SAFA Skysailor Magazine

36 SKY SAILOR November | December 2022 Greetings fellow pilots. The return of daylight savings down here in Taswegia, has heralded the reopening of my favourite site – Winton. Six of us caught a cheeky 25-minute flight there the day after reopening, which capped off a day which saw my first-ever tow launch (that was interesting). Afterwards at the pub, we were discussing weather patterns. One of our number just retired as a climate scientist with CSIRO (yes – there are some still there, surviving Larry’s cull from a few years back). He was telling us that we are in a big unknown this year due to the Tonga undersea volcano eruption. It seems that the eruption released a massive amount of water vapour into the atmosphere, which has made its way south and in combination with the La Niña event and the current setting of the Indian Ocean dipole, is pushing pressure systems into places they normally would not be in at this time of the year. How this will play out over the coming months is in his words ‘unknown territory’. So, please pay particular attention to the weather forecasts and your own observed conditions before you commit to launch. Back in 2019, I wrote about changes in the aerology at Mystic (Bright, VIC), following the removal of trees from the backside of Emily Spur, an event now colloquially named ‘The Brazilian’. Now the bowl-face of Emily has been pruned, an event that last occurred 25 years ago. This has introduced more, significant changes to the behaviour, and has prompted NEVHGC’s PG SSO Karl Texler to write to members about the situation: This area has been logged for the first time in about a quarter of a century. The last time this was done, no paraglider pilot would entertain flying after about noon and before about 3pm in the afternoon during summer. At the time, this included the highly competent pioneers of the sport in our area. Already, pilots are noting changes in the way that Mystic behaves in thermic conditions. Hitherto reliable thermal trigger points have altered. Rough conditions are being noted on warm days. It is concerning that, despite this, pilots have been observed flying very close to the cleared terrain. In some cases, flying even closer to the bare ground than they would have to the treetops, prior to these trees being felled. As tempting as it is, this is a very dangerous practice. Our safety margin is based (among other things) on our distance from terrain. This distance gives us opportunity to recover from loss of control before impact. Also, treetops are relatively soft – a mishap close over pine trees generally means a relatively soft landing into cushioning foliage. Hard contact with cleared ground is far more likely to produce serious life-changing injuries. Pilots are reminded that Mystic is an inland thermic site. It is not appropriate to fly as close to the terrain as one would at a laminar-flow coastal site. Rough, turbulent conditions (including dust devils) can be anticipated at the height of the day, especially over cleared areas… AIRS Safety Wrap-up – October 2022 by Iain Clarke – SAFA Safety Management Officer