News.com.au has some potentially good news for us flying folk:
A $30 million, four-year project to create Australia’s biggest weather computer is underway.
The new supercomputing system, being built for the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and Australian National University (ANU), will make weather predictions more accurate.
The BOM machine will have the capacity to make about 1.5 trillion complex weather calculations a second as it crunches through weather data from around the country.
Terry sent in this clipping from the Forbes Advocate after our activities at the airport the other week:
Pilot: Dave May
Glider: RS3.5
Date - Time: 14/03/2010 - 12:32
Takeoff: Forbes airstrip - AU
Landing: Forbes airstrip - AU
Straight Distance: 29.7 km =
OLC Km: 83.4 km ====
OLC score: 166.8 ===
Flight Type: FAI Triangle
Duration: 3 hrs 26 min ===
Max speed: 90.34 km/h ====
Max vario: +4.2 m/sec
Min vario: -3.2 m/sec
Max Alt ASL: 2041 m ====
Min Alt ASL: 243 m
Takeoff alt: 287 m 
See flight in Google Earth
Pilot: Dave May
Glider: RS3.5
Date - Time: 13/03/2010 - 13:36
Takeoff: Forbes airstrip - AU
Landing: Forbes Aifield - AU [~19.4 km]
Straight Distance: 30.9 km =
OLC Km: 75.0 km ===
OLC score: 112.5 ==
Flight Type: Free Flight
Duration: 2 hrs 17 min ==
Max speed: 90.28 km/h ====
Max vario: +4.4 m/sec
Min vario: -3.8 m/sec
Max Alt ASL: 2275 m ====
Min Alt ASL: 282 m
Takeoff alt: 309 m 
See flight in Google Earth
Pilot: Trent Brown
Glider: Litespeed RS3.5
Date - Time: 13/03/2010 - 13:32
Takeoff: Forbes airstrip - AU
Landing: Forbes airstrip - AU
Straight Distance: 30.3 km =
OLC Km: 94.8 km ====
OLC score: 189.6 ===
Flight Type: FAI Triangle
Duration: 3 hrs 31 min ===
Max speed: 88.91 km/h ====
Max vario: +5.4 m/sec
Min vario: -4.4 m/sec
Max Alt ASL: 2133 m ====
Min Alt ASL: 245 m
Takeoff alt: 319 m 
See flight in Google Earth
Pilot: Trent Brown
Glider: Litespeed RS3.5
Date - Time: 14/03/2010 - 12:13
Takeoff: Forbes airstrip - AU
Landing: Forbes airstrip - AU
Straight Distance: 29.4 km =
OLC Km: 86.8 km ====
OLC score: 173.6 ===
Flight Type: FAI Triangle
Duration: 3 hrs 47 min ===
Max speed: 108.13 km/h =====
Max vario: +9.4 m/sec
Min vario: -4.8 m/sec
Max Alt ASL: 1977 m ===
Min Alt ASL: 240 m
Takeoff alt: 327 m 
See flight in Google Earth
Pilot: Dave May
Glider: RS3.5
Date - Time: 11/03/2010 - 13:42
Takeoff: Lake George Nth Launch - AU
Landing: Binalong - AU [~42.1 km]
Straight Distance: 122.8 km ======
OLC Km: 126.4 km ======
OLC score: 189.7 ===
Flight Type: Free Flight
Duration: 2 hrs 30 min ==
Max speed: 112.75 km/h =====
Max vario: +2.8 m/sec
Min vario: -3.4 m/sec
Max Alt ASL: 1995 m ===
Min Alt ASL: 491 m
Takeoff alt: 1043 m ==
See flight in Google Earth
