New Zealand is serving up some of its finest weather imaginable... not! Today's (Monday Dec 17th) forecast is for a double barrelled frontal passage (cold) from the southern tip of the South Island to the Northern tip by, maybe, midnight local. Tomorrow's (Tuesday Dec 18th) forecast is for bright clear skies and thermals with a Southwesterly wind. This will be another learning experience for the non-local pilots... but then again pretty much everyday should be a learning experience here. Unless your Gavin Wills or my host, Chris Rudge of Southern Soaring.
As I write to you there is a split view in the valley. To the North you can see Little/Big Ben and clear up into the Ohau Range of mountains. To the west, Magic Mountain and Snowy Top (two local ways to get out of the Omarama local area) have just disappeared in low clouds and rain. So far, it has rained nearly every day I have been here, even if only a light drizzle. I guess that is what you come to Omarama for?
What about yesterday, you may be wondering?
Yesterday served up some pretty good soaring weather by any account. There was plenty of thermal action down low and good oportunities to transition into the wave if you wanted. The axis of the approaching rain yesterday was from the west coast over the main range, but very, very slow. It was raining in the upper Ahuriri valley when we were launching at 1pm. But it took until almost 6:30 p.m. for the rain to get to the airfield.
With this axis of approaching rain, the flying axis took most people on to the Nursery ridge here at Omarama, then a transition to either Magic Mountain and Lindis Pass to the West/Southwest or to the Ewe range leading up to Hugo's elevator and then on to the Southwest. Probably one of the better flights was by Ben Flewett up to past Lake Tekapo in the Northern edge of the task area in the wave. Easy... especially after his landing on the road at Haast Pass the day before yesterday. Apparently, he was just able to put it down and get it stopped between two sets of snow polls - yikes! Good thing the ASW-27 has good brakes.
Jeff Campbell, of Telluride and Parowan towing/aviating fame, is here on site for the Austral Summer and offers a welcome Yank perspective. After yesterday's wave flying for me, I took Jeff's advice to get down on the ridges today. This I did... and got the c---p beat out of me!
Basically, I went practicing getting out the basin by the various ways: Nursery to get up, Ewe-Omarama Saddle, Magic Mountain-Lindis/Ahuriri, Benmores-Ohau, Benmores-Grampians. Luckliy all the forms of lift were working. I got hooked into nice wave twice, ran ridges too many times to count, tangled with rotor, and saw some moderate broken up thermals. A very nice day was had by the gliding half of Team TM.
Below: Here is the ground-half of Team TM. Miss Sarah has her first cold (in New Zealand!) but everyone is doing fine at this end of the world.
Bellow: Here is John from Animation Research installing the technical package in our Ventus. Since the last GP qualifier here in January 2006, they have improved the hardware and distilled it into a package about half the size of a loaf of bread. This is complete with Lithium-Something battery (fire extinguisher not provided), and Iridium modem, GPS and GPSR communications technology. As only half the fleet is wired up and there is no flying today, the pressure is on to get hings right so that by day 1 on Wednesday everything works on the broadcast end as well as the glider pilot's instrument end. The last time there were some serious conflicts between loggers (pretty important) and the broadcast gear. We all really hope this is fixed so we can have good racing, with our instruments, and give the on-line crowds something to cheer for.
I heard there was a free Diana 2 lying around here... How much???
Seriously, this is what happens when you have a very unique glider, in terms of rigging and trailer needs, and send it to the other side of the world - without its own trailer. The drill is going to be that should Sebastian landout, TWO trailers will go and get him. One for the fuselage, and one for the wings. Talk about living like a prince! The above and below pictures were just post the fitting of the parts into the borrowed trailers.
This is a view of the broadcast truck being set up by R2. Luckily for us, this rent-a-truck is going to no more nefarious purpose than to broadcast our flying antics to the world wide web. As you can see, this contest is not going to be your normal U.S. contest with somebody bringing their personal laptop in to do scoring...
And for my rowing team back home; Where else can you see the reesults of a rowing race on the front page of the sports section? The glider airfield I am flying from in Omarama is also only about 15 miles away from the site of one of the biggest high school rowing regattas in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine taking Stotes... then putting it on a lake in the middle of the Nevada desert. These Kiwis are rowing and gliding mad!
That's it for now. All the GP pilots are now in residence on the airfield and our first offcial task is set to be given tomorrow. Here's to great and safe racing beginning tomorrow. Watch for my reports as often as I can get on the computer between juggling baby duties and racing in a world championship.
See Ya! Tim/TM
2 comments:
Good to see team TM/EY together on the upside down side of the world. Sounds like you are enjoying things between the raindrops. When you get back on the first part of the new year, we have some new rubber to tru out on the crew trailer. Best wishes to continued great gliding!!
Hi Tim, I am greatly enjoying your insight into the Gliding Grand Prix and wish yourself and the whole grid a successful and safe comp. As a UK pilot in Canada for the winter, I haven't seen much in the way of soaring but look forward to the spring- but in the mean time your blog gives me the fix I need!
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