Hi folks, yes, the wave had been predicted and the stage was set. It’s Saturday the 13th of July 2024.
I was first launch of the day at about 12.30pm, closely followed by five other enthusiastic adventures, with lots of well-formed cumulus clouds between Kingaroy and the Bunya Mountains to get us up and running.
Soon after launching Ivan Teese and I were tracking south towards the Bunya Mountains, on our first attempt to connect with the wave but we both failed to connect.
We had to track back north and climb up again under the Cu to the 5500 ft cloud base for another attempt. Once back up I decided to go locate Butch (John Buchanan), knowing he would find the wave. I was right, Butch was climbing in the tertiary wave bar, I rolled in below him and before long I was climbing in the silky smooth wave lift.
Climbing up the side of and getting above the clouds is the most amazing sensation for a glider pilot. We climbed in the tertiary wave bar to around 8,000 ft, well above the clouds.
From here we pushed forward to the secondary wave bar against the 35 knot headwind where we climbed to about 11,000 ft and still climbing.
About now, Butch said he was going to track back north dropping out of the wave and do it all again, “great idea”, I will come too. We descended below the cloud and out of the wave. On the way down Butch lost me doing warp speed, unbelievable flying, no way I was going to fly that fast, and at this point we got separated.
Butch and I both re connected the wave at different times, we both managed to climb up through the 3 wave bars… tertiary, secondary and the primary. The primary was about 5kms north of the top of the Bunya Mountains with a steady 1 to 2 knots of silky smooth lift.
Already established high in the primary wave at around 15,000 ft was Kim Houghton in his LS 3, Ivan in his ASG 29 ES and Christian Werner flying an AS 32M, with Butch and I the late arrivals. Kevin White was out in the wave also, in his Lak 17 B Fes.
At this time around 3.45pm everyone except myself, decided to head for home due to the cold, with most arriving back at the Kingaroy airfield around 10 000 ft.
I stayed and continued to climb in the primary wave to FL 175…17,500 ft and at this altitude my wind reading is now 245 degrees at 43 Knots. Even though I’m still climbing I have to leave the wave due to the 18,000 ft airspace upper limit.
I decided to track south towards Dalby to bleed off height and after gliding south for what seemed like an eternity at 95 knots, I throw a 360 degree turn to see I have only travelled about 10 klms south of the Bunya Mountains and from this altitude I’m still looking straight down at them.
It’s now around 4.30pm and I have very cold feet, despite wearing the warmest socks I own.
My body is warm enough though as I’m wearing Jeans, two shirts, a Jumper and my Icelandic wool Beanie I bought in Canada.
Still at 15,000 ft and with the most amazingly spectacular view and my very, very, cold feet I turn north for Kingaroy airport. Arriving at 12,000 ft above the strip I have to wind it down to land before the sun goes down.
This is my third wave flight in my 14 years of gliding but definitely the most memorable one so far, mostly due to the amazing clouds we had to negotiate traversing between the wave bars and the fantastic pilots I was privileged enough to share this incredible flight with.
Usually ‘wave days’ at Kingaroy are blue, but not today.
I’m already looking forward to my next wave flight. See you at the amazing Kingaroy Soaring Club for the next action packed adventure soon.
