Sunday Aug 17 saw Dave, JP and myself out at Binoes for a fly.  As always when we arrived it was on, although this time a little on the light side of things.  Once all three of us were set up and all the usual badgering had taken place we were ready to go.  JP took off first and climbed quite well for the first few minutes before loosing luck and bailing out.  As JP went into land at the bombout Dave and I were still standing on launch watching him come in for what was a pretty funny landing.  The bombout was full of cows and as he got closer to the ground the cows ran off in a stampede all of which JP caught on film as he approached which can be found here along with a number of other vids that he has loaded up onto youtube.

I was next to take off and found a nice little thermal to the NW side of the range and managed to climb up a few hundred feet above launch, which was short lived as I then came down to ridge height just as quick!  Dave then took off and found some good lift and got on the radio and told me to get under him.  Once I was under Dave (not in an Anoos sense) I managed to climb up again but not nearly as high as Dave did.  The next 15 minutes or so comprised of climbing up in little thermals and scratching along the ridge.  At one point I got a third of the way below the hill and started to bail out to the bombout even telling Dave over the radio that I was gone.  Straight after my turn towards the bombout I hit a bit of turbulence and then the vario started beeping slightly.  So I slowed the glider up as slow as I could and put her into a gentle turn and made about 3 full turns in constant lift and saw myself back up just above hill height.  I was pretty stoked as normally I would have been on the deck.  Another 5 min went by and I managed to stay just above the hill when I saw dave starting to circle and going up just above launch.  I flew out under him and too started to climb.  I got up pretty well in this thermal which felt stronger and wider than the others had been.  With each turn I made I drifted further SE along the ridge and slightly over the back.  Dave meanwhile was a good few hundred feet above me and had decided to go on glide over Binalong.  It was cool to see him off on glide as it didn’t take long for him to disappear (at which point I will point out that that those topless glider really do glide amazingly well)!  I soon lost the thermal and was once again going down.  I decided at this point to try something different.  Instead of going back to the ridge I flew out over the bombout hoping to score a thermal.  My move nearly worked but I was too low.  Just as I made it back over the bomout I saw that the trees below were moving around so there was obviously a gust of wind or a thermal going up.  My vario started to beep momentarily and I managed a few turns maintaining zeros at which point I was now down wind of the bomout and needed to bail to make it home.  Once I landed JP and I packed up and headed just over 10km down the road to pick up Dave.

On the way home we went past Spring bombout to collect Dave’s car and JP and I decided to hit up spring for another 30 minute frolic on what you could call a nice ‘glass off’ of an afternoon.  All in all a top 10 degree winters flying day!!!

Happy Flying – Andrew >:-)

So winter seems to have finally set itself in over the past few weeks.  Although it has been bloody cold the Hangies have been out in force around the ACT.

Saturday 2 August Trent, Dave, John-Paul, Nic and I headed out to Binalong for some nice winter flying.  On the drive out we drove through wind rain and gusty winds.  Dave thought it was absolutely perfect and that he was definitely going cross country!  When we arrived at the hill the rain has stopped and the wind was slower than it had been back down the highway but the temp was a balmy 4 degrees.  Dave has been to Binalong a few times now and not once has he not been able to fly there.  I can’t wait to hit it up this summer.

Sunday saw Dave, Jeff, Ed, Nic, Carl B and myself flying at spring.  When we arrived the wind was quite strong but as we were setting up the wind slowed and we all eventually took off.  I flew in Trent’s Sonic 165 for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the flight.  My landing was ace.  As I came in I got into ground effect with speed and my feet softly dragging through the grass, then as the speed bled off I pushed out, rose up a feet or two then stopped dead and landed gently on my feet with the glider resting back onto my shoulders,  it was perfect.  I’m not sure whether it’s the fact that I was flying a 165 as opposed to my 154 Buzz or me just having a good day but my flare was tops.  This landing reminded me about exactly what this sport is all about – having fun.  I can’t wait to get my Sting III as I’m sure it will exceed my expectations.

