We’ve just uploaded a fantastic video of the new Greenbird helmets which you can see in our Video Gallery. The helmets were designed and created for us (for free!) by Jason Fowler of JLF Designs. So a massive thank you to Jason and his team, who are the leading helmet paintwork specialists in Britain. They do helmets for some of the biggest names in Formula 1(like Lewis Hamilton!), as well as for GP2, DTM, MotoGP and Karting drivers. The design is just perfect – capturing the spirit and vision of what we are trying to do here with this project. Very proud to be wearing a JLF helmet…

And this great HD video was filmed & produced by our long-term partner BHP Sport – and they are currently here with me in Oz, doing another piece which will be available on this site soon!

Here’s a shot of the new helmet, but make sure you check out the whole video – in all its HD glory!

Well, the good news is that our film crew, BHP Sport are here and filming in earnest with the very latest Sony HD equipment. Early footage looks stunning and they will be posting Video blogs here shortly. Simon and the crew from BHP are great friends of the project and have been filming progress since the early days in 2001.

The bad news, is that it is raining, hard! Not sure how much has fallen so far but we will get accurate measurements from our rain collectors in the morning. We will then have to reassess the situation
and how this has affected the drying time, sailable area,  etc.

Today was another tuning and tweaking day, with stall tests on the main wing and tail flap angle adjustment for starting. Wool tufts are stuck to the wing to visualise flow and show when stall occurs. Even though real operating speeds are much faster than these static tests at low wind speeds, the results should be fairly linear.

Simon and Andy from BHP battling the rain...

Temporary wool tufts to visualise flow...

Rain radar - not looking good!

Hard on the heels of a record Olympics for the Brits…….:)

Hi, Dale here. I’m off to Oz in a few days to join the Greenbird team and attempt to take the world land speed record – powered only by the wind.

We named Greenbird as a nod to Donald Campbell and his historic Bluebird.  We reckon the world is at a watershed, the age of fossil fuels is passing and we’re moving (back) to the age of renewable energy – Greenbird symbolises this perhaps better then anything else.

Donald broke his records in the golden age of fossil fuels, the age of big engines and abundant, energy dense fuels.  We’re going to break ours with no engine, no fuel and no pollution – using just the wind.

We’re trying to raise a serious question, too.  How are we all going to be getting around in a world without oil?

I reckon it’ll be with wind powered cars.  Check out this illustration sent to us by Dave Mills, I think it’s really cool.  Not exactly what we have in mind but really cool.

Greenbird is our F1 car, a highly technical,pretty impractical, single purpose thoroughbred machine, we know you couldn’t go to the shops in. But we have a second generation wind car on the way – that you could use day to day.  More on that later.

We need to do about 120 mph to scoop the record, and if the wind blows we’re very confident we’ll get here.

Right now the salt lake we’re using for the attempt is flooded, and there’s no wind – both unusual this time of year.  So it’s all against us.

But we have another 10 days of weather window and have our fingers crossed.

Finally, thanks massively to Fred Chambers for sending us the image below, of a land yacht from 100 years ago, on the same lake we’re using. I think it’s just awesome.

Wind power is so ‘back to the future’.

Well, I am now getting pretty bored of taking pictures of reflections of the Greenbird, even if some of the sunsets and sunrises are magnificent.

Water is steadily drying, but regardless of the water situation, there is no real sign of wind on the horizon, which is a real change compared to the conditions I experienced last year, when we had a front (strong wind event) pass through every 2 or 3 days. This year, the jet stream is keeping the low pressure systems well below Australia and we are experiencing record High pressures with sun and light winds. Take a look at this site for a better explanation of current conditions www.weatherzone.com.au/synoptic.jsp Finding the right weather has always been a big part of the equation and for sure we have missed some great winds by a very small time margin. On the flip side we have also sat for months in deserts around the world in windless conditions. some of the comments refer to bad luck, but I don’t see it like this at all. To me, it is all part of the challenge and the harder the record is, the greater value I attach to it and the harder I try to break it.

I have had many questions asking for more detailed explanation of how the vehicle actually works, so for the technical amongst you, I will do my best to put up a better description, here, shortly.

The Greenbird is currently sitting on blocks, to keep the mechanics dry, in about 2 inches of water.

Greenbird on the lake

Greenbird reflected in the lake.

Greenbird on the rippling water

Greenbird under an orange sky.

Some photos showing how localized the surface conditions are!

Spotting for dry patches!

Moving Greenbird out of flooded patch...

Note how much salt on tyres - still need to watch conditions.

Each day really does give a new outlook on the ‘water on the surface situation’. Yesterday it all looked bad (wet!) but today was looking very encouraging, with much more area revealed from under the waves!
We did some experiments with salty and pure water to check evaporation rates and it looks like we are loosing 3-5 mm per day in these conditions, which is great news. If this continues at the same rate we should have a mainly dry surface in under a week. Fingers crossed! In the meantime we are finishing the last few technical details on the craft, electronics, etc.

This is not meant to be a professional video release, but should hopefully give you a few seconds of background stuff today, in advance of our proper film crew who arrive next week. No shots of craft running as yet as the water on the lake is still giving us hassle. The Greenbird team back in UK tell me that this clip made the rounds on Sky News and BBC!

The remaining water on the lake surface is causing quite serious concern. Although probably only 30% of the lake surface is covered, it blows around depending on the wind direction. Last night we received the first signs of wind approaching with a cold shift and a southerly wind at about 15 mph, gusting 20.

I awoke to find the area that had been wet yesterday was now dry, but the larger body of the lake that was dry, was now wet as lots of water has obviously blown up from the south end of the lake. With such a large area (10 miles by 6 miles) it is impossible to survey the entire area and know how much of the surface is covered, and of that area, how deep the water is. (more…)

Very long drive to the lake 950k, with a very heavy load. Poor car took a beating. 9 hrs one day, blew the head gasket at about midnight and from then on had to refill the water system every 50-100k, running a ‘bit rough’ on only 4 or 5 of the 6 cylinders! Nursed it to the lake the next morning and after another 4 hrs arrived about 11 am, only to find a flooded lake. Very depressing. The water (one inch in one day) last month is still around. However on detailed inspection not that bad. The locals have been sailing on a dry lake for the last  2 weeks, so gave me the nod that it was dry and ready to go, but during my drive, the wind changed direction and all the water that was piled up on the far side of the lake (10 miles away), washed across to this side. This means we can’t currently sail from the base out to the dry part of the lake, but hopefully as soon as the wind changes back to its prevailing direction, it will push the water back smoothing the surface as it goes.

Ready to go!

Finally in Western Australia!

Flooded lake!

Some long days, and starting to look good. Craft’s painted now with the new livery and we are really pleased with the result. The main wing is going to need wet sanding and polishing to try and get rid of the paint joint lines, but not a bad job on the whole.

There has been a lot of rain on the lake, so there’s no rush to get out there while water is washing around. It should dry without a problem in the next week or so.