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