ridge lift and I’ll be able to gain some height and stay airborne. There will be no thermals today but there may be wave, generated by the Grampians, about 10 miles northwest. If there is, will I be able to get into it? This gliding sport keeps one guessing!
After running up and down the ridge for a while, I see a glider much higher. So there is wave today - that’s the only way he could have got up there. I know who it is: one of my club’s “pundits” and I’m not in that league! But OK, let’s see what we can do: I grit my teeth in determination. Let’s scrape as much height on the ridge as we possibly can and then head northwest a few miles to see if we can find the wave. I leave the ridge at 2,500 ft and immediately start to lose height. Patience, patience: I can always shoot back to the ridge to gain height again. I press
on...sinking.
There is no visible indication of low level wave: all I can do is relax and wait to sense where it may be. About to give up and rush back to the ridge, it feels as if we are passing over little cobbles. Ah rotor! (that’s turbulent air under a wave bar). Let’s turn into wind and edge forward a little and try to find the up part of the wave...if it’s there. Gently does it. The vario (an electronic instrument that senses air pressure changes) starts beeping. We’re climbing but only just. I feel for the areas of best lift: a few feet one way, a few the other. Reducing speed to just above the stall
62 THE TERRIER - Summer 2012
speed of 36 knots keeps the glider in the areas of lift as long as possible. Every now and then the tail plane buffets: that’s the Astir talking to me, saying: “You’re a shade too close to the stall - a little faster, please”. It takes nearly an hour to claw our way to 4,500 ft and then the lift vanishes and that particular wave bar goes no higher.
Right: where now? Well, cloud patterns suggest there may be a stronger set of waves about 4 miles to the north. Bet there will be a lot of sinking air between here and there. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I head across clear air.... and yes, there is sink. I nudge the control stick forward a little to increase speed
to get through the sinking air quickly but we’re down to 3,000ft in no time. Apprehensively, I look back over my shoulder towards the gliding site. Nope, I could not get back now: if the next wave isn’t there, it’ll be a case of “landing-out” in one of the fields below.
I position the glider just to the upwind side of a cloud bar, stretching several miles
northwards...and wait. The sink slows, then stops and at last the lift arrives: this time it’s really strong. Very soon, I’m climbing at as much as 500 ft a minute. In just a few minutes, elated, effortlessly I rise through the gap between the clouds at 6,000 ft and then above them and still there is lift.
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