Barry Kruyssen's First Morning Glory - September 2007 kr2@bigpond.com
Brief Description
The Morning Glory, a spectacular roll cloud which occurs only in the outback of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, is one of the world's most exotic and interesting meteorological phenomena. Morning Glories generally occur during September and October near dawn over the southern Gulf area between Sweers Island and Burketown in northern Queensland. The Morning Glory does not occur every morning as it is very dependent on the weather patterns.
The Awesome Experience
I went to Burketown between 23rd through 29th of September 2007. The 702km (379Nm) trip from my home airport at Atherton took 5:41 flying hours with 1 fuel stop (This is Day 1).
The routine adopted, is to get up every morning at around 4:30 am and prepare for a first light takeoff at around 6 am. We prepared not knowing if a Morning Glory is coming as nobody can predict the weather. I am being mentored by Geoff Pratt who has been flying the Morning Glory for over 10 years. Geoff's knowledge is invaluable to a "newbie" like me.
Day 2 - There is no visible cloud so we took off and headed north east (in to wind) to see if there is a Morning Glory further out to sea or across the gulf. No luck, so we return and tie down for the day. In the afternoon there is a sea breeze, which is a good sign.
Day 3 - The aircraft are covered in a heavy dew, another good sign. While we are DI'ing our aircraft there is a yell "Here she comes" and I look up to see a low black cloud out on the horizon and then the rush starts. Looking east it is light enough to take off. I contact the Morning Glory on down wind leg as the cloud engulfs Burketown. Low and close to the leading edge of the cloud the lift is up to 10kts (1000 ft/min). We rode the Morning Glory for about 2:50 and covering about 305km (165Nm) till the cloud started to break up as the day heated up. We motored down wind to Adels Grove and landed for brunch and then motored back to Burketown.
Day 4 - Same dew as day 2, looking good. We are joined by 2 more motor gliders. We take off and contact the cloud over Burketown again, riding it for over 3 hours and covering about 378km (209Nm) till the clouds were braking up. There were 7 Morning Glory clouds and we rode each one as we worked our way back towards Burketown, though the clouds rolled across the ground faster than our progress and we had to motor back the 160km (86Nm).
Day 5 and 6 - There is no visible cloud so we took off and headed north east (in to wind) to see if there is a Morning Glory further out to sea or across the gulf. No luck, so we return and tie down for the day.
Day 7 - There is no visible cloud so we took off and headed north east (in to wind) to see if there is a Morning Glory further out to sea or across the gulf. No luck, so we return and as the weather does not look good for a Morning Glorying on Sunday (tomorrow), my last day, I decide to pack up and head home.
By the time I am ready to take off there is 25kts head wind straight down the strip. At 1000 feet and on track I have a 40kts head wind, I think about returning to Burketown but as there is a visible inversion layer I decide to climb above it and see what the winds are doing. At 9500 feet I have a 10kts tail wind, this is better. I arrived home safely.
Checkout the links at the bottom of the page for more information on the Morning Glory.
Here is a short video shot from my glider on the Morning Glory cloud, sorry for the poor quality but I was flying at VNE near 2 other aircraft while trying to film.
