Southern Cross Expedition II Blog
27th November - 7th December 2008

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(New: 5 Dec)

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7th December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 10 (Booming Trough):

8pm: Back home at Perth now, but what a day for glider pilots in Western Australia today. The 12,000ft Cu arrived just before midday, and some very large tasks have been made today: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

Unfortunately Dad and Daryl/Roy could not make the most of the day as their gliders were required back at Perth and Beverley respectively, and the trough moved through Beverley about 3pm. As of now the trough still hasn't pushed through SX, giving about a 10 hour gliding window.

Communication is limited at the moment, but word is so far that Greg achieved his first 750km flight. A big congratulations for Greg there. Allan and Owen both were attempting the same task but had to turn short, as the trough moved through on an angle running NE-SW, weakening the northern Wheatbelt later in the day. Allan completed just over 700km, where Owen completed 618km, great efforts. Cookie completed his first 500km flight, getting his Diamond Distance badge, well done! Fitz was going for the big 1000km flight, but came up short, completing just under 900km. Still a fantastic effort. IGC files will be uploaded to OLC when received:

6th December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 9 (Trough):

8pm: Today was a reasonable but tough day for long distance tasks. However, more 500km flights have been added to the SX history books. Today's weather: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

And today's flights:

Tomorrow is the big one though. Early predictions say Cu to 12000ft, but the trough passage is the main concern. Many pilots are aiming for personal best flights/badges tomorrow, so it will be quite exciting if the weather shows up. We have figured out Owen's SPOT tracker function, we were planning to track Cookie today but he refused to leave the airfield. Owen claims the SPOT is the kiss of death, so there could be something in that. Owen is planning to go for a 750km flight tomorrow so you can view his progress on that attempt.

For those of you reading this who have looked at RASP and wondering what it actually showing, here is a link explaining each of the parameters in quite some detail. Fitzy keeps harassing me for tomorrow's RASP, so the pilots have developed a fondness for it indeed.

5th December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 8:

6:30pm: Everyone is now home with Dave (who was first off) just landing not long ago. The day turned out to be very good, with flights done today just shorter than when the trough was here earlier in the expedition. And with a Westerly breeze all day. Dave did the longest today, going for the romantic notion of doing a 500km flight on his 500th flight, when he ruined it by going 600km instead:

3pm: This morning pilots awoke to early morning Cu and a Westerly breeze once again: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

A nominal AAT was set of SX - Hyden - Merredin - SX so pilots can explore down to the southern direction from SX for once. Launching started quite early this morning, before 11am so the morning Cu could be used for a head start for some long tasks. Dad and Dave are looking to extend once again to over 500km as conditions are quite strong.

4th December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 7:

6pm: Everyone is home now, and seemingly it was a good day. Dad headed south aiming to extend to 500km but turned short when things seemed to overdevelop (which he regretted after flying his final leg at ~130kph):

2pm: The wind blew strong all day yesterday, but a little weaker as the afternoon went on. Dad, Roy and myself journeyed down to the city of Marvel Loch to have a gander at the big pit there. As for flying Stephan was the only one to brave the conditions, but did not venture too far from the aerodrome.

Today, the wind still blows from the Westerly direction, but not as strong allowing flying to recommence this morning. Cu has surrounded SX from early morning so good streeting may allow some lengthy flights to be made today: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

The nominal task today was set for an AAT of SX - Wailki - Burracoppin - SX with enlarged sectors.

James has gone home also overnight. Pilots here are still looking forward to the weekend trough, some are considering staying an extra night to capitalise on Sunday's promising forecast.

3rd December 2008 Robby & John Welsh
Day 6 (Lay Day):

12:30pm (John): SPECI YSCR 030300Z AUTO 32026G39KT //// // ////// 31/09 Q1001

A decision was made last night to cancel the requirement for the Cunderdin tug to attend. Many thanks to Knut Von Hentig for offering to fly it if it was to attend, maybe next year.

Harry Oxer and Fitz left for Perth last night, Fitz may be returning Friday.

11:30am (Robby): A hot morning generated quite high Cu early in the day due to the last of the trough passing by SX, but an intense North Westerly (up to 39kt gusts) due to the air mass change has pretty much made flying an impossibility today: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

Pictures have been uploaded from this morning.

2nd December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 5 (Trough):

5pm: Dad, Dave and Peter are the only ones who crossed the fence today, but only for a bit of atmospheric exploration. Dave had an especially interesting flight almost reaching 13000ft. Peter ignored RASP and headed north to outland west of Bullfinch, and hitched a ride on a farmer's header while waiting for the tug:

10:30am: Click here to see where everyone got to yesterday. Also I will upload some more photos from resident photographer Ray later this afternoon.

