Grampians Soaring Club

Trevor H reported on GSC activity at Ararat over the above two weekends:

Weekend of 10th November

A busy weekend overall.

Friday saw the tug and the Janus being ferried back from Raywood, with Phil McC. in the Tug and Trevor H. and Brendon L. sharing the towing in the glider. Dave L. had the task of towing the Janus' trailer back from Raywood.

On Saturday there were a total of 10 flights with Gary S., Geoff V., Dave B., and Ted G., enjoying flights in various single seater gliders, with flight times of around 3-hours.

There were 6 flights in the Janus with Gerry E. reacquainting himself with gliding after an extended absence and Brendon L. taking Dave L. for a long flight at the end of the day. Towing was thanks to Phil McC., with Trevor H., being the duty instructor for the day. Overall, it was a great day for flying with good lift throughout the afternoon.

In contrast, Sunday saw a strong northerly wind. Phil O., arrived from the Bendigo GC to conduct our Club's biannual operations check (a GFA requirement). Despite the strong north wind, Gary S. and Geoff V. managed extended flights in their single seater aircraft. There were 10 practice flights in the Janus, with John R. instructing. Gerry E., Jim N., and Ted G., took the opportunity for some practice under difficult crosswind conditions. Brikan T also did his annual check. Towing was thanks to the two Brians. On the day there were plenty of thermals, though the cores were narrow, and it was a challenge to remain centred.

The real news is that our latest 2-seater training aircraft should arrive in Ararat sometime in early December.

Weekend of 24th November

This weekend was a winch-launching weekend with the Janus being used for all training flights and Trevor H. as duty instructor.

Saturday saw 8 flights with some extended soaring occurring. Others found themselves just doing circuits, particularly later in the day. There were 2 AEF's on the day, and a former glider pilot (from Euroa) arrived at the airfield to take a couple of flights and reacquaint himself. Eric B. had a couple or flights, and Gary S. took the opportunity to be checked for winch launching.

Winch Driving was thanks to John A. with Brian W supervising the launch operation and wire retrieves.

On Sunday there were a total of 6 flights with much better soaring conditions. Flights by Ted G., Brendon L., Kevin O., and David B., with the last flight of the day extending for over an hour. Winch driving was thanks to Brian W. with Ted G. supervising the launch operation.

The weekend was a great opportunity for the recently completed work on the radiator cooling fan housing to be tested. 

Thermals are rising columns of air, that originate from a sun warmed surface, such as a dark coloured field.

The strength of a thermal and it's period of operation depends on many things, including local topography, atmospheric conditions, and the amount of sunlight.

Suffice to say, while you can feel them, they are difficult to see, unless they entrain dust or smoke.

Thanks to our ex-club member, Peter J, I was made aware of a rare event filmed in Outback Australia.

Details are contained in The Australian Newspaper article from September 15, 2012. See Link.

Quoting from this article:

Alice Springs filmmaker Chris Tangey spun round, his camera already cocked and rolling in an incredible moment of good fortune, to capture four dust devils dancing, one with a gullet full of flame.

In a show lasting some 40 minutes, Tangey says, the largest uprooted mulga trees and hurled them skywards, a "proper tornado", while the most spectacular swallowed a bushfire, sending an arc of twisting orange up toward the heavens. "It was like a dance of giants, really," Tangey says. "There was a red one, a black one, a white one and one made of fire."

Thanks to Chris Tangey, we now have the opportunity to view a thermal, even if it is somewhat more energetic than those we experience while soaring.

There is a "Vimeo" video of this event which can be seen here.

Note the swirling nature of the thermal as the air column rises from the ground. Impressive eh?.

Also, observe the birds flying in the background.

The four-part series called 'Great Southern Land' is currently airing on ABC1 TV and features life in Australia from an aerial perspective.

In the first episode "Great Australian Bite" on Sunday 23rd September, Maurice Little is seen flying the program's host Professor Steve Simpson in our Janus C glider above the Challicum Hills wind turbines at Ararat.

If you missed this episode, it can be seen here.

Next the clubs Janus 'C' was pushed out of the hanger at 12:00 noon and towed down to the highway end of runway 22. The weather was starting to cloud over and didn't look too good at the airfield or in the distance towards the Grampians.   There was a 14-knot wind blowing; we had to make a decision quickly to fly or not to fly. Geoff said we would give it a go, so we put on our parachutes and climbed aboard.  Brian Wood was ready for the tow, the rope was hooked on and away we went.

Brian did a great job flying the Tug, dodging around the cloud and finding a few clear gaps to push towards the Grampians; it was a bumpy ride up to 6,000 ft and then it smoothed out. We got to around 8,000 ft and 15 kms from Mt William when we felt some lift, so we released and got into the secondary wave where we climbed to 9,000 ft.   Looking ahead we could see a good clear gap in the clouds right along the Mt William range.

Geoff with his experience said we would push on to the mountain range and try to locate the primary wave. He was right, as we approached the top of the range we were climbing at a good steady rate and soon we were in the calmest flying conditions I had ever experienced. Geoff had two GPS units on board and calculated the wind speed to be 35 knots, which was a lot stronger than at ground level. We were flying at 55 knots and checking out the size of the wave pattern which was 5 kms wide and a kilometer across.  We had to zigzag around to stay in it,  and a few times we did 360 degree turns;  climbing all the time. The mountains and the clouds were looking further away every few minutes.   When we got to 14,000 ft. Geoff asked if I was  feeling ok, my reply - feeling great thanks, and breathing was good also as the oxygen system was working as it should.

 I took a few photos and Geoff had a fly for a while, then I took over again and finally we got to a height of 15,300 ft where the wave stopped.  We then headed along the range towards Halls Gap and on to Lake Fyans. Home over Stawell and back to Ararat with 6,000 ft to spare. The flight duration was 2 hours 18 minutes, of which I flew about 2 hours.  As a new comer, I felt I needed to share my first wave experience with others, as this flight was my longest and highest.   I would like to thank Geoff for his offer and add his expertise in wave flying was unbelievable.     . Only one word to describe it Awesome!

 Ted Wohlers.