Once we’re all resigned to a sledie at Stanwell, we decide to make things interesting by throwing in some water skimming action near the beach.

I went first but come in too high almost ending up in the ocean after rounding some fishing rods sticking up from the beach.

Dave though, picks it perfectly! As you’ll see from the video, there is a pretty small envelope in which to pull this off. Some of the most confident and well executed approach skills I have witnessed…

Needless to say, after borrowing Michael’s camera for this little effort we have ordered a few for our future shenanigans.

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

Yet another awesome site within a couple of hours drive from Canberra.

Dave, Nick and myself finally took up Adrian’s offer to fly Mt Wandera, a site that he and his brother have established near Moruya on the south coast. These guys have done a great job on the site clearing a perfectly shaped dirt ramp from the treed ridge

This site is ideally situated for some really fun flights over the Araluen valley and on towards Canberra.

The view from launch. It looks like a fair glide out to the bombout which may seem intimidating to less experienced pilots. This is partly due to the optical illusion that takes place with the treed ridge in the foreground. It is difficult to gauge depth perception on your height relative to the bombout. A similar thing happens to your perception at Tongara.

Worst case scenario, with out any lift you would make it in a Sting or better. Nic, in an older Sting was able to pick a nicer paddock beyond the usual bombout. Nice work dude!

Dave and I managed a nice climb out over launch and possibly over estimated the day a little. How good would it be to make Araluen the first time we fly the site and only a week before the start of Winter?

Too good apparently! After reaching base at around 3300ft we headed off along the ridge to the north, where, if we conected with a climb we would have had the airstrip within glide. Instead, we followed lines of buoyant air out into the Buckenbowra valley to the NE of launch.

The flight ended too soon but it was enough to get a taste for what will be possible from this site.

Tracklogs

Even if the retrieve was a little eventful you can’t complain about the scenery.

The retrieve. A picture tells a thousand words.

A big thanks to Adrian and Craig for pioneering this fantastic site. We are really excited about the potential of this place. Thanks again to Craig for picking us up, without you we would have been stuffed.

Can’t wait for spring and the flights we will be having in this area.

Another Forbes, another great turnout of enthusiastic pilots wanting to rack up some serious airtime.

Dave has pretty much given us the run down of the weekend so I’ll just weigh in with a couple supplementing observations.

Firstly, with all the rain over the past couple of months the air is pretty damn mellow. There’s still nice big climbs but they don’t have the harsh edges we normally experience during the peak of the season. This makes for really nice towing conditions which can still put you in to some great air in which to spend the day. Ideal for anyone looking to gain some aerotow confidence.

Keeping in mind that I have never actually flown in Florida, I can’t help but get the feeling that it might be something like this. The substantial surface water seems to defy all my usual rules and acts as quite a reliable thermal trigger. I hear that this is along the lines of what happens around the swaps when flying from Quest Air. Novel.

The predictable air over the weekend gave me a chance to reflect on a few of the key components that go into putting a smile on the face any hangie.

Having a really nice feeling glider is essential in autumn conditions. Making the most of the air going up is more important than during the peak of the season where a single cracking climb can make up for a previous bad decision. I really enjoy this mellow type of flying. A lot of that enjoyment comes down to flying the glider I feel most comfortable in.

Moyes have really kicked a goal with the Litespeed RS 3.5. I always hear remarks about it’s superior glide ratio at speed but the stand out characteristic for me is how well it climbs. This holds true regardless of how much ballast I have on board or how allusive the lift on a particular day.

Much of flying skill is handled by the subconscious and muscle memory. A key to the really being happy with how you perform is to have a glider and harness that does not impede this process. Harness wise, I am in the process of switching makes and models, stay tuned to hear how that goes. On the other hand though, I am convinced that I have found the right glider for the foreseeable future.

Dan Shaw, is also loving his new beast, a Litespeed S5. He is climbing really well and managed a PB triangle on Saturday. Awesome flying mate!

