Sorry about the lack of updates here guys, the net access here is super flakey so blog post have proved to be somewhat of a patience testing procedure.

Here’s the first few days in a nutshell anyway…
Day 1 canned due to wind

Day 2
A great look around the local area. I land out near the really scenic old town of Gubbio. The savage airspace restrictions around the area are realized with a couple of the top guys receiving zero for the day (a protest was lodged but the original decision was upheld.

Day 3
We went expected to get high today so a task up and back along the ridge was set. Conditions proved to be better than expected and it ended up being a fairly easy task with 80 pilots in goal. I took the second start not realizing that the guns had already taken the first.

It was Wolfy, Mario and I pushing trying to catch to guys in front. We got a bit low just past the first turnpoint. After scratching together for a while Wolfy landed and for the first time this week I was happy not to have any lead in my harness.

Mart and I flew the rest of the way together coming in at 60th for the day.

Day 4 canned due to rain on launch. Things fined up later in the day and a few managed to fly but we would have been pushing it to get a task in the small available flying window.

Day 5 sitting at HQ now. Looks ok outside. Tomorrow looks a little dodgy so fingers crossed for a task today.

The Australian HG ladder has been updated. Click the link above and to the right for the latest rankings.

Two more great days at Dalby. Each of these tasks involved some pretty impressive forest crossings which had the effect of splitting up the gaggles a bit.

Managing these large areas of unlandable terrain proved quite technical and many different methods of crossing are evident from tracklogs and stories shared over beers since.

Once we hit the flats on the other side of the forests we were still not ‘out of the woods’ so to speak. They have had a lot of rain down that we. Large amounts of surface water are still evident and this makes for some very slow areas.

Dave Seib wins both days and I limp around to goal on both tasks which means I maintain my second place in front of Conrad and Big Jon. One day left, let’s see how things pan out.

Canned due to rain.

So go-karts and bowling where the call of the day.

While we’re sitting here. Check out Oyvind’s blog at http://www.ellefsen.net/ he is giving a great blow by blow rundown of each task.

The day started off looking pretty average with two layers of cloud surrounding the entire area.

We waited a while and eventually a 78km task to Chinchilla was called and off we set. I was in a reasonable position for the third gate at 1:30 so headed off with Conrad.

The first half of the track was a real race with 3.5m climbs to 6.5 grand. Everything changed with 25km to go and we we’re into surival mode. At this point we were caught by the gaggle and we all groveled together into goal. Nick Purcell was first in from our gaggle.

Dave May took the third gate and set a very fast time into goal possibly winning the day. We’ll see how things pan out with the results in the morning but it looks lime I will now be leading in he overalls.

Presented with the same conditions as the practice day yesterday a 120km task to Condamine via Warra was called. What started out looking like a racing day soon turned a bit slow when Hgy cloud move in over the course.

I took the first gate with Tony G; Cam M, Big Jon and Trev amonst others most of the field starting in the second or third.

I flew pretty much the whole task alone as company would not be required under the cu filled sky.

I was first into goal with Big Jon and Boof close behind. Seibsie won the day after taking he third. Conrad and Enda also put in good times from this startgate.

A fun day and the weather looks good all week.

Update: Results will be up soon. 1st Dave Seib, 2nd Trent Brown, 3rd Conrad Loten

We’re using GAP2008 which awards lead out points. This really helped my cause.

Things have been a little quiet on the flying front since driving down to Mt Beauty from Forbes last week. We managed one task in windy conditions on Tuesday but the remainder of the week continues to look questionable. Fingers crossed he high level winds back off despite the forecast.

The lack of flying though has given us plenty of opportunities to catch up on the social side of the sport  that we just didn’t have time for back up at Forbes.

We’ve been to wineries, the Bright Brewery, Fishing and Falls creek to be snowed on. Will post some pics after the 12pm briefing today.

An out and return to Tomingley was called 185km. Conditions start off light in the padock. Eventually he usual cantidates assemble at the start gate over the quarry tto the north of the strip. We are in a good place for the start at 9500ft. The usual start gate games are played and a group of pilots leave at the first start. Most of the guns hang around for the second or third starts.

I take the second with Lucas, Noma, Pedro and Guy amonst others. We scream all the way to the turnpoint. I tracked to the east of the Nth Parkes mine and get a great run to Peak Hill before catching the guys from the start gate in front. Some of the real quick guys from the last gate catch me in the same spot on the way back after the turnpoint.

At this point Jonny, Blinky, Balaz and I get a nice little gaggle happening and cover the next 50km very fast despite the 20km head wind.

Wow it’s fun to fly like this with Jonny. I have learnt that one of the biggest differences in our flying style is the speed in which he cores a climb. We glide in at 90kph and with only minimal deviation he has found the core and in one movent it’s VG off and we’re rocketing up at 4m/s. Pretty to watch.

The fast run continues back to within 20km of the airport where a change of gears it required. It takes me 40mins to cover these last few kms. Damn I was scorching too.

After eventually making it in I find that my story of woe is a common one and we get into the beers to drown our sorrow.

Dave was also really moving around the course after taking the last start with Jonny. At one stage it looked like he was going to catch me but unfortunately he landed 40km short. Barnsie, up to his usual tricks of staying in the air forever landed just 10km short of goal. Great work Dustys!

Forbes – Grenfell – Eugowra – Gooloogong was the task for today. Given the stronger than expected westerly winds for the day it was thought that a triangle would be too tough. This zig zag task called provided a neat way of staying within a short drive of Forbes but meant that we would not have to punch straight into the headwind.

The day provided some awesome flying with all the guys in our car making goal.

The Dustys, making quite a habit of this whole being in goal thing.

Results are also in with me picking up a 16th and Dave coming in only 6 mins later in 22nd. Great flying by the whole team. Let’s see more of that sort of action tomorrow guys!

Results so far

Flights in Leonardo

Well yesterday was an interesting day with a few of the guns down early. The manditory start proved to be a bit early for a few of the top 20 that were not organized enough to get in the air early.

Being in 21st, I took the last gate but I still had not managed to get high by then.

Tony G, Noma, Len and I struggled for the first 20k before finally stumbleing into a 3.5m/s to 7000ft.

Today we’re off to Marsden (near West Wyalong), then back to a point along the Henry Lawson Hwy about 25km north of Grenfell. 130km.