Days 13 – 15. I have to apologise for the last few days. It's been very full on and we've gotten back to the hotels roughly at 10:30, meaning we've had very little time to blog. Although, this just means that I have a lot more to write today. We have gone through quite a bit in the last few days and are now in relaxation mode.
Day 13 was by far one of the worst days we had the entire trip. Not long after starting, we started to experience a little problem. We could see dust storms in the background and there was very little sun to keep the car moving. This was very disappointing for most of us, as we had woken up very early in Coober Pedy to drive 60km to our ending point from the day before.
The night in Coober Pedy was an interesting one. We stayed in a place called the Dugout Motel. Basically, it was a whole underground back packers motel. The guys stayed in an area called "The Dungeon" while the girls were in "The Digger's Cave". It was very interesting, as we had to bring all our own sleeping bags and a pillow. This meant that at first, all you could see were these bunk beds without bedding, surrounded by rock.
Later that night, we all went across the road to a Pizza Restaurant. Yes, I said restaurant. It was all very nice and the pizzas were massive, but people quickly forgot that they were in fact in a restaurant. The teachers did as well, so it's not really a problem for anyone. Everyone got stuck into the pizza, and we held a competition to see who could eat the most. The most was by Trent Rule and I, who both ate seven slices.
When we were arriving in Port Augusta, the dust storms continued and were fiercer than before. It reminded most of us of the Apocalypse, as cliché as that sounds. Since there was so much dust in the sky, and it was also raining, there was mud rain falling from the sky. It turned our car and other vehicles completely brown. The drivers of the solar car were steering with one hand and holding the roof down with the other! We just couldn't drive in that weather, so we were forced to trailer the car.
We arrived in a smaller township, looking for a place to stay. Unfortunately, there were two major weddings on at the time. We were forced to move onto Adelaide. We left the township at 5, and didn't get into Adelaide until like 10. Everyone was completely shattered and pretty much unable to speak LOTG (Languages Other Than Gibberish). Once we all found our hotels, we all went out and grabbed Hungry Jacks or McDonalds.
Adelaide was full of partying and emos. It was very similar to Northbridge at night. This wasn't exactly a good welcoming for us, and we all thought Adelaide was a little bit dodgy… But the next few days in Adelaide really proved us wrong.
Day 14. After the first night spent in Adelaide, we were all ready to get up and escape the Shakespeare hotel. We were split up into two hotels, because they had to accommodate Willetton in one of them as well. It was a bit of a rude awakening, as we were all kicked out of bed by Mr Morgan. We simply moved to the other hotel, which was called the Blue Galah. It had Foxtel and a pool table, so that kept a lot of us entertained.
Later that morning, we went down to a car park where we were storing all our vehicles, and removed the solar car from the trailer. We charged it up and got it ready to cross the finish line. The rest of us all went to the finish line, eagerly awaiting the arrival of our pride and joy, the Hammerhead. Unfortunately, Willetton went before us, so it felt like they beat us despite the fact we drove further than them. When our car did arrive, we were all very loud though, and we managed to get the support of a lot of other teams as well. There were cameras for BTN there, as well as all of the officials.
After all the cars had been brought in, they were all set up on display. The cars from Greenfleet through to the cars from both solar classes were all there. They all had to go undercover though, as there were rain clouds rolling in from all directions. While all the cars were being scrutinised (by the public this time), there was two other challenges going on; the mini solar cars and solar boats. These were both very exciting, and drew very large crowds.
Later on that night, we all went to the official ceremony of the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge. Here, the awards were presented and the teams were all given recognition for partaking in the event. Before this, everyone stayed down in the lobby and took part in another (unofficial) ceremony; shirt swapping. Basically, you take a few clean shirts and can trade them with other teams, so you can remember the occasion and whoever else was there.
The awards went on for a little too long, and finished up with a very corny song… Walking On Sunshine. It was a very good ceremony, however, and all the teams who won all of the awards were very deserving. For instance, the award for the Environment went to the Welsh team, which were a family of 5. They had a very low budget, much like ours; although they made our budget look like Michigan's.
Solar Car Blog Day 15 and 16.
These days were days of relaxation. That is the simplest way to sum it up. It consisted of us going into Adelaide city, Rundle Mall to be precise, and going shopping. Well, that was for HALF of us. The other half of us had to go back down to the park and retrieve the vehicles, so that we could get them washed. After a few hours in the dust storms around Port Augusta, our cars were looking a little on the dirty side.
The group that went down to the car wash were getting a bit irritated, waiting to get the support vehicles in, as they had to wait behind one tow truck which had been in there for about an hour. We did EVENTUALLY get in though, and hilarity ensued. When we weren't accidentally (I'm being serious) wetting each other, we were accidentally wetting Mr Sheppard. He wasn't too impressed, but he did realise it was an accident, so we lived to see another day.
After all the vehicles had been cleaned, we returned them back to the park with all the other cars, and just headed back to the hostel. We spent about an hour there having lunch, and then returned to the park. The next job was to simply clean the INSIDE of the vehicles, so that they were ready to return to the rental company. It was a fairly simple job, and it didn't take too long, but we somehow still managed to have fun doing it… And doing it properly!
The rest of the evening was really just slacking. Mr Morgan and Mr Sheppard cooked us all dinner, which was chicken with vegetables (such as coleslaw). We all gathered around the pool table and had a few games, which was a good throw back to the Alatai in Darwin. Once again, Mr Morgan and Mr Beattie cleaned us all up.
The next day, however, was slightly different… We were heading back to Perth. This just meant that we had to return all of the vehicles today and pack up our stuff. This was NOT exciting. Unfortunately, I ended up being the only one to stack it the entire trip. I tried to jump a fence and tripped, ending up on my behind. It was good comic value, and the only thing that was bruised was my ego.
When we got to the airport, it was pretty much exactly the same as when we got to the airport in Perth. We hung around for a bit and just waited. The plane trip wasn't very exciting either. Die Hard 4.0 was on, people slept and everyone chilled. We were all very tired, and most of us still are… As you may be able to tell.
The end of a fantastic trip, which a lot of us hope to do again in 2009. It's a pity it had to come to an end like it did, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
P.S: Thanks for all the positive feedback I've been receiving on my blogs; I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them.
Written by Curtis Brand (Year 11)
Going Home.