9am: The trough is still over WA but it looks to be turning active. RASP is showing Cu cloudbases over 10000ft but also thunderstorms approaching from the north. Pilots seem to be pretty cautious about going too far today with that prospect: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

Any talks of tasking are southward to avoid the sparkies. It is unfortunate this trough hasn't produced ideal conditions, but another is forecast to form on Sunday (the last day) so some detours may be taken on the way back to Beverley. James was able to grind out 645km yesterday over 8 hours, a good flight under reasonably tough conditions. He said he experienced wave-like conditions early on in the day which is interesting.

1st December 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 4 (Trough):

8pm: Dinner about to be served, and everyone is home safely. Today was not as good as promised, with broken thermals rarely going above 7000ft and the cirrus making the day tricky. Pilots still managed to make something of it with multiple 500km flights even though many looked closely at some paddocks:

1:30pm: The fleet has been launched, and a full fleet at that. Fitz and Stewie finally arrived last night to give us the full fleet of 14 gliders. Today we are experiencing trough conditions but not ideal, as the temperature is only expected to reach the low 30s and a band of cirrus is descending over the Wheatbelt: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

Today pilots are doing mostly declared tasks, the SX - Koorda - Bilbarin - SX 500km FAI triangle which Dave completed on Day 1 seems to be a popular choice for pilots attempting their diamond distance. The more adventurous are experimenting with the scrub-line which RASP seems to show stronger conditions north of the line between SX and Morawa. Dad, Fitz and Dave are doing a 6-hour out and return along this direction.

Additionally I have found the link so you can watch Owen in his LS8 via his SPOT tracker, which is now placed on the left-hand menu.

30th November 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 3:

7:30pm - Everyone is home safely, but no-one got too adventurous today. Thermals are strong in places but few and far between. Also conditions below 4000ft were reported to be very scratchy. Daryl and Andrew tackled the planned AAT in the DG-1000 and managed to touch the circles and get back:

1pm - I have uploaded some pictures taken by Allan and Dad yesterday. Peter Busher has launched and a couple of others are on grid at the moment.

11am - Another reasonably lazy day for the pilots as some are resting up for the two trough days expected on Monday and Tuesday. Another trough may pass through next weekend also, we will have to see. Today we are expecting reasonably post-frontal conditions, with strong lift but only going as high as 6000ft: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

A nominal AAT of SX - Mukinbudin - Kellerberrin - SX with enlarged sectors was set for the eager. Our first experience with RASP yesterday showed it was fairly accurate, it will be interesting to observe what it predicts for the trough days ahead.

29th November 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 2:

5pm - Only some of the fleet launched today, some pilots decided to rest up for the trough days that lie ahead. The remainder tackled the AAT with the predicted westerlies causing a troublesome into-wind leg. Stronger than expected thermals were experienced however, accompanied by some strong sink around also:

Andrew Greig was the first outlanding of the expedition, landing 67km west of SX. Roy went off to get him with a big grin on his face.

10am - Today will be similar to yesterday, except for no possibility of Cu and predicted westerlies will cut the day off earlier: MSL Analysis - Soarcast (Also be sure to check out the new weather simulation RASP for Western Australia to the left!)

A nominal AAT of SX - Wailki - Trayning - SX has been set because of the iffy conditions. Tuesday looks to be a decent trough day still.

28th November 2008 Robby Welsh
Day 1:

7pm - Everybody is home after an induction to the Yilgarn region. Some pilots just had local flights, some did the task, and Dad and Dave both attempted an extended 500km task of SX - Koorda - Bilbarin - SX:

10am - Everyone is preparing for the first day of flying, and everyone is settled in and rigged apart from Fitz and Owen who will be coming up for tomorrow due to other commitments. Yesterday was very iffy, with thunderstorms ravaging across the Wheatbelt, although being separated with inviting streets of Cu. Everyone except Daryl in the DG1000 traveled to SX with gliders in trailers, where Daryl hung off the tug until Merredin and glided the remainder of the journey.

Today a simple 3 hour AAT task of SX - Mukinbudin - Bruce Rock - SX was set to settle everyone in. It looks to be quite decent gliding conditions for today: MSL Analysis - Soarcast

The next 4 days look to be promising, peaking with possible trough conditions on Monday and Tuesday.

25th November 2008 Fitz
Weather Update:

November continues its cloudy and cold theme. Theory says that it’s being driven by the higher average sea temp both locally and out to the NW of the state. The sea temp is 1 deg warmer than it has historically been, this is huge in terms of the energy we are talking about and the increased evaporation from it is leading to more cloud, more precipitation (South coast has had over 200mm this month and Perth will probably get its coldest Nov on record – there has never been a November without a single Perth day over 30 but this one looks likely to achieve this). Obviously this is not what we want. The global wave pattern is still showing 3 waves so not much is changing.

