So I finally score my first decent commendable XC flight which just might be better than sex!.

Quadey, Danny Deck Chair and myself arrive at the launch on Pig at around 11.30am and observe a very nice cu just out in front of launch.  The cloud was flowing up in the middle and sinking out the edges at a very nice rate of knots which was a good sign.  We set up and watch a paraglider take of and be thrown around and go up and down - another good sign.  I hook in, stand on launch for a few minutes then felt a cycle come up the hill and bang off I went.  I flew out in front loosing height at first before hitting the thermal and climbing up to about 1500ft above launch at which point I lost the thermal.  By this point Quadey had taken off and was climbing in front of launch, so I pulled on the VG and headed his direction.  I arrived about 1000ft above him and managed to climb out nicely.  When I again lost the thermal I decided to head south downwind as I had a fair bit of height by now.

My first glide was about 6km or so and towards the end of the glide I was drilled with some fairly strong sink and then hit a small climb of about 1.5m up.  I boated around in this for 10min or so where I was going up then going down and I wasn’t really gaining any great height.  I decided to head another kilometer or so south where there had been some earth work going on which paid off as I was treated with a very nice climb which brought me up nearly 1000ft higher than I was when I left the hill.  From here I headed on a 4km or so glide to Bullen Range which runs north/south.  I had to make a decision here to stay on the east or west side of the range.  The east side looked the safest as there were plenty of landing opportunities where as on the west side I would have to glide for 5 or 6km to get to the first landing paddock.  I decided to fly along the ridge line hoping to hit a thermal which I did.  The thermal felt fast and sharp.  I managed to gain about 1000ft at which point I lost the thermal but had plenty of glide to now to head west into the valley.

This glide was long, fast and the smoothest of the day for me and I took the opportunity to take a happy snap of the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station.  It was really really cool to fly near the station.  I flew west of the station between it and the Brindabella Ranges.  About 4km SW of the Tracking station I got to about 500ft above the ground and was flying above the paddock I had picked as a possible landing option where I was treated to another climb.  I managed to climb about 1000ft in this one that was weaker than the others and drifted a lot quicker.  Once I either got to the top or lost it I went on glide and flew over what I think is the Tidbinbilla Visitors Centre. Here I needed a lot more height to keep going as the was now a few hills and some tiger country in front of me.  I flew around the visitors centre where turn after turn I found no lift and when I was a couple of hundred feet above the ground I opened up the harness to get ready for landing.  All of a sudden BEEP BEEP BEEP the vario went nuts and the nose of the glider popped up, gold!  I had hit a short sharp climb which took me up the side of a rocky hill.  I climbed about 800ft and had drifted behind the hill.  From here I reckon I needed another 1000ft to get over another hill down wind to get me safely into the next open area.  I made the decision here to head back to the visitors centre and hope for another climb as I had dropped out the side of the thermal I was climbing in.  I found nothing and 10 minutes or so later went into land and landed pretty well which topped it all off!

All in all a bloody top flight with a straight line distance of 24.6km.  This flight has taught me a hell of a lot.  At all times throughout the flight I always made sure I had a paddock within glide that I knew I could reach easily if I needed to land for any reason.  When on glide I headed towards hills, treed areas and open bare ground hoping that a thermal would be pumping up off them.  I think this worked for me twice which was pretty cool (the other climbs were pure luck).  When getting low to the ground over the paddocks I had picked as possible landing options I looked closer for power lines obstacles and had a good look at the slope of the paddock.  I found that picking the slope of the paddocks to be hard the higher up I was, in fact the paddock I landed in was nearly flat even though from higher up looked as though it sloped away a little.  The wind on the day was all over the place too.  I took off from a north facing hill while there were others flying off NW and even an east facing hills all within 40 odd km’s of each. As I approached for my landing I did a few 360’s and watched my shadow on the ground to see which direction my drift was and how fast the shadow was moving along the ground.  I picked the wind as being NW and when I landed in the paddock I had picked it perfectly which was comforting as I can see how hard it could be to pick the wind direction in variable conditions.

So in summing up I’m hooked!  I must add here too that I am flying an Airborne Sting 3 154 which I am very impressed with in all respects.  I’m off with Quadey later this week to get our aerotow endorsements which I have no doubt is going to open up yet another door in this awesome sport.  As for being better than sex, well I’d probably have to say no but the thrill certainly lasts a lot longer!!! hehehe :p

Happy Flying

Andrew >:-)

The Canberra guys are heading into the comp season with a lot of momentum. We usually hit the Canungra Classic fairly cold because our XC season has not yet when October rolls around. This year has been very different. More on this later.

After the sucess of the last weekend out at Forbes we headed out again with great expectations. We were not disappointed.

Saturday

A task is set. Forbes Airport > Intersection of West Wylong to Forbes road > “Munjal”. 122km.

Vitals: 7700ft base, 1000fpm climbs, big streets and no wind.

An awesome day. I make it in, Nath, Dave and Andrew get very close. All 100+km.

Tracklog

Sunday

A carbon copy of the day before. We head for Cowra the back to Munjal.

The first 50km were easy. Things got tough past Gooloogong. Corwa was covered in a blue hole. We had to take a turn point right in the middle. The next 35km were though. Dave and I flew together the whole way. Climbs were stopping below 3 grand. Paitence get us to Cowra where we both land at the airport.

Forbes looks a little different to when our international friends see it in summer. These conditions are great practice for Canungra.

Tracklog

A huge thanks to Steve once again! The tugmaster’s master! We are forever indebted to you.

