Know when to hold, know when to fold, know when to walk away, know when to run.

Four on the hill. Tony, Anand, Wayne, and Graham.

The wind is getting up, so Anand and Wayne launch, but they don't look like they are making great headway forward or up.

The clouds look flatter and the wind is stronger now, I hold off launching hoping for a lull, but lulls are further apart.

Then Anand takes a thermal over the back, the downwind leg of his turn is fast and we see him take an asymmetric then head for the paddock by the cars.

Next is a call to say he has landed OK but in a tree. We call it a day. Wayne has fun landing by the cars.

Comments

Better at Walking Than Flying?

The sacrifices I make for the greater good. The forecast was pretty good regarding the usual parameters. But a couple of indicators weren't that great. First, the wind was expected to be more westerly than wanted and, a new one of interest, was that on the Skew-T Plot (the vertical X-section of the atmosphere) the gap between the Blue (dew-point Temperature) and Red (air Temperature) lines was unusually large and grew bigger as the day progressed. In simple terms, "no clouds". And this turned out to be the case. Andy was the only one at the turnoff, so he lept into the car and we proceeded to the end of the road. Out at launch conditions looked perfect, nice back-ground breeze with good, but not strong cycles coming up the hill from the SW. The wind already had a Westerly tilt. But in hind-sight the main indicator was already there. Very few clouds, and what there was were small and not well formed. As we prepared to launch a couple of nice clouds did form out ...

Don't Climb The Hill

Forecast was good, and it pulled quite a few pilots to the hill. I was the last to launch, while most were climbing out and the rest were sinking out. What was initially a good launch into lift quickly turned into a coulpe of quick passes across the face while gradually sinking below the ridge, finally landing short in the paddock across the road from the Bomb-out. A decision was made to climb the hill (fool) in the hope of a late launch, and after about an hour I was back on top keen to go. But after time to cool down and reassess I walked out to car park, and that was that. Leonardo Flight Link The Climb - Google Earth

I'm Not The Only One Who Gets It Wrong

It looked possible. Light SE winds possibly swinging SW, so it was worth the trip. By one o'clock there was quite a crowd, Jeff, Kim, John (HG), Xen, Alex, Wayne, Anand, and myself. But it appears no matter how many turn up if it ain't going to happen, it ain't going to happen. The wind was consistently from the Easterly quarter, although light, and the clouds slowly built up and came in from the West. Eventually overdeveloping, but the Sou-westerly never arrived. Gradually pilots left to other commitments as it became more obvious that it wasn't to be, and the die-hards finally capitulated around three, leaving John the Hangie to linger. The sea-breeze looked like it eventually arrived around five, so I hope John was still there to get a bit of soaring in.

Mission From Moir's

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