How good is Lake George? JP’s getting back into that sea breeze action…

Dave, Jeff and I were out at Geary’s for some Tuesday arvo flying. A steady easterly made for some good ridge soaring, but it later switched to a southerly, spicing things up!

I was up first, but a light south easterly had me bombed out quickly. A word up from Dave to get height with a quick right turn and then fang it north led to success. Back up in the air, following Dave and Jeff up to North Launch, but they left me for dead and flew all the way up to Collector and beyond. Apparently Dave, ever the adventurer, got epically low and only Jeff’s thermal finding sense prevented him from bombing out in an awkward locality (grapevines aren’t at all ideal!).

We regrouped and flew back to Geary’s, where the wind had swung to a crazy southerly. Dave blew it off and snuck over to the South tip. Jeff hung around for a bit trying to bust over power lines, while my XT didn’t have the speed to even make it to Geary’s, so I bombed out just North of Geary’s.

Dave, yet again, disappeared unnervingly low over the ridge trees into the horizon, while Jeff was still attempting a bust over the south tip. Jeff paid his respects to the ever elusive weather, and came and joined me on the ground.

Meanwhile, Dave was on the radio speaking of albino kangaroos and humping eagles. Bemused, Jeff and I legged it up to Geary’s and watched Dave come back and do a fantastic top landing. A catch up with some of Jeff’s delicious chocolate chip cookies, and we were calling it another awesome arvo at Lake George. Possibly the last of the season, but I’m hanging out for more.

JP is back in town and loving the flying…

First real flight back in Canberra for the year, Dave, the Thief and myself were out on Sun, 19 Apr 09, for a fly. A strong (cold!) wind made my first launch for the year something to bite into. 20 mins of ridge-soaring led to a massive thermal taking the team up past 2500 feet.

After a month long holiday in Darwin, and then down to RAAF Tindal for a temporary posting with the RAAF (where I luckily scored a backseat ride in a Hornet – bloody awesome!), I was back in Canberra for some more hectic flying.

We started out at Geary’s, but the wind was too light and south. We made the D to head up to North Launch, where we found the wind colder, stronger and more up the face. Ed and Pete later joined in the fun. Andrew launched and soared around for a bit. I was next, followed by Dave. The strong (cold!) wind made for a tricky launch.

We hung around for a bit, but the Sun wasn’t strong enough to trigger any real thermal activity. It was reading about 19⁰C. The clouds cleared a bit, and soon we were hit by an epic thermal which took us all the way up to cloud base. It was the first time I had been over 1000 feet, so I was stoked. But it didn’t stop at 1000 feet – I topped at cloud base at about 2500 feet. 10⁰C at this height had me wishing I had worn gloves.

Dave followed the thermal back over the ridge and a little while later he was out of sight. I played a bit around some clouds and rain, then left the cold heights to join Andrew at a warmer bomb out. The last I heard of Dave was that he was 5000 feet above Gunning and looking for more.

Andrew went and picked up Dave 65km down the track. Dave alleges he could have gone further, but apparently a mountain was in the way. Far out Dave. It’s just a mountain!

All up an amazing flight. As a new pilot I’m really starting to like thermals!

JP

… and sends a pic

This a photo from the Thursday before Easter over Parkes. We ended up doing a 100km triangle that day Forbes-Parkes-Bogan Gate-Forbes.

Phil Schroder

Andrew “The Thief” Luton tells us about he weekend

Well another great Easter weekend of flying was had for another year despite the anoos weather that we were thrown and despite the epic forecast that was given leading up to the weekend. I arrived at Forbes on Thursday night with a mate who had come along to retrieve drive for us for Friday and Saturday. On the Thursday night I decided to close my tent off completely as I had a feeling that the clouds were looking a little nasty and was greeted to rain as I awoke. Lucky I didn’t sleep with just the fly open!

