After being blown away on Friday and Saturday (which saw only a rough landing at the airport in a Blokart), Dave and I were keen on getting a fly in on Sunday.
Winds seemed pretty fresh on the ground but the forecast was for it to die down through out the afternoon. We decided to have a look at Spring before making the trip down to Lanyon if it was too strong. Simon D joined us on the way out obviously having similar thoughts. Chop also turned up soon after. Karl was also there to get some video of us in action.
With the wind a little on the strong side Dave and I decided to set up a little lower on the hill over near where the old tower was. This is a perfect launch in these conditions. Wind was straight up the hill and perfectly laminar as it makes it’s way up the consistent slope. The others decide not to fly due to not feeling confident in the stronger conditions (… and Karl looked a bit seedy).
We set goal for Gundaroo and turn our gliders with a bit of help. Both of our launches felt great as we rocket up from the hill.
We spend the next two hours punching head wind in the lift lines that were set up across to Poacher’s. There were beautiful cloud streets all day but none wanted to suck us up to base to make the glide over the back. So we were resigned to staying around Spring.
An eagle, heading XC, joined me at one stage in a nice thermal out of the bowl. He joined the climb up wind of me and fitted in with my circles. As this was a good climb and we both wanted to head off we circled together over the back almost to the point of no return. I chickened out and headed back for the ridge. As I was on my way back again I hit a much stronger climb. This did not go unnoticed by the eagle and he soon came back in to join me.
Once again, he was soon coaxing me over the back but again I was too chicken. When he eventually left, after giving up on me, he had a pretty good glide back towards Gungahlin. I admired his disregard for airspace but was not going to head that way myself.
A nice breeze in the bombout made for uneventful landings.
