going to do this, chuckling when Didi, loyally at my side the whole time, joked that I’d take a tornado as a thermal if I could.
So I took off, and bunged off just before 2,000ft in the only thermal I could find. Thermalling up to 2,400, I realised I hadn’t notched, so out came the airbrakes, and while trying to stay in the thermal, I came back down to 1,900 and started again.

On that, I went straight up to 4,500ft. I played around a bit, contemplating if it was good enough to go or not, and played around with GMI in a thermal for a bit. Eventually, I decided to leave.

Perhaps 18 – 20km out, I was getting low with no thermals to speak of, and hit the point of no return. I had just enough height to get home, so I had a decision to make, do I battle on and hope I hit something, or do I turn around and go home? I decided to turn for home, and take what I could, then see what happened from there. I turned around, levelled out, and ten seconds later the vario hit 7 knots and up I went. I decided it was on.

I originally altered my track to try and go where there was no cloud cover, but very soon I realised that the thermals were actually a little bit upwind of where the breaks were. It actually made sense once I thought about it.

My whole flight was done very very slowly. There was a horrible headwind, which resulted in my drifting backward 5 – 10km every time I thermaled. I was cruising at anywhere between 60 – 90 knots, depending on height, location and lift. I was working a height band of maybe 1,500ft, because below 2,500ft the thermals were broken and hard to find, and above 4,000ft
they weren’t worth staying in. Just before I arrived at my turnpoint, Loxton Wheat Bunker, I ended up at 1,800ft over a small farm. It took perhaps 20 minutes to make it back up to 2,200ft but then after that I shot straight up and drove on.

I was picking paddocks the whole time, even from 4,500ft. I was starting to get nervous as I got to the turn point. The cloud cover above was getting worse, and I wasn’t finding any thermals. I turned at the bunker with only 2,000ft. At that point, my only though was along the lines of “Oh well, if I outland now, at least I made the first 50km.”

I’d been up for almost two hours now, and all that time was spent getting to my turnpoint. I’d heard a few people on the radio organising to come out my way as well, but later found out that they decided not to, as they didn’t think it looked all that good.

Directly after I made my turnpoint, I found another thermal, somewhat weak, and rode that up to 3,500 where it died. I moved on a bit further, making nice ground speed due to a now favourable tailwind, and hit a 10 knot thermal. I went right up to around 4,900ft, and on that, I took my time getting home. I was playing around at 50knots, surprisingly enough in zero
air the whole way, contemplating turning to go somewhere else so as to waste time and make my five hours. But, alas, on arriving back at the airfield, with 2,000ft, no food left, no water left, and a broken pee tube (I had to hang it out the window D=) I decided to finish up. I practiced my
competition finish, with my pull up getting me into the sector for Waikerie (my last turnpoint on the declared out and return task) and landed with a big grin. I was rather proud of myself. I’d done my 108km on a day that the comp was called off (granted, it did take some 2.5hours to do).

So, I was some 230ft off my height, and didn’t make the endurance, but I’m very happy that I completed my 50kmout and return on one of the hardest days I’ve flown. To make me feel better, my total distance was 134km.

The $50 I put on the bar that night went down well too, as one would assume.

SUNDAY 8th DECEMBER 2008

As (without warning, though I read the signs – Pete wouldn’t normally tell you to have a drink before the next flight) the instructor secures the empty rear harness one is compelled to ask “are you sure?”.  A stupid question; if he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t do it, but one is still compelled to ask. Those with a suspicious mind might suggest the lure of a new AS G29 sitting idle at the take-off point might tempt the best of instructors to rid themselves of the pupil by whatever means.

Pre take-off checks complete. Now I remember the “Placebo” effect. Even though the instructor isn’t there you can feel him having a good effect. Unfortunately this effect wears off proportionally to the number of solo hours flown for some pilots, sometimes with undesirable consequences.

With the take-off roll finished it is instantly evident that the aircraft is 100kg lighter (hope that does no injustice Pete, and I didn’t call it deadweight or ballast!). Then as the boundary fence passes 100 – 200′ below I notice a distinct change of feeling. I feel quite confident that if the launch fails I will handle it safely whereas with the instructor in the back seat I feel fairly confident the launch WILL fail at just that point. Aerotows behind a good tug pilot are seldom exciting, and releasing into a thermal in yesterday’s conditions would happen by accident anyway. Post release check complete where I remind myself that I don’t have flaps or a retractable wheel – and I remember that not completing this check diligently has probably contributed to more than one wheels up landing.  

