The end

Monday

This morning it was raining again – although only lightly. At briefing the forecast was no flying today, strong winds and low cloud on Tuesday, possibly flyable on Wednesday? On Thursday a new rain front is coming through – possibly Thu afternoon or if we are lucky on Thursday evening. So possibly there could be flying on Wednesday which would see 4 days for Std and 15m therefore the minimum for a competition, and if we are really lucky maybe a 4^th day for Open and 18m on Thursday.

The underlying problem is that there is water over all of the paddocks, and my concern is that an outlanding in one of these could see the glider stuck there for a month – there you go Todd, I’ll give you the coordinates so you can pick it up on the way to Narromine Juniors??

I am not that keen on hanging around in soggy Dalby for the rest of the week on the off chance that we may get a flight over the sodden paddocks, so I am now writing this last blog from Narromine – on the way home.

I have an option for a launch on Tuesday lunchtime if the weather is suitable, so we’ll see how the weather is tomorrow morning. If no good then we will keep heading home, arriving Wednesday.

I enjoyed the 5 flights I had at the beginning, but am not used to so little flying in a gliding comp in Australia – shades of Norway.

After the Rains

Saturday, After the Rain

Now I am depressed again! 55mm of rain and the airstrip is under water.

Today we rescued some of the gliders, socks and shoes off, black mud squeezing between your toes, we paddled out and with careful use of wooden boards rescued some of the gliders from the pools of water.

I rescued the LS3 and dried it out, but couldn’t get my trailer out of the trailer park – too soft. I found a nice spot in an aircraft “car-port” so it at least looks dry.

We rescued John’s Discus 2 and he was able to get his trailer out so de-rigged. Six gliders left for home today as the weather forecast is not very promising for the next week. John s also heading home and will leave early Sunday morning.

No way we can get on the airfield before Monday, potential for the trough/low pressure to back up on Monday and deliver a little more rain, with another system due on Thursday. Maybe we can fly Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday, or none of these days? Driving out to Toowoomba today, the fields are absolutely soaked. The thought of a landing in one of them does not inspire me.

15m and Std class needs one more day to get a competition, the other classes need two days. There is talk about a short Run task around a few local airfields – doesn’t sound too stimulating.

Mandy sent me a note today to describe  the 6000 ft cloudbase at Gawler. Tim Wilson received a photo of 8000 ft at Benalla. Mark Rowe sent info on the 6 knots to 7000 ft at Narromine. South just sounds good.

We will consider our options tomorrow when we get more weather info.

We visited Bob and Jan ward in Toowoomba today and he showed me the progress with his Pik27 towplane. Looks quite a good piece of gear. Tonight we had dinner with the Lake Keepit guys and with Beryl Hartley. A real good night – still plenty of fun around.

Last night we visited the Trotters and Miles Gore-Brown - they have rented a lovely apartment. A great group of people, another good night.

It's raining

The pub crawl commences

It’s raining in Queensland, and I mean really raining. Looks like we might have had an inch of rain (25mm for the younger folk) and we are told that the heavy rain hasn’t arrived yet! Certainly doesn’t take long for the ground to turn boggy.

The prediction is that the rain will have moved through by tomorrow but chances are that we won’t be able to use the airfield for a day or two.

We had the pilots meeting this morning, nothing too controversial, no yelling or tantrums – bit boring really. Chatting about talking on the radio, whether this was collusion between pilots. A tongue in cheek motion from OBH that pilots found talking be disqualified for the day – thankfully this motion lost –although a few in support! General consensus that we should get the ITC fund back out of general revenue – can’t imagine a lot of support from the board for that.

We had lunch at “The Coffee Club” and heading for the Trotter’s place for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we may drive down to Boonah to have a look at that site – a couple of hours drive they tell me. It’s a tough life at a gliding comp.

Some photos showing the water when we arrived, after it dried up and now the falling rain. Guess we can look forward to low cloudbases and soggy thermals once we start flying again.

I am over my depression now – took at least two glasses or red last night at the Chinese restaurant., Now can’t wait to get flying again!

photo 1 - the day we arrived, water over the airfield tie down

three days later, dry field, improving clouds

The day the rain came

lunch at the coffee club

The crew at work

Day 3 unfortunately

Whoops!

