The Longest Day

Jason Kelly

With the La Nina effect causing poor soaring weather for weeks in Hawkes Bay, my goal of achieving a five hour flight in December 2011 was looking increasingly unlikely as the month progressed. But, the weather forecast finally began to show some promise in Christmas week. Having ensured the Gliding Hawkes Bay & Waipukurau Club’s glider GHB, a Grob 103C Twin III SL, was ready, the RASP weather forecast was closely monitored. Thursday December 22, the longest day, looked promising in theory. By 8am, the sky was clearly bubbling with considerable cloud with some blue patches but a very low cloud base of less than 2,000ft. By 9:30am the cloud base had risen a little and looking at the sky and the forecast again, I decided it was worth an attempt.

With an OO organised (my father Brian) and my “flight pack” of food, water, maps, cell phone etc all set to go, we arrived at Bridge Pa Aerodrome around 10:30am. The glider was DI’d with a barograph sealed and loaded.

By the time the glider was cleaned and ready to go, it was just after 11am. As GHB is a self launching glider, I launched into a light north easterly wind and headed out east under some promising looking clouds. Putting the engine away at 2,400ft, it was quickly obvious my judgment was off as the sky was not working where I was. Searching around, nothing looked much better so I tried a few clouds on the way back towards the airfield. Feeling that a 10 minute or so flight was not a good result, I did an engine restart over the airfield and headed out west where the sky again looked promising.

After climbing back to 2,400ft under power (Napier airspace is 2,500ft and above in this area), I again put the engine away and managed the barest of climbs after a few minutes. Once this climb stopped, I headed east towards the next likely lift candidate but gradually lost height as I again headed back towards the airfield. Down to 900ft (Bridge Pa Aerodrome is 72ft above sea level), I was just about to join the circuit as the sky now did not look very promising and I had been flying for around 30 minutes in total. However, on the north eastern edge of the airfield, a small bump had me turning tightly and the altimeter excruciatingly slowly climbing to 910ft, then 920ft, 930ft, 940ft, lost some – back to 920ft, then 930ft then slowly up to 1,000ft. Climbing through just over 1,000ft, my father called on the radio to say it looked like I was getting away. Well, it was the best climb of the day so far (about 100ft net) but 1,000ft of altitude did not give me much confidence with almost five hours left to fly. After much scraping, I reached 2,000ft in that thermal.

For around two hours, I struggled under 2,500ft before again falling down to around 900ft and thinking the day was over. As luck would have it, I hit a climb that finally lasted a full turn and gained more than a handful of feet. Climbing through 2,500ft, I at last had to contact Napier Tower as I topped out at cloud base at 3,800ft. Being at that altitude was so much more comfortable than the earlier part of the flight that the flying was enjoyable and I thought this is going to be easy if this lift continued.

During the next hour and a half or so I managed to maintain a reasonable altitude given the height bands of the day until after about four hours the sky badly overdeveloped over and around Hastings. With my calculations showing about four hours up and one hour to go, the real scraping began as I tried to read the ground and sky for any likely sources of lift. Dropping yet again to around 900ft, a small sliver of sunshine was on the seal runway at Bridge Pa. Heading to that, the glider maintained altitude and slowly climbed to about 1,200ft before the lift died. My altitude gradually decreased and while GHB is a beautiful and comfortable glider to fly, 1,000ft of altitude was not going to last fifteen minutes with a circuit start height of around 800ft. With more luck, I managed to circle maintaining altitude until I calculated my five hours was up.

On landing, my OO came to tow me in and removed the barograph. On inspection of the barograph trace, it had barely moved up all flight with most of the flight completed at under 2,500ft. Total flight time was 5 hours 31 minutes with 5 hours and 6 minutes of soaring after the second engine shut down. On the longest day, I had achieved my longest ever glider flight time wise which certainly helped my hours total for the year.

Just over three weeks later on Sunday 15^th January 2012, I had my Cambridge GPS data logger fitted into GHB and the RASP forecast was showing typical Hawkes Bay westerly wave. The early morning sky did not look as promising as the forecast but by mid morning it appeared the forecast and reality were starting to match.

Out at the aerodrome by 10:30am, the GPS was loaded, glider DI’d and I was ready to go as I waited for my OO to arrive. As a backup, the barograph was again sealed and loaded and I carried an old handheld Garmin GPS.

Launching into a moderate westerly with an aerotow assisted launched on the shorter cross runway, I was quickly off the ground just after 11:45am and headed out west where wave clouds were evident. Finding some heavy sink and broken lift, I motored for a while as I wanted to be sure I was in lift. However, every time I thought I was in lift, it would disappear. At around 4,800ft, I decided it was time to “sink or fly” and put the engine away for the day. I gained 1,000ft relatively easily before the lift vanished and I was again sinking.

