Yes, J and I watched the show and I remember that day spectacularly well. It was the AUGC regatta and we had several others from other SA clubs around. I was in Club Libelle GMI and ended up running from Crystal Brook at Max Rough Air as well (108 kts or thereabouts) having seen the downbursts and the lightning. I remember blazing past Dennis in QZ without slowing down. I arrived at the airfield with around 1000 ft height loss over the 60 kms and not having turned once. I am not sure what my outward average speed was, but the return leg was an incredible run.
Once everyone was safely back in the general vicinity of the airfield, everyone hung around at various altitudes watching the storm get ever closer to the airfield. Then it became a race to see who could get on the ground and into the hangars quickest. I was pretty sure I was first having used the Club Libelles terminal speed airbrakes to good effect. I remember having to help push a couple of late arrivals back to the tie down areas in very heavy rain. I'm walking backwards to Christmas! (Sorry, another Goon Show line). -----Original Message----- I recall one day when flying in a friendly comp from AUGC Lochiel airfield in a wooden aircraft, an ES59 Arrow (28th Feb 1999). It was a hot day with rough scratchy thermals, but then the day took off. Towering Cu's formed around the task area after we had all left on task. I was heading to Crystal Brook (about 60km from home) when the day became overdeveloped, cloudbase was 9,000' and the lift had been working well. Then there were reports of hail falling near Brinkworth, hence the task was abandoned and we all went running for home. I was at Crystal Brook at 8,000' and then followed under a wide, dark, flat bottomed cloud street back home, actually gaining height in straight line flight, it got to the point that I had to deploy full airbrake and fly at max rough air to prevent going up. I could see microbursts hitting the ground east of track north of Snowtown. Dennis Medlow was in front of me in Boomerang QZ and can vouch for the conditions. Soon after, there were two lightning bolts either side of my intended path, hence I immediately altered course 90 degrees to the right heading towards the blue sky west of the cloud. Once in the blue and looking back at the cloud was an impressive line of Cb's embedded in a mid-level overcast stretching from the Adelaide plains to the Southern Flinders Ranges. I managed to cover 120km in less than 2hours, with an average speed of 80km/h in the ES59 Arrow. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