A crappy day weather wise and just too many low spots for me, only managed 62kph – never flown so slow. The prediction of thunderstorms and a trough line with heavy overcast meant that they only tasked 15m and Std, the other two classes had a day off. First launch at 10:45am saw only weak climbs to 2500 ft. I found a reasonable climb to 3500 ft near to my start point and with the sky getting blacker decided that I should go. Started with Craig Collings and we had a good glide out towards the southern tip of the first sector of the two hour AAT. The reasonable looking cu cycled and we ended up at 900 ft for about 10 minutes before we finally managed to climb out back to 3000ft. The first sector was dark and cycling and I didn’t go too far in as it looked  a bit better towards the Bunyas.

The day never really improved for me, low and slow climbs, even the good looking clouds didn’t have much underneath.

I did a similar distance to Craig and Lisa but was 10-20 minutes slower getting home.

The real issue is that the people who couldn’t get away initially ended up leaving an hour or more later jut as the conditions re-cycled and the cloud thinned out. Peter Trotter couldn’t get to his start point for an hour so didn’t start until 12:25pm – he flew 20kph faster – ouch! John Nicholls had to land for a re-light and couldn’t start until 1pm, but the conditions were better by then and he had a good run – a much happier John. Same story from Miles Gore-Brown, who landed back and started around 1pm to get 77kph

So I am depressed – well, not happy anyway. Looks like rain for tomorrow and possibly Saturday. I hate having a bad day before a rest day.

Day 2

DAY 2

A more consistent day, a little stronger, bit with a little sting at the first turnpoint. A set speed task, 338km for Std and 15m, and 319km for Open/18m.

The task setting is quite good, compliments to Alan Barnes for this. Each day you feel like you are being tested, certainly not a lot of start tactics.

Cloudbase was again about 4500ft but it felt a little stronger today. The lift was stronger close to cloudbase so you had to be careful not to expose yourself to collision risk.

Given that the day ends sometime between 3:30-4:00pm, a 338Km tasks was going to take 3-3:5 hours, so a start between 12-12.30 seemed likely. The gate opened just after 12”05 so there was a tendency to rush off. I controlled myself and started at 12:15pm at the same time as Lisa Trotter and just before Miles Gore Brown.

The first leg was great, lots of streeting, good pull ups, something like 130kph for the  first 60km. Then it turned bad. Going in to the first turn at Chinchilla the clouds were broken, overcast and still lots of water on the ground. It was a real struggle, trying to stay up but moving forward to escape form the bad country. The toll at Chinchilla appears to be about 6 gliders. Unfortunately Tim Wilson and out own John Nicholls succumbed. John eventually fired up his engine, whilst Tim spent 25 minutes below 900ft before finally landing n the only paddock close to the turn. A few others landed on Chinchilla airfield and a couple at an agi strip. Kerry Claffey landed in a paddock but their car sank through the surface crust and it took quite some time of pushing and tree branches etc before they finally made it out.

Meanwhile, those of us who survived continued into improving conditions – still a bit tricky but the occasional good climb of 6 knots.

Lisa and I were still together to the second trip but conditions down the next leg were a little unreliable. Good looking clouds but thermals were a little inconsistent and many people fell off the bottom of the gaggle, only to catch up again a little later.

Around Tara I as a little low and then joined by Alan Barnes who had been hanging on to the bottom of he gaggle for some time. We eventually found a good climb and the rest of the flight was just good and fast. We had one great climb which pushed the thermal above the normal convection level and we had to push below the next two clouds. Around the last turn we were still about 1000 ft below glide, plus an allowance for the bugs. A glider in front pulled up under the next good cloud, and after a couple of re-centres I had 6-7 knots.

Alan Barnes pushed ahead working on the rule that the first one to leave gets home first. I took a safety margin of 1000-1500 ft and flew home at 100-120 knots, passing Alan about 5 km before the finish.

Peter Trotter and Craig Collings left a little earlier and together with Mike Durrant had a better third leg than us.

In 18m class, Graham Parker won the day at 114kph (handicap).

Tonight was Simon Brown’s birthday and he shouted pizza and beer and wine around the pool at his motel – a very pleasant night.

Talk of thunderstorms tomorrow.

Contest day 1

Contest day 1

Sorry, a little late with the blog. We had to drive into Toowoomba last night to pick up Vicki’s friend Anita who flew in from Melbourne.

Day 1 looked really good, but for most people it wasn’t quite as good as it looked – I thought that we could sue the clouds for false advertising – looked like they had 6-8 knots but you could only find 3-4 knots.

Cloud base was just on 4500ft, and thermals were stronger up closer to cloud base, so I decided that staying in the top half of convection would be a good idea – so a working height band from 3000-4500 (mainly 4200ft).