Well we're on the plane, heading back from Adelaide to Perth. It's an enjoyable finish to an enjoyable trip; although a very stressful one as well. We're all very excited to be on the plane, to head back to Perth where all our families will be waiting for us. That is, unless they really enjoyed us being away.
Although we beat our old record, had two weeks away from school and had a lot of fun on the trip… I don't feel these things were the best things out of it. Students from year 10, 11 and 12 went on this trip. We all knew each other prior to this, although we weren't all friends. You wouldn't think that people from a range of years would be able to become such a close group, but the trip did strange things.
We grew to like each other, as we got to know each other. Of course, there were always our little arguments, as we did have to spend 15 days with each other, but these just made us grow closer in the end. Anyone who says that they did not make a new friend on this trip is clearly lying. We even became better friends with the people we were already friends with.
Finally, we got an understanding of how the teachers were involved in this. The emotions they felt when we had troubles with the car, to the joy they felt when we managed to get it working again. Our emotions tended to mirror whatever they were feeling at the time. It was full of great life lessons for all of us, and I know that I for one would do it all over again.
I enjoyed writing the blogs, and I hope you enjoyed reading them.
Thank you.
Written by Curtis Brand.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Leeming Senior High School Final Student Blogs
Leeming SHS: Leeming's last few days
We near the end.
Saturday 27 October: A small team, Morgan, Curtis, Ryan, Cavenagh and Doug, are up early to get the car out to the start position 57 Km south of Coober Pedy. The plan is to charge some more, before we head off to the Glendambo Control Stop. We got quite a good charge Friday afternoon as we stopped early.
The clouds get thicker as we progress toward Gendambo, we notice the sky becoming hazy in the distance and the wind is getting stronger. Our goal for the day was firstly to make Glendambo. This would mean that we will have solared the whole way from Alice through two control stops and should see us reach the 1000km mark about 50 k's before Glendambo. Once we made the control stop we hoped to proceed on and clock up some more solar Kilometres, hopefully another 150 to 200 beyond Glendambo. The clouds are still thickening but we are advantaged by our large cross sectional area acting as a sail as the wind pushes us along. Array output begins to decrease and at times we are only seeing about 200 watts compared to the 1150 we saw at times yesterday.
The bus catches us as we pass the 1000Km mark. I radio the team with the news, the reply comes "and there was much rejoicing…. Yaaay".
We have had to slow down (about 45 kp/h), the clouds are thick and the haze that we saw in the distance is now surrounding us, you can taste the dust in the air and when we stop to change drivers we wipe the thick layer of dust from the array in the hope that we can get a better output. The dust is so thick that at times visibility is down to 200 meters I am beginning to become concerned about driving in these conditions. We are very close to Glendambo, less than half an hour, so we decide to continue and make the control stop just after
The wind is stronger and the haze increases we also feel some drops of rain and, after a brief discussion we decide it is too dangerous to continue. The batteries have also been used heavily to get to Glendambo and there is little charge coming in. We hope that we may be able to restart further south if the weather becomes clearer. A further 20 Min or so to load the car into the trailer and we head out.
As we travel south it becomes apparent that the weather is getting worse. David our observer, also a farmer on the York Peninsula, contacts two weather stations, one on Kangaroo Island and one further west, for the latest weather reports. It doesn't sound good. When I have phone coverage I contact Hedgie back in
As we travel we overtake other solar car teams, some trailering some solaring, I am glad at this point that our car is in the trailer and the team is safely in the vehicles. The dust in the air is incredible and the Northerly wind must be blowing close to 50 knots. I have never seen anything like it. Fortunately it is behind us so we are not burning fuel pushing into it like some of the trucks we see heading North. David our observer has been farming in the area since 1956 and he comments that he's never seen it worse.
We get to Port Augusta after
We had originally planned to camp tonight and try and get a few more solar Kilometres tomorrow, but we won't be camping tonight and we won't be solaring tomorrow. We discuss finding accommodation in Port Augusta, but considering it is still early we decide to go another 80 Km South to Port Pirie. As we leave Port August it begins to rain mud. The atmosphere is full of dust whipped up by the near gale force winds coming off the desert. As the rain begins to fall it picks up the dust in the atmosphere and forms mud droplets. Our white support vehicles and bus are now brown. I continually use the washer and the wipers to keep the windscreen clear.
We arrive at Port Pirie about
We decide to go to
We head to
We arrive in
We go to bed close to
Sunday 28 Oct Day Something!?
We rise and those staying at Shakespear's pack up and move to the Blue Galah which is situated perfectly, halfway between the ceremonial finish line at Victoria square and the solar car mustering area at Torrens Parade ground. It's right near the west end of the Rundle Street Mall.
We move the support vehicles, bus and car to the parade ground which has free parking and 24 hour security. We prepare the solar car for our ceremonial trip across the finish line and to take our 15 min of glory however, our old nemesis the driver control board has decided not to play ball. We try many things and Doug notices a wire has de-soldered itself from the board. He repairs it but still no go. After much twisting and kind words of encouragement it eventually springs to life. After a 35 min wait we are cleared to go,
That evening we attend the awards ceremony and don't go to the after party, it's in a pub. Instead we enjoy a Chinese meal at a local restaurant. Steve and Leonie have negotiated a good deal and all are happy. Home to bed, no early starts but still lots to do.
Monday October 29th and Tue 30th.
Packing trailers, cleaning vehicles and dropping trailers and hire cars at various locations. Last minute shopping for gifts for friends and family. Make it to airport and relax before boarding a slightly delayed flight. Tired but happy! Happy birthday Danyal.
Thank you to sponsors, supporters, Doug and the Treen boys and those who helped us to solve our problems whilst we were on the road.
2009?
You bet-cha. :-)
John Beattie
Team Manager
Leeming Hammerhead
Solar Car Team
Monday, October 29, 2007
Leeming SHS: Challenge Day 8: 28 October
This is the final day of the Challenge, or would have been, if it hadn't been called due to weather yesterday, which it wasn't.
The story, it turns out, is that the police asked the WSC to take solar cars off the road while a severe weather warning was in effect, with the intent that they could return to solaring later if the weather improved. But by the time this trickled down to the teams on the road, the story had chinese-whispered to become the end of solaring. For those teams that got the message, anyway: some only heard when they reached the finish line.
The finish line: that's our final objective.
We walk from our backpackers', in the Adelaide CBD, down to Torrens Parade Ground, the logistics area for teams. We roll our car out of the trailer, and turn it on.
