Bureau of Meteorology and Tenae....

Tenae writes...."On Saturday afternoon, Mum and I were hanging out at Adelaide Biplanes having the best iced coffee, when Gaylene received a phone call from John Cooper, a member of The Antique Aircraft Association. He told her about a tour of The Bureau of Meteorology that was to take place on Monday night at College Road, Kent Town."

http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/sa/

"Gaylene came over and asked us if we would like to go and gave us the contact details to book in. That night, after a little persuading, Mum rang John, she was a little worried that I might be too young ( I am 11 years old. ) But John was very friendly and helpful and Mum decided that talking to the older pilots can only help me....So, it's decided, WE ARE GOING! YAY!"

"Monday evening arrived and away we went. It was a long drive and I'm glad that I can fly at Aldinga, it's so close and I feel very safe there, I don't like the city. We walked up the path and were met by John straight away. He introduced us to his Navigator Jan and a lady named Mary,  who flies a big Stearman Biplane from Noarlunga. Mary also told me about the book she is reading about Eleanor Smith, ( Coincidence No 1 ) who started flying when she was 7.... really young!  ( Coincidence No 2 ). She wanted to fly her father's Waco ( Coincidence No 3 ).  Look out Martyn, here I come!"

Bureau of Meteorology, Adelaide....

"I also ran into Richard who flies the Tiger Moth and the Super Decathlon at Aldinga. I met him at Arbury Park about a year ago when my school went for a camp. He was wearing an Adelaide Biplanes hat. I got excited when I saw it and went over to talk to him. It was good to see him again."

"While we were waiting to go on tour, a lot of people were asking me about my flying, which plane I was training in, how I was handling the theory side of things and what inspired me to be a pilot etc. I felt very grown up and special, but I also felt overwhelmed that all these older pilots that I look up to, wanted to know about me....a kid! I was a little shy about the whole thing, but I did tell them that the Waco 'Hony' is where I found my love."

"Our tour was hosted by Paul Lainio. He took us outside to where they take a lot of the measurements; they measure wet and dry bulb temperature, winds, soil temperature, pressure, humidity, rainfall and evaporation. HaHa, now this is funny....They have an evaporation tank with a big jug on the outside with a hose going into it. The jug is used to fill the pipe to measure the evaporation....the amount of water used out of the jug to cover the probe in the pipe is how much has evaporated. As we walked off, Mum tripped over the hose and knocked the jug of water over....Sploosh! It was sooo embarassing. Mum thought they might kick her off the tour before we even got inside!"

"We were shown a tornado simulator which was run using steam....very cool....I didn't know that we get tornados here!"

"Paul then led us all to view a slide presentation, showing us where all the weather observation areas are, not only in Australia, but around the world. I learnt that there are over 7,000 volunteer stations in Australia. Good on you guys! He showed us the different ways that the weather is measured including computers, radars and satellites and how they use that information to forecast the weather. Upper observations are still done by hydrogen balloons that radars track. Rainfall is measured both manually and automatically, but the manual readings will override the automatic reading if there is a difference. I also found out that they use lasers at Adelaide Airport to measure visibility in the clouds. "

"The presentation ended with some interesting predictions about climate change, an estimate of another 6 degrees warming over the next 100 years or so. We then went to the weather watch area, there were two people on night shift. The lady showed us how they watch and predicted the weather with the computers."

Tenae with John Cooper....

"I did learn a lot about how they record the weather and different measurements on the tour. It was very interesting, and John, if you are reading this story, a very big Thank You to you! And also to Gaylene, thank you for looking out for me and nurturing my passion.

Lots of love,

Tenae...."