2010 Forbes Flatlands - 4th day
The rotating task committee was faced with a dilemma. The BOM
(Bureau of Meteorology) called for isolated shower and thunderstorms developing,
becoming more widespread during the afternoon. Light and variable winds.
RASP showed a strong potential for over development, but Forbes was right on a
diagonal line northwest to southeast that separated the area that was forecasted
to have the thunderstorms from the area to the southwest that was not.
To add to the problems, the average boundary layer winds were predicted by RASP
to be 11 knots out of the west northwest going to west southwest later in the
day. Right toward the thunderstorms. Thankfully the lift was going to be
stronger and much higher than the first three days going to cloud base at
10,000'. It would be cold up that high even with 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the
ground.
The committee decided to call an out and return task of 127 km south southeast
to Grenfell and back. It would be a cross wind all day. The idea was that if
there was over development like yesterday it would be easy to stop the task and
pilots wouldn't be that far from home.
There were towering cu's to the north east when we got out to the airfield but
they were a ways away. I thought that maybe we might get away with this task
after all if the line was just a bit further to the northeast than was
forecasted. It was blue all around the airport with none of the cu's that were
in the forecast. Maybe the problem would be that we would have a blue day, not a
day with too many clouds.
We knew that there was plenty of lift, even without the cu's, as there had been
some towing earlier. Pilots didn't hesitate to launch and we found plenty of
lift as small cu's began to form near the airport. With the brisk west wind, a
number of pilots headed upwind to get a better start upwind of the course line.
We were not getting over 5,000' and the lift was weak at that altitude. It was
too hard to get into position for the first start even though we wanted to take
that one to avoid any problems with overdevelopment.
I went 6 km west upwind and there were a few others that were willing to go in
this direction, but not a lot. Climbing to 7,000' in weak lift I decided to take
the second clock off by myself as there were a reasonable number of cu's ahead.
The rest of the team was still a long ways from the edge of the start circle (as
there was no downwind winds to blow them there) and would take the third and
last clock.
There were cu's ahead and there was lift under them. Weak at first but by the
time I got to the third cu, things were picking up and I screamed up to over
9,000'. Indeed it was cool there. I hadn't put too many clothes on as it was hot
at the airfield, so I was a bit chilled and went on glide hoping to get down
some to warm back up. I passed some lift as it was weak and after a long glide
came in over Conrad working weak lift. I was low enough that I had to take it as
there were few prospects ahead.
It wasn't long before we were on glide again and not high. There were four of us
together searching. I found some weak stuff over some rocks and stayed in it
while I watched the others get lower and lower. Finally Conrad found something
and I was able to go over and join them. It was moderate lift but it got us back
in the game.
My long glide had been through a large blue hole and now we were back under the
cu's and within twenty kilometers of the turnpoint. There was lift under the
cu's but weak and I didn't get particularly high.
Still I ran for the turnpoint came, and then back into the sunshine under the
cu's to find broken weak lift and because I now was quite low, worked it just to
stay up. It turned on and I got up and out of the hole at Grenfell. Larry was
back at the turnpoint getting high under a nice thick cu. Zac was off the radio
and Jeff was a little ahead of us.
I headed back into the foot hills downwind east of the course line to get under
some cu's. They were pumping and working a couple and going on a long glide I
came under some real cu's. 900 fpm back to cloud back, almost 10,000'. I was
able to climb up the side of the cu as there was an overhanging shelf of a
higher cloud base.
There were scrawny cu's ahead, nothing like what I had just been in, but they
indicated lift, so why not. After another long glide I came under a small cu and
Larry came and joined me. We heard from Jeff that he had been down to 300' and
had drifted downwind 12 km east of the course line but was getting back up. He
was now behind us.
Larry's radio was also now dead but he seemed to follow my every suggestion. We
got high in 400 fpm and glided toward goal. There were cu's along the way, so
when we found some fresh ones, we went up again, enough to make it back to the
goal by the airport.
Maybe twenty pilots were there when I got there and perhaps thirty five came in
all together. Gerolf and Jonny were very fast. Zac wasn't so fast. Jeff finally
made it in starting way east of Forbes and just punching into the head wind due
west to goal.
It was great to be able to do an out and return given the forecast. It was great
to not have to do a long retrieval. It was great not to just go downwind, but to
actually have to account for the wind.
All and all another spectacular hang gliding day in Forbes. Possible site for
the 2013 Worlds.
http://OzReport.com/1262772806
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