Predictably, it doesn't go.
The driver controls board is deader than usual: we flex it, to no avail, and so I am forced to resort to the soldering iron and a few mumbled incantations. It turns out that a combination of soldering and flexing resurrect the board from always-fail to usually-fail. We get a good boot and leave it alone.
Last time, the WSC provided a lead bus that held our crew and a follow vehicle to escort our car. This time they provide the bus again, but it's not a lead vehicle: it just ferries us up to the finish line at Victoria Square, leaving only our driver in the solar car and our team manager in the follow vehicle. This is clever because this way, if anything goes wrong with our car during the drive (which is up-hill), we'll be unable to deal with it, and the car will be left stuck in the right lane of city trafic.
Most of our radio comms are either flat (because we're in a backpackers' rather than our regular camp, so radios were not charged overnight), or vehicle mounted, and we're away from our vehicles. We've got comms between the solar car and the team manager in the follow vehicle, but no more. Our radios don't work on the WSC's radio channel, and theirs don't work on ours.
We arrive at the finish line.
We wait. Nothing happens.
We wait. Nothing happens.
We wait. We receive word that Willetton's car, Sungroper, has left the parade grounds. They're a bit of a special case: their car isn't running, so they're simply going to push it by hand. They have a police escort to help them not get run over while they do this.
We wait. Strobe lights appear a few traffic lights away. With each cycle of lights, they get one intersection closer, then they cross the line. All cheer.
We wait. We receive word that our car has left the parade grounds. Probably. It sounds like it's working. Probably.
Strobes appear in traffic, and after a smaller wait, because our car can move faster than a hand-pushed car, we cross the finish line. All cheer.
Cheering and celebrations are much more subdued than in my two previous Challenges, possibly because we have been kept waiting so long.
We hang around the square for a while, looking at other cars, which are on display in marquee tents. We cheer one other car as it crosses the line. Cars are arriving only very slowly, even though there are several cars waiting at the parade grounds to come in.
There is a solar boat race, with small boats made by school students, going on in the fountain. There is a solar car race, with small cars made by school students, going on on the other side of the square. Each car has an egg as driver.
It rains. All retreat to marquees.
We give up waiting for other solar cars to arrive, and return to the backpackers'.
And that's it: the Challenge is over. We completed, by our count, 1050km on solar power. In the evening we go to the awards ceremony, then a team dinner. The following day we pack, and wash our extremely dirty vehicles, and the day after that we're scheduled to return those vehicles and fly home.
-- Doug, Leeming Hammerhead
Leeming SHS: Car Keeps Solaring.
Leeming Car Keeps Solaring.
Sat Morning 27 Oct
What a sensational couple of days. After starting at 8 AM Thur, after waiting for other solar cars still under solar power, the Hammerhead headed from Alice. After a nervous start with the controller having a little hiccup on the start line the car starts to behave.
We cruise out of Alice a little tentatively but as the day progresses the car keeps going without showing any signs of fault. We have enough Telemetry to know what we are putting to the road but rely on the driver to relay current output from the array. We discover that on a good flat surface the car can travel at about 55kph on solar power alone. We are all pleased.
Toward the end of Thursday we have travelled approx 406km but batteries are low. We camp 45km north of Marla and charge the batteries. Willetton are just down the road but are having battery and array issues. They say they can manage about 70km per day. The Esteban team from Canada drop into the camp and we assist them to pump up tyres they too are having problems and say that they restarted from Alice too. I mention that we are ahead of them. The laugh and wish us well.
Friday morning a few of us drive to Marla to pump up the motor wheel. We can't get the bead to seat with our small pump. We head off 40 min late after serving a short time penalty for stopping late the previous evening.
The day progresses well, the car performs beautifully under the near perfect conditions. We targeted 275km to get to Coober Pedy. We have a forced half hour stop at Cadney Control stop and an unscheduled 18 min stop to change a tyre on the troopy and to repair the windscreen which was dislodged by the windblast from a large oncoming truck. Tom said the experience was interesting!
We pass Coober Pedy at 3PM and decide to drain the Batteries by going hard and then choosing to stop and charge. The car continues to travel exceptionally well and beyond expectations and we manage another 57 km beyond our Target Coober Pedy. We stop at 4:10pm and charge till dusk.
Meanwhile support has head for accommodation at Coober Pedy and when the car crew returns we head out for pizza which I highly recommend.
Targets reached:
Two Full days of Solaring.
Ahead of 2005 total.
Solaring complete distant between two control stops.
Cheers for now
John Beattie
Leeming Hammerhead.
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Leeming SHS: Student Blog Day 10 and 11
Solar Car Blog 10
Today, after a long (or not so long) sleep-in for some, we learned that we would be staying in Alice Springs for yet another day, due to a bit of confusion with what time the team were allowed to leave. This enabled us to get some much needed rest, and carry out some much needed repairs on the car.
In the morning, after a delicious breakfast of beans on toast, and several rounds of "Chicken Train" (by 'Ozark Mountain Daredevils' in case you'd like to have a listen) we all headed out to Alice Springs Mall. All the students went their separate ways to buy gifts for family and friends and numerous CD's and Magazines, while Mr Morgan and Mr Sheppard visited yet another Woolworths. Some of the boys then decided to climb to the top of the monument, while the rest of us took the bus. This proved to be a very academically positive excursion, as we managed to spot 5 different fast-food stores from the top, all in the same area.
When we got back, Trent, both Andrews and I (Curtis) all decided to climb the mountains of the McDonnell ranges. They are only about 200m high, but that's still quite a climb, due to near-vertical slopes. We managed to climb up it and down it in less than an hour, and it was good fun. No one slipped, and we had an excellent view from the top. Luckily, we managed to catch the Observer on the radio, as we had such good reception. On the way down, it was a lot more fun. There were a lot of various slippery steep rocks, about 3m long. They all had long, wide steps underneath them, so we were able to use them as slides quite safely.
We all decided it was about time for a swim, where a number of the boys (Flegg) "tried" to chat up some innocent girls in the pool, and we created a 12 person bombie line. We managed to completely drench Tom and Laura who were outside of the pool, when Gracie decided to bombie right next to them. This resulted in a rushed last minute wash, as lots of articles of clothing were soaked.
