Ed, Ryan, Dan, John, Dave and I met out at the lake yesterday afternoon in the hope of picking up one of the first sea breezes of the season. We were not disappointed.

Like clockwork the westerly was replaced by a smooth but strong sea breeze at about 4:30pm.

Almost 2 hours in the air later we all top landed in the fading light. Many happy faces - It’s seabreeze hunting season!
Memorable bits for the flight include:

• First flight in my new Scorpion 2 RR harness. This is an awesome piece of gear and is now set up great for Canungra next week.
• Dave and I following lift lines way out over the lake. Trying to see who would chicken out and turn back first. Dave won.
• I clocked 154km/h over the deck on the way back. As fast as I’ve been in a glider. Dave managed even better cracking 160km/h (100mph) at the same time. That’s moving.
• Grant and I made it up to the tower near Collector. Dave pushed on another 6km further to make it his furthest sortie north along the ridge.
• Ryan managed a nice top landing despite not being able to get his legs out of his harness due to a broken zipper. A ballsy manoeuvre.

Hoping for a similar day to the day before. Dave, Deb and I head to Pig once again.

Today the the wind is from the North and quite a bit stronger.

We launched. We got beat up and we landed. A exciting flight. We both managed a few circles in the rotor but neither of us had the feeling that this was a flight that was worth perusing. Two safe landings though I missed the bombout.

Off to Spring in the afternoon for possibly the most sedate air we’ve had this season. A nice relaxing flight after this morning’s excitement.

This first photo shows the great respect Dave has for these sort of conditions.

Saturday

It was one of those days that was blowing up every hill in town. So rather than heading out for a fly, most pilots stayed at home clicking the wind talker hoping it would tell them which hill to drive up. It didn’t so they stayed at home.

Be decisive on days like this. Make a decision and stick to it. If it does not work out learn from it. It is positive either way.

On this note, Dave heads to the lake. Pete, Deb and I head out to Pig.

Dave is banking on the wind staying as strong as it is in the morning. The early moderate SE breeze seems promising for the lake.

Pete and I are backing it to die off during the day given that a few indicators at altitude (Mt Ginini and Thredbo top station) are not reflecting the winds on the ground.

Pete is out for his first flight for a while and true to form he has once again been tinkering in the garage over winter. He is now sporting a new instrument pod and an external vario speaker fitted to the basebar directly under his chin. Very nice fibre glassing on each of these additions.

Wind was perfect on launch so we stuff set up and run off the East launch. We both climb out to 1800ft above launch before heading north. Given that there was lift everywhere on Pig, we head off on glide low expecting ‘up bits’ on the way. Nothing. 6km later we are both on the deck up the road.

A nice flight if not long. Pete is happy to be in the air again. Deb picks us up and short time later and we make it back for the hockey grand final that afternoon. A fun day.

Dave’s day can best be summed up in his own words:

“There was a young guy named Dave May,
who went to the lake for a play.
Not real smart, there’s more wind in a fart.
Can’t even launch this frick’n dart”

So, you want:

• A hill as high as Pig
• Landing paddocks and a good road network in all directions
• No airspace to speak of
• A tarred road to the top
• Just over an hours drive from Canberra
• All this with launches in several directions

Will this do?
Karl thinks so…

Binalong is the place… And it looks like it will be on this weekend. Give us a call if you want to join us.

This site has awesome potential for going XC. To get you in the mood here is a Google kmz file to plan your XC endeavours.

Distance markers from Binalong

After spending Saturday out at the Temora air show (more on that later), Sunday was forecasted to blow out some time in the afternoon.

We decide to head down to Lanyon in an attempt to avoid the already increasing winds on the north side of town.

By 11:30am Dave, Dan, Ed and I were on launch stuffing battens. Wind was still in the “nice” range by were ready to go. Dave launched first scratching a couple of hundred feet above launch. The air looked pretty rough as Dave faught to stay up. Ed followed with a nice launch but flew too far from the ridge to stay in the narrow lift band caused by the wind swinging around further to the north. This was understandable as with air this rough being near the hill is not an attractive proposition.

Dave and Ed slowly lost their respective battles with gravity and ended up in the bombout. Seeing this, Dan and I had to make a decision. We could launch now while the wind was not yet too strong but we may not get much more than a sledie, or, we could wait until the west facing ridge heated up but this would also bring a strong possibility that we may be blown out.

We decide to wait and are rewarded with a nice flight around the hill. The wind was too strong for us to head XC despite getting to 2000ft above launch. With the increasing winds I did not want to be landing in a rotor filled paddock by myself. So an hour or so later Dan and I land back in the bomb out.

After landing the wind increases significantly and we are happy to be on the deck.

Another fun flight with more personal goals met. This is shaping up to be a very exciting season.

Yesterday. The sky was looking awesome. Nicely formed CUs in all directions although there were only very weak to no cycles reaching down to ground level. The usual crew, Dave, Karl, Ryan and I met out at Pig.