A 2.5 hour AAT and I needed to be back by 3:30pm, so started about 12.50pm. Good streeting but you had to be careful which street you followed, as they were cycling a lot. Brad Edwards called up to say that he had outlanded – I played it a little cautious as I flew past his landing area.

To get deeper into the first sector I had to move across a hole to get to a good looking street to the east. Arrived there with good height but didn’t find much (maybe I should have flown further under the clouds?). Progressively getting lower I got rained on – not fair. Still no climb and quite low now, I turned around and headed back under some cu. At 700ft AGL I thought my comp was over, but found a weak climb on a small hill – reasonable paddock close by. After a grovel I finally climbed out and was joined by little gaggle which progressively got bigger as we continued to climb. I led the gaggle along with Alan Barnes and Dave Shorter.

A few good climbs but we all played it cautious over the scrub so took a few 3-4 knot climbs also. The gaggle finally split up at the top sector as some people turned for home and we each made different decisions on the best clouds to fly under.

Fairly uneventful except I never did get a good climb, only 3-4 knots. Final glide was a little fraught, lost most of my safety margin but picked up a little under the last couple of wispy clouds. One Duo Discus didn’t quite make it and landed short by a couple of km. I think the bugs on the wings weren’t helping.

A few people didn’t have a low spot and ended up 10kph faster than the pack. Mile Gore-Brown won my class at 114kph, Peter Trotter at 110 and then me at 101 – a big points difference, but it could have been a lot worse.

Miles was the fastest across all classes for the day, and only 1 or 2 in each class getting the higher speeds.

Vicki has found a solution to the photo issue so hopefully we wil have some photos to put on the blog tonight.

Today looks much the same as yesterday, 5000 ft under cu, possible thunderstorms, and we have a fixed tasks of 338km out to the wet country to the west.

Official practice

Official practice day

A long briefing which included the opening by the local Mayor. They seem keen to have the gliders flying at Dalby – which is nice.

The weather briefing didn’t say much except cloudbase at 4000 maybe 5000 later. A brief mention at the end that there were warnings of rain/thunderstorms.

First launch was planned for 11am so all were advised to marshall by 10:45am. Complete mayhem, the big gliders were meant to be at the back but didn’t show up on time, so after lots of shuffling the organisers gave up on classes and just said to grid wherever you turned up. So instead of being near to the front I was now in the back one third of launches.

Got off tow, pulled the undercarriage up, and the noise just got worse – gear door hanging down. This has happened before – and the glider didn’t perform and the noise was deafening. After a few moments I decided I should land and fix it. Called Vicki but no response, so just alerted the organisers and landed for a relight. Still no Vicki, so I phoned her. For the first time in 20+ years she had decided to head into town to get the cable for the camera. So initiated a rapid return to the airfield to tow me back for a launch.

Finally re launched, and keen to start. A 2.5 hour AAT meant that I didn’t want to start after 1pm as the day had been finishing at 3:30pm. Started at 1:10pm. Heading south, left the start at 4300ft and glid through a decaying sky to reach the first solid cu’s at just over 1000ft – a good 4.5 knots.

The clouds were overdeveloping and cycling and collapsing – tricky picking a path, with lots of changes of direction.

I left one climb looking for a better one, which was almost a major mistake, the clouds ahead all decaying. Finally found a slightly weaker climb in the sunshine but this got me to some better clouds and a good climb back up to 5000ft. Decided to head to the next turn sector and chased a good street. There was rain coming out of the clouds a little to the west, but should be able to avoid this. Then it started to rain out of my cloud. There were a few gliders around and I managed to stay above the majority. Now over a lot of scrub with almost unlandable paddocks in the clearing – some guys looked decidedly low.

I found out later that John Nicholls got low in a similar area and decided that firing up his engine was a better option than grovelling into worsening paddocks. A numb erof people used th sesame option.

Staying up was the major aim now, with the task secondary. Avoiding the growing number of rain showers whilst maintaining some trajectory along task. I deviated around a major storm and then had to veer around the back to get into the last sector. A long glide to some small cu further into the sector resulted in no lift. Time to head home, and I had final glide to a small airfield half way back.. Skirted the rain again, under the overcast, heading for the solid part of the cloud, and at 2000ft I hit 6+ knots. Final glide was easy now. I came in 15 minutes early, but really pleased to have once again avoided the wet paddocks.

No scores yet, so no Idea what the earlier starters were able to achieve, but I am happy with the flight.

Vicki couldn’t get a cable for the camera so still no photos.

Day 1 tomorrow, so now we have to get a little more serious.