Well, once the lake was dry enough to get back to the camp, it was very clear that it was going to take at least another few days, for it to dry enough to be able to run. With no wind forecast for the next week, we are simply out of time for this test window. Rain is not uncommon for this time of year, so it is not a huge surprise, but normally the rain is accompanied by wind in advance of the fronts and I was hoping to be able to utilise this wind before the rain stopped play. Unfortunately, the system that dropped this water, was a very slow moving low, without any significant pressure gradients, so unusually, it managed to rain without any wind in advance. All very annoying!

However, despite the lack of wind, I did get one day of sailing in, clocking 60 mph in light wind. Although this is only a fraction of the vehicle’s potential, it was fast enough to demonstrate that everything is working perfectly. My concerns over the rear suspension on the bumpy surface was unfounded and that gives me a lot of confidence for the next weather window in March.

As all the landsailors had disappeared after the Nalsa regatta washout, I dismantled the Greenbird by myself, which is always a challenge, but after a long day, it is all safely back on the trailer, and off the lake. The craft will be stored locally over the winter, and be ready for the next land record opportunity in March.

The next challenge for us is going to be the ice record in Montana in January.

Ivanpah becomes a wet lake

Was woken up this morning at 4.30 am, to the sound of rain on the window. Two hours of pretty good downpour flooded most of the lake, but, all is not as bad as it seems. There area has been exceptionally dry for the last few years and most of this should be absorbed in the next day or two. Some wind is forecast for the weekend, so we are hoping it is going to be dry by Friday.

For now the lake is closed, with the Greenbird marooned on the edge. Hopefully we will be able to get back to it tomorrow, and download the data from the weather station, to see exactly how much rain fell during the night.

As long as no more rain falls, we should still be able to test on the weekend.

Closed due to rain

After dinner around the campfire end of last week, with a group of landsailors from Perth, I went to bed around midnight, with the sound of rain still falling on the tin roof of the old mining exploration caravan we are staying in. In the morning the rain had stopped, but we found the camp area had turned into a bit of a quagmire, which indicated a lot of rain had fallen over the last 12 hours. We skidded down the muddy hill to the foil trays we had left on the lake surface to measure the amount of rain, only to find one of them had floated away, which gives you some idea of what we were looking at. The other tray indicated that between 15-20mm had fallen in the night, and the sky was still not clear. Later that morning more thunder clouds dropped another 5-10mm.

This had flooded the entire surface of the lake and has rendered it unusable for possibly another month, which sadly means an end to this year’s land record challenge, which is a very disappointing blow to us all. The Greenbird was in fantastic shape to shatter the record and it is very frustrating not to get any high speeds in whatsoever.

So why the peculiar weather and why could we not predict this? I will be going into a more detailed weather analysis in the next blog post, but in brief, July saw twice its monthly average fall in 2 days at the end of the month, then August saw its monthly average quota fall over the last 12 hours. If the rain comes in smaller showers with regular intervals, it can evaporate quicker and soaks into the soils surrounding the lake. When so much falls in such a short time, the clay in the soil seals the surface and streams start running onto the lake. This effectively increases the catchment area of the lake and means more water ends up pooling on the surface. It is not uncommon to have monsoon type conditions later in the year, but they are certainly a few months early this year, and almost impossible to predict.

So where from here? Well, the Greenbird is now dismantled and out of the big puddle and looking for its next record opportunity, the same time, same place, next year. In the meantime, we will have the Greenbird ice craft in action in Montana in January and February.

So how do I feel? After many years of uncooperative weather I am use to it by now, but it does not make it any the less frustrating. Almost every other sport or race has direct competitors, where it does not matter what the conditions are, they are the same for everybody and all you have to do is beat your rivals and there is always a winner.
In our situation, we have to wait to get the same (or near) conditions as the current record holders had in 1999 before we even have an opportunity to compete and this makes it incredibly difficult. When we can’t set a new record due to the weather, it is not like losing a race, but it is more like an athlete not even being allowed to enter the arena, let alone get on the starting blocks.

All we can do is maximise our chances of getting favourable winds by longer standby periods and looking at all possible venues. Persistence will always win.

Here’s our final video for this season from Lake Lefroy.

This year’s land speed record attempt with the Greenbird is officially a washout. I held off travelling at the start of the short weather window because the lake was actually wet not dry and I’ve been waiting, bag packed, ever since for the call – but it didn’t come, or not the one I hoped for. Richard mailed me yesterday with the news – there’s been even more rain and still no wind. There’s no chance the lake can dry in time now, so we have to pack up and try again next year. There is a possible venue in the US we’re looking into for March though…

We’re pretty disappointed not to have even been able to get the Greenbird out of the starting blocks. And it’s an irony not lost on us while that while Greenbird is intended to show how the world might be getting around when fossil fuels run out – the changes that fossil fuels are causing to our climate right now appears to be the very thing that has stopped us.

In the next twenty years, I firmly believe that wind power will be our main energy source and wind-powered cars will no longer be the stuff of dreams. We’re dedicated to making this a reality, and at the end of this year hope to have our second generation wind powered car on the road here in the UK, an everyday kind of wind powered car. We need to change the world, nothing less will do and for that (amongst other things) we need a transport solution for world post oil. Wind power has the potential to provide this.”

I’ll be blogging about the wind-powered car at www.zerocarbonista.com so join me there.

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!

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.

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.