G'day All, Thought I'd put a boring report together of my weekend soaring activity in the KING-A-ROY area. Saturday was a non-rostered tug pilot day, thankfully though with a few phone calls we were lucky enough to get a launch at 1300 - not one launch, but 5 of them for the hungry pilots that wouldn't accept no gliding for an answer. Thanks DMF! I spoke with Colin's passengers (who took to the sky in the DUO) afterwards, they had a ball & enjoyed an evening out at the club, before checking out the area on four wheels on Sunday.
Conditions saw an average of 2kt climbs around the area, even though they were regular enough under very lightly spaced wisps - I didn't venture outside of glide. Partly because the paddocks were quite wet in areas, & fine elsewhere. I flew alongside Simon & Don up to heights of 6,500' - thanks for the company. W3 is performing well, though with everything so well sealed, it's blowing out the high pressure air out the wing-gap seals = strategically placed vent required? I landed in the smooth conditions at 1530 after climbing in a weak climb earlier - great to be airborne again after 10wks off! I received a phone call from the Trotters saying that they'll be up on Sunday, I naturally responded 'great, the weather is looking better for an XC flight'. In the end, jagged that one - it was much better than forecast! We launched at 1140 into weak conditions under a CU filled sky. Thankfully after a 1/2hr, conditions improved & stayed that way. Declared task of Kumbia, Murgon & home. Thankfully mother nature took it's place & set up an epic street that we couldn't resist! I asked the Trotters what their goal was for the day, they responded with 'just to pay particular attention to having fun, & working on communications'. We promptly abandoned the task to fly what looked like a great line. It was. All three of us in close proximity, cruising down the line, just playing. My first L/D was 167:1 for 50km, before running into a 7.1kt climb for 1100'. From there & after we turned around, all of us flying 78km at a staggering 277:1 ! We were joined by Colin & Simon on this street, turning for Murgon approx 11km to the SE of Nanango. Off the freight train & into regular XC conditions. The paddocks below we're like lakes, thankfully the climbs were still there - working 4kts to the North. Overhead Murgon the Trotters got the jump, climbing in a nice 5kt climb. I was close by, but slow to react persisting with my 3kt climb to long. We decided to keep tracking North on the track line towards Windera, before pulling the pin approx 15km from the turn. Changing gears now, we start topping up in weaker climbs & taking bigger deviations as we enter areas of uncertainty & blue holes. Lisa surging ahead now, picked up a climb over head Woroolin to get a marginal final glide in. Pete had a slightly better run & landed quite a number of minutes ahead. I took a similar route to Lisa, though topped up over Wondai in a weak climb for the same marginal glide - knew I was home as I crossed the 7km point! All in all a great winters day, 211km at 89.8kph; 3.7kt climbs (17%); 64:1 for 21.7km glides at 60kts. Movie to follow in a few days! Where we're you? WPP P.S. off to Moresby for the first time on Tuesday, to start my induction into Air Niugini. To date, I've passed my ground school & F100 sim training. Let the next part of my adventure begin, hopefully it brings as much gliding in the coming season as it did last!! _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
