Kilo Bravo vers Huberdeau

(text and photos by Karl Boutin; posted by Dan)

Let me tell you about two flights, two Fridays apart. Same task, same glider but two different cross-country adventures. In both cases, we were trying to organise mid-week flying operations in order to enjoy the great looking flying forecast that May or June can provide here in the North East. These few weeks of late spring are the best to plan long tasks or badge leg attempts.

Rémy and I keep in the memory of our Nano III flight recorder a few tasks ready for such days. We have different courses to match different possible weather conditions we can expect on a specific day. Before putting KB (Karl and Rémy's ASW-20 - ed.) on the grid, and once the latest 10 am Dr Jack (online meteorological site - ed.) update has been produced, we load up in the device the better task for the day. On June 3rd, Rémy chose a 300 km cat’s cradle task that would benefit from the good conditions expected north of the river. Pendleton - Cheneyville - Cornwall - Huberdeau - Pendleton makes a nice “N” course running north-south over the Ottawa river. It is the exact same task I attempted two weeks later to benefit, as he did, from the promised Cu’s that were going to pop over the northern hills.

Both Fridays were great flying days but the latter was a boomer! Cumulus did form around 14:00 over Pendleton on June 17 and cloudbase did reach into the 10000 ft MSL during that day. That may explain why I was able to get my Gold distance leg out of this flight. My partner, on the other hand, finished the afternoon of his flight on the porch of Brian & Lise’s mansion in Avoca, sipping white Chardonnay, while his partner was on his way for the retrieve!

Rémy and hosts (pretty blue sky...)

ASW-20 "KB" at sunset

 Have a look at both traces and you will be able to see the difference between those two flying days. The working band heights, the thermal strength, the wind drift and BS ratio (buoyancy to shear ratio - measure of how well thermals form and rise, or are torn apart by the wind -ed.) were all conditions that made for two very different stories.

Rémy's trace (map, altitude vs time, green is ground height)

 

Karl's trace

 

And what did we learn from this?

         “Quand tu pars pour Huberdeau avec Kilo Bravo, t’es mieux d’être haut!’”