We chose Pig Hill instead of Lake George Nth launch because the last time we had a sky like this with no breeze on the ground the lake was not high enough to get into the rising air that was feeding the nice fluffy clouds above.

A few punters had the same idea including Michael Imholz in his newly acquired floppy version. Simon D, also left his Litespeed on the car and flew his paraglider. Bob came out for a look at proceedings but did not launch.

Time to commit aviation came around and Michael lead the way. He gave it a good go but was soon in the bombout. A few more punters streamed off the hill but all but one went down. Premek, in his pale blue punter snagged a great cycle off the nth launch and fought his way up to 1000ft above launch. From what I have seen, Premek flies pretty well so it’s always worth keeping an eye on what decisions he makes through out a flight.

I was lined up ready to go but this cycle was not long enough for me to get off into the same air. It was another 15mins or so before the next cycle blew up the east facing launch. I was off quickly followed by Simon in his punter.

Lift was tight and multi cored. I quickly climbed above launch but was topping out at 200ft or so above. Up and down Simon and I went before being joined by Michael on his second flight for the day.

A few false starts later I was starting to loose the battle with gravity. 300ft below launch I hit a beauty off the usual spine that runs down between the two launches.

The climb started out at 1.5m/s and was relatively uniform given the broken lift I had been getting. An inversion at about 500ft above launch was the reason for the weak cycles on the ground. Once I was able to break through this barrier the climb took off at 3m/s to cloud base at 3200ft above take off.

I focused on working out what was happening in the day as early as I could. I discovered that the cores were generally shifting upwind so each time a climb would begin to peter off I would head 50-100m NE (head wind) and be rewarded with a nice core. Other things to note was the turbulence in the lee side of each of the good climbs which later help me when I was on glide. This also had the effect of luring me into turning to too early when hitting lift. Stabbing through this lively air was consistently rewarded with a climb on the other side.

Ryan, in one of his first thermal flights, flew very well. He also hooked into a nice climb originating from the usual spine. In this form he will be in for some great flights over the coming months.

Once reaching base I decide to follow the ridge to the north towards Wee Jasper. With lift much stronger up high I planned on staying up near the clouds.

There was some strong sink on glides but it was only small pockets. I was getting better glides by leaving each climb headwind and crossing the area of sink at 90 degrees to the wind.

This worked well until I ran out of clouds to follow about 15km north of Pig. I followed the same tactic I had been using and it continued to work well despite the lack of clouds to indicate the next climb.

A couple of eagles joined me a climb or two later and we were back up to cloudbase height without a cloud above us. Nice to know the ridge was still working but it was now time to leave the ridge and try and cross Burrinjuck dam.

There is a lot of tiger country ahead and I was not going to head in there given the limited height I was getting to. I flew to the edge of the lake but soon chickened out and turned back to the safe landing paddocks behind me.

A ran out, nil wind landing later (forgot VG - oops) and I was on the deck after 30km. 16km NE of Wee Jasper along the road to Yass. A fun flight for this time of year and a great sign of what is to come.

Dave swung around to pick me up after Karl and he, and a load of punters had a boat around launch but were not lucky enough to get that magic elevator out from the hill.

Thanks for the retrieve Dave!

What a weekend of contrasts?

Saturday saw Karl, Ryan, Dave and I at Spring with a whole load of punters. Conditions were pretty light for hangies and paragliders alike. Punters were up and down all over the place as we set up. Karl worked up the courage to launch first. Ryan was then off not far behind. Both of these guys launched with plenty of style and airspeed. Pretty to watch.

Unfortunately, the big fella up in the sky pressed the half flush button not long after they launched. This forced just about everyone down to the ground. Karl and Ryan fought gallantly to get back up but the congestion in the air made it very hard to stay up through the weak periods. They both had great nil wind landings in the tricky bombout.

Dave and I waited until the flush was over and hung out for the first sign of somebody going up. Then it happened off to the right of launch. I streamed off closely followed by Dave. We quickly made our way up the stack and bounced around at the inversion 500ft or so above launch. The usual crowd of punters were up at this height so we all bounced around together. Back and forth we went for a while before Peter led the way out front. I followed out NW to the road before catching the adventurous punters from there we punched another 500m out but got nothing. Pete and his wingman turned back for the ridge but did not have enough height to get back up. After another hundred metres or so I too retreated but snagged some zeros on the way back. I stuck with that climb until I was back near the ridge.

Phil Robbo was up by this stage in his Airborne Fun. He held a pretty permanent position above the crowd of punters in the light lift on the range.

By this time Dave had managed to scratch back up to ridge height after getting pretty low. Watching him scrape back up from a certain landing was pretty impressive.

After a couple of hours in the air it was time to land so I headed off on a death glide to the hills NW of Spring. Feeling for the lift line heading out I was able to reach the tree line of the hill but was too low to make it over to the windward side. So in defeat I turn back to head for Spring.

In any other conditions the bombout would have been beyond glide but I pointed my toes and hitched a ride in the same line of lift that I had taken out there. It all worked out nicely and my C4 got me back without any problems.

