The forecast for the Bay was about spot-on. By 4pm cloud base was probably 6000ft. Sea breezes and a solid convergence inland from the racecourse and the Poripori strip.
However the Waikato was a different matter. As we desended into the Waikato cloud base was 3500ft and rose to 4500ft by late afternoon. The thermals were weak and not very consistent.
So we had plenty of land-out practise. GKM got to 900ft over Piako before getting a climb and, again, down to 1200 ft over the Te Aroha Racecourse before finding a thermal.
My tracklog said I got as low as 877ft over the spud patch before blundering into a thermal.
It was good thermal tho with climbs of 5 knots. Right over the top of Ralph Gore's new cowshed...thanks for converting to dairyfarming Gore's.
However the day was no where near good enough for our task - Tga- Maramarua - Te Awa (East of Taupo) - Tga. 510kms.
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