Saturday August 9 saw Dave, John-Paul and I flying Spring.  When we arrive it was going off with rain and sleet falling!  Top notch conditions.  In being as keen as we are we hung around for 30min waiting for the rain to clear and then set up.  I take off first (again flying Trent’s Sonic) and tested the air.  It was rough and all over the shop but plenty of ridge lift to play around in.   One thing I did during this flight was practice a few stalls  I noticed that the stall characteristics of the Sonic are way different from the Buzz.  When I put the buzz into a stall and hold it there it simply mushes and more or less turns into a parachute where as the Sonic becomes very heavy and drops the nose.  It was good to feel comfortable doing this in a glider that I had not flown much before.  Landing time came around pretty quickly for Dave and I as we were freezing our nuts off.  I came in first and landed across the road.  Dave then came screaming in between the trees and pulled up very nicely with a text book flare.  John-Paul stayed up for another hour giving him nearly 2 hours in the air and also landed across the road (just).  The Fun 190 only just had enough penetration to get across the road and land with the strong head wind.

Anyway lots more flying fun on the way as the weather will soon be warming up again!

Happy Flying - Andrew >:-)

Curt blogs about our towing adventures last weekend.

Car Towing in Lake George, Canberra | Warren Windsports Hang Gliding School NSW

The Canberra guys have been hitting it hard this winter. With some of the most favorable winter flying conditions in Australia dedicated pilots flew every weekend for the last few months.

June was not exception. Dave alone wracked up more than 20 hour in the month.

June saw us flying at Spring Hill, Lanyon, Lake George, Pig Hill, Grenfell and Binalong.

This video is a taste of what we’ve been up to.

Embedded Video

…. Dave writes in to convince us otherwise:-

The excitement was buzzing and the anticipation high as Karl and I headed out to Munjal to help Terry and Trent crotch about 9,000 lambs…oh and maybe a bit of flying. It is June and looks stable as but….Trent is a certified tug master. There is a trike in the hangar, and Munjal has a more than sufficient tow strip.

So put down the rusty knife Karlos, the lambs are going to have to wait. It looks good for a hep of tows and landing practice. So we went and set up while Trent sorted out some cameras for a bit of footage.

It was about my third tow and the air was smooth-as again so this time I thought I would just stay on tow until Trent waved me off. As we climbed out over Munjal, there was a blanket of cumulus type clouds to our north. Trent read my mind and headed towards them. As we got closer, I realised we were above the clouds. This was phenomenal. Trent waved me off and I was releasing higher than them.

I had a huge grin on my face as Trent and I headed single file across the top of the cloud blanket. The scenery was sublime. The top of the cloud was a shimmering incandescent white. I had a feeling of pure freedom to be gliding over the top of cloud like this in a hangie.

With the sun behind us I could see the silhouette of glider with a rainbow circling it cast against the clouds as they rolled and evolved slowly from the air movement underneath, and the drift from the prevailing wind. It was a 500ft thick white carpet with exists through vertical holes and valleys which I could see below to the paddocks and mountains, giving me know fear of being whited out. Sinking slowly I began to glide through the wispy tops of the taller stacks. I pulled on speed and dived through the cloud into the valley. With walls both sides and a clear view to the ground below, flying along this canyon of cloud, I was completely awe struck.

Trent was in front and flew left down the valley so I headed right headwind, gliding to the front of the clouds facing the south east wind. Near the end of the valley I cut the corner exploding through the cloud wall. Out in front the air was buoyant not enough to ridge soar but I got a small taste of this huge white wall as long as possible slowly descending. I cruised back into the valley gliding around surrounded by cloud, gravity slowly spoiling my unique experience. So I pulled the bar in for one final dive through the wall and out the cloud base. I was speechless as I headed back to the tow paddock. I took a look behind me at the surreal white playground. That was an experience I won’t forget for a long time.

These indescribable types of experiences are part of this awesome sport we do. And every time I think how lucky I am to fly I think of all the people involved to make it so great. I can’t put into words how much I appreciate the generosity and enthusiasm we all receive when flying at Munjal. Thanks Trish and Terry for letting monkeys share your place. And if it wasn’t for Trent’s time and passion for this sport, we wouldn’t get off the ground at all.

Cheers,
Dave

Sunday saw us head to Spring for some ridge soaring action. The drift on the clouds was reasonably strong from the SSE but on the deck it stayed west all day?!? It’s got me buggered.

Dave took the opportunity to fly the Airborne C4 13.5 demo. The extra glide of the new model was immediately apparent and we will be ordering our new gliders for next comp season very soon.

