SA WEATHER SERVICE TAKES WORLD-WIDE
LEAD IN GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2001-11-22

The World Gliding Championships in Mafikeng in December will see the South African Weather Service implement an instrument recovery programme - the first of its kind world-wide - which could save international forecasting services some R2-million a day.

The WGS will host some 80 glider pilots and their support teams from 22 countries at the 57th world championships starting on December 18 with the weather playing a crucial role in determining the daily tasks for the competitors.

Chairman of the WGC, Dick Bradley says the breakthrough will help put the South African technology used in the championships on a par with those anywhere else in the world. "In addition, one of SA's top glider pilots and an expert on local weather conditions, Helmuth Fischer has been working closely with the Weather Service with a view to improving the product offered to the visiting competitors.

To recover expensive instruments used in determining weather conditions, SAWS has developed a miniature glider (Glidersonde) which will carry the GPS forecasting equipment called a radiosonde when taken aloft by a balloon. At a pre-set altitude, the Glidersonde releases itself from the balloon with the autonomous navigation system guiding it back home where once again at a pre-set altitude, a parachute is released to bring the small glider safely to ground for reuse.

Fischer who holds the world speed record of 169,7k/p/h over a 1000kms triangle, says that the innovation has allowed the Service implement a number of improvements to the observational data network bounded by Pilansberg, Mafikeng, Pomfrey, Zylpos, Postmasburg, Kimberley and Welkom. This is the area over which the pilots will be competing.

"We have worked with the Weather Service to offer a product which will meet the very high standards required by the gliding community. This has resulted in the reshaping of the service itself. Their co-operation has been outstanding with a spill-over of benefits to the agricultural sector and the man-in-the-street," he points out.

"There is a demand for accurate information both geographically and at low levels and to bring this home, we took Lucian Banitz of the SAWS for a flight to experience the demands made on a glider pilot," he says

Banitz says that the experience has led to innovations bringing improvements, undertaken against a background of ever rising weather prediction costs and diminishing budgets, which has led to increasing the number of weather stations from 16 to 18 as well as ensuring that all 18 have humidity sensors.

"We will also set up a complete forecasting office in the airport terminal building at Mafikeng which will have access to the latest satellite imagery, numerical weather prediction model output and have the ability to interrogate any Automatic Weather Station (AWS) in the area at any time," He says.

The upgrading of services will be ready for the World Gliding Championships starting mid-December and the Glidersonde will be exposed to the public for the first time. Bradley says that these will bring SA on a par with European counterparts in making the championships a success. He says that the event will kick off with a spectacular air show on December 17 with the biggest spin-off being the injection of some R10-million into the Northwest Province and Mafikeng economy.