Garry turned up in the morning, and for a while no one came. Then some people drove in who had seen the winch launching from the Caravan Park yesterday - however at the time they came, we were not operating, so they left
Then David Seib turned up and Geoff Neely.
Conditions were very windy, which is why I elected not to fly home - its very boring fighting a 30kt headwind in a Jabiru! However, there were signs of wave in the sky. Geoff Neely self launched in the DG400 and reported passing 8000ft in wave. Dave and I then decided to fly, as Garry was happy to fly the Callair. Dave flew the Jantar, and I took the LS6 as it was in the front! Geoff by this time reported climbing to 12000 feet in the wave.
However Dave and I were unable to contact the wave, although we did get some lift, neither of us was skillful enough to find the wave and get up in it. I tried to ridge soar the Carrol range, but gradually descended and left myself a nail biting glide to get back to the field. However the LS6 is a very good glider and I made it back for most of a circuit!
It was quite interesting and different to fly in these conditions, and the verdict was "better to fly than not fly" I am now enthused to try searching for wave conditions here this winter!
1 comment:
Hi Jenny,
I couldn't resist making a comment on wave flying at Keepit. My first wave experience was at Keepit 4 years ago with Garry in the Twin. The wind was quite strong from the SW, and we took a high tow upwind to about 4000' over the Carrols where we got off tow just upwind of a line of cloud. We contacted weak smooth lift and started to go up between two lines of cloud. At about 8,000' Garry suggested flying upwind. The ASI was reading 45 knots, ground speed (by Garry's GPS) was about 7 knots and we just went up. We got to just over 12,000' before we called it a day, and it was more than a bit chilly.
I had very cold feet when we landed after a bit over an hour, but it was a great check flight. This flight was quite late in the day (post 4:00 pm) and all other lift had died.
I'm glad to hear that there is still plenty of activity around the club.
Regards,
Greg Dennis
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