Bright in the Fall

Once again, the flying here in Bright was good - lots of thermals rising from their usual trigger points made for nice XC conditions yesterday.

I've gotten familiar enough with the valley/ridge systems here that on most decent days, I can do some fun triangles, or out and returns, without the annoying problem of sinking out in the middle of a good day.

Bright typically has several inversions - one or more mid-level ones, and a big one that stops all rising air - the big one is actually a good thing because with a good lapse rate and no inversions, chances are the sky will OD and stop all the fun.

With the help of using Google Earth to analyse my flight path, I have seen one way to break through a particularly tough inversion, it goes something like this:

First you need a stronger than normal thermal. Lets say you are coring up a moderately drifting thermal at 400-600 ft/min. Then halfway to base your climb slows way down as the thermal hits the warmer layer of air. This layer acts like a "lid" and besides your climb almost stopping, it can get turbulent. At this point it's easy to give up because the ride feels like it is over, but a little persistence can pay off big.

Because of the drift, the thermal "slides" horizontally under the inversion, and you should too, because sometimes the thermal exerts enough force on the inversion to poke a hole through it, and if you stay with the main body of warm air, you get pushed through the inversion too, and once on the other side and into cool air your climb rate can increase even faster than it was down below the inversion...

Yesterday I saw a glider high over Smoko, higher than any one else was getting, so of course I had to investigate. Once I got there, I found the climbs were better organized and I broke through the inversion at ~1500 meters that had been stopping me all morning, and I topped out at 2000 meters which is where the big inversion was.

Today the high pressure slid off to the east of Australia bringing strong north winds, so no flying today.

Saturday is the last day of the Mystic Cup, it will be the last day of competition for me until the Rat Race in June...

Ciao!