Karl and Ryan were packing up by the fence near the road so I lined up to land beside them. It seems I had a little more VG on than I expected and ended up throwing in a big flare to stop before the fence. It worked. The guys in the paddock managed to get it all on video so I’ll post it on here when I get my hands on the footage.

Dave’s landing was a little more sensible in the middle of the paddock.

Blue Tongues in the bombout topped off a great day.

Sunday. The wind was forecast to pick up (in the form of a small boat alert) so we planned to get out there early. 11:15am, I turn up at the hill to be greeted by a couple of the new guys, Phil and Rick.

Up the hill we head. Things are looking a little ominous. The wind has hit early and it looks like we’ve missed our opportunity for a fly. Lanyon should have been the call for the day but we were in the wrong place now. Bugger.

Dave turned up and after some pondering we called it quits on the day. Rick and Phil were keen to hang on for the wind to die down but signs did not look good. They head off but leave their gliders on the hill for a late afternoon sortie.

As Dave and I head down the hill we jump out of the car to have a quick look at the other launch at the northern end near the old tower. There was a wee bit less wind blowing up this launch and that was all we needed to convince us to setup. A quick flat setup later and we were good to go. With only two of us there, there was no way that we would both be able to fly as the second person would not be able to attach the nose wire by themselves. Dave was the keener of us to fly so he would have the honour.

Then we, rather I, was saved when Ryan arrived to give me a hand off. We each launch without a problem but there is a disclaimer. Do not take these conditions as normal launching conditions. In anything other than an advanced wing, launching in such wind is not going to work as you simply will not go forward. Be warned.

Obviously there wasn’t a problem going up, quite the opposite to the day before. We were topping out about 500ft above launch. Also there was noticeably less traffic in the air. Kind of an understatement as it was just Dave and I.

After an hour or so feeling the air around Spring we head South to the next hill. It works well and we are able to get just as high down there. The next step was to jump back to the One Tree range but we just couldn’t get high enough to make the jump. Eventually we settle for a glide to the Barton Highway just for something different. We both get a great glide out there and land right beside the road. Ryan provides quite a service today, picking us up and giving us beers. We owe you mate.

At the end of the day. Phil and Rick return and are rewarded for their patience. They scored an hour or so in the air and a nice sunset to top it off. Nice work guys!

A couple of weekends ago this dude got up at the lake. I like his style.

Anonymous forwarded me the following:

“Check this out. This guy made this hot air balloon out of garbage bags, duct tape and a pedestal fan, and used it at Lake George at the weekend. He managed to get it up to 250m. It’s a solar balloon so you don’t use gas, just the sun heating the air up on the inside of the bag. Pretty crazy, hey!! “

Yesterday Dave and I joined Andrew on his first flight after breaking his arm at Christmas. Needless to say he flew like a champ and was climbing like a fart in a bathtub in the scattered thermals along the ridge. Good to have you back Barnsie!

Wind was quite cross from the south and reasonably strong which prevented John D from flying. The wind was perfect for his floater just half an hour before he got there. Bad luck - always next time.

Yesterday Dave, Simon and I had a nice little fly at Lake G after first casually calling in to Stanwell on the way. What started on BOM on Saturday as being isolated showers around Wollongong had develoved into showers by Sunday morning and full blown rain by the time we got there. After calling into Dan and Bianca’s we head back inland with our tails between our legs.

With rain pretty much everywhere, our perseverance eventually paid off when we reached Lake George. There was a nice breeze from the SE. Simon flew a little too far out from the lift band on launch but had a fun walk out from the bombout. Dave and I made our way up to the winery and ridge raced back. I was not much competition as my light wing loading is far from ideal when you are trying for speed.

There were two heart racing moments during the flight. The first was not a lot to do with me but I may have caused it. First I heard a massive screeching of tyres. I looked down in horror to see a car spinning out of control along the highway around the first rest stop directly underneath me. After two revolutions he was moving pretty slow but hit the fence with the back of the car as they attempted to stay on the road. Luckily there were no other cars for about 300m either side of him. The car then turned back the right way and sped off.

The next incident was a little closer to home. Following Dave’s textbook top landing I lined up and came in with my usual approach setting up a little higher and further back than the usual approach. As I descended through the rotor I was ready for it and punched through with speed but I was too far back from my desired landing area. I then went back into prone to penetrate a little further forward. That worked but I was quite low and still had my hands on the basebar. I reached for the upright but got caught on the rear wire a couple of times which saw me stall still 8-10ft off the ground. Not Cool!

I never did get a grip on the upright instead all I could was through my forearm forward from behind the upright a I arrived with quite a whack. I deserved to break the base bar or at least an upright but nothing was bent. Very lucky - Not at all good planning. In hindsight I was silly to leave the transition to hang so late. A lesson I will not forget in a hurry.

It was a great flight even despite this stuff up and the best bit is that it looks like the lake will be on a couple more days this week. See you there.