Speedy's nice surprise

18-Sep-11

The following photography and text was submitted by Bernard "Speedy" Gonsalves ... 

I guess you all looked at the sky today and thought ... "it's not much of a day to go gliding".

I thought the same ... but I also know how nature can surprise you.

After a self-launch in the K14 today at Caboolture, I climbed up to 3,500 feet and headed off. 

After an hour and a half flying around near the Glasshouse Mountains, I came home because the poor visibility demanded concentration to keep a good lookout.

Then came the surprise! 

At 2,000 feet just west of the airfield, I encountered smooth lift and, after one turn around, I saw what was happening. 

I knew I was in for a big ride!

I took this photo because I was excited when I saw the convergence being caused by the incoming sea-breeze :)

There is a division down the photo. On the left is the light NW air mass and on the right is the even more smoky NE air brought in by the now famous Caboolture afternoon sea-breeze :)

The exciting part was seeing the higher wispy clouds in the distance that turned out to be about 8'000 feet. 

They were the only clouds around and they were in a line running North South. 

I turned N/NW and followed this convergence line from Caboolture with the stick forward just to stay down below the airspace. 

At Woodford, I let the stick ease back and cruised up to 7,500 feet. 

Cloud base was about 500 feet above me.

There were no CGC members still around when I landed which indicated that all other gliders were back at the hangar ... the fact that I was the last glider back actually made the day seem a bit more special.

You just never know!

Thanks again to whoever returned my van to my hangar spot.

Speedy

Speedy's was a 3 hour flight from a 12:30 launch. His photo was taken at about 1:30 (the normal time for the sea breeze to hit Caboolture is around 1:00 to 2:00). 

While most Caboolture-based glider pilots view the sea-breeze as being an enemy (dissipating thermal activity as it comes inland), Speedy has for some time been encouraging us to "turn our lemons into lemonade" ... by making the most of the convergence that is often formed to climb up the front of the incoming air mass and make use of the lift that can be available in the air mass that the sea-breeze pushes itself under.       

This version of Speedy's photo has been digitally adjusted (less brightness and more contrast) to accentuate what Speedy could see at 2,000 ft ... the moisture-laden heavier sea-breeze air mass is coming in from the coast ... wedging itself under the less dense inland air mass and pushing it upwards. The aim for the glider pilot is then to sit the glider in the westerly air mass which takes you up and over the incoming afternoon sea-breeze.  

Interesting also to note that Nick Sheahon (upon returning from his epic first solo flight on Saturday afternoon) commented that all the lift was above 2,500 feet. 

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