Quickly through 4000′ in 6 knots and I fall out of the centre. Ah, the freedom of not having an instructor –  I can use whatever language I like without offending – and I did use it. I used to be able thermal well; I should get professional help (no, with thermalling techniques, not psychiatric). 5500′ and I curse again, lost the centre for lots of 1 -2 knots reducing. More bad language – how long does it take to recognise the top of a thermal? It’s easy to be confident at 5000′ so I head off for what I think should work better at this time of the afternoon and soon run the next thermal to just over 6400′ (this time recognising the top).     

By now Waikerie Base has gone home and I’m remembering what a sore bot feels like after nearly 2 hours when Pete radios to check up on me (or to ascertain safe clearance height for his 100 + kts competition finish in the 29). I doubt he knows how to do a normal approach. I’m 3000′ directly above him so try to follow him back. It really is 100 + kts and I just can’t keep up.

I watch Pete land and wait in mild sink for him to clear the grass so I can drop in for a hangar landing and we can lock up and retire for the day.  So I choose and end-of-run point and a new aiming point (I still believe that using the wheel brake on a glider is cheating – it’s only there if you HAVE to use it) and fly an easy approach. All goes well with a perfect touchdown at the intended spot and no wheel brake. Only problem is I end up 50m short – must be a hill in that strip (more bad language). I look around for the instructor standing on the sidelines watching like an expectant father. Not in sight. Good, no more cursing, I rest assured he will never find out about it. Canopy open and feeling great.

What a tremendous day for lots of pilots and the Club – thanks again to all contributors.

‘Finally the least people that know about it the less the bar bill’.

Regards, JR   (John Ridge)

Sunday (31 August 2008) was certainly a great day both for the club and me personally. After the long wait, delays and frustration of shipping, I finally got the chance to fly my new glider.

Nerves prior to the ground roll became calm as soon as the controls took effect and I realized that it was going to be no different to any other launch. I was immediately comfortable in the glider; it seems very easy to fly and very responsive.

It will take a while to get used to all the instruments (electronics) and efficient use of the engine. But I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Thanks to all those who helped with the unpacking of the container and thanks to Mark Morgan, David Lawley, Nigel Baker and John Hudson who all helped get me into the air.

I was lucky enough to have a flight in the 21 while Mark was doing his evaluation flight of the 29. I got some air to air shots of the 29, some of which are in the photo album.

The 21 will be a great acquisition for the club. It is a very easy glider to fly and particularly easy glider to land. It was great to be able to experience some aerobatics with Robo. We have not had aircraft with this capability for a while, so some of us will now get the opportunity to extend our flying experience.

Plenty to look forward to.

Craig

The Adelaide Uni gliding club invited WGC members to come on its annual Flinders Ranges camp to Rawnsley Park, near Wilpena Pound, over the June long weekend. Our tug was also invited, and I was asked to fly it. I didn’t have to think about it for long…

I had a good trip, although the weather wasn’t great for gliding. No big surprises (okay, maybe the wind farm, but that’s another story.) The tug went well, and the AUGC gliders flew as required.

For the first time, I had a tailwind while ferrying the Pawnee up there on Friday. I phoned the local scenic pilot in the morning, and he said the cloudbase was only a few hundred feet above ground, sitting on nearby hills, and “there’s no way you’d get in”. But the forecast said things were improving, so we went in the afternoon. Richard Geytenbeek left at the same time in the Dimona, but he cruises a couple of knots faster so I didn’t see much of him en route.

After negotiating the ranges north of Burra and low cloudbases everywhere, we refuelled at Jamestown (that’s a nice setup) and made it to Rawnsley before 5pm.

Saturday morning, more people and gliders appeared, and the Motorfalke and Dimona got busy with site checks. Cloudbase was above the hills (mostly) but there wasn’t much sign of lift. After a while a couple of single seaters launched and spent an hour or two in light ridge lift on the eastern side of Wilpena Pound. 6 tows total. I scored the last ride in the Dimona with Richard – the ridge lift wasn’t enough for me to stay up, so it’s lucky there was an engine. Fun to try though.

The forecast for Saturday night included rain, and it was right. Sunday was also wet: some went to the Parachilna pub for lunch: some had a BBQ put on by John Hudson: we all had dinner in the Woolshed.