After we got kicked out of the pool, by Miss Tauber, we all went back to the camp. A couple of people put the solar car back in the trailer and got us completely ready for tomorrow, while everyone else cooked dinner. A couple of us also got in a bit of trouble when we hit the tent of an American lady with a football; but apart from that, all was good. We also all had a last minute pack, with lots of articles of clothing being thrown, lost and buried in sand.
All in all, it was a day well deserved, if not predicted. We got a lot of work done, and had a chance to relax and unwind. We all got to know each other a little better, and it was a great to experience Alice Springs.
By Curtis Brand (Year 11) and Laura Pilsworth (Year 10)
Special thanks to Danyal Cowasjee (Year 10) for helping
Day 11. I think we can call it a complete success. I promised we'd do better, and we sure did. Today we covered 407km with the solar car, which is pretty much 4 times the amount we'd done on solar in the last week! Our total is sitting at 519km now, not far behind our previous record of 798km, which we set in the 2005 Sungroper car. The team is ecstatic and we couldn't have hoped for much more. This is just one step forward to our goal of driving the solar car from Alice Springs to Adelaide.
This morning was a fairly enjoyable one, although very hectic. We all got up by 6:30, but were beaten by the Annesley College girls, who were driving a Greenfleet car. Some of the guys were disappointed and rushed out to say goodbye. I'm not entirely sure if it is a joke for some people or not, which is one thing I am hoping someone will clarify EVENTUALLY.
On top of all this, it was a really enjoyable day. Our team was also happy when we not only physically passed Willetton, but passed them in solar kilometres. They spent a few hours on their trailer unfortunately, while we were going solar from early this morning to 5:04 this evening. Of course, we're also cheering for Willetton, as it's not only our old car, but they're also a fellow WA high school. We would like to beat them though.
The other major thing that went on today was when we crossed the border from Northern Territory and South Australia. Amazingly, no one jumped from one side to the other doing the whole "NT, SA, NT, SA" thing. It was good fun though. We also saw the exact middle of Australia, which is located very closely to the Stuart Highway. We all thought this was a great novelty and took a lot of photos. We'd upload some, but they're pretty much just photos of ground and the bush.
One of the geniuses on the camp (Me) decided that maybe people are missing their families and friends, so one of those geniuses (Me) decided that we could all write a little message for our families down the bottom. Look out for your message below.
Laura says, "Hi to Hilary, Graham and Claire, and to all the people who are supporting me."
Tom says, "Hi Mum!"
Susan says, "Hey to friends and family, and to Daniel. Also Happy Birthday for the 26th to Stuart, hope you have a great day. Miss you all!"
Danyal says, "Hello to family and friends from somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Excuse me, you're in my parking space."
Angela says, "Ni hao ma ma he ba ba! We're spending the second night camping on the side of the road. Hello to all my friends reading this as well ^______^ wo zhen de ai ni, jie jian!"
Candace says, "A big hello to all my family and friends out there reading this, I'm missing you all and look forward to seeing you again. Love you all!"
Kai says, "Hello to anyone who cares about me… I'm fine. See all of you guys soon!"
Trent says, "Hi Home, hi family, hi Dora." :D
Declan says, "Hey everyone at home! We are camping by the side of the road… in the middle of nowhere."
Morison says, "hi parents and harry I saw road kill I saw it first so I got it, so when I get home I want it cooked, I got me a gold sticker for chopping dis darn tree down im special."
Ryan says, "Hi to all my relatives in England and parents, Nathan, Daniel and sister"
Curtis E Bear says, "Hey to everyone back in Perth. Hope it's not too quiet without me. Can't wait to get back and I LOVE YOU SUB."
Cavenagh says, "hi mum and dad, hey grandma (if you are reading this) I hope you all miss me because I will be home next week (I better start walking now) P.S. hey mum can you print a copy for grandma?"
Gizele says "Hey everyone! Miss you all and hope to see you soon. Love you lots."
Rhys Says "Hi Everyone, hope you guys are having fun, cause we are over here."
Flegg Says "Wow what an experience, loving it see you soon.
Michigan: Continuum Repair Pictures
See below for pictures from the World Solar Challenge. Included are pictures of the repairs done to Continuum.
Damage to the lower surface:
Damage to the concentrator canopy:
Damage to the upper surface:
Beginning repairs on the lower surface:
Repaired lower surface:
Repairing the upper surface:
Continuum back on the road!
Continuum charing at a control stop:
Michigan: Reflections
Dear Friends, Family and Fans of the Michigan Solar Car Team,
I am Bob Culver, one of the faculty advisors of the team and I have just returned from Australia and would like to share some perspectives with you.
I often say that the Solar Car experience is a self-awareness or awakening of sorts, allowing students to find their own limits – what they can do and what they cannot do. Well, I was half right. This team was tested often. It started with a structural failure in the bulkhead just a few days before they were scheduled to leave for Australia. The team quickly analyzed and fixed the problem such that the resulting structure was stronger than ever. Then came the dust devil in Australia that almost destroyed the array that you have read about in the blog. And then, of course, was the accident. After a short period of shock and a few tears, the team began the arduous task of rebuilding the front end of Continuum. No one needed any inspirational speeches as everyone was working with determination and purpose as soon as the car was back to the Darwin racetrack. It was truly amazing and inspiring to see the car rebuilt and ready for racing in about 10 hours. This team responded to everything and anything that was thrown at them. So, pardon the double negative, the Continuum team never found out what they couldn’t do!
During the qualifying week, the Continuum team continued the Michigan tradition of helping other teams. The team let the Venezuela team borrow a motor when many of their parts got stuck in customs. And the team, with Chito’s help, built a new wheel hub for the Malaysian team after an accident during a qualifying run destroyed their only hub. What goes around, comes around. At the accident scene, a local Darwin gentleman happened by to see the damage. When he saw the damage, he said he had a friend who was an expert in carbon fiber composites. We called the expert, Mr. Mike Butler, and he joined us back at the racetrack pits. Mike brought with him some fast curing resin which turned out the be critical to getting the repairs done quickly.
A special thanks to all the sponsors of this team. You have enabled an experience of a lifetime for a very special group of kids. They may not have finished first, but this team is definitely a group of winners.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Leeming SHS: 24th to 27th
Challenge Day 4: Wednesday
The part for the battery safety system arrives. I solder it in. It works.
We have a new observer today: we traded out our last one at the checkpoint.