Finally, we get to the title of the post. With two 90km triangles in opposite directions we end up with tracklogs that look a little something like this.

This is about as much class as the usual Forbes crew can conjure up.

Thanks heaps to Steve for putting us all in the air so fast and efficiently. Thanks to Simon and Steve (again) for jumping in the car when needed. Thanks Mum and Dad for hosting all the usual crew. Thanks also to the Forbes Aero Club for preparing the strips by getting rid of that foot high green stuff all over the place – someone said it’s grass but I doesn’t grow that tall out there, does it?

Tracklogs are up here

Cheers,

Trent

It’s as green as I’ve ever seen it out west. It’s never been like this since I’ve been flying. Forbes though, being in the heart of great flying country, managed to turn it on again. Dave gives us a run down from the weekend…

Well our tug master extraordinaire Steve McCarthy was up for the challenge of yet another weekend of fun flying at Forbes so with the Canberra dusty Demons leading the way it was  a nice turn up of 12 pilots including some new and old legends. Grant Heaney, Franko, Dan, Adrian, Simon, Roger, Michail, Len, Guy, Trent, Barnsy, Steve & me.

With the 8000mls of rain Forbes has had in last month we almost asked Bill if we could use his Dragon fly with floats this weekend but as green and lush as the airfield was it perfectly dry to tow off.  So I arrived with Barnsy and Trent on Sat morning to see the whole bunch keen as mustard. We set a goal for Lake Cargelligo about 140km away. Full credit to Steve for getting us all in the air so fast and with everyone doing great safe tows it was game on!! The wind at the BL was around  20kph So Grant suggested we fly a Triangle insted.  Off to Bogan gate then Parkes and back to the airport. From the air the terrain looked beautiful so green and there was water lying everywhere you looked, but despite this there was some great  lift around 800ft/min was not uncommon and base was about the 6000ft mark.

Everyone had great flights with some doing the original task and some completing the Triangle.

Steve, Grant, Barnsy, Trent and I headed back to Munjal (Trent’s Parents Property near Grenfell) to wish Terry happy 50th birthday have a few beers and enjoy Trish’s cooking. It was great night of laughs and flying stories.

Sunday gave us similar weather with lighter winds so we set a 90km triangle task to the south.  Steve once again got us all in the air fast and safe and after some soft scratchy thermals around the airport the day turned on and we all headed out on course. This was even more fun than yesterday and almost everyone made it back to the airport. Lots of happy pilots with a heap of airtime and spectacular views of the wet green countryside.

So another unreal Forbes fly-in This is what its all about for me, great social flying with with a top bunch of friends and a beer or two after. Thanks to the pilots that turned up it was great to fly with you all. See you on the next One!!!

A massive thanks to Moyes for the use of the Dragon fly and to Steve for your time once again it wouldn’t happen without you. Also, thanks heaps to Terry & Trish for your hospitality.

Dave.

What an amazing week last week was. Dave topped it all off by pulling out an amazing flight from one of our favorite local sites:

It was the previous Friday that  the forecast was calling  Eastery winds extending inland all the way to south Australia for the start of the following week which is exactly what I’ve been watching out for to do a big flight from my favourite site-Lake George is best known for its after noon and early morning flights because its an amazing dry lake bed with a 40km ridge  facing East so its perfect for  ridge soaring the Sea breeze that pushes  inland on a regular bases. The Canberra club has no shortage of keen pilots who cruise out after work or even get up early to soar the ridge.

As for going XC from the Lake all you need is a prevailing Eastery, which doesn’t happen too often so when I saw the forecast for Monday &  Tuesday I planned to have those days off work. Over the weekend the weather was looking better & better and I was  getting real keen. I got a call from Jonny Durand making some final plans for the Manilla comp, and knowing he was in Sydney I suggested he shoot down the Hume for a fly with me. Jonny had some Red Bull things to sort out on Monday so I said i’ll test the water on and we both have a go at big one on Tuesday which did look like the better day.

