Saturday 15 June 2002, a gliding day for the true believers. Gliding at Bunyan for the Canberra Gliding Club [www.canberragliding.org] was fantastic: the wave was on! While Friday's weather predictions were good, in Canberra at 0900 Saturday it was 8/8 at ground level and pouring rain, but the rostered crew and true believers had to go to Bunyan airfield at least. As so often happens at Michelago the cloud lifted and blue sky covered the south.
All the duty crew were airborne by 1145 and the sky was unbelievable, only poor tuggie Dave Francis was then stuck on the ground. Alan Wilson took the first launch in the Astir thermalled relatively smooth rotor to cloud base 6,000 AMSL and then radioed in as every 1,000 of climb passed. Pres' Stuart was next in Jantar, with O/O, barograph, GPS and EW recording things. Rick Agnew and Duty pilot Glenyce took a Puchacz for fun. Then a few syndicate pilots were sucked into the sky. T'was tuff, we all cruised in front of Rick's camera at 9,000 and he then finally cleared further climb. After two hours twenty Alan took pity on Dave, landing to give him a launch. Unfortunately the Astir is a club glider. Stuart landed with gold height on the GPS, barograph and EW, but needed to warm frozen bones and [you guessed it]. And it was only 1400. Alan can never rest while a glider is on the ground so he then took the Jantar. [What would he say to anyone else calling him down?] Pres' Stuart was also confused by a GPS that said: tracking 090 at 15 knots with Bunyan behind him, despite the fact he was heading 270 at 50 knots with Bunyan on the nose! Think about it. It is not lack of oxygen, GPS is right. So, just a few days short of the shortest day, everyone at the airfield had low points of at least 10,000'. If we changed to 1013.2 QNH Dave got to FL 160, Stuart FL 150 for Gold height with Les and Paul confessing to similar heights, Alan FL 200 at 1600 but would have needed a clearance to go further. Everywhere he went a lenticular formed. Rick and Glenyce landed after almost 5 hours and at least 3 rolls of film, all at 10,000. We even told the one transiting Cessna that 'no one was as low as he'. The weather, well, while fantastic I remain confused. Thank god for vario's that sing. For mine there was a low over Yass/Forbes pouring rain, nevertheless there were strong westerlies at altitude at Cooma and contradicting northerlies on the ground. Cloud base existed at 6,000, 10,000, and lennies at FL140, 180 and FL 200. Later in the day the foehn effect was evident, and clouds had bases sloping down some 1,000' to the NW. Fantastic. Freezing level was 10,000 at noon so no snow? Overnight, after flying, I bet rain poured at Cooma . No wonder gliders are starting to arrive at Bunyan: two more Libelles this week. The wave camp is scheduled for the last week of August and is now probably filled, but wave happens whenever the wind is from the west/ N/W. Alan Wilson Would rather be above 8,000, than on the ground talking about flying: and did it today. See also www.canberragliding.org -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
