March 2008

WEATHER STATIONS IN ACTION:

Vantage Pro2 Plus Helps Champion Gliders Soar Safely

It almost looks like this Vantage Pro2 Plus is feeling a bit wistful about being earth-bound as it watches the gliders at the Western Australia Gliding Championships. Photo by R. Crawford

Story by Robert Crawford

The state of Western Australia conducted its annual gliding championships in January at Beverley. Beverley is a small town in the middle of the grain-growing area of Western Australia commonly referred to as the “Wheatbelt.” Gliders fly from a WWII US training airfield (32°07’30.82” S, 116°56’57.98” E) next to the town.

It was great to have a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station on site this year, loaned by local distributor Les Cooke Instruments with Australian distributor Ecowatch providing a solar radiation sensor.

John Welsh, Meteorologist for the Championships and Executive Officer of the Gliding Federation of Australia said of the Vantage Pro2, “I found it easy to use and most useful especially for identifying wind direction and temperature rise trends for runway selection and for selecting the best time to launch the fleet of twenty five gliders.”

Pilots at the competition especially seemed to like the large display and the fact that it was portable.

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