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!

Tracklogs

Barnsie and I land at Hay Airport for 315km… Full write up to come when we recover.

Brendan had a fun weekend in Bright. Looks like he snagged some of the great weather we missed during the comp:

Hey happy flyers, greetings from not-so-sunny Melbourne.

Just thought I’d better inform as many hangies as I know, that I am hooked.… line, sinker.. the whole farken shebang.  The weekend’s flying out at Bright was definitely the best flying I’ve ever done and I’ve finally figured out why you guys jump off inland hills without any ridge lift in sight and then start searching (aimlessly I used to think) for these elusive things called thermals.

Saturday afternoon I launched off Mt Emu, did some determined scratching for a while, before finally hearing “the sound”.  I really hadn’t had a lot of luck (or skill) with thermalling in the past, but after a few decent rides in the right direction, and about 7,500’ of air between me and the bomb-out, I felt like I’d finally figured it out.  I drifted down wind following the valley to the south and then east, only to realise that unless I was going to cross tiger country and try to make Mystic (like Marty did… a novice pilot… in a Ventura… with no vario) well, I was feeling on top of things, but not that confident.   And as for confidence, well, Marty tripped on launch up at Mt Buffalo the next day.  I’m sure you guys have flown it, but for those who haven’t seen the launch at buff, it’s what, about 3,500’ drop straight down at the end of the ramp.  Luckily, people ran forward and grabbed his side wires.

So after another hour of flying and a few more very pleasant moments of heading skyward, I headed north for a while, then decided to turn around and land at Mt Beauty airfield.  I mean, you can’t do better than an bloody airport for an ‘out landing’, they have huge windsocks and nice flat manicured grass.   Anyway, after floating aimlessly for another half an hour or so and confirming that, yep, the valley wind had done a 180 and gone katabtic, I made the silly decision to land elsewhere.  There I was thinking, why land at a deserted airport, when further to the west I could see a paddock with a windsock and another hang glider in it – someone to talk to while waiting for my retrieve.  It turned out to be called Tawonga bomb out.  Not such a great decision for two reasons.  One, the unusual southerly meant I’d be landing downhill in a small paddock (not gracefully as it turned out).  And two: (and most important) I didn’t realise that Mt Beauty airport was the goal for the last day of the comp that had been going all week, and an hour or so later the airport would have become one big impromptu hangie meet with lots of beer.  Damn.

Anyway, suffice to say that spending a few hours at almost 9,000 amsl flying around those ranges, zigzagging from one potential bomb out to the next, made me realise what you guys have been going on about all this time.  Fark me it was awesome.  And the next day at Mystic was almost as good.  We had to work a bit harder for the lift, but I managed to stay up until I decided it was time to land.    This may not sound phenomenal to you guys but it was a revelation to me. 

So here I am thinking that in the right conditions this inland stuff is not so bad.  I mean, despite hot and high launches, with nil or light and variable wind.  And despite crossing tiger country to find unfamiliar landing paddocks with powerlines everywhere, down-slope landings, dusties, thermals and not to mention rotor from the rapidly approaching trees at the end of the paddock.  Despite all that, if I take it one step at a time and don’t get to big for my boots, this inland stuff is not so hard… Well, you guys already know and have done for a while, but it was pretty damn awesome.   I’ll be back there within a few weeks.

Take it easy guys.   Get high.

Brendan “Turtle” Cammack

What a turn out at the lake today! Ed, Barnsie, Jeremy, Micheal T, Geoff, Pete L,, Jon, Allan (Jeremy’s old man from Inverell) hit Nth lanuch for a day of flying fun. Almost everyone left over the back. Barnsie made it furthest landing near foal at Young. Jeremy managed a PB landing at Harden and.breaking the 100km mark. Nice flying all around guys!