In the meantime Ricky Duncan has put a special price on the 13.5 pictured. It’s the nicest glider I’ve flown so I’m sure who ever snaps it up will be stoked.

For more photos from Sunday click here

Just been going back through some old emails and I came across this… Damn it has been a fun ride getting a foot into this sport.

Saturday

Karl, Dan and I headed out the lake intending to get some ridge soaring in. Winds were a bit light for that sort of action – none of the 20 or so visiting punters were getting up so I didn’t think that we had much of a chance. I was keen to try out the Blitz that Scotty had so graciously given me but decided that I would have enough problems trying to stay up in the Sonic this would not be a great time to complicate the issue by stepping off in new glider.

As expected that was a short sleddy. Time to try something different.

We headed to the north launch. At least our sled ride would be a little longer from there. After setting up, the wind had still not picked up much. The butterflies had set in to my stomach. This was the first time I had flown in anything other than my Sonic (other than one of Tove’s funs). How would it handle? I had no idea what to expect. My plan was just to run like hell to get the thing off the ground and flare like hell to make the thing stop. Anything I learnt in between would just be a plus. Dan launched first but had a bit of bad luck and ended up heading straight down to the bombout.

My turn. Hang checked and ready to go. The lack of wind up the face was doing nothing for the nerves. I waited for a while hoping the wind would pick up. No luck. Great, a nil winder in an unfamiliar glider.

Off I ran. It took a little longer to get off the ground than what I’m used to but it was a lot less stressful than I had expected. Landing gear up. Immediately you notice the glide ratio. I was moving much quicker than in the sonic and was sinking much slower. For an old glider it felt great.

Ok let’s try turning this thing. I had been told many times that I would have to get used to a new method of weight shifting due to the slow response time of these more advanced gliders. Weight shift, return to the centre and wait for it to respond I had been told, so that’s what I did. It was a little strange as I made my first turn but nothing unexpected.

Then beep. Cool. Beep beep. I knew that sound. Playing on the side of caution I started with a few figure eights careful not to get too close to terrain. A few passes and I was above the ridge. Time to hook in. Thremaling felt pretty much the same as what I was used to but it took a bit more effort to stay in the core. By this time the punters were streaming off the hill. Some going up, some going down.

A punter with a white wing and a red leading edge soon found my thermal. We took that up to 1500’ above launch. I took this opportunity to try a few things in the new glider. First I tried pushing out a bit more to increase climb rate. I do tend to push out a fair bit in the Sonic to milk a thermal for all that its worth – you hardly notice when it stalls anyway. I knew that this would be different in the Blitz but with this much height I didn’t really care. Edging the bar out while in the thermal was fine but as you venture to the edge of the thermal the wing in sink tends to fall out of the sky. It recovers itself ok but you lose a bit of height in the process.

Karl was off. He was in another thermal off to the left of launch. I wanted to join him so off I set. Let’s try out this vg thing. I pulled on the rope – bugger. It was stuck. I hadn’t checked it in my preflight as I didn’t think there would be much of a need for it in the sled ride I was expecting. Oh well, I was still moving a lot quicker than I was used to and maintaining more height in the process. We circled around for a bit then ventured off on various sorties but encountered nothing in any direction.

By this time I was fairly used to flying the Blitz. Time to think about landing. I picked out a big area in the bomb out paddock to allow for the extra distance I would travel in ground effect. Setting for the landing was like normal just a bit quicker. A nice quick final and down into ground effect. I have watched you good guys do this a hundred times and it felt exactly like I had expected. The Sonic gives you a touch of ground effect but nothing like this. The Blitz seems to give some fairly good feedback as to when it wanted to be flared. Once again I heeded the advice of those who have been there before – When you flare commit to it. With one big push up and out it stopped, a couple of steps and the ride was over. That seemed even easier than the Sonic but I think it was only beginner’s luck. I’m sure I’ve jinxed myself for next time.

This was a very enjoyable first flight in the Blitz I can’t wait to head out again.

I was really looking forward to Stanwell the next day… 3 times I have been to Stanwell. 3 times it has been too weak/too north/too south. Would tomorrow be any different?

Sunday

It was Michael’s plan to set off early. 5:30am was the call. What the!

