Bomb-out!

Last night the smoke was so thick you could see the haze across the room in the pub. I awoke this morning with stinging eyes and a dry throat, but the sky appeared noticeably clearer. The weather report indicated that the wind had swung around to the north, which would hopefully move the smoke out as the day progressed. Because of the north wind we headed back to Mystic. As we crossed the pass into Bright the smoke became noticeably thicker. Damn! Hopefully it would clear.

The mood was a bit brighter on launch today, and there was lots of activity setting up gliders. I had number 11 in the alternate launch, which seemed just about perfect to me. A few free flying paragliders and hang gliders launched and had no trouble climbing out. The haze started to clear, and a task of just over 100km was called. It was a nice run up the Ovens Valley, across Happy Valley, and up the Kiewa Valley about 20km before returning down the Kiewa to the Mt. Beauty Airport. It seemed quite doable.

When I launched there were already a few gliders milling around to the right of launch, so I went left along the spine and was rewarded with a strong smooth climb. Soon several others joined me, and we climbed nicely as we drifted behind launch and to the south. The wind seemed fairly strong, and I didn’t want to get too far behind launch, so when I saw a couple of gliders turning out front I went to join them. Things seemed smooth and easy, and I was in the groove. I zipped my harness and got comfortable. Just about then the bottom fell out of the climb. I looked back, and the three gliders who had stayed in the climb I left were now 500ft higher, and the rest of us were struggling in front. Several went right to explore, so I headed left along the spine that had worked earlier. Nothing. The guys on the other side weren’t doing any better, so I pressed on along the spine. I figured with the north wind the knob at the end of the spine that was sticking out in the valley was sure to be triggering a thermal. I got there with hardly a bump, and nothing! Now I was low, and if I wanted to make the landing field I needed to head that way. Several of the others were struggling low in that direction. It didn’t look good. Sure enough, I got to the bomb out with enough altitude to set up a landing. There were already several gliders on the ground, and several others followed me in short order. I couldn’t believe how quickly things had gone sour!

By the end of the day about a third of the field had ended up in the bomb-out, a third made goal, and a third were scattered along the course. Seems like I’m always holding up the bottom third! It was quite a frustrating end to a day that seemed to hold a lot of promise. By the time we drove back to Mt Beauty the smoke had cleared and we had a nice view of the Kiewa Vally with Mt Bogong and Mt Emu on the other side. We could see the gliders landing at goal at the airport.