Perth stays cool with mid 20’s, every time the trough starts to form it fails as there’s just not enough heat to drive it – mainly due to the cold origin of the air mass and also due to how wet the land track is. We may be lucky and get a weak trough Monday, but it looks broad and short term. There is some hope if you’re an optimist that a decent trough will form NEXT Saturday. I’ll update as I see it developing.

More optimistically I do see a SE flow on both Saturday and Sunday which should give us CU and an early start, Beverley will be the same.

24th November 2008 Robby Welsh, Owen Jones & Fitz
Introduction to SX 2008:

From SX Webmaster Robby Welsh:

Welcome to the blog of this year's Southern Cross Expedition. I look forward to keeping you all up to date with the happenings of this second gliding expedition to Southern Cross! This year is bigger and better, with 18 pilots taking part:

Greg Beecroft (GAN, Standard Cirrus)
Peter Busher & Stephan Friedrich (IZG, ASW17x)
Ian Cook (UKT, Jantar Standard 2)
James Cooper (XIF, SZD-55)
Justin Fitzgerald (PEO, Ventus cT)
Andrew Greig (GRO, Standard Cirrus)
Owen Jones (VOJ, LS8st)
Daryl Mackay & Roy McInnes (DGZ, DG-1000S)
Stewie McVey (WUM, Astir CS)
John Orton (GCU, Nimbus 2)
Harry Oxer (UKO, Jantar Standard 2)
Allan Phelps (GWK, PIK20D)
Dave Wellington (WUR, LS3)
John Welsh (GMY, Hornet)
Expedition Tugmaster Roy Holden (CSN, Piper Pawnee 260)
Tug Pilot Knut Von Hentig (FSJ, Piper Pawnee 180)

Hopefully we can get some good gliding conditions this year for these pilots. For those who did not follow last year's expedition, the weather was not what we hoped, but three 700+ kilometre flights were still achieved. This month the weather in WA has been quite unseasonal, with cutoff low pressure systems continuously passing over the south-west of the state, much alike to the one that disrupted last year's expedition. These have brought mild and rainy conditions for much of November, but we hope that things clear up in the next week for some long distance flights to be made (see below comment from Fitz on the SX forecast).

As with last year, I will aim to upload daily results and pictures as fast as possible, I hope you will enjoy it and keep track of all the events that unfold! Now some words from this year's expedition coordinator...

From SX Expedition Coordinator Owen Jones:

All is going well for SX 2008.

FUEL - Air BP have delivered our 8 drums to SX, Gary Kenward has taken delivery and locked them away. Gary has also arranged for us to buy any additional fuel we need from the SX Aero Club at their Club rates which are only 2 or 3 c/L more than their delivery price. 

OXYGEN - Ian has arranged for 2 cylinders to be delivered to SX. We will take a mattress up in the DG1000S trailer so that we can bring back the second cylinder if we need to. 

ACCOMMODATION - All accommodation required has been booked and paid for.

SHIRE OF YILGARN - The Shire has been asked to provide the same services as last year, a cleared tie down area, a ballast water tank and daily watering of the airstrip.

SX BRIEFINGS - At SX we need to have early briefings.  These will be in the SX Caravan Park Recreation Room at 0830, long before temperature trace data is available.  A supplementary "top up" briefing will be held out at the airstrip at 1000 hours when the Soardata estimate is available.

PLANNING - I have arranged for the price of ULP to drop under $ 1.20/L so that you can fill up with cheap fuel now and use it on the long run to SX.  Fitz and John Welsh are arranging for two fronts to pass through SX whilst we are there this year.

RELOCATION DAY - We will plan to leave Beverley late on the morning of Thursday 27 November.  Remember that it is a three and a half hour drive towing at 90 kph with a couple of 5 minute refresher stops.  The best way is to Quairading > Yoting then left to Kellerberrin and right to Merredin and finally SX.

FIRST DAY A BOOMER - The first flying day is certain to be a "boomer" as I cannot fly until the second day Saturday!  On Friday 28th I must go to the Joondalup Police Academy where in the morning my only daughter will be awarded the rare Police Commissioner's Award for Excellence for her dedicated service to the WA Police.  Some things a father just cannot miss!  So I will go to Beverley as planned on the Thursday but only tow VOJ as far as GCWA and then back track to Perth in the afternoon. 

From Justin (Fitz) Fitzgerald:

The trough day that the EC forecast showed for next weekend has now been dropped. Perhaps a trough day late in the SX week but not much early in the week. That said the forecasts do not agree and are very changeable at the moment. We’ll see. I’ll try to get an update for the SX first weekend around Tuesday as I’m in work full time Wednesday/Thursday and will not be able to get home.