To my surprise, Karl turned up on my door step with Michael. On with the gliders and off we set. After a brecky stop on the way up we arrived on the hill at 8:30am. It was ON! A nice call with the early start Michael. The wind was light though, so the Blitz would be staying in the bag.

Karl and I stuffed batons and launched at around 9am. There was a fair bit of south in it but still easy to stay up. There was no traffic in the air at that time of the day - just one para, Karl and I. Michael launched shortly after in his punter. Together we flew back South over the town and railway line. The scenery is beautiful from up here.

A train passes beneath, the fumes drift up and meet us together with a rush of rising air. A few quick circles get us above the ridge and the houses perched on top of the cliff. What a place to live.

Throughout this flight though there was one unsettling thought I was unable to shake from my mind… As an inland pilot mainly flying flatlands (or close to it) I like to have options. The whole time I’m flying I’m thinking – ‘If all else fails I can land there’. This is not the case around here in my floater. I have virtually no ridge soaring experience other than Lake George where the suggestion of looking for landing options is laughable. I am uncomfortable with this feeling but everyone else is getting away with it so I’ll draw some comfort from that.

Karl and I get itchy feet and attempt to push south onto the next ridge down. No luck. All we can find is rotor off the hill out in front and we are soon making our way back around to the chute. Karl lands first. I come in over the top of him take a few steps and drop the nose into the sand. Damn.

Michael, laughing at our feeble attempt to push south, top lands and drives down to pick us up.

Back to the top we head. By this time all the local pilots were up there along with the tandems and punters galore. This was more what I expected of Stanwell. That said no one was too keen to head off as the wind was still pretty light.

Nick and Matt had a couple of great flights around while most of the others headed to the bomb out to end their elongated sled rides.

Eventually we work up the courage to leap off. Though the wind was still light it was now straight up the face. North was the order of the afternoon we gained height on the cliffs off to the left and on to the clearings where the remote control gliders and zagis were zooming about. This was pretty cool. Another strange thing though is how blasé the locals are to the gliders swooping down beside them. At the lake everyone beeps there horn and waves to you if you’re low enough for them to see you. Sydney siders though, won’t cast an eye upward even after passing your shadow over their head. That said the crowds on bald hill are pretty cool.

So we continue North and I get my first view of Hell Hole. Interesting. I’m just going to boat around here for a while before I build up the courage to take this one on. Eventually Michael leads the way around the bowl without losing any height. He made that look easy so I follow. I didn’t lose any height but certainly didn’t gain any either as I make my way around.

As I get to the northern side of Hell Hole I encounter some wicked rotor from the outcrop in front of me. I lost a lot of height as I pulled in the bar attempting to get in front of the ridge. I rounded the corner and realised that I had a problem. I was low. The guys who knew what they were doing were high on the ridge 300’ above me. To say that landing options were sparse was an understatement. There was one beach within glide. A noticeable feature of this rather tranquil landing option was that it was totally void of anything that resembled a road. With this in mind I was keen to get back up but the vario was silent. I knew I had to get in close to the trees to get into strongest part of the lift. I tried to get as close as I could but I just wasn’t game to get as close as I needed to. Still dropping I had to try something else so I headed out to the headland hoping to get something, anything off the cliffs. Still nothing. Damn I have a lot to learn about this coastal stuff.

Time to plan my landing on the beach. It was a reasonably large LZ though I would be coming in crosswind. I spotted a family at the far end of the beach so I aim to land somewhere near them. Ever mindful of the walk ahead I find some comfort in the fact the there was a couple of 5 year old kids out with their mum celebrating mothers day – If they could manage to walk down onto the beach surely I could make the walk back out.

So I setup to land South to North (god knows why, there had been more South in it all day). I attempted to turn into the wind just a fraction while in ground effect but I still managed to drop the nose as the tail wind was still a bit too strong. Bugger. I walked my glider over beside the family I had spotted from the air.

I started by asking them “I have a problem don’t I”. During the conversation that followed enlighten that I had a 2.5km walk back to the top of the ridge. Not great news but it could have been worse. Karl, by this time, had landed back at Stanwell and was on the phone. I gave him rundown on my situation and instructed them to have a beer and some lunch and that I would give them a call when I reached the car park. After being on the other end of a couple of these sort of long retrieves I was keen to dig myself out of this one.