All you end up with is a long weekend like the last one…

It goes a little something like this:

Saturday

Karl, Scott, Dave, Andrew B, and I meet Steve at Forbes airport after dropping some gear off at Munjal on the way through. Not too much later Bill Moyes turns up with Noma.

A nice warm day to kick things off. It reached 27 degrees on the ground. No clouds. Dave and Andrew reached Munjal. I landed short trying to reach the range in the photo below. Apparently I had to be higher than tree height to try and soar this thing.

I went about 50km that day. Barnsie landed at Munjal first as did Dave who tracked back after reaching the ridge behind home but finding nothing going up.

Tracklog

Sunday

A little more wind.  We each had a tow to no avail. The thermals were being blown apart down low.

A strong climb would be required to get up today as anything weaker would be broken up by the wind. There were no such climbs near the strip and with the wind increasing the chance of having more tows would be slim.

The best chance of a good climb would be over town so as soon as I released I headed that direction. I then just hang on to what ever I could for as long as I could. It was rough in the air so I wasn’t disappointed about landing just short of the 50km mark.

Tow conditions in the paddock deteriorated and the other guys chose not to tow again.

Tracklog

Monday

Scott has headed home and Nath has joined us today for his first flight in his new AirBorne C4 14.

The nicest looking day by far. Nice cus and big streets. Base was about 6500ft a fun day but we all ended up on the deck after getting to cocky on glides and finding conditions down low pretty tough.

Dave makes it 70km, 60km for me and 50 km for Barnsie. A very fun day with great conditions for racing.

Tracklog

Tuesday

Nath heads home and Guy comes out to play.

Dave tows first. Looks stable as he finds nothing and pulls off a nice landing right in front of us.

Andrew tows next and finds light lift. I decide to get in. Just before towing Andrew calls that he is now going up at 500fpm… Get me up there Steve! We tow straight into Barnsie’s climb. Nice.

Guy tows but breaks an upright after leaving the dolly a little awkwardly.

Dave tows and joins Barnsie and I. We top out at 5000ft and head off for Parkes. We have lots of fun team flying until we drop Dave just before town. Barnsie and I continue on getting very low when we take the turnpoint at Parkes.

It is always great flying with Andrew. We make the most out of having two of us in the air. We find some good climbs by working together and have a lot of fun in the process.

We decide to try and get back to Forbes. A tough call given we weren’t getting that high and it was headwind coming back. It was hard to make progress but after a couple of low saves we found ourselves half way back along the main road.

At this point Barnsie pushed a bit harder than what I was comfortable with and he ended up landing 20km short of Forbes.

At about this time we get news that Guy had fixed his upright flew and landed in Parkes. He must have went past us but we didn’t see him. Charge your radio Guy!

I keep on tracking towards Forbes and, with the help of the odd truck driving along a dirt road to mark thermals for me, I make town pretty easily. I setup to land at the ovals in town but got a little climb and decide to try and make the airport. It was an optimistic glide and I end up landing two paddocks short of the hangers.

What an awesome flight!

The worlds slowest 70km out and return at 4 hours and 31 seconds. This takes my total air time for the four day weekend to 8.5 hours - Very nice for September.

Tracklog

In all, nine hangies turned up for an awesome weekend of flying. The best bit is it’s all happening again on the 11/12th October. See you there for some more awesome fun in the flatlands.

Thanks to Bill Moyes for letting us use his dragon fly to drag us into the air.

A very very bit thanks to Steve for towing us into the sky and picking us up again when we fell out. Without Steve’s incredible enthusiasm we would all be on the ground fiddling with our navels. Thanks heaps mate!

Binalong was going off on Tuesday. It was great to finally get away from the very exciting site. It was only a little pop over the back to Boorowa but it was a very enjoyable flight. Thanks heaps for the Retrieve Dave.

Flight here

What a week of flying!  Late last week the Lake turned it on a few days in a row!  Thursday saw 9 hangies up and Friday saw similar numbers.  Friday night saw the T’man celebrate his birthday with a good gathering at his place.  Trent is turning his house into a hang glider pilot retreat as he has kindly installed beer on tap!!!  Now all he needs is a runway and we are set!

Today saw Dave, Karl, Quadey and myself fly the lake in ESE if not occasionally SE winds.  I managed to score 2 hours which was pretty cool and interesting.  After playing around at the first rest stop we all headed back over launch and Dave screamed across the gap to the south ridge in his new glider.  He top landed and I gave the gap a bash but got to low and had to land out.  I was annoyed to say the least, so packed my glider up and walked the girl all the way back up to the top of the south ridge set up and took off again on what could be a first (to walk their glider up the ridge!).  I took off, gained some height and jumped across the gap for a top landing with the other boys at the cars.  Dedication - Yes I think so.

The Canberra boys are new glider crazy it seems.  Trent Dave and Nath picked up their new Airborne C4’s last week and Dave had his out today.  Dave has purchased himself the 13.5 and seems to be very happy to say the least.  Flying above and below him today was pretty cool as his glider has a bit of character to it.  Dave has opted for a unique colour scheme of white on top and pure black underneath.  I think we will have to call him the Bat from now on!  I too have a new glider on the way.  I had a squiz at Ariborne’s website this morning and noticed that there was a String III 154 in stock in the exact colour scheme that I am after.  So straight on the phone to Trent and within 15 minutes I get a call back to say its mine!  My only dilemma now is to work out when to head up to the factory to pick her up!!!  Life is hard.

See you all up in the sky…

Andrew >:-)

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