Omarama 16/17 November 2013

JW and Doug were kept busy at the weekend and the weather produced good soaring on both days.
On Saturday Jaques flew with Doug for 3.5hrs on a local flight. Sunday was a busy day, being Day1 of the Regionals, but we managed to sneek in a couple of decent flights in between all the activity. Allen had a nice thermalling flight of a couple of hours, followed by Doug giving Phil a familiarisation flight going up the Ahuriri valley then over the Barrier Range into the Dobson Valley. John in KG joined us in a thermal  near Mt St Mary but was soon on his way again. Cloud base improved later to 10,000' but our original plan to try and fly JW back to Alex was thwarted by rain showers and low cloud base over the Dunstans. We sneaked in a landing back at Omarama during a quiet moment between the returning competitors after a very pleasant and memorable 2.5hr flight. Thanks Doug!

8th (Omarama)

Mark and Graham have had OK flights. Today Jack flew 2 hours with Mark, ridge-soaring in the strong easterly on the Buscott.

Thurs 7th Nov, JR

What happened to the sky of the previous day? Wednesday had wall-to-wall Cu that looked like it was pumping til730pm. This inspired me to take Thursday afty off...

The day was very slow cooking-up but Phil winched me up anyway around 2pm. It was pretty stable but a couple of lucky climbs got me over to the ridge where it got better. Short-lived puffs of Cu on Leaning Rock got me to 7000', but it looked bare north from there. Small climbs towards Thomson's enticed me to cross to the Northern Dunstans and brief wisp. There were in fact some strong tight climbs in the blue but without cloud to mark them and the pesky wind at height, I found them only by good luck.

I got high enough to cross to the St Bathans Range expecting some action...but not a bump.The wind was more NE on top and the sunny western face was all sink. Back to the Chain Hills for a welcome climb which took me back to a comfy final glide home.I txt'd Doug saying I'll be home in for derig and beer in 20 minutes. Lift and a good tail wind made that 18 I think.

Thanks Phil and Doug!

Sunday 3rd November(!), thermals, wave and Ozzies

It looked like a busy day, especially as we had new member Mark (with Graham) from Oz flying JW to Omarama for a week or so. We met at 9AM and were winching early. John gave Mark and Graham check flights in JW, and they later tried some local soaring themselves. John launched KG to keep them company. Unfortunately the thermals lost their oomph when high cloud passed over and everybody was on the ground awaiting Gary in ERW to take them to the hills.

Pete rigged LP, and we were all airborne again thanks to Gary and the return of blue skies. The ridge was scratchy but we all stayed up, Phil in KJ and Allen with Doug in JW. Eventually the thermals improved in strength.

Odd trailing-edge to a very odd wave (note the rain too!)

Weak wave formed behind the Dunstans, and after a long struggle was contacted by John and Pete. Meanwhile Vivienne arrived, rigged VB late in the day, and had a pleasant thermal flight. Mark took a long tow towards Omarama and continued on in wave while Graham drove through with the rental car.

Pete and John commented about the "weird wave" which was forming in a very low windspeed well under 20 kts. It also rained at 11,000' (but not below). Pete got some interesting pics behind the St Bathans Range and ventured into the Nevis before heading home.