James from Tritium has given me some solder flux and some hints on resoldering fine surface-mount components. I reflow solder on the bits of the driver controls board that I've not yet tackled.
We get another new observer: another team have left the Alice Springs checkpoint without one, and WSC send a vehicle to our caravan park to take our observer to chase them down, and drop us off a temporary replacement.
We take the car for a flog around the Mac Donnel Ranges caravan park's little service roads. It works. The problem with the driver controls board fails to exhibit itself.
In the afternoon, John goes into the Alice Springs control stop. The entire control stop, much bigger than any other because of the externally-imposed requirement to hold cars here, continues to be a giant temple to Eris, goddess of chaos, confusion and discord. He's going in to check that we really will be held here until 5pm this afternoon (which is to say 8am tomorrow, because there's no solaring between 5pm and 8am). He finds that the control stop have changed their mind: another car that has trailered has already been allowed to leave. And they haven't told us, until we actively chased them down and asked them about it. He phones us, but we figure out that by the time we get the car in the trailer, to the check point and out of the trailer again, we'd get maybe 10 minutes of solaring before the end of the day. So we sit.
We get another trade-out of our observer. That's three we've had today; four since our team has moved at all.
Challenge Day 5: Thursday
We take our car back to the Alice Springs control stop, in preparation for our 8am start. Several teams are still camped here, Heliodet and Willetton among them. I chat with Willetton for a bit.
A few minutes before 8am, we're on the line. We turn the motor controller on. It doesn't go.
Damn.
All my reflowing of solder and test driving at the caravan park has been to no avail. We strap a couple of cable ties around it, restart it, and it goes.
We solar out of town, and onwards the whole day. We finish at what the route notes tell us is the turn-off to Granite Downs homestead, after 406km of solaring, with a dead flat battery. We do the dusk charge, facing the array to the setting sun.
Mysteriously, the driver controls (and the entire rest of the car) have given us no trouble whatsoever since we started rolling.
The local copper stops by and trades phone numbers with us, giving us his home number against the possibility of us running into trouble. We camp, in the exact geographic centre of nowhere.
Challenge Day 6: Friday
Dawn charge, and then out on the road. After a few hours, we solar into Cadney homestead to serve our half hour at the control stop. This is the first time the Leeming team has solared all the way from one control stop to another. There are several other teams here, including Heliodet and Queens.
The homestead roadhouse is flat out serving lunches to the teams coming through; we just manage to get our lunches within our 30 minute limit. As soon as we are released, we zip over to the free air to inflate our tyres. Steve crawls around under the vehicle -- the wheels have been assembled with the valves on the inside face, and so a certain amount of grovelling is necessary to get an air hose onto the valve.
We solar out. Further down the road we run into a problem: a road train with an unusually large profile goes past unusually fast, and the bottom edge of the windscreen blows in. The driver pushes it approximately back into place, and we are able to continue a short distance to find a suitable place to pull over to repair. When we pull over we discover that the lead vehicle has a flat tyre. Half of us pop the windscreen back into place and gaffer tape and screw it in position, and half of us change the tyre. 18 minutes later, we're going again.
We continue past Coober Pedy, with the battery mysteriously refusing to go flat. We score 327 solar kilometres for the day, do the dusk charge, and trailer back to Coober Pedy for the night.
We stay at the same underground backpackers we stayed at in 2005; we eat at the same pizza shop we ate at in 2005. At the next table are some German and Dutch guys; it turns out that we've seen them several times on the road. They're motorbiking south along the Stuart highway at vaguely the same average speed as us, and they've given us a wave each time they've passed.
Challenge Day 7: Saturday
The lead vehicle, with the solar car in the trailer, leaves early and heads back to the point we finished solaring last night, 56km south of Coober Pedy. We set up to charge, but it's cloudy and windy. We get about 0.8A coming in, a tenth or so of peak.
We set out with a heavy tail wind. This saves us some energy, but the car is difficult to position on the road, and there's a lot of dust whipping up. With the cloud, we're only getting about a quarter of full sun. Weather forecasts are for cloud, cloud, cloud, with rain and possible thunder further south.
For the first time we're forced to put people outside the car whenever we're stationary: if the wind catches the hammerhead front that we lift to get the driver in and out, then it will flip up and forward, and destroy our front array. We had a latch mechanism, but it was destroyed in shipping to Darwin. So we hold it down when stationary, and improvise a piece of rope that the driver sits on to keep it down when driving.
We "solar" as far as the Glendambo control stop, though there's not a lot of sun involved. The dust continues to blow up; at one point we lose sight of the lead vehicle a couple of hundred metres in front of us.
At Glendambo, we concede defeat: the sky is getting dustier and the cloud is unrelenting. At the end of our 30 minutes, we put the car in the trailer, and drive on fossil fuel to Port Augusta. By the side of the road, we see other teams coming to the same conclusion: U Chile, Heliodet, Solar Fox. Under a thousand kilometres of dust and cloud, there's nowhere to go.
We trailer south, and the sky gets worse. We trailer past Malaysia and Gwawr doggedly refusing to give up: solaring ever slower as the batteries go flat.
At the Port Augusta control stop we are told that the Challenge has been called: the weather is too severe. Our observer, a local farmer, says he's never seen it worse.
We trailer to Port Pirie, seeking accomodation. Brown rain falls. Port Pirie is full, booked out by two weddings, so we trailer to Adelaide.
50km out, we come across the Willetton team pulled over: the draw bar on the Sungroper trailer has broken almost all the way through. We help them push it clear of the road, and loan them some tools. Phone and radio calls are made back and forth, and two Leeming staff who are meeting us in Adelaide find overnight accomodation for the Willetton team, to get them out of the storm.
We arrive, and do logistics. A new tram line has gone in in Adelaide, and the resulting string of "no right turn" signs mean that we take the very long way around to our accomodation. We're actually split across two backpackers: everywhere is full of solar car teams who got here before us. Nine of us stay at the first one, and the rest of us haul luggage a kilometre or so through the rain to the second one.
Shower.
Sleep.
