Day 9 – Wind down and Ferry Home

Only four gliders plus the ASH26 self launcher were on the grid for a 300k task to finish the expedition.

Tom Holt took the ASH 26 for the sniffer flight but struggled to even stay up, the rest of the fleet launched after midday and also experienced unforecasted low heights. An in flight conference resulted in the abandonment of the task, everyone landing and derigging for the journey home.

Home field at Beverley was experiencing tug problems, so I loaded up PA25 BMF and departed at 15:15 wst, arriving safely at Beverley on flight plan one hour and thirty one minutes later.

The OLC statistics for the week were:

18,877 kms flown, 58 flights logged by 13 pilots.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightsOfAirfield.html?aa=SOCRO1&st=olcp&rt=olc&c=AU&sc=wa&sp=2013

We didn’t get any “day of days” weather, but we flew every day we were there and the weather on the coast was really bad due to a cut off low forming over Perth. So we had a lot of fun and we finished up with the same number of aircraft as we started out with, which is always a good result!

Congratulations to the pilots for keeping it safe and we had some great times together, that is what it is all about!

Blogger: John Welsh signing off.

 

Link

Day 8 Flights OLC Scores

The day didn’t develop as expected and stayed around the 5-6,000′, but the Cu cloud helped.

A “replacement airmass” arrived from the south about 4:30pm and killed the Cu making the way home challenging. Paul Rose didn’t get that last thermal and outlanded 33kms to the north west. The paddock was soft but BMF’s 260hp engine made short work of pulling the Discus out and returning it safely to SX.

The day finished with another convivial meal at Stan’s Palace Hotel.

Day 8 – Launching into some lovely Cu.

RASP forecast early start and late finish with Cu to 6,000′ early. The Cu did start early but didn’t go above 5,000′ until midday, so the guns wound back from 750kms to 500kms task in the air. Looked very pretty after finish of launch – see the new headline panorama. I might get time to catch up with a weeks washing and watch a bit of the cricket before the fleet gets back!

Day 7 – Promising start but finished with Thunderstorms.

Forecast gave 30% probability of thunderstorms but the day looked so good (see photo) that a 364 kms AAT was set with a 3 hour minimum. Unfortunately halfway though the launch the first of the heavy showers formed and bore down on the airfield, causing a 180 degrees runway change. Those that launched late had a struggle to get up, while others faced with some Cu-nims to the west decided wisely to come back. The tug was kept busy with an 82km and a 37km retrieve. Thunderstorms started to form all around the airfield, retrieved pilots dodged around to the north to get back to the strip. Some pilots completed the task, while others settled for dodging around the big ones and enjoying the strong climbs to over 9,000′. Warren Rock got back from the task to find a huge Cu-nim sitting over the airfield, dumping heavy rain and sparks, so he wisely chose a paddock 10 kms north to await the passage of the monster, so the tug could retrieve him. Roy McInnes outlanded the ASW17 in a soft paddock 80kms away requiring the services of the farmer’s tractor to unbog him to an area where the trailer crew could derig the glider.
However, the fleet manage to accrue some more OLC points for the Club:
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?df=&sp=2013&rt=olc&st=olc&c=AU&sc=wa

Link

Beverley Increases its lead on the OLC Worldwide Club Table

Six completed the task today with good OLC points increasing our lead over Darling Downs and Kingaroy Gliding Clubs by over 3,000 points. The conditions were good compared to the Perth area, which was under the influence of a cut off low dumping over 100 mm of rain in places. RASP forecast that SX had a keyhole of opportunity and our pilots took full advantage of it. Norm reported excellent streeting up the second leg and strong climbs to over 9,000′.
Allan Phelps fell in a hole 50km outbound and Roy outlanded 25 km inbound, both subject of successful aero retrieves. Hoping for a similar day tomorrow but all depends on what the cut – off low does.

Day 6 – 12/12/12

A keyhole of good conditions showing on RASP to the west and North of SX.

Tasksetter Greg Beecroft has set 360 km FAI Triangle with 20 kms circles in the hope we can bag another bunch of OLC points.

Spot Tracking of some of the fleet on: http://www.beverley-soaring.org.au/spot/spot.php

Dusty 2!

Photo: Norm Bloch

Dusty!

Some pictures from Norm Bloch of the dustorm

Day 5 – Exciting Flying – Nearly too exciting! – John Welsh

RASP forecast only a small keyhole of flying in between thunderstorms. A 100km FAI triangle was set to try for another Australian record. Unfortunately on launching it was found that the last turnpoint of the task had a huge storm front sitting over it, so task abandoned.

I got a day off towing, Owen Jones very kindly let me fly his LS8-18 today – I bombed out first launch, but the second flight was interesting – nearly too interesting. Rode the storm front up to 9,000′ until it was 30k out bearing down on Southern Cross then scuttled back with the pack to tie down. Owen decided to derig and we were trying to close the lid on the Cobra when the dust storm hit, four guys holding the lid down until we secured it, could not see a thing. See photo of Owen below, what a dirty old man!

My flight details are on:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1992043567

We’re not sure whether tomorrow will be flyable – watch this space!

Looks like a great day – port side of the cockpit

See the dust rising into the clouds.