As the days get shorter and cloud base lower, opportunities for good thermal and cross country flights fade. However, all is not lost, we can turn to ridge and (hopefully) wave soaring during the cooler months.

I hadn’t done any real ridge soaring until the 1999 Queens Birthday wave(!) camp at Noelhurst. The closest I’d come to it was a couple of abortive attempts at Bacchus 30 years ago to get established in slope lift near the near the rifle range in the Arrow from winch launches - on one occasion having to land on the racecourse on the way back after only a few minutes in marginal lift.

You couldn’t say we didn’t try in those days. I remember being surprised one morning in about 1964 as I drove to the field, to see the Black and White Grunau flying up and down about 100’ above the low escarpment which extends east from Woolpack Road towards Anthony’s Cutting - Doug Vanston was making a 5-hour attempt and had been winch launched from the road above the ridge (Doug gave up after an hour or two and landed back on the road).

As relatively few club members seem to have much ridge soaring, I thought it may be worthwhile to describe four enjoyable ridge flights I had last winter.

Mt Cassell - Belfield Ridge, Grampians (12 June 1999)

Andrew’s article about the 1999 wave camp at Noelhurst in "Plane Sailing" mentioned that there was little or no lift on the Saturday, with no flights over 40 minutes. However, the flight sheets record (correctly) that I had a 101 minute flight in the Jantar that day - and a very enjoyable flight it was!

On my first flight I was towed towards the ridge in the Jantar and released at cloudbase (about 2,300’ QFE). I explored some weak (0.5 - 1 kt) slope lift below the summit of Mt Cassell (about 1,900’ QFE), which is at the SE end of the Bellfield Ridge. As this was my first flight in the Grampians, and I wasn’t totally confident that I knew exactly where the field was (it’s not visible from the ridge), I broke away at about 1,700’ QFE and headed back from a 20 minute exploratory flight.

As there were no other "takers", I hopped back into the Jantar, and released near the ridge again. As the northerly wind was blowing obliquely across the ridge, conditions were far from ideal. However, as I sank below the top of the ridge, I located two small "hot spots" near Mt Cassell (one was a north-facing gully immediately the west of the peak and the other was on the north face). By the time I had worked this out I was down to about 1,500’ and close to heading back to the field.

However, over a period of about 20 minutes I managed to climb up to about 200’ above the peak, by flying beats about 300 m long between the two "hot spots" (where the lift was peaking at about 1 kt. At best, I managed to gain about 50’ on each beat, most of it by making 180 degree turns (away from the mountain, of course) in each of these hot spots in turn, while often losing height on other beats, particularly while varying the pattern in the hope of finding something better. The best lift was close to the side of the mountain, so I was flying within about 50 m of the rocks at times.

Once I got above the peak, I was able to fly in the strongest lift (still only about 1 kt) and started to tentatively explore the Bellfield Ridge to the NW, a little further each time. This paid off, as I was able to fly back and forth along the ridge from Mt Cassell to near Halls Gap three times, most of the way about 200’ above the ridge. The view was great, with Lake Bellfield and the Grampians National Park on the other (western) side of the ridge. When I came within reach of a nice cumulus cloud, I would do a turn or two in about 2 kt lift up to cloudbase, and then duck back to the ridge.

I noticed a number of gliders being towed up well above me in clear air between the clouds, but none joined me on the ridge (I understand that the general consensus was that there wasn’t any ridge lift - which certainly would have been the case at higher altitudes). I then decided that I should head back to give someone else a go, detouring on the way to skim past the spectacular cliffs north of Mt William. After landing, I was surprised to find that all the other gliders were either tied down for the night or doing circuits off the GSC’s winch.

Rifle Range Ridge - Bacchus (20 June 1999)

The surface wind at the airfield was about 25 kt from the north, and GGC decided not to fly, however, VMFG members were flying, and the wave was working. Late in the afternoon, I was kindly offered a ride in the Janus with Dave McIllroy in the back seat. We took a tow to 4,500’ (QNH) to the north, and contacted weak wave over the lion park at about 4,000’. It soon became clear that the wave was strongest towards the town, but because of the controlled air space "step" we couldn’t explore it in that direction.

