Ed flew like a champ on Sunday:

Sunday was looking awesome, warmer than the day before and the sky was looking great with a band of Cus way of to the northeast but slowly building and getting closer to the airfield. Having failed to leave the tow paddock after a couple of tows on Saturday, and left on the ground listening in on the radio as the other guys do 70km plus flights, I was really keen give it a good run on Sunday. I had the dubious honor of having my glider already set-up in the shed so was able to get ready before the other guys and I wanted to take advantage of that by towing up first. The day before I’d towed up last so when I failed to connect with any lift on the first tow and needed a re-tow I was already 40mins behind them. By towing up first, if I needed a re-tow I’d simply re-tow at the end of the other guys and then be only 15 minutes behind them. Before I could jump in and get going I needed everyone to agree on a task so I could punch in some coordinates. The task committee met and decided that a place just past Condoblin was the goal (100.5km) so that we could have a shot at a 100km task in May – outrageous. While we were discussing where to fly to Wazza had a couple of low tows to practice his tows and his landings. His first tow left Bill less than impressed about his spot landing skills and he let Wazza know all about it. You see, Wazza didn’t land as close to the tow strip as Bill wanted so that he could re-load and go again as quickly as possible. He had a couple more tows and didn’t make that mistake again. Wazza was looking very comfortable on tow and his landings were getting better and closer to the tow point. Steve jumped in on the other end of the rope to normal, and towed up in the purple XT. He towed off the chest and at a couple of hundred feet the tow pressure got a bit much and he released. He spun the glider around and put it on the ground beutifully. If there is a machine that Steve can’t fly well I’m yet to see it – he is a natural aviator.

Steve quickly stowed the XT and jumped in the Dragonfly – Game On. With a "go, go, go" I was away. I released at 2000ft and sniffed around in some very narrow lift that was impossible to do a complete circle in for a while and managed to stay up for about 20 minutes scratching all the way down to the ground. It was a great flight where I got to practice those all important scratching skills and work on my tenacity while being relaxed. It was confidence building to be on the ground and find that some of the best pilots in the country had had the same experience that I’d had.

The wind had shifted a little so Trundle was adopted as the new goal, but we waited a little to give the day a chance to improve, as the day was proving to be not quite as good as it looked. On my second tow it took a while before I myself in zeros after releasing and I very slowly scratched up from about 1000ft to about 3000ft as I drifted steadily downwind from the airfield. While I was scratching up Trent and Dave were towed up to the thermal I was in above me so we were steadily joining up. Just as we were coming together at about 3000ft Trent headed out on course. I was just about to follow him when the lift I was in turned on and increased to about 400ft/min for a bit and the climb to 4000ft was a lot quicker than the previous 2000ft. Dave stayed in the thermal as well and was pointing  out some of the key indicators that he was noticing. Dave and Trent, and in fact all the Dusty Demons, are always willing to share their knowledge – great blokes to fly with. The lift slowed up and got patchy after about 4200ft so I headed off down course towards where Trent had been scratching over a big brown ploughed paddock for a while. I’ve been working on following lift lines ever since Scott Barrett taught me some great lessons on using lift lines at the Forbes comp. I was able to get over near Trent in pretty good shape and picked a group of brown paddocks with a rocky high ground in the middle, but as often happens, I found lift just before I got to where I was aiming. Again, it was very patchy and difficult to centre. Trent had dove in on another big brown paddock a km or so of to the right of course where he was getting really low. Eventually our thermals met up which surprised me a bit because we would have started in our respective thermals about 1500m apart. Eventually I noticed a very nice little cloud forming over us and again the 3000-4000ft climb was considerably better than the lower levels.

We headed off on glide again, cutting a bit more west to intercept the course line. It was fun gliding along beside Trent, working together to find our next thermal. Eventually we got into an area of lift and I wasn’t sure if Trent thought it was worth stopping for but I thought it was so turned in to find the centre. The thought had occurred to me that I could stay and mark this thermal and put in the work to centre it while Trent looks around for something a bit better. Great minds think alike (or fools never differ) so Trent read my mind and continued on for a couple hundred metres more looking for better lift. In the end the best lift was about half way between us and we searched there for a while but narrow zeros and a slow decent was all we found. We both "scedadled", but in different directions. Trent again ended up about a km or so right of course line while I moved over towards some high ground that appeared to be the trigger for a cloud downwind from it but found nothing. I moved on to another high point and then on the the north-south ridge that runs about 15km west of Forbes. I was hoping to get over the other side of the ridge to some big brown paddocks I could see but in the end I was a bit too low to get over it and had to land on the near side of the ridge in a big flat paddock between two ridges – out the back of some farmers property and no where near a visible road. I thought that I might be there for quite a while before my retrieve arrived – not ideal for a Sunday afternoon flight with a 3 hour drive back to Canberra.

I packed up and headed up to some high ground and was very lucky to catch a glimpse of a farmers house hidden in some trees – I would have walked another 5kms in the wrong direction had I not seen it. I arrived at the farmers place just as they were completing a livestock sale – alpacas of all things. The guy buying the alpacas agreed to give me a lift down to the front of the property where Brendan was on the way in Andrews 4WD.  So on a beautiful Sunday afternoon there I am, having had an awesome flight with a great mate, learnt heaps and standing in the back of a tray back Hilux holding on, 3 people jammed in the front on the bench seat and 3 alpacas jammed in the horse float following us down the road. I remember thinking to myself "Hang gliding is a great adventure – you just never know where you are going to end up". Just as the farmer was stopping to let me out I was surprised to see Dave’s Patrol go flying past so I got on the radio and turned the boys around to come and get me. Geoff had just been up to pick up Trent and Dave who both made it just over the other side of the ridge.

It was great fun flying with someone and working together. It’s something I’ve not experienced a heap as I often seem to find myself in the air alone, or occasionally with people who want to leech of me, which I’ve always thought strange, especially given my current skill level. I also love flying on my own – it is awesome because it’s completely up to me, it’s my decisions etc that keep my up there. But I also loved flying as part of a coordinated team. It’s a different type of buzz – it turns a solo sport into a briliant team sport. I would love to participate in more team competitions – they tell me that they used to have them.

I learnt a great lesson – if you can establish a pattern for the day – like the lift is over the brown paddocks – then keep using that until it doesn’t work. After finding lift over big brown paddocks I searched over high ground and surprise, surprise it wasn’t there.

Cheers

Ed