G'day all, and I hope my fellow Aussies are having a great Australia Day weekend! After being dragged by the kids out to Crawley to watch the annual Australia Day Skyshow over the Swan River - which was actually better than it's been in years! - and dealing with all the crowds, I was ready for some quiet time up in the air. So, after a relatively late start for me, I got into the car with plenty of cold water and a packed lunch and headed out to Cunderdin for the day. I arrived just in time for the 9:30am briefing, it looked a bit quiet today - not a whole lot of activity around the place. That changed pretty quickly! Read on after the jump for more...
G'day and welcome to my Soaring blog! I'm a glider pilot and instructor at the Gliding Club of WA, based in the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Cunderdin. I went solo in early 2013 and rapidly worked my way up to being let off the leash to fly cross country. This blog is primarily a personal journal of my notes and comments on the lessons I've learned and my impressions and opinions of soaring flight; although I welcome all readers and comments :)
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Higher and higher
Talk about missed opportunities! I was supposed to head out to the club last Saturday, December 29th, but had my Dad come down from Karratha to stay with us for a couple of days. I declined to head out gliding in favour of hanging out with him - I should have taken him out there with me!! The day was shaping up very nicely in the morning and I was kicking myself that I wasn't up in the air, by lunchtime it looked like thermals would be heading upwards of 10,000'. Oh well, I don't get to see my Dad much so I guess that's fair. But just to rub it in, Vic called me late in the afternoon to report that I had missed a boomer of a day and that he had topped out at 12,500' in the Jantar. Good thing that by that point I had a nice cold beer to cry into :,(
Anyway, back on track. It's been hot here in the west. Bloody Hot. The past couple of weeks including Christmas and New Year has seen Perth in the grip of a heat wave, with most days going northwards of 36C, and many of them well over 40C. Today was no different as I was driving out to Cunderdin, at 0800 it already felt well over 30. Arriving at the airfield I was greeted by a hot and humid Nor'Easter that was ominously promising a hot day with potential thunderstorm activity. The morning briefing met report confirmed this, with a forecast of isolated thunderstorms penetrating from the north by 1400 or so. Good thermal activity though, with expected tops of 10 - 11,000' by the mid afternoon. There were a lot of members at the club today, many of them still on holidays and taking every opportunity to fly. Several of them decided on a task to fly and headed out to prepare their machines. They're all practising for the State Championships, which the club is hosting next week. More after the jump...
Anyway, back on track. It's been hot here in the west. Bloody Hot. The past couple of weeks including Christmas and New Year has seen Perth in the grip of a heat wave, with most days going northwards of 36C, and many of them well over 40C. Today was no different as I was driving out to Cunderdin, at 0800 it already felt well over 30. Arriving at the airfield I was greeted by a hot and humid Nor'Easter that was ominously promising a hot day with potential thunderstorm activity. The morning briefing met report confirmed this, with a forecast of isolated thunderstorms penetrating from the north by 1400 or so. Good thermal activity though, with expected tops of 10 - 11,000' by the mid afternoon. There were a lot of members at the club today, many of them still on holidays and taking every opportunity to fly. Several of them decided on a task to fly and headed out to prepare their machines. They're all practising for the State Championships, which the club is hosting next week. More after the jump...
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