Airflow July 2009 - Gallery

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Airflow July 2009

Gallery

Dartmouth Dam

by Charles Day

Bob Nicholls and I had an interesting run down-wind to the Dartmouth Dam, pushed along by a thirty knot westerly. The cumulus got very confused and weak at that point, due to wave influence, so we decided to retreat to Benalla whilst the going was good.

A frustrating cloud street led NW to Mitta Mitta, where weak wave went well above cloud to about 10,000 ft. Punching up-wind yielded a similar wave over the Kiewa Valley north of Mount Beauty to 11,000. A third, stronger one just east of Mt. Buffalo went to above 13,000, but I'd left the oxygen mask safely back in the hangar, so I didn't go any higher. Being in the SE corner of the Albury airspace necessitated a clearance. They made me park in the wave for about ten minutes to clear some traffic that seemed to be a huge distance away. The wind at 13,000 was at least fifty knots!