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.

Nic has made another very cool little vid of our favorite flying site.

Earlier: – Looks like we’re in for a nice little boat towards the coast.

Debrief for the day:

It was pretty hard going. Andrew B, Dave, Jon, Alex in his punter and myself line up.

Climbs were only taking to 3500ft so leaving the hill was pretty tricky. The recent rain has really taken the sting out of the climbs so patience was the call for the day. It’s like April conditions have come early.

In such tough conditions it was always going to be tough crossing the dam… brb

Tracklog here

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.

Heading to Nth launch again today. Goal set for Jugiong 34*49.326
148*20.408
900ft
Jugong 96k

How things panned out…
Nth launch ended up being blown out so we upped stumps and headed down to Geary’s. It was still on the strong side so we ended up sitting around for a while until we an air of optermisim wafted through the crowd. I launched first in a lull and almost bombed. Once I did head north though I was rewarded with 3m/s clb to airspace at 5500ft. The trip past Gundaroo, Murrembateman was fairly straight forward but constantly hitting my head on airspace was frusturating. I got high just before Burinjuck dam which made for ascenic crossing. That was pretty much to end of the flight though and I landed just a couple of km north of Carols range and one of our favorite launches in the area. Barnsie made it over the back and landed near Gundaroo. Ed pulled off a nice one landing at Murrembateman.
Another fun day out!
Heading to Forbes tomorrow and looking forward to running in to all the usual guys out there.

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!

No lift available to Forbes over the next few days… What to do? Well, Dave and I are hitting the lake tomorrow in an attempt to fly in there under our own steam. Wish us luck.

Check out Barnsie’s blog. One to add to your regular net trawl.

Andrew and I had a real fun flight out at the lake on Sunday. Andrew relives the very memorable flight:

So after missing out on a fly on Saturday, I decided to ignore the part of the weather report that said ’showers turning to rain’ and just saw the bit that said moderate SE in the afternoon…

Trent got in the air first to show me that it was possible. And we found a spot on the ridge which wasn’t raining. It was heaps of fun.

There was lots of lift out over the lake, which was a good thing coz the lower cloud base had dropped below ridge height making flying in the ridge lift it’s self a no go. We had some awesome flying around bands of wispy lower cloud as they came through.

In the end we had to wind down and land at the rest stop below us coz it was raining back at Geary’s so we couldn’t get back. Oh and it was starting to rain to the north too, so yeah, but it was flight I’m going to remember for a long while.

We got soaked to the bone packing up. Thanks to Nick that came and got us.

Flights on Leonardo.

It’s that time of year again boys… Andrew get us in the mood by letting us know about the first one!

Dave called me at 1230 letting me know a seabreeze was on it’s way in. I was on a course with work and would not be able to make it and told Dave to go for it.

1500 came and my course finished early. I was straight on the phone to Dave who was still waiting for it to come in. I arrived at the lake at 1630 and greeted Dave with a few loud Wilson’s. Dave instantly pointed out that the wind turbines on the eastern side of the lake were spinning in different directions. The ones further east were spinning anti-clockwise and the ones closer to us were spinning clockwise. This told us that the easterly was sitting somewhere in amongst the turbines. After about 45min all turbines were turning anti-clockwise indicating that the easterly was now at the eastern edge of the lake. It was awesome to see the turbines slowly stop spinning rotate then steadily speed up again spinning in the other direction. Out of all of this the point to note here is that when the turbines are spinning anti-clockwise the wind is east. With all the anti-clockwise action going on and the sun now about to set it on the horizon it was time to set up.

Once set up I hooked in and stood on the easterly launch facing west ready for a text book reverse launch as the westerly was still driving through the west lake edge. After a joke and picture of me ready to launch up the hill I sat down in my harness looking east to see the moist haze getting closer. Finally she hit, about 40min after all the turbines went anti-clockwise. Dave raced to hook in and we both launched. I jumped the gap south and came back. Dave stayed playing over launch and as I came back over launch he pulled off a usual perfect top landing. I then made several attempts to top land. For me the break of flying the lake over winter meant my skills at lining up the top landing needed dusting off. I approached too high and couldn’t quite get the angle of the approach correct. As the conditions were near perfect I persisted and adjusted my approach each time until I was happy then moved each approach a little lower each time until I nailed it.

An awesome 30min flight with Dave, both of us snatching the first easterly of the season. This seabreeze hunting season is going to be better than ever thanks to the wind turbines and the fact that from my driveway in Gunghalin I can see 3 wind turbines out at the lake with my naked little eyes when the sun is high up in the sky.

An awesome flight and even better company haha – that’s what the lake is all about!

Til next time – the Thief >:-)