15-Oct-11

3:57 am - QLD Severe Thunderstorm Alert: Large Hail, Damaging Winds. All of Southeast Coast and Wide Bay bat risk next few hours AND AGAIN this afternoon. 

8:30 am - CGC's gliding operations had been called off for the day due to wet runway surrounds ... a shame really as we had punters at the field ready to fly 

Pictured from left to right are Stan Anderson (on a short holiday - all the way from Scotland),  David Guzzwell, Barry McCarthy, Garrett Russell and Lindsay Mitchell.   

3:24 pm - Southeast QLD Severe Thunderstorm Alert: Large Hail, Flash Flooding, Damaging Winds. Central and Northern parts of Brisbane City area at risk. 

The day had remained dry and sunny with powered aircraft operating all day from early morning until a brief thunderstorm came in from the west at around 4:15 pm ... accompanied by a some small hailstones pinging on the hangar roof. 

The storm had dumped a bit of water and had passed overhead heading to the east by around 4.30 pm (this pic  is looking back to the west from the airport gate ... the trees in the middle of the pic are the ones surrounding the Aero Club).

Heading back to Brisbane after the YCAB storm, Kevin Rodda ran into a much more substantial storm after crossing the Pine Rivers at Bald Hills ... 

Just after these last two pics were taken (near Bunnings at Carseldine)  it turned into a heavy hailstorm. Kevin  reported ... "the noise was deafening in the car and resulted in some dents in the bonnet and roof ... unbelievable that the windscreen did not crack or shatter ... really a frightening few minutes".  

Between 5.00 pm and 7:00 pm,  BOM radar showed many storm cells coming in from Kilcoy and passing just above Caboolture Airfield, over Bribie Island and out towards Cape Moreton.   

 7:03 pm ... the good news we wanted to hear ... Bernard 'Speedy' Gonsalves reported that he had checked CGC's gliders after the afternoon storm ... "No hail and everything is secure".