Heading back towards the airfield, I found some good lift and climbed up to cloud base of around 6,000ft. Using knowledge from my failed 50km attempts (those are other stories), I headed south down the hill line, maintaining altitude until around Waipawa when the clouds changed and I climbed into wave. Climbing quickly, air traffic control permission was granted for 12,000ft and then to 15,000ft in Ohakea airspace.

Continuing south, the vario at one point was averaging 11.8kts up as I peaked at 15,000ft which gave me an over 10,000ft climb from my low point. I ran up and down the wave between south of Dannevirke and Lake Poukawa in the north. The last time south, the wave stopped around 20km south of Dannevirke and I tried to tip toe around the end to the next roll cloud west but with the ground below me looking decidedly unlandable and the glider sinking fast into wind, I conservatively turned around and headed back east. I ran along the wave maintaining just under 15,000ft with the speed varying in line with the wave strength. Reaching just south of Waipukurau, the clouds merged together so I sat and thought about what to do. The next roll cloud east had clear sky next to it so that was an option but then the sky started to clear in front of me so I tiptoed north before coming out on the northern end of that roll cloud.

At around 10,000ft, I was over Havelock North and next to a massive cumulus cloud. It looked very impressive but was not doing much at 4-5 knots of lift compared to the wave I had come from. Looking at my watch, another five hour soaring flight looked a possibility so I tried to maintain height before gradually descending. The equation of 10,000ft for an hour was certainly far more comfortable than 1,000ft for fifteen minutes from my previous flight.

Pushing back into the strong westerly wind, I arrived back over the airfield to land after a total flight time of 5 hours and 36 minutes. After allowing for the launch and 1,000m height loss limit, total soaring time was again over 5 hours. In stark contrast to my previous five hour flight, the barograph trace was never in danger of hitting 1,000ft after launching and for most of the flight was over 10,000ft. The Garmin hand held GPS recorded a total flight distance of some 553km. Unfortunately, on downloading my Cambridge GPS, the file was blank – it had not recorded anything except the fact it was turned on. So, two five hour plus flights and no usable electronic data trace so no Silver or Gold duration approved. Buggar!

With the poor local soaring weather persisting, it was not until almost six weeks later on 24^th February 2012 that another five hour flight became a possibility. Flying as part of the Central Districts Championships from Waipukurau in a LS4, GNJ, an Assigned Area Task (AAT) was set for what turned out to be the one and only competition day. At briefing, the wave looked good but had deteriorated by midday. The forecast was also not promising so launch height was as much as you felt comfortable with. My GPS was away for repair so I was borrowing one from the ASH 25M GRJ.

Towing out west, wave bits were evident but no good consistent lift or roll clouds were encountered. Releasing at around 4,900ft, I worked a small area of lift to 7,000ft before it stopped and I moved on to another blue sky area where I managed to reach 8,500ft before the cycle was repeated. Climbing towards 9,500ft, I called Ohakea control for permission to climb into their airspace but was denied. While changing the radio frequency back, I fell out the wave and was quickly down to 5,000ft. With the sky continuing to change fast, height was again gained by working little areas of lift before I climbed back up to just under 9,500ft. Soon after this, the sky appeared to stabilise with clear lines of wave becoming evident.

The competition start gate was opened and I quickly headed off on task. Heading south along a roll cloud, I struggled to touch the turnpoint circle due to cloud over it. Patience again worked as the cloud moved enough for me to just get in and out of the circle before racing north along a visible wave. With the GPS showing 80km to the next turnpoint, I thought this should qualify for my 50km Silver distance. With the wave now working well, this was easily done as was the balance of the task with air brakes required in places not to bust airspace. The third leg was also over 50km which the GPS recorded at an average ground speed of 236km/h or around 12m 37s for 50km. Crossing the finish line after 1hr 55m with the wave still looking good, I decided to carry on flying.

After about four hours of soaring, the wave again changed and I tried to jump west to the next line. With my altitude dropping rapidly and lift still some distance away, I turned around and headed back over the airfield. Again, lift at this level was broken and hard to work. I clawed my way back up to 7,000ft before the wave reformed and I was quickly back up to 9,500ft. Staying with that wave band, I flew north and south without any difficulties. After discussion on the ground that I had flown long enough for my five hours, Murphy’s Law applied as I tried to fly out of the lift and into the sink to descend – the lift increased and despite full brakes, I was still climbing at over 10 knots. The air started to become rougher as I moved out of the lift and downwards towards the airfield.

I touched down into a light westerly cross wind at Waipukurau at 6:40pm after 5hrs 40m in the air. Allowing for the maximum height loss of 1,000m for a five hour badge flight, this still left well over five hours of soaring. With the GPS removed for scoring, Graham White, the scorer, said I had averaged 154km/h for the task. The total flight recorded a distance of 805.9km. I thought the GPS must have thought it was still in the ASH25M for that speed and distance.

With the paperwork completed and filed, my journey of achieving a five hour flight for my Silver badge was complete after just over two months and three five hour flights. Gold and Diamond distance attempts now beckon.