-- Doug, Leeming Hammerhead.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Michigan: Continuum Finishes 7th in Challenge Class
Continuum completed the last 280.7 km of the race in 2 hours and 55 minutes with an average speed of 96.7 kilometers. Yesterday we ended with a negative battery pack and today we finished with more than half of a pack remaining. For the Alice Springs to Adelaide half of the race we averaged 89.8 km/hr and finished that section of the race only 16 minutes behind Nuon's time. We started this part of the race with well less than half of a battery pack, while they were given time to fully charge their batteries in Alice Springs. Continuum barely didn't catch up with 3 of the Teams directly in front of us and we should end up in 7th place in Challenge Class. Overall we passed over 25 Teams on our climb up after the accident. Continuum was the 4th Team to cross the finish line.
We've always been looking for a different finish than what we ended up with, but we are ultimately very happy with how Continuum performed. To us, the first half of the race demonstrates that we are the best Team in the world while the second half demonstrates that we have the best car in the world. A first place victory almost comes as an empty victory because it doesn't demonstrate how good the Team really is. Having rallied around the crash we were able to show the world how well we face adversity and how well prepared the Team was. As we crossed the finish line there were 25 friends and family members that had made the trip to Australia to watch the race and cheer us on. We were all happy that we could make them proud by completing this race the way that we did.
The World Solar Challenge has left everyone with a desire to continue racing Continuum. We all look forward to participating in the North American Solar Challenge, where we will have the opportunity to show the world what Continuum is truly capable of. None of this would have been possible without the tremendous support of our sponsors including our Platinum sponsors: The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan College of Engineering, BHP Billiton, Ford, and General Motors. We would like to thank all of them and we hope that we have made you proud to be a part of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team!
Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go Blue!
Michigan: Continuum Finishes!!
Continuum has now reached Adelaide and has successfully completed the 2007 World Solar Challenge! We completed the race in 46 hours and 3 minutes with an average speed of 65.09 km/hr. This puts us at 36 hours and 2 minutes not including the time lost from the accident with an average speed of 83.83 km/hr! Stay tuned for results as the Teams behind us finish the race! As soon as we hear from the race crew in Australia I'll get a more detailed update as well!
GO BLUE!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Speeds - 2007
Nuon Solar Team
33:17 92.07 km/hr
Umicore
34:36 88.01 km/hr
Aurora Challenge
35:17 84.96 km/hr
University of Michigan
46:03 65.09 km/hr
Ashiya University Solar Car Project
32:03 93.53 km/hr
FH Bochum Solar Car Team
41:09 72.84 km/hr
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences
34:59 85.69 km/hr
Southern Taiwan University
43:50 68.39 km/hr
Aviva Southern Aurora
38:57 76.96 km/hr
Solar Team Twente
44:46 66.95 km/hr
UNSW Solar Racing Team
49:41 60.34 km/hr
University of Calgary Solar Team
49:46 60.23 km/hr
Blue Sky Solar Racing
50:00 59.94 km/hr
UNSW: Race Day 5 SA Border to Glendambo
Today’s drive took us through the flat dry plains of South Australia past Coober Pedy into Glendambo a good 609 km drive. We averaged a steady 80km/hr and had two control stops, the first was at Cadney where we briefly met two of the Canadian teams, Calgary ahead of us and Blue Sky from Toronto behind us. The second control stop, Glendambo, we reached at 4:45 and camped once again nearby. After a rather uneventful day we finished off the afternoon with two separate tyre changes on the side of the road that took eight and seven minutes respectively. Anthony and I spent over fourty minutes trying to change tyres in the back seat of the Rodeo on the road and were feeling rather pleased with ourselves until we were told the teams previous tyre changer took only ten minutes.
Despite the fact that Yael noticed both flat tyres early by the time we got the car off the road we had an impressive looking tyre to put on the wall shredded all the way around. Once the rim had had a quick sand it was as good as new and we are ready to go for what should be our last day on the road with the solar car. If all things go well we will make it to the final Adelaide control stop by four thirty and come through North Adelaide down King William Rd to be in Victoria Square by 5:30. If you are around Adelaide come down and look at all the cars that will be displayed in Victoria Square for the weekend.
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| Clara and Anthony with a Successful Tyre Change |
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| Yael and Dan with the Flat Tyre |
UNSW: Race Day 4 Alice to SA Border
Apologies for the sporadic nature of the web updates, it corresponds predominantly to limited phone coverage along with your regular updater abandoning her post to get her hands dirty and assist with wheel and tire changes. As we come nearer to Adelaide and reception improves we shall endeavour to keep you informed more regularly.
As today’s departure was not until 1:30 we had a leisurely morning woken by Nuna’s support vehicle playing the ‘Skippy” theme song and “Land Down Under” from the speaker mounted on its roof. The weather was beautiful and sunny enabling the battery to be fully charged by midday while the team stocked up on food, fuel and showering and attended to the odd electrical issues.
With a full battery pack, Smithy drove a cracking pace in Sunswift which maintained our place and we arrived at five o’clock without any incident to camp in a little rise in sight of the South Australian border. Setting up the tilter to catch the last light of the day has become routine and was followed by Anthony’s nightly tire changes. The mood of the evening was light and cheerful and Ken took out his bagpipes that proved entertaining for all.
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| Sunswift on the Road |
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| Array at Sunset |
Nuon: Nuna4 finishes first in WSC!
Nuna4 has crossed the finish line first in the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge. At 16:54:00 Nuna4 crossed the time finish line, crossing the Australian continent in 4 days at an average speed around 91 km/hr.
After a partial rest day in Alice Springs, Nuna experienced a hard 3rd day of racing. After wearing 4 left tires, the team decided to completely rebuild the left suspension at the end of the racing day.
It obviously paid off, as the clear skies of our camp south of Coober Pedy in the naked and truly barren outback contributed to spectacularly clear skies. A extremely chilly night apparently did not deter the sun, as static charging during sunset and sunrise were more than 1.5 times better than expected. This contributed to Nuna's spectacular finishing day, consistently driving at or near the 110 km/hr speed limit, and finishing off the day in Nuna style. Hard crosswinds did cause another flat tire, but the results do not lie, as we finished far ahead of our nearest rivals.
The team is extremely happy with our result, and this blog is being written as we are anxious to get out on the Adelaide nightlife to celebrate our latest victory!!!
Bochum: Das Ziel ist greifbar nahe
- SW No.1 vor den Opalminen
Abfahrt vom Road House um 8:30 Uhr. Gut 10 Minuten später laufen Twente, Phönix und Tiga im Minutenabstand ein. Um 8:32 Uhr erscheint Michigan auf der Bildfläche. Große Spachtelflächen zeugen von den umfangreichen Reparaturarbeiten an dem Fahrzeug aus den USA. Die Crew steht offensichtlich unter Hochspannung. Gerüchte aus den anderen Teams erzählen, dass Michigan versucht, sich die Reparturzeit vom Sonntag von der Wettbewerbszeit abziehen zu lassen. Wenn das vom Veranstalter akzeptiert wird, kann das Bochumer Team den 4. Platz abschreiben!
