At 1030 Sunday morning I was looking at the sky, and Skysight, trying to
convince myself that it was going to be worthwhile taking a launch. It
wasn't much better after launch - weak climbs and cloudbase was just
over 4000 ft. I headed east and kept finding enough lift to stay
reasonably comfortable so followed what looked like a convergence line
down towards Killarney. There was some good streeting but it fizzled a
few kilometres south of Mt Sturt (SE of Maryvale). Had a brief chat with
a power pilot who was heading for Brisbane at 4000 ft. The cloud was
just below the top of Mt Mitchell and Mt Cordeaux at Cunningham's Gap,
although you could see daylight on the other side. Didn't hear any
accident reports so I guess he made it through the gap - not sure I
would have been comfortable if I'd been onboard with him.
After
that I headed back past Clifton and found a higher cloudbase and
stronger climbs - several of 4-5 kts, a couple of 7-9 kts, and one
ripper over the top of Milmerran Power Station which was a steady 12 kts
on the averager, to nearly 7500 ft. Very unexpected but also very
welcome - almost enough to get me home.
I also
heard the Cathay aircraft talking to ATC on the area frequency -
apparently his flight plan had got lost in the system so he had to sit
waiting at the holding point for nearly 30 mins while ATC contacted
Cathay ops to resubmit the flight plan. When it was finally sorted he
was cleared direct from Wellcamp to Hong Kong - not a call you hear too
often in our area. Robyn has advised that this will be a regular
occurrence for Sunday afternoon so very advisable for all pilots to
monitor the Wellcamp frequency when in the vicinity, or else the area
frequency, if you are anywhere near Wellcamp on a Sunday afternoon.
Thanks to Ivor for the tow and for dropping me in a nice thermal,
cheers
Mal