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TEMORA
CAMP 2007
Words Sean Young, pictures Sean Young, Ed Marel, Bhup Mistry |
The Temora camp, organised by Bill Tugnett, took place over two weeks, 6-20 January. In all, 25 BSC pilots attended with 20 BSC gliders, including 5 club aircraft. Bill Tugnett in his open Libelle and Geoff Sweeney in his Pik20B flew the BSC’s longest flights, both at 585km.
Alan Taylor went to Temora a few days earlier with his ASW 20b and flew with the Temora and visiting Canberra club members. Alan experienced good soaring conditions and flew three 300km triangles and two 500km triangles during his week long stay.
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| Bill Tugnett tells Tim Croissant where to park his car. |
 El Presidente Peter Hanneman flew his syndicate’s DG500M down and shared many good flights with club members. Peter Newcomb was always reliably on station, flying the DG300 in the Temora region. He would relay messages from distant gliders and let us know if anyone was close to landing out. It turned out the only pilot to land out during the camp was John Latinovic in the club Junior. He landed on the private strip at Barmedman. It was John’s first outlanding and was very good practice for him. Brian Bailey and Brian Acker flew the BSC tug at Temora.
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| Graham Brown gave the daily weather briefings. |
The atmosphere at the Temora Aero Club is terrific and, as in previous years, the Canberra club also had a number of gliders at the airfield. We enjoyed the company both in the air and on the ground of Col Vasaroti and the rest of the Canberra club members. Most days, Graham Engel from Temora GC joined us on the BSC club tasks in his DG600. Graham, Geoff King and all the Temora club members made us feel very welcome and we appreciated their generosity and use of the club facilities.
During the first official week of the camp, the weather was blue and hot. There was also much smoke from the Victorian bushfires in the air. There was no flying at all on Friday 12 January because the smoke haze reduced the visibility on the ground to less than the length of the runway. Still, many pilots achieved flights of over 300km on most days. |
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| Hmm, does that mean it is going to be a dood day or not? |
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During the second week of the camp, conditions improved with nice cumulus days and some shower activity. The best day was Thursday 18 January. The inland trough had been moving back and forth over inland NSW all week. The air mass was very unstable and wet with air fed into it from a Plibara low. A 40% probability of showers was forecast for the area and, sure enough, clouds started popping before noon. The BSC pilots had agreed to start by flying towards the trough to Ardlethan 60k west of Temora and see how the weather developed.
By the time we reached Mirrool just 50km west, rain was beginning to fall, so we set course for West Wyalong to the north. Tim Galvin and Ed Marel decided to keep going north to Forbes. The rest of us, as usual, listened to hear what Bill Tugnett decided to do and followed him to Grenfell. When we got to there, a shower had developed to the east, so Bill set course for Coolamon to the south of Temora. Geoff Sweeney and Bill were in the lead, followed by Graham Brown in his Pik 20, Bob Hall with his Jantar, Chriss Bennet in his Libelle and Taka Isobe flying the new club LS4, Eric Sweet’s glider. Peter Hanneman and Newmann were not far away in the DG 500m. I was in the rear as always, trying to catch up.
As we approached Temora on the way to Coolamon, a large ominous bank of cloud had formed in a line going north-south, lying just to the west of Temora. It stretched from Coolamon to West Wyalong with rain falling from various parts of the cloud. Bill and Geoff turned at Coolamon and decided to fly north along this cloud street as far as it went.
By the time I was approaching Coolamon, it was raining close by so I thought the better of it and headed back to Temora. Geoff and Bill meanwhile were rocketing along under the dark cloud street, dodging the rain and getting terrific climbs up to the 9000’ plus cloud base. At one point, Bill was flying at his glider’s maximum rough airspeed of 95kts and was still climbing at 6kts .He had to turn out of the street to avoid being sucked up into the cloud. |
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| A 40% chance of cumulonimbus means there will probably be CBs. |
A few of us took a somewhat less dark-looking street lying further east and followed it north towards West Wyalong. However, I was becoming worried that it was going to rain over Temora and decided to land, having achieved a modest 340km. Brave Taka was determined to make his turnpoint at Coolamon, which he did. He then had to spend the next 45 minutes struggling to climb away and get around the rain to get back home. Tim (Croissant Tim) and Ed (aka Greg) made it to Forbes and Junee.
Bill and Geoff continued to Ungarie, turned for Stockinbingal east of Temora and then home. I had already tied my glider down when it finally did start raining at the airfield. At last, Bill and Geoff called downwind and landed in the rain. They had flown 585km in fantastic style, and didn’t even have to wash the bugs off their gliders as the rain did it for them - as Bill described it, “a classic Temora day”. |
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Shortly after rain near West Wyalong, a microburst rushed downwards, sending a roll of dust
at ground level bursting out and upwards. |
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In that second week, we had one rain day, four good flying days and one day that tested the resolve of pilots. The final day, Saturday, brought northerly winds gusting to 30kts. Only a few foolhardy souls towed to the launch point after Lou, the tug pilot from Temora/Canberra, decided that with the 30kts wind blowing straight down the runway, it was safe to launch.
Taka had declared a 500km and was determined to give it a go. He launched first and when he didn’t come back straight away, I thought I would have a go as well. We spent a couple of hours practicing flying in thermals that were being blown horizontal by the wind. Taka made it to West Wyalong, which was a good effort. When Bruce Campbell from Canberra in D1 gave it away and landed, I felt I had done my duty and landed also.
With tears in our eyes - from the dust in the wind - we packed up all the BSC gliders and retired to the Terminus Hotel for our final dinner. As is the ritual for those who stay at the Shamrock Hotel, we walked back to sit on the balcony, drink wine and eat nuts and crackers that Peter Newcomb provided. On the way, I glanced up and there was Comet McNaught shining in the western sky - a great ending to our flying adventure.
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