Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Glory Days

Have started!

This morning we had our first MG, unfortunately it vanished about 20 miles off the coast, but the Motor Sailplane guys picked it up on the other side of Sweers Island and were on to the tertiary wave by 8.30am.

My alarm went off at 5am this morning and as usual I went outside to check the wind speed and direction and the dew. For the first time there was a little dew on the car windows, also there was almost no wind, and the little bit was coming from the correct direction. I raced out to the airfield and set-up the fun & power harness. I took off just after the Motor Sailplane guys and just at first light. From the moment I got in the air I started noticing strange things, my climb rate would drop to nothing for a minute and then it would shoot up to 400ft/min and it kept doing this all the way up to 6000ft where I ran out of fuel. Also my ground speed was alternating between +20kph and -20kph with the decrease in ground speed co-inciding with the extra lift. My average climb rate just kept getting better as I got higher which made me think either I was running a bit lean or there was some strange wave phenomena in the area.
This morning after I rigged and did my pre-flight I realised that I only had half a tank of fuel and no more close by, I had my Sony Camera, but not the battery. That was the first time I realised the chances of getting a MG today were much higher than I initially thought.
It took me 38mins to climb to 6000ft and run out of fuel, I then enjoyed 20mins of peace and quiet floating around trying to stay in the lifting air.
I got some great sunrise shots, the MG is in the background but it was still 40+ miles away so you can't see it with this pretty low quality camera...
MG's always come in groups so it looks good for tomorrow now, just a little more moisture and it should make it inland so I can catch a ride.
Yippee, things are getting interesting here now!

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