Monday – showers in the morning, and the airstrip takes a while to dry after rain, so no flying. Several of us went on a short walk into Wilpena Pound, getting a few sprinkles of rain. The forecast was saying Tuesday would be dry, with more rain Wednesday. By the end of Monday
there were only the two motorgliders, one glider and the tug left on the strip – everyone else had left.

Tuesday dawned to an almost clear sky with a moderate north-westerly. The top of the Chace Range was clear of cloud: the motorgliders headed over there and made good use of it. The one glider left also had a fine time – strong ridge lift on a nice long ridge. “You should have been there, guys.”

So I flight planned, packed up the tug and left about 1pm, arriving Waikerie about 2:30. Yes, tailwind on the way home as well.

Come along next year folks… the weather can be a bit of a lottery, but this is a weather dependent sport, so that isn’t a surprise. – Pete Siddall

More photos from the weekend

Rawnsley Park and Wilpena Pound on Google Maps

Just before I launched last Saturday in my Nimbus 2, Pete Siddal who was towing advised me that a band of rain was only 15mins away approaching from the west and that there was no lift out to the west. We had a good look at the sky, which was 8/8 cloud and there was some dying Cu out to the north on the other side of the highway. The wind was 15 to 20kts from the west on the ground and about 25kts up top.
So the options were to take a normal tow out to the west into wind and find nothing and land or take a risk with a long tow out to the north with the hope of finding some lift.

So we opted for the 2nd option and headed on a NNW track from 26 to ensure I had safe height to get back in case of a rope break. It was a very smooth tow as we headed up wind of the dying Cu which was directly North of the airfield. Approaching 3,000ft we changed track to the NNE heading directly for the Cu. We arrived at the Southern edge of the Cu at 4,000ft with the base of the Cu at around 4,500ft and it was time to get off and go explore.

I headed North under the Cu and found less than 1/2kt of lift and with the drift it was pointless staying here as I did not want to drift downwind of the airfield. I left heading WSW back into wind for a few kms and found a 2kt thermal which gave me an opportunity to access the weather approaching. The squall line approaching was angled NNW with the bottom edge just approaching the airfield, with it extending out around 25kms. I was about 15kms to the NNW of the airfield and between me the squall line I could see dust being blown off the paddocks below on a line abeam me and continuing out to the north.

This looked promising to attempt to run the front of the squall line NNW to fly around the top of the rain and in behind it without getting wet. The dilemma I had was assessing the what if as I did not want to find myself below final glide height back to get back to the airfield or getting stuck downwind. Not a day to be outlanding in a paddock with strong wind and rain. I also had to take into account my final glide height being at worst case through rain and with a 90 degree cross wind component.

Lots to think about and access in a short period of time, thank god for WinPilot and a few turns of the McCready and bugs knobs and I had a glide setup for rain conditions. My nimbus with its big wings does not like getting wet with the 48 to 1 glide ratio dropping back to what feels like about 30 to 1.

I was at 3,500ft and headed toward the dust and it wasn’t long before I was in 6 to 7kts directly north of the airfield heading on a NNW track and climbing. Approaching 5,500ft I increased my speed from 55kts to 70kts and to 80kts at 6,000ft and 90kts at 6,500ft as I reached the end of the lift. I continued NNW for a little further but the cloud to the west and NW of me was lower than me. I was 23kms North of the airfield and to get around the cloud I would have to go another 5 to 10km further North with no way of knowing what was behind it to the west.

Looking back to the airfield which I could not see for the cloud and the rain. See photo’s of what I could see to the south of the airfield. The final glide was predicting 1800ft to arrive back at the airfield flying at 80kts in rain so this was the best option. I headed directly south flying at 90kts to keep out of the cloud through light rain then turned SW and into the rain which was rather heavy. I wanted to get through the rain as quickly as possible so kept the speed at 90kts as I watched the Altimeter wind down at a great rate of knots.

I was heading for a light patch of clear air 5kms NW of the airfield and as I approached, the airfield came into view popping out of the rain at 2,500ft. It felt much better to have a normal glide ratio again as the wings dried in the clear smooth air. Looking out to the west there was another very large band of rain approaching and with no lift around and no way of being able to dodge the next one so I decided to head in and land before it started raining again on the airfield.
It was at this point that I received a radio call from the pie cart to ask if I was still flying – I assume they hadn’t thought I had outlanded.

Flying back to the airfield at Vne for the obligatory low level finish I hit the rain again on the Northern boundary to the airfield for a finish and circuit in the rain.

Overall a 44min flight from a 4,000ft tow instead of what would have been a 15min flight off a 2000ft tow.

Peter Robinson