My mate and I arrive out at the airport at 0830 and we set my glider up in the hanger as it was still drizzling outside. After a while I had had enough of waiting and said to Steve lets go for a tow to which he said OK. When we took off it was hardly raining but not long into the tow it started raining again and I stayed on for as long as I could. The second I pinged off and slowed the glider to a normal flying speed with full VG the glider instantly stalled and the nose fell without warning. This was no problem as it simply meant that I had to fly a little faster to maintain nice controlled flight. I did a few experimentations with slowing the glider with and without VG as well as turning to see how the glider would react. Once I was comfortable with the different control that I had due to the wing being heavier due to the rain I flew around just to the north of the airport waiting for Steve to race down to grab my mate who then came up in the Dragon Fly to take some video before I had to come into land, to which we got some good vids! Some might think that spending money on a tow when there is no lift is pointless but I found it very useful as I had never flown my wing when it had been completely wet and now have an understanding of what to expect if I get caught out one day.

Later that arvo the rain cleared and everyone was hanging around the hanger walking around aimlessly working out what to do. I went to Steve and said how much for a tow to 200-300 ft? He said if everyone was keen $5. So with that I got everyone keen enough to set up and with that a spot landing comp was on. This was great fun with everyone having 3 or 4 tows. The landings were hot some screaming in from a distance in ground effect and others flaring high to hit the spot. Dave managed to pull off a very nice HIGH flare which is on film and I will do my best to get it on the Tube soon.

Saturday came around and the cu’s were looking great. We were ready to tow by about 12 by which point the cu’s had grown and a storm had built to the North. Trent towed first and managed to slowly climb away as per usual J. Dave and I towed next but both didn’t manage to grab any usable lift, the only lift I got was 2 turns in zeros on my final approach!!! Dave towed again and managed to get away and just as I was thinking about going again I could see it was raining heavily half a km to the north and closing in fast so put my glider in the hanger and went on retrieve duties as my mate had gone home due to the weather which was a fair call!

The goal for today was Temora, as apparently their was an air show on J. Dave landed 20km down the road from Forbes not managing to outrun the storm in time. When I got to him he was standing near a tree with everything packed up enjoying the heavy shower that he was receiving. I stayed in the car as he tied the glider on the roof. As he was finishing tying the glider the back roof rack I saw him drop to the ground as a lightning bolt hit the fence about 20m from him. There was no delay what so ever with the thunder clap which confirmed that it was a close call. I thought he might have been affected by the bolt but just as I was about to open the car door to check if he was all good the cheeky bugger jumps back up and jumps in the car. Once in the car Dave explained that he had let go of the car at the split second the lightning bolt hit and that he heard a crackling noise a split second before the bolt hit and reacted in letting go of the car to fall to the ground as he though the car was going to cop it! The noise he heard was the electric charge building up just before the lightning struck. Amazing stuff!

Dave and I then went on retrieve for T-man who was still in the air and ahead of the storm. He ended up landed 18km short of goal after flying 106km. We got to him about a minute after he landed and helped him pack up before a wind gust came thorough bring a wall of dirt. Again, another top event for the day. The trip back to Forbes was greeted with a large amount of humour as we received a call from Tumut to hear that a punter had landed on a car in style! This is without a doubt definitely up for the clubs monthly fark award next month!

When we got back to the airfield the storms had cleared and left a large amount of low cloud around and calm air. A number of people were still at the airfield and Steve was towing Nicola up. Right I thought time to grab some more video footage. I taped my camera to my base bar and up we went above the clouds! This flight was absolutely magic. I pinged off just above the cloud layer and got some great footage of the Dragon Fly flying around in the sun above the clouds.