Weite Abraumhalden der Opalschürfer von Coober Pedy gleißen im Sonnenlicht. Schilder warnen vor leichtsinnigen Wanderungen abseits des Highways. Tatsächlich sind immer wieder ungesichterte Löcher im Boden zu sehen, die verlassene Grabungen markieren. SolarWorld No.1 passiert diese Mondlandschaft mit 83 km/h. Der Himmel strahlt blau, weit am südlichen Horizont erscheint es diesig. Hinter Coober Pedy eine endlose Steppe soweit das Auge reicht. Kein Baum, vereinzelt ein Strauch und ein paar Büsche. Noch 150 km bis Glendambo. Der nächste Kontrollstopp ist die letzte Station im Outback bei Streckenkilometer 2.403.
Transporter 1 meldet ein Emu, 100 m von der Straße entfernt - ein lebendes wohlgemerkt. Die Anzahl von toten Tieren ("road-killed"), die das Team während der Reise sieht, übersteigt die Zahl der lebenden bei weitem! Abgesehen von Krähen und Adlern, die die überfahrenen Kängeruhs langsam aber sicher von der Straße holen.
- SW No.1 vor Salzsee
13:08 Uhr: Kontrollstopp Glendambo wird erreicht. 13:25 Uhr: Michigan kommt an. Bis 13:50 Uhr zur Abfahrt von "Need for speed", dem Allzweckfahrzeug des SolarWorld No.1-Teams, erscheint kein weiterer Sonnenwagen. Der Abstand zu Phoenix und Twente hat sich also vergrößert. "Need for speed" - benannt nach seinem Fahrer, Thomas Nied-Menninger - wechselt ständig die Positionen im Tross und fängt die Bilder und Geschichten ein, die Sie hier lesen können. Zusammen mit allen anderen Begleitfahrzeugen wird so vor und nach SolarWorld No.1 ein Beobachtungsfenster von über 80 km überwacht. Eine Funkkette meldet entgegen kommende Roadtrains und gewährleistet sichere Überholmanöver.
Große Salzseen auf beiden Seiten des Stuart-Highways lockern das Landschaftsbild auf. Noch 140 km bis Port Augusta, es geht auf halb 4 zu. Die ersten Späher von Michigan tauchen auf und hängen sich an das Trio von SolarCar und zwei Begleitfahrzeugen. Von hinten wird eine Geschwindigkeit von 95 km/h für das amerikanische Sonnenauto gemeldet! Unsere Zielplanung heute: Port Augusta, der letzte Kontrollstopp vor dem Ziel, soll heute noch erreicht werden. Daher Reisegeschwindigkeit hoch auf 85 km/h. Nachdem die erste Etappe Matthias Wilm absolviert hat, sitzt jetzt Christian Wulfert am Steuer. Wegen böiger Seitenwinde hat der Fahrer gut zu tun, um SolarWorld No.1 in der Spur zu halten. Der Dauerfahrrekord wird von Christoph Bönneken gehalten, der gestern fast sieben Stunden am Steuer saß und über 500 km gefahren hat.
16:15 Uhr: Michigan schließt zum SolarCar auf. 16:23 Uhr: ein Reifenwechsel macht alle Pläne zu nichte, Michigan zieht vorbei. Tausch des vorderen Pneus in rekordverdächtigen 5 Minuten. Zurück auf die Straße. In Windeseile berechnet das Strategieteam das neue Tagesziel bei Streckenkilometer 2.699. Wenn alles gut geht und die Sonne morgen wieder scheint, wird SW No.1 ab 13 Uhr auf dem Victoria Square in Adelaide erwartet. Der Wetterbericht redet allerdings von Wolken...
Michigan: Day 4 Recap
Today we started 1,977km into the race, 45 km north of Cadney Homestead. We had an astonishingly quick day through the Cadney and Glendambo Control Stops. We cruised at between 91 km/hr and over 100 km/hr, which is marvelous considering that we ended Wednesday with an empty battery pack. Continuum covered 720 km and reached Port Augusta with an average speed of 92 km/hr for the day. We had our first flat tire and were able to change that tire in less than 8 minutes! Continuum has made up nearly 2 hours on Twente, at least another hour on the Southern Taiwan Solar Car Team, and about one hour on Solar World. At this point we are in, at worst, 13th place overall in the race. With 280km left, we will be starting the day at the Port Augusta control stop, where we arrived at 5:08pm today. Nuon arrived at the end of timing but they have not gone through the finish, and to our knowledge no other teams have reached the end of timing. It was another great day of racing and we’re excited to have made up nearly 8 hours on our closest competitors. The Team coming out of this race is so very different from the one that started it. Spirits are unbelievably high and everyone is greatly excited about how Continuum has performed in the first 2700km of the World Solar Challenge.
GO BLUE!!
Michigan: Brief Control Stop Update
Continuum has just passed through the Glendambo Control Stop around 1:30pm Australia time. Based on the GPS data we seem to have made it there without any stops and we should be able to make it most of the way to Port Augusta before the end of the day!
We recently learned that the Stanford Solar Car Team was involved in a race-ending accident. Our Team is very sorry to hear this as we have had a very good relationship with their Team since the beginning of this project. We are very thankful to hear that no one was injured in the Stanford accident and hope that they are able to repair their car for the upcoming North American Solar Challenge!
Twente: World Solar Challenge racedag 5
Genieten van het avontuur in de outback. Tja het zou heel gemakkelijk moeten gaan, maar we zijn met zoveel andere dingen bezig, dat het er vaak bij in schiet.
Zo kregen we vanmiddag het bericht over de portofoon van Martin dat Twan lag te snurken in de Decision Making Unit. Je zou denken dat hij zoveel adrenaline zou hebben dat hij gefocust is op zijn taak, maar wij weten wel beter. Dit geldt trouwens niet alleen voor Twan, maar hij is een mooi voorbeeld. Nachten en nachten zitten er in, dus geen wonder dat je dan even in slaap valt op een wat rustiger moment. En zo is het met iedereen binnen het team. Zag het voortraject eruit als een periode van keihard werken met maximaal vier uur slaap per nacht, zo is het tijdens de race niet anders.
