The one that got away

[Coop]

The Kangaroo Island run again- normally a routine business in the middle of summer- has lived up to its reputation of throwing up something different each time.

 

Wanted to go to KI to celebrate the old man's 91st birthday- if for no other reason than that his continued existence ensures I am not yet a member of the "older generation".

 

Saturday's forecast was for cloudbase around 1500'- a bit marginal, but Ok if it isn't accompanied by showers of rain- which it was- but even this can be alright if the rain doesn't actually get in the way- which it did....

 

Headed south from our home base in rather poor visibility (milky sort of haze everywhere due high humidity)towards a lowering cloudbase. Heard a chopper landing near Strathalbyn so gave a general call to warn him and any others of our presence and intentions. He helpfully replied that they had just come from down south and the cloudbase was 300'. Looked like we would be stopping at Goolwa for a coffee.

 

No such luck. About 5 miles south of Strath the cloudbase was already down to 500' agl and getting lower, so we turned around and headed back to base. Coffee and scones at the local cafe helped assuage the disappointment at not getting to KI for lunch.

 

At about 12:00 rain set in, but by 1:00 it had cleared and a call to the operator at Goolwa indicated that conditions there and further south were better. Set off again, but this time tracked further west on the grounds that the moisture was being brought in by a southeasterly and the other side of the ranges should therefore be clearer. And so it turned out. With 1500' cloudbase we slid past Aldinga, and the cloud began to break up, so we climbed above it to 3,500' for the run down the coast and over to Penneshaw. Raced another shower of rain to Kingscote, helped the old man celebrate his 91 years at afternoon tea, and by 5:00 we were back at the airport ready to head for home. Above us were clear blue skies and a few puffy white clouds. No problems!

 

But it didn't take long before our optimism took a blow- by American River we were again down to 500' agl (actually over eastern cove) and the cloud ahead was getting even lower. And we couldn't see Cape Jervis through the murk. So, turned back and dropped into American River private strip (we know the owner). His dog did a very good shepherding job, and appeared to want to get behind me all the time. I was having none of this as his barks and tail wags were interspersed with growls, so as he continually tried to circle around me I pirouetted and kept him in front of me as we circled our way down the path towards the house. AS we closed on the house his circles got tighter and he got closer. I eventually decided that maybe no-one was at home, and that he was fulfilling his guarding contract, so I decided to execute a strategic withdrawal, still circling to keep him in front of me. He was pleased with this and gave me more room. At this point the owner showed up, called his dog back to him, and as soon as we shook hands the dog was my friend, the growling stopped, and he was happy to be patted and tickled. Smart dogs these Border Collies!

 

THe owner was heading off to a friend's place for dinner, but was happy for me to hang about as long as I needed to. Within about 15 minutes things were looking clearer, so we took off and headed northeast again. However, by Penneshaw we were again down to 500', and from a position about 2 miles out over Backstairs Passage we still could only just see the coast of Cape Jervis, and then only the first 100' or 200' or so. There was no future in that, so about face again and back to Kingscote to stay the night with sis. IT was too late for another try, as by now we would have had limited fuel reserves and limited daylight, and going into a tricky environment with no margins in either case is asking for trouble.

 

Next morning the scene looked somewhat better, and armed with another jerry of fuel we got back to the airport nice and early. Again, we were confronted with cloud at about 1500' but this time it was obviously breaking up to the west, leaving the coast from Jervis to Aldinga and beyond in the clear. With this as our escape route, we decided to go over the top, figuring that the cloud wouldn't extend all the way to home base, and if it did we would just have to land at Aldinga for lunch (diversions can be tough!).

 

By 2,500' we had cleared the top of the cloud but went on up to 5,000' to get a better view of the extent. From this altitude we could see that it probably only extended to around Strathalbyn, and that there were regular breaks through which we could navigate and/or descend if we had to. We crossed the passage, dropped to 4,500 to stay OCTA, and the rest was easy.

 

Its pretty unusual to run into such high humidity and such low cloud coming from the southeast at this time of the year in SA. This "la Nina" weather event is going to make flying tricky for all of us this year, I suspect. And we will have to keep our wits about us- especially when flying near hills and ranges that can trigger cloud as happened on this occasion.

 

Coop