Soaring along the Morning Glory

[sixtiesrelic]

I noticed the Tsunami DVD over on the left of the page and had a look to see what it was about.

 

I rode the Morning Glory two days in a row in the spring of ’83.

 

I’d heard about it some years before but forgotten all about it when a mate and I went for a bit of a jaunt half way round Oz in the Tri-pacer.

 

We were camped at Escott station and got a bit of a surprise when we arose from the tent the first morning and found the place swathed in heavy fog.

 

 

Some time after the fog lifted we were sitting round when there was a sort of squall with a bit of scraggy cloud, and a few rain drops that tore past south bound.

 

It was sudden and very short lived.

 

We looked at each other and said what the hell happened then?

 

The whispy cloud disappeared south and just the usual western dry blue sky was above us.

 

It hit me! That was the “Morning Glory” and I explained what it was to me Kiwi mate who’d never heard of it.

 

Next morning another fog. When it lifted we decided to go for a bit of a burn to check out the area in the morning light and see if another roll cloud would appear.

 

We flew to the coast and sure enough out to sea was a wedge shaped cloud.

 

We flew north towards it for a closer look.

 

I thought I might fly under it, but on getting closer we could see the base was only two hundred feet from the sea. Decided that was a bit too adventurous, so flew parallel to the beach climbing to see how high the top was. It was only thirteen hundred feet.

 

I continued to climb and flew over the top for a look at the back.

 

Fairly steep from memory. We flew well behind it to see what we could see and went down to check the two hundred foot base was there too.

 

We played for a while getting close, to check it out then did a climbing orbit and headed back to get over it again.

 

I found with ten degrees nose up, best rate of climb speed and climb power, we weren’t climbing till I turned away and flew north for a while.

 

Recognised that we had been in a fairly strong down draught and reckoned if that was the case behind the cloud, there should be an updraught in front of it.

 

Went well clear of the top at about two and a half thousand and flew parallel to the face descending.

 

Once close, we found that there WAS an updraught on the front face.

 

Gliding with power at idle, we were going up at one to two hundred feet a minute a minute at eighty five knots.

 

Best glide speed for the milk stool is at seventy three and you go down at one thousand feet a minute. Those stubby wings don’t give you the seven hundred feet a minute you get in Cessnas and Warriors.

 

The next day we went for a play again and took the camera. Thems were the days when you only took a few photos as you had to get them developed and printed at about fifty cents each in today's money. Going mad with the camera for three weeks could really cost.

 

Had some time to plan this flight.

 

We headed north west to meet the cloud over the water and ridge soared along it eastwards for some minutes, cooling the engine down then pulled the mixture out and stopped the prop to prove that we were really ridge soaring. We did about eighty five to eighty eight knots for about five minutes over land in that state.

 

I did have a couple of photos of the prop sticking up and the cloud sloping downwards, but had them loose, showing them to people and they’re lost now.

 

I always thought I should go back in a strut-less Cessna 210 and fly out to sea, west of Mornington Island or even Groote and ridge soar to Burketown or Normanton just for fun with the engine shut down. They were about the cleanest, slippery, plane we could easily get our hands on back then.

 

I have heard that lots of people go there now to play like we did twenty six years ago, so I’ve not thought any more about it.

 

It’s quite interesting, While over water you see it, but soon after it crosses the coast it rapidly dissipates visibly, but the front heads well inland before it dies. Blokes tell me they’ve felt the thump in clear air fifty miles inland.

 

What’s different about it is it is a reverse roll… doesn’t roll like a bottle over a flat surface like a frontal roll cloud, but sweeps upwards on the face and rolls downwards on the back.

 

The CSIRO did some investigation many years ago in a Friendship, but couldn’t explain it.

 

There are two places in the world where it appears in spring. Gulf of Carpentaria and Mexico, although I once saw something like it when flying over Spencer Gulf and reckoned it might have been the same phenomenon.

 

I've seen a pretty interesting photo of it and you wouldn't get me anywhere near it if it was as angry as that photo.

 

A friend told me that some days he's seen three seperate lines of Morning Glory's, so it's certainly an interesting thing to study.

 

 

This was some way inland when it had diminished somewhat.

 

 

Further inland say five minutes later. It was getting very raggy.

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Very interesting 60's thanks for posting.

 

 

[Guest Michael Coates]

Good report, very interesting!