Dave continues to get excited about the fantastic place…

Looking at the forecast for light N/E winds on the coast it seemed like an opportunity for a day trip to try a new site. The new site for us is Mt Wandera.

I first heard about this place from hangy pilot Adrian who has been launching from this mountain near his home which is about 20km inland from the coast near Moruya.  Wandera sounded awesome and I first went for a look last year to see this place and on the second attempt found the reasonably hard to find the road to launch. At first glance from launch this site was very impressive. It has a lot of XC potential. It’s launch height is 1700ft above bombout  and it’s surrounded by incredible scenery. It’s just one peak in this massive range running north and south, and only a couple of climbs over the back is the Araluen valley, once there you could end up back in Canberra or track further south to Cooma.

Spoilt for choice in the Canberra area we forgot about Wandera this past season but every now and then Adrian would let us know what we a were missing out on. So lately I’ve been looking out for the weather that would work. With the XC season getting a little docile around here and light winds forecasted for the coast it seemed like a good chance to check out Wandera. So Trent, Nick and I threw some wings on the roof and headed down for the day.

It started out overcast on the coast with some sun starting to brake through as we arrived on the Mountain. By the time I was ready to launch there was little sun on the ground and the cycles were becoming further apart.

After some patience I ran off into a gentle bubble and turned left to head along the rock face to the west. I got a gentle bubble that formed into 300ft/min over launch and joined by Trent we were a little surprised to be in something so solid given the 18c temp and lack of sun. It took us straight to base which was only 3600ft  but that was enough to take in the incredible scenery. Looking south down to Narooma, North to Ulladulla, Pigeon House Mt and over the back to the Araluen valley. I had high expectations for this site but this was so much more than I expected.

Nick had a good launch but missed his ride out. Trent and I optimistically headed on glide along the range to get another climb which would give us glide over to next valley west, but it wasn’t to be and 30mins later found ourselves landing at the northern end of the Buckenborra Property.

We headed home with huge smiles (due in part to the cold beer we were necking) and absolutely stoked at the flying a new site with such amazing potential.

See in September Mt Wandera.

Dave