Saturday 24 October

An unexpectedly difficult wave day - It was only as a last resort that i went back to the lift the tug turned in where i found the connection to the wave. And it certainly did not follow the normal Worcester rules, at least not everywhere. Here are some pics
In the late afternoon some moist air in the lower layer starting pouring cloud over the mountains -overhead is a big black lennie

... and in the distance is layered stratus ...

Your transponder must be switched on ... 3200ft above and 6km distant is a 737 on descent to FACT ... if it was not for the Zaon pcas he would have passed unnoticed behind me

Wave stretching over the mountains - enticing

EY

Le weekend - the forecast for 24 October 2009

Freshly back from GTR09 - (and i will add some text to the pictures i posted when i have a chance) we are into the volatile spring weather of the Cape. It is a right good kick-off to the summer season. The South Wester is with us, and it brings some interesting weather.
Saturday
Expect a swing around as the wind starts N and ends S
Surface wind - SW20, 5000ft W 20, 10000ft NW 50, 15000ft NW 70, 20000ft NW 80
Windshear is moderate 18ms/4km
Light CAT predicted at 5000ft - 11000ft
Wave from 6600ft at 2.5ms to 25000ft at 3.9 to 40000ft at 1.2m/s [a Diamond height day]Cloud 3/8 at 16 - 17000ft
Max 26.6 Dewpoint 8.6 Trigger 25.5
Expect 0.8 ms - 1.3 ms to 5000ft
Energy 43 J/kg
Sunday
An anabatic cold front 182km to the NNW moving at 26kph to the NNW, vertical motion 517m/hour and rain behind the front.
Really moist (in the middle layer) post frontal south easterly - if it was not so moist it would have been an ideal day to George and back a couple of times - the dry adiabat has a classic long distance day curve!!
Surface wind - SSE20, 5000ftSSE 30, 10000ft WSW 30, 15000ft W 60, 20000ft W 80
VERY STRONG SURFACE CAT - watch the ridges!!! and medium CAT indicated 8000 - 10000ft
Windshear is 18ms/4km Wave from 10000ft to 16000ft
Cloud 3 - 5/8 from 4500ft to 6800ft
Max 17 Dewpoint 8.9 Trigger 15.8
Expect 1.0 ms - 1.4 ms to 5500ft
Energy 50J/kg
EY

Bseakfast

Saturday - the day has been cancelled and i hit the long road back home in pouring rain. In the foreground is the spot tracking unit - it does not do the full job in Southern Africa, but you can find my track if you click the link at the top right of the page.

Topsy

Retrieving DM

Day 1 (again)

No flying today, the wind blew unabated and in the late afternoon some big Cunimbs developed. As i write this there is a big storm approaching the airfield. I took the afternoon of and visited my Mother in Pretoria - so i did not miss flying one little bit. In the early evening i went to the Virgin Active Gym in Krugersdorp - a busy gym - and make my way through the rivers of stormwaters I picked up a supper at Nandos. Then early to bed with yet another storm overhead.
EY

GTR 09 Day 1 and it is blowing a gale with 8/8 midcloud and little prospect of flying - tomorrow also looks grim. It gave me a chance to fix a sticky dump valve on the water ballast (landed with one full wing yesterday - fortunately the wind was howling on the ground, which helped to keep the glider under control.

This picture of EY has ZS-URR, a Nimbus2M in the background - I have more than 600hrs on her and many fond memories.

EY

A long drive, with lots of luck

On Monday I specially drove to Worcester to have the trailer serviced - GOOD to GO i was told in the late afternoon
I departed Thursday after collecting my repacked chute and saying goodbye to the family, just as well as there was an accident in the Hex River Valley the next morning and traffic was stopped for four hours
After the overnight stop at the Beaufort West, i was in two minds whether to stop for fuel in Colesberg or 70k's later. I changed my mind as i left Colesberg and dropped in at the last stop (where i have never stopped before) only to find that the hub of the right wheel on the trailer had broken. And the petrol attendant had an arrangement with a local mehanic Gawie Brits, a wonderful guy, who had a replacement hub (must be the only one between here and Cape Town, or perhaps even the South Pole. Phew. Thanks to Gawie and his family i only lost 3hours on the journey (when i saw the damage i thought - there may go the GTR) IF i had broken elsewhere i probably would still be stuck there. THANK YOU MR BRITS
The west wind was blowing strongly and in the distance i could see the trough line. It was only at nightfall that i was under the clouds.
Tomorrow is a practice day and then we are on.
EY

The problemsolvers

OLC season

the second Monday in October brings to an end the OLC season (and, of course, opens the new season).

Right up to the end everyone in the northern hemisphere seems to have been having exceptional flights in October - i saw that Ulf did a respectable 290+ on Saturday http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html;jsessionid=057CA1169F0F6E65E9EB8F4B97EC5A4F?flightId=533943406

Jim Payne http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=1091120 gave the most eloquent epitaph to the season (and i trust he will forgive me for repeating it here)

Today's mission was a trifecta: improve the Classic OLC score, add insurance to the Speed OLC score, and see if a triangle could be flown in the Sierra Wave ... all below FL180. The wave was the result of a weather system moving into the Sierra from the northwest. Doug Armstrong gave me a heads up last weekend. Tom came down to fly with me in the ASH-25. The forecast pointed to weak wave early in the day with progressively stronger winds. The rapidly moving system resulted in constantly changing conditions which with the mostly blue conditions made for an interesting intellectual challenge. On tow the computer showed 11 knots of wind. Most the day the winds aloft were showing 25 knots. The sojourn to the last turn point on the triangle was of special interest. During the last leg south the winds had picked up to 38 knots and a big lenticular formed over Owens Lake. We tiptoed to the tertiary wave and headed back west. We made a good climb in the secondary and were surprised by the strength of the primary. We entered the lift just over 15,000 feet. The lift was so strong that we pushed straight through (for fear that we would be rocketed into Class A airspace), gaining 2,500 feet in 3 minutes at 110 knots indicatedIt looks like today will the last good day of 2009.

Congratulations, Klaus, on winning the Classic OLC.

Thank you, OLC for this wonderful contest that encourages pilots, Doug for the forecasts, Dr Jack for BLIPMAPS, Bill Francis for all the tows, Greg Cole for letting me fly your beautiful yellow SparrowHawk, Bob Ettinger for letting me fly "F-16", Tom for being a great brother and partner, and Jackie for all the support and the retrieve to Idaho.Think wave!

JP

I think we all share Jim's gratitude to OLC, our fellow pilots, crews, met men, tugpilots, friends and families.

EY