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.
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.
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.
… Well, the RiotACT - But that’s mainstream for us!
I have been a long time reader of the The RiotACT, Canberra’s self proclaimed and much loved soap box. I was surprised to discover that, johnboy (forum admin), had embedded one of my videos in their site. Too cool!
To have our sport acknowledged by the non-flying community is awesome even if the soundtrack does cop a bit of flack from the masses (oopsie).
Wednesday mid morning I get a call from John asking me if I would like to join him on Saturday for a flight from the lake to Tumut in his trike. Without even having to think about it I say ‘for sure’. The offer even extended to crashing the night at John’s place which included a game of pool and some home brew!
Saturday morning we arrived at the lake around 9am. After setting up the trike, including my cheap untrained labour and a pull start, we take off and head for Tumut. In saying cheap untrained labour I am pointing to the fact that I always thought that batten clips simply snapped undone and then snapped closed again. John soon pointed out that I had been doing it wrong and weakening a number of clips! As for the pull start, well we thought we had a flat battery as the girl would not turn over (pardon the pun).
After nearly 2 hours we finally take off. 15 minutes into the flight we pass over Ngunnawal (northern most suburb of the ACT) where Trent, Deb, my parents and neighbours live. We spend 5 minutes flying around taking pictures of the houses and waving to our friends below before getting back on course to head over the Brindies through to Tumut. As we approach the tiger country I became a little nervous to say the least. The fact that we had 3 batten clips that had snapped undone made me very nervous! John kept me reassured and we head on.
Flying over the Brindies was a real eye opener as I was thinking to myself that there would be little or no landing options if you were hang gliding over the back. Unless you were really high and in air space to get through you would have to travel a little further north to ensure you had landing options within glide. That said, I am still flying a beginner glider and have no real idea of what the glide feels like when flying in a topless.
We landed in Tumut about 1 hour 20 minutes after takeoff and to my relief manage to score some new batten clips and replace our broken ones and worked out that we had to pull start the girl when we took off from the lake due to a solenoid that had broken off. This problem was solved through some soldering by Michael I with his little tool box of goodies (thanks Michael)! After heading into town with John and Bobby for some good old KFC we take off again and head for home. The trip back was much more pleasant as I was feeling much more comfortable in the fact that we now had a clean wing with no broken clips!
I must admit that I found it very nerve racking flying over the ranges. I let the little mishaps of the morning get to me which put me in a bad mind set for the day. For me it is a different feeling flying in a trike than it is flying in a hang glider. When in a trike I think you notice the turbulence more as it is not just you being throne around but the trike it self which exaggerates the pendulum feeling I suppose you could say. You are also flying a hell of a lot faster which makes the bumps feel a little more sudden. I am keen to get back up in the trike to over come the small amount of reservations that I have as I would love to learn how to fly one in the near future.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank John for the invite and taking me on a great flight and I hope to be able to fly with you again soon. He would have to be one of the nicest ‘old farts’ around I would have to say!
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.
