31 August 2008 - too much rain

We launched after we believed the worst of the rain had swept through, at about 2pm, but with hindsight this was a little premature.

Geoff radio called a landing for Noelhurst as I was being launched, which made the thought of pushing through the rain under the rotor pretty unappealing.
I stayed on tow until about 4,500 ft and released in good air. It was bubbly good air, but not easy to work. I tried pushing under a dry bit of the rotor, but then more rain started falling and i was chased back to the airfield.

At about 3:30pm, as soon as the hangar door was shut the sun came out and we were treated to a view of fantastic roll clouds.

The wave can be cruel some days. The worst part of it being Monday and Tuesday which did look promising, now look far too wet to offer any hope of flying.

20 August 2008 - 24,600ft

A great day away from the office.

The wave extended downwind of Mount William perhaps 8-10 wavelengths, enabling low launches (approx 2000 ft AGL) above Ararat town centre.

I released at about 3500 ft (2500 AGL) but struggled to stay in consistent lift so I flew south to a more promising looking area of cloud, but dropped down to 3000 ft before finding good lift in the quaternary wave.

Once I got some height I pushed forward into the next waves and got to the better lift of the primary. I got up to 24000 ft fairly quickly but once into controlled airspace, it got a little frustrating with cirrus closing in on the area. Wrong place wrong time really, as it was cycling all day. I left the area after getting to a maximum height of 24,600 ft.

I used the height to explore the area to the north west around Stawell, before heading back into the secondary at 7000 ft. Then i was just playing. I went back up to 17,000 ft, then flew into the primary, but the lift was weaker than earlier so when i reached 16,000 ft so I headed for home.

One thing I found interesting was how long it took to descend from that height. As an excercise, i wanted to see how long it would take to descend with full airbrakes and sideslipping and trying to stay in the trough.

A good day and my second diamond climb.

2 August 2008 - 20,500 ft

Weaker wave conditions and a dryer airmass allowed for more successful flying and civilised ground conditions.

Geoff Vincent Launched at 9:50am and towed directly to the primary wave.

I launched at 10:30, directly into the primary wave.

The lift was light (approx 4 knots) at the start of the wave (approx 8000ft) and gradually decayed to under a knot by 14000ft. The wave eventually topped out at 20,500ft.

Geoff tried exploring to the North and to the west, and I explored the secondary (over Great Western). Neither of us could improve on the 20,500ft we achieved near Mt William.

Keith Willis launched in the PW5, but a radio fault and the call of nature caused him to return to the airfield having reached 13000ft.

01 August 2008 - Couldn't crack it!

Local weather was fairly dismal, with wind, hail, rain, sun, more hail and rain.
Geoff Vincent launched early enough to establish himself in wave and reach 17000ft before being punted off by incoming cloud, and was force to retreat back to the airfield in rain.

I launched in the Jantar, but could not find a way through the clouds and quickly returned to the airfield.

Trevor Hancock and Keith Willis Launched in the Janus, only to be met by the same cloud situation and returned home shortly after the tug.

Not a great day by any stretch of the imagination, but a flying day nonetheless.