Kind of a nice looking day:) Prefect conditions to help Ed crack a new PB. He recently cracked the 100km mark down at Corryong. I we were sure he would better that today.
I was the last to launch at 1:30pm but the four of us (Barnsie, Ed, Pete in the Malibu and I) soon met up near the clouds to begin our day of fun.
With Barnsie at base. Ed’s not far behind so we wait at the top for him to join us. We stay together for the next 70km or so until Ed’s radio goes flat. What a bugger. With the break down in communication Barnsie and I decide to push forward a little faster as the day is prooving to be a real cracker. By now Ed almost had glide to his PB so we knew he would be a happy boy in the car on the way home.
Dustys crack off every where but that’s to be expected when the sky is full of 1000fpm climbs. A real standout was a rough as guts 1400fpm up to base. Luckily, going up at that rate you don’t have to stay in that air very long.
At about the 100km mark we lament not launching earlier and going for the 300km to Hay.
At 4pm the sky still looks good so I make a deal with myself. If I can make the 200km mark by 5:30 I will continue to push through for Hay. If not I will call it a day and land to make for an easy retrieve. RASP was saying that the next day was looking better anyway.
I made my intermediate goal with 15 seconds to spare! Wow thing get flat and samey out here. You really get that idea that you’ve flown off the map when the paddocks are 30km across and not a road in sight. Gulp.
After crossing some pretty inhospitable country eventually I hit the main road running to Hay. What a relief. Barnsie was still 10km or so behind but I spend a long time real low. With 38km left to go we are back together for what was looking like a really tough final leg.
Amazing, we hadn’t seen each other for 200km and here we meet up in the middle over some of the most barren terrain this country can throw at us. This is one of those moments in flying that will stay with me forever.
This climb ends up being very special indeed. 7:20pm at night and we climb from 1500ft amsl to 11500ft at 800fpm. Amazing.
Thoughts now turn to the final glide.
We cross the 300km together as we cruise toward our goal at Hay.
We arrive high and set up a landing at the Airport. The clock tick over to 8pm as we land.
After we land we’re straight on to the phone to see how the other guys faired. Ed pulled out a cracker, after splitting with him at the 80km mark he must have flown like a daemon. He landed not long before us and made 245km!!!
Pete manages 160km in the Malibu and sets a new record for the glider. Great work all. A big thanks to Liz for the huge retrieve!
