Flight Of The Sensis

The RASP for the day was a bit of a mish-mash. Cloudy with a Southerly, yet by the time we got to launch we were looking at a certainly cloudy day, some of them quite black and a reasonably strong steady Sou-wester.

By the time I was ready to launch, everyone that had, was gone over the back. This was my first flight at Moirs with my new Swing Sensis. Although the wind was gusting strong there were lulls, and I launched during one. The glider was easy to launch and I began my flight looking for the thermal out.

It wasn't to be, what thermals still of substance I apparently missed , and my time was spent flying around in broken thermals, only managing to get to 2700ft. Occasionally flying in light rain, I turned and ran when an approaching cloud appeared to be bringing a shower my way.

I felt really comfortable under the Sensis and had a pleasant glide to Old Kaipara Road, landing in the fully mown paddock I had used on a previous flight.

After packing up I had a short talk with the paddock owner who was building what he called a netting skiff. It took a bit of explaining where I had come from, as he thought I had tramped over his property. He wasn't anymore impressed when he understood that I had flown and landed there.

My first "hitch" was only for a couple of k's to Carran Road and I walked the 2 kilometers to Warkworth. I thought I would cross SHW 1 and walk up the road a short distance, sit on the side of the road and have lunch and then "hitch' to Moir Hill Road.

Only 50 metres up the road a van pulls over and I am offered a lift back to Auckland, the big pack must generate sympathy. Accepting a ride to Moir Hill Road, I ended up having lunch back at the car.

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Comments

May

No chance to fly this month. When it wasn't too strong it was too light. Of course during the working week was best with the weekends usually no go.

Over The Dome

Today was my best distance flight from Moirs. An Open Distance of 21.4 km, landing at the intersection of Waiteitei and Whangaripo Valley Roads. I should have got further but I think in my eagerness to clear the forestry that is the Dome Valley, I lost my cloud-centric view, instead focusing on the ground and therefore ending up there. The RASP forecast was good, in fact really good. Strong thermal updraft with little wind shear, thermaling height around 5000ft, a good sea-breeze convergence line stretching for a distance to the North, with light winds. When conditions are right for Moirs you always get a good turnout of pilots and today was no acception. Apart from the usual suspects, Ken Jackson and Joe Ward were there, I hadn't seen them for a few years. The RASP indicated a best launch window between 1 and 2 pm, and so it came to pass. Don, Jeff, Graham, Cam and Wayne were first off around 1320hrs, followed by Nick and Robbo at 1330hrs and then Lisa and myself at 13...

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 ...

Mission From Moir's

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