Yesterday Dave, Simon and I had a nice little fly at Lake G after first casually calling in to Stanwell on the way. What started on BOM on Saturday as being isolated showers around Wollongong had develoved into showers by Sunday morning and full blown rain by the time we got there. After calling into Dan and Bianca’s we head back inland with our tails between our legs.
With rain pretty much everywhere, our perseverance eventually paid off when we reached Lake George. There was a nice breeze from the SE. Simon flew a little too far out from the lift band on launch but had a fun walk out from the bombout. Dave and I made our way up to the winery and ridge raced back. I was not much competition as my light wing loading is far from ideal when you are trying for speed.
There were two heart racing moments during the flight. The first was not a lot to do with me but I may have caused it. First I heard a massive screeching of tyres. I looked down in horror to see a car spinning out of control along the highway around the first rest stop directly underneath me. After two revolutions he was moving pretty slow but hit the fence with the back of the car as they attempted to stay on the road. Luckily there were no other cars for about 300m either side of him. The car then turned back the right way and sped off.
The next incident was a little closer to home. Following Dave’s textbook top landing I lined up and came in with my usual approach setting up a little higher and further back than the usual approach. As I descended through the rotor I was ready for it and punched through with speed but I was too far back from my desired landing area. I then went back into prone to penetrate a little further forward. That worked but I was quite low and still had my hands on the basebar. I reached for the upright but got caught on the rear wire a couple of times which saw me stall still 8-10ft off the ground. Not Cool!
I never did get a grip on the upright instead all I could was through my forearm forward from behind the upright a I arrived with quite a whack. I deserved to break the base bar or at least an upright but nothing was bent. Very lucky - Not at all good planning. In hindsight I was silly to leave the transition to hang so late. A lesson I will not forget in a hurry.
It was a great flight even despite this stuff up and the best bit is that it looks like the lake will be on a couple more days this week. See you there.