After about 10 minutes in weak wave, I decided to turn down wind and give the "rifle range" ridge a go. It was working well, generally 2-3 kt, with the strongest lift over the "bowl" near its eastern end. We cruised up and down effortlessly for over 45 minutes at about 2,500’, before being forced to return by approaching nightfall.

"West Ridge" - Grampians (18 July 1999)

Bill Johnston and I took the Cirrus to GCV’s wave camp at Cole Field (a private strip between Dadswells Bridge and the Grampians). I converted to the Cirrus on Saturday 17th and on the following day had a most enjoyable 3 hour flight on the "West Ridge" which runs along the western edge of Wartook Reservoir from Briggs Bluff to the north, past Mt Difficult, to near the McKenzie Falls.

The upper face of the ridge is almost vertical in many spots, and once established on the ridge in a cold 15 kt northwesterly, I had to fly most of the time with the air brakes cracked open to stay out of the cloud (cloud base was about 4,000’). The lift was between 2 and 4 kt most of the time, with 6 kt peaks. There were a few extremely rough areas of strong lift over "pockets" on the face of the ridge which focussed the lift - some of this turbulence showed up on the barograph trace just like a landing!

A few rain squalls passed across the ridge, reducing visibility to zilch. Each time I was able to move away over the flat country to the north and work weak thermals under clouds until the rain passed and I could move back to the ridge.

I finally became concerned that the absence of other gliders on the (windward) side of the ridge could mean that they were all in wave lift out to the east, and I may be missing out. However, when I went back there was no wave, and not much action.

Boroka Lookout / Wonderland Scarp - Grampians (22 August 1999)

The next GCV wave camp at Cole Field on 21/22 August. Bill, Wayne, JB and I took the Cirrus and LS4. The weather on Saturday wasn’t too flash, so most of us walked part way up to Briggs Bluff past the Bee Hive Falls, and later drove along the base of the ridge to Troopers Creek. It was fascinating to observe the West Ridge, which I had spent 3 hours on in the Cirrus a month before, from the ground - it was easy to pick the areas where the lift was strongest from the shape of the ridge.

On the Sunday, the wind was a moderate easterly. I took a tow to the eastern section of the Mt Difficult Range, where I found weak lift. After locating a "hot spot" I started to carefully explore the ridge, confident that I should be able to regain any lost height before venturing out again. I slowly worked my way along the ridge to the southeast, past Boroka Lookout towards Halls Gap (waving to the tourists as I cruised past level with them and about 100 m away). I cruised back and forth along the ridge near the lookout for about half an hour (mostly at about the same height as the ridge) before noticing a glider working the Wonderland Scarp (Laurie McKinley again). This gave me the confidence to fly over the town of Halls Gap to the scarp, which is on the western side of Lake Bellfield. We stayed there for an hour or so, exploring the ridge system, working the odd thermal, but moving back to the ridge when all else failed. JB appeared overhead in the LS4 at one stage, thermalled away from me (curses) and headed off over the Grampians to the west.

I then worked my way back along the Mt Difficult Range to within about 15 km of the field before heading for home. The flight duration was about 2 hours, at no stage more than 500’ above the ridge, and much of the time at about ridge height - definitely very rewarding!

Conclusion

Ridge soaring can be a lot of fun, but if you haven’t tried it before I suggest you keep the following points in mind:

• the strongest lift is generally close to the ridge face; therefore, you need to maintain a high level of concentration and adequate airspeed, and always turn away from the ridge (even when you are above it).
• it is often difficult to see other gliders on the ridge, especially those approaching head-on (remember that everyone tends to fly up and down the same "track", often at similar heights); therefore, you need to make sure you know where the others are (and try to make sure they can see you).
• the usual right-of-way rules apply (with the exception noted below) - this means that whenever the ridge is to your left, you have primary responsibility for keeping clear of any glider approaching from the opposite direction (by moving away from the ridge) recognising that they may not be able to move any closer to the ridge.
• the exception is that if you are overtaking another glider (at about the same height) you must pass between it and the ridge (irrespective of your heading) - but never attempt such a manoeuvre unless you are absolutely sure that the other pilot is aware of your close proximity and intentions - otherwise they could unintentionally cut you off, leaving you nowhere to go.
• as in any other situation, it is neither safe nor fair to other pilots to fly in their blind spot - especially as options for evasive action may be severely restricted by large lumps of rock nearby!