Daarbij slapen we tijdens de race niet op onze dikke luchtbedden in de warme slaapzaal van Alawa Scout Hall, maar in tenten. Wel gezellig, we hebben drie tenten waarin we met ongeveer dertig man slapen. We proberen elkaar de afgelopen nachten warm te houden maar toch is het erg koud in de Australische woestenij. Het is behelpen in de outback, maar toch is dit deel van het avontuur dat we niet zouden willen missen. Dit is wat het zo uniek maakt en een once in a lifetime opportunity.
Maar nu over de race, want daar gaat het immers om. Na gisteren dachten we dat het niet meer mis kon gaan. Inmiddels hebben we alle pech wel gehad, van electrisch, tot onze innovatieve lenzen en nu mechanisch. We hebben alles kunnen oplossen en hiermee niet overdreven veel tijd verloren. Toch stonden we aan het begin van de ochtend weer aan de kant door iets wat waarschijnlijk gisteren al veroorzaakt was bij het losraken van de connectie tussen voorwielophanging en chassis.
Dit heeft ervoor gezorgd dat we wat tijd verloren zijn, maar gelukkig hadden we maar 50 minuten nodig om alles weer op te knappen. Ook al dacht menigeen van ons na het zien van de auto en het spoor op de weg dat dit einde verhaal zou zijn.
Het was vandaag ook de dag van de ‘cattle grids’. Nadat we in de ochtend stil hadden gestaan voorbij één van de grids met het mankement werd besloten om heel consequent alle grids te beoordelen. Service 1 werd er op uitgestuurd om te zeggen wanneer er een grid aankomt (ook al konden we dit wel voorspellen met de route notities) en vooral met welke snelheid die grid te nemen was. Gelukkig was de communicatie de dag zo goed dat dit werkte als een geöliede machine. Als service 1 uiten bereik was wist onze scout de communicatie door te geven en zo werd iedereen als een treintje op de hoogte gebracht van wat er aan stond te komen. DMU gaf vervolgens aan de coureur aan welke snelheid en escort deed de alarmlichten aan en nam dezelfde snelheid aan over de grid. Wat een teamwerk!
We hebben onszelf na vanochtend weer opgepakt en er wordt ontzettend als team gewerkt en iedereen ondersteunt elkaar enorm. Ondanks de vele pech die we hebben staan we wel op die vijfde plek en horen we wat dat betreft bij de top. Nu is het zaak dat het morgen voor de wind gaat en dat we die vijfde plek behouden. De strategie is voor morgen bepaald. We gaan ervoor!
Twente: World Solar Challenge racedag 6
Vanochtend was het lastig opstaan. We wisten dat het de laatste dag zou zijn voor ons tijdens de World Solar Challenge. De één had er erg veel zin in, de ander zag er erg tegenop. Straks staan we aan de finish en is het helemaal afgelopen. Finishen in een wedstrijd wat al zolang je doel is, en daarnaast jammer dat iets waar we al anderhalf jaar aan werken dan ineens klaar is. We hadden het idee dat dit onze geluksdag zou worden en dat we rond 13:45 zouden aankomen bij de tijdfinish in Adelaide.
Maar de laatste dag is geen geluksdag geworden en er was bijna meer pech dan ooit. De ochtend ging lekker, maar door de vele cattlegrids (veeroosters) in South Australia hebben we voor de derde keer mechanische problemen gehad. We hebben een record gevestigd door binnen 23 minuten een rod-end in de voorwielophanging te vervangen, de pushrod er opnieuw op te zetten en weer te gaan!
Erg triest en het was een enorme klap, maar toen we weer onderweg waren wisten we zeker, we gaan het vandaag halen! Al zoveel pech en elke keer kunnen we het oplossen dus het lukt gewoon! Toen er achtereenvolgens kuren waren met de motorcontroller, die elke 10 minuten gereset moest worden, een gecontroleerde controlestop waar niet iedereen het mee eens was om de motorcontroller te checken en daarnaast een gaspedaal waarvan de veer het niet meer zou houden en oververhitte remmen door het glooiende landschap. Vervolgens het niet meer regeneratief kunnen remmen, toen konden we het bevestigen; het geluk is vandaag niet aan onze zijde.
We hebben vandaag ook veel positieve punten gehad. De spirit was hoog zo op de laatste dag. Zo hadden we vanochtend alles klaar en ingepakt binnen anderhalf uur, een record! We hebben topsnelheden gereden van 115 kilometer per uur. We hebben gereden met meer verkeer dan we tot nu toe gezien hebben en alle is goed gegaan. En als toppunt: we zijn gefinisht. Het was een enorme ontlading en alle spanning viel van iedereen af bij de tijdfinish. Op Victoria Square konden we het nog een keer overdoen en sprongen we natuurlijk met z’n allen de fontein in! Het was het waard! Wat een chaos, maar vooral ook wat een vreugde. We hebben Adelaide bereikt.
Vanwege de herstart in Alice Springs was het nog een tijdlang onduidelijk op de hoeveelste plaats we nou precies gefinisht zijn. Onze berekeningen zeggen de zesde plaats, helemaal niet verkeerd! Zondagavond is de prijsuitreiking, dat zal een mooi feestje worden met alle teams.
Nu is het avontuur afgelopen! De volgende acties zijn het inpakken van de transportbox en zorgen dat de Twente One weer naar de Nederlandse bodem vervoerd wordt. Vanaf 1 november mag iedereen zijn of haar eigen weg gaan. Heel raar, we zijn bijna elkaars familie en ik weet zeker dat het raar is om niet iedereen meer om je heen te hebben. Persoonlijk niet iets waar ik naar uit kijk. Maar misschien denk ik er straks anders over tijdens de welverdiende vakantie. Wat te doen als we thuis zijn? Ook dat komt wel goed, Solar Team Twente 2007 afronden en een begin maken met Solar Team Twente 2009. Heel benieuwd hoe zij het straks allemaal zullen aanpakken…
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Update: Nuon
Nuon advises us that their level of confidence of arriving in Adelaide today is low.
Other information currently available suggests that there is low hanging cloud over the Eyre Penninsula to the Mt Lofty ranges. Forecasters report that this is expected to burn off later in the day.