| Soaring the Morning Glory with
Hang Gliders 1995
William Olive
19th to the 28th September 1995. Our 1st exposure to morning glories,
we weren't really sure what to expect. In hindsight what we had in this
10 day period was 2 wave sets with about a 2 dry day break between them.
Included in each set were two waves which were definitely moderate to good
strength and at least 2 of these were very strong. Bear in mind all our
observations are done no further north than the mud flats. Systems out
at sea don't impress themselves on us very much if at all.
29th September 1995 Al Giles and CMAC soared
a particularly strong wave from Burketown to Adeles Grove where it dissipated.
CMAC soared at 8000' which would put the cloud height at 5000' to 6000'
. Propagation speed seemed about 30 to 35 knots, direction SSW
30th September 1995 Billo, Al and PK soared a strong glory to Gregory
Downs. The cloud dissipated about 5k short of Gregory but the lift and
turbulence increased. Notably, the system speed INCREASED as the cloud
died, contrary to other's experience. This may be due to the land air interface
as distinct to a sea air interface, different friction etc. Cloud height
was about 3500' and soaring height was 5000'. Propagation direction SSW
at speed approx 30Knt.
1st October 1995 Weak system, could not soar effectively.
Russ, you recall my experience in 98 in the trike with Mum as passenger.
The sink on the lee side of that clear air monster definitely went to the
ground.
The trike has a climb rate in excess of 1000 fpm and at full noise we were
decked from 1000' in VERY short order with almost no control over where
we hit the deck. Very lucky to be over the mud flats had we been out at
sea we would have discovered how well the noahs like 76 year old women
on the menu.
Cheers
Billo
If you haven't already done so, you may wish to read Pilot
Notes.
You may also be interested in flight data from
earlier years.
|