Now packed up, off I set. The path was bloody steep – this was going to take a while. An hour later I was about a kilometre and a half into my journey. I was hot and buggered. My camel back had been sucked dry while I was still back on the beach. I soldier on a bit further when a guy, taking his 74 year old mother on their annual mother’s day trip down the beach I now know as being Burning Palms offers to give me a hand. This guy was a legend. He grabbed the back of my glider and we storm up the hill. I gave the guys a call when we’re 500m from the car park.

We reach the top right as Michael and Karl pull in. Nice timing. After telling some of the local guys where I had landed they had expected the worst and were ready of a lengthy walk. The relief was clear on their faces.

The trip home gave me plenty of time to reflect on my mistakes and just how different this coastal flying was to what I am used to. I can’t wait to have another go.

Thanks Michael for chauffeuring us up and back. Also big thanks again to Scott Hannaford for the Blitz, I can’t wait to try it out again.

Andrew Luton writes:

Trent, Dave, Carl, Andrew and Ryan headed out to Binalong on a cool 20ish degree day with a very light WSW breeze and an inversion to end all inversions. Not the best day for getting high and flying far but Binalong certainly shows huge potential when the warmer weather returns.

The hill boasts many TO options and has a small, sharp and exposed valley running up the face left the by what seems to have been a landslide many years ago. This trigger was working even in very light cooler conditions and is looking to be extremely promising.

The hill has a fantastic bombout paddock as Carl showed us and has XC opportunities heading ENE to Crookwell and really in any direction you want to go.

One point to note is that access to the hill is limited to the relatively rough track to the top of the hill, not to mention you could rollerblade down if you really wanted to. Doesn’t make sense, well no not really - you’ll have to make the trip one day soon to find out for yourself and then enjoy the little beauty that is Binalong!!! See you on top soon…

A little test of the ACTHPA Oregon Scientific camera. Edited in half an hour (and it looks like it)

Email to Armand/Davis:

Thanks heaps for the weekend and all the time you have put into getting us all in the air over the past few months. Really appreciated mate.

Saturday, as you know, was great. A tail wind run to Condobolin. Most of the crew landed at town with Grant, Tove and myself stretching it out to 100km. Phil continued on into the boonies for 160km and a character building retrieve in a constantly overheating van.

Sunday, the wind was blowing us towards West Wyalong. Once again almost everyone made it to goal landing at WW Airport. Base 7000 amsl.

Tove was high over West Wyalong but Grant “persuaded” her to land in order to look after the kids while the rest of the crew returned to get the cars from Forbes. A shame, as I was looking forward to sitting in a pub in Hay with the person that originally taught me how to fly one of these things.

I missed West Wyalong (some bugger moved it) as I only had Hay in my 6030. By the time I had a visual on WW I was downwind. I couldn’t fight my way back SE (wind was 30km from E by this stage) so just headed South instead until I met up with the Newell Hwy – Lucky Peter Garonne gave us a description of where the Hwy tracked as it went south so I knew I should hit it sooner or later. This would make for a much faster trip back to Canberra that night. I ended up just short of Grong Grong – of Forbes Flatlands 2008 fame. Andrew, Nath and Deb were in my landing paddock as I descended on final glide.

Scotty Hannaford replied:

… I had the same issue with the downwind drift, but realised I was losing touch with the course early enough to correct it - my track when you look at it is going to be pretty ugly - there was plenty of flying backwards to find lift, following wrong roads and generally faffing about. Of course there was oodles of lift over the airport when I arrived, making it very difficult to get down. If I wasn’t already buggered I would have followed you down the road, but in hindsight it was probably wise to land where I did rather than risk a boonies expedition!

I was flying Dave May’s Airborne C4 13 as opposed to my usual C4 13.5 on both days. A nice feeling glider but it does not do the whole self coring thing that makes the 13.5 such a breeze to fly. Glides were quick as you would expect from the higher wing loading. Following lift lines in this glider also seemed to be easier due to the super responsive nature of the glider. Landing either glider is a pleasurable experience with generous flare windows and a crisp rotation with a bit of VG on.

Flights:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=26840

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=26839

A great weekend, thanks for making it all possible. Please also pass on my thanks to Bill Moyes for letting us have all this fun in my favourite place to fly.