I see a pattern here.

Having arranged to meet Anand at the turn-off at 1100, I was surprised to receive a message from him saying he had turned around and gone home due to it looking too stable.

Fair enough it was cloudless blue, but the forecast promised more and in fact I was expecting an increasing wind. Of course that would be after I had launch and skyed-out on the way to far distant places.

There was no-one else at the carpark so I lingered modifying my plan. Then Rodger turned up and in no time at all we were off to the launch.

It looked promising at launch, the wind seemed good and clouds were forming, so we rigged up. And here was the fatal mistake, we didn't stop and wait, as soon as we thought it was OK we launched and unfortunately we launched into nothing. A couple of zig-zags and we on the deck. Bummer.

Of course in the meantime Nick and Evan were on the way and launched about an hour later and flew to Matakana. I'm really starting to hate that.
Leonardo Flight Link

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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