Sunday came and the cu’s looked gold. Base was low starting off at about 1800agl. This lifted by the afternoon to nearly 4000agl. Trent, Dave and Barnsey made goal Munjal 55km down the road. Dave towed first and headed off for Munjal with Barnsey and myself next in line for tow. The climbs were amazingly light, the lightest I have ever been in. I released from tow right on 2000ft agl and cored a thermal with Barnsey climbing initially at 70-100ft/min. Trent joined us off tow a little lower than us just as the thermal came to a pause. We all then bolted over to the NW about 2km away where there was a nice cloud forming. Barnsey got there first and I came in just under him with the climb rate of around 150-200ft/min which got stronger near closer to the cloud peaking somewhere just over 300ft/min. Trent came in way under me and from where I was it didn’t look like he had glide back to the airport if he didn’t get the climb. As Trent tends to do he climbed up from low and met us at cloud base (top job Trent). Trent and Barnsey decided to head off for Munjal in chase of Dave while I made the call to stay within glide of the airport as I was off home that evening back to the missus (a hard priority but after 3 days hanging out with the boys it was an easy decision hehe). The cloud that Trent, Barnsey and myself had climbed up in was quite large by the time we got there and I kept climbing up in the middle of it and then flying out to the side loosing height and then flying back in again. I managed to do this for about 30 min which was pretty cool to say the least before the climb ceased. After and hour and a half of playing I came in over the airport and after a few wingovers to loose some height in style I landed and headed home.

This was a top weekend even though the flights were not the typical crazy good Forbes type but I feel that I learnt a hell of a lot out of it. Many thanks once again to Steve for coming out and towing us up and having many laughs – It’s always a pleasure flying with you. For those of you thinking about coming out to the next Forbes weekend all I can say is that if you have a hang glider and an aerotow endorsement you are silly not to be there!

Happy Flying – Thief >:-)

Just like offer a special note of thanks to Steve for hosting the Easter weekend at Forbes. His boundless enthusiasm and willingness to just ‘get out there and do it’ was instrumental in keeping us motivated despite pretty average weather conditions.

Have a look at this picture to see the conditions on Sunday morning. 

This is how things changed later in the day.

Goes to show, never write the day off too soon…. Thanks for the nice tow above cloudbase, Steve. 

Thanks also to the folk from the aeroclub. They are a friendly bunch who made us very welcome.

Certainly hope to do it again soon.

Cheers,

David “Millman” Phillips

Steve sends in the first of many reports telling us about flying in Forbes over Easter.

Hi Flyers,

Just a short report on the recent Rylstone/Forbes aerotow action.

Rylstone turned out to be contrary to the weather forecast. The water drained away fast and the new float plane was not required for towing. For Michael the weather was perfect for tuning his Aeros in preparation for Forbes whilst Nathan put in some excellent times gaining max legal height ASL in his Ventura. Though only 2 out of the 4 people who said they were going showed up.  I was not too disappointed as this gave me more time to work with Bobby Bailey on the new planes including test flying the new float plane which was a huge success. Bobby still expects to be able to improve on this latest set up, though I have never seen or heard of a float plane that comes any where near the performance or ease of handling of this latest Dragon Fly.

Katja went flying with me in the Dragon Fly and got to see her first circular rainbow complete with the Dragon Fly shadow in the centre.  (where was the camera)

Forbes turned out to be a huge frustration for some whilst my regular crew were as optimistic as ever and made the most of every possible break in the weather.

I flew the 4 Stroke Dragon Fly over from Rylstone to tow tandems, ridged wings etc. but it sat in the hanger and sulked all 6 days as it was not required, however the two stroke got a good work out.

A BIG THANKYOU TO THE PEOPLE WHO REQUESTED MY TOWING SERVICES ON WED AND THURS. Yes I was there for the three people on Wed and the eight on Thurs. THE WEATHER WAS PERFECT yet not only didn’t you show up but nobody even bothered to phone or text. In future I will only be available if I have some of my regulars interested for the days set.

Saturday saw the Dusty Demons show up only to be quickly settled down by the rain. Being the most optimistic hangies in the world this group quickly set about flying models and flying discs in the rain whilst "The Thief", determined not to be done out of flying, set up his glider complete with camera and was towed to cloud base by the Dragon Fly in the rain.

Both Nathan Caruthers and Andrew Luton had ago at the controls in the front of the Dragon Fly and both put in a very impressive effort for people who have not flown 3 axis before. I find it hard to believe that neither of these hangies have not flown 3 axis before, absolute naturals, well done guys.

Saturday arvo saw conditions improve one and a half hours before sun set, so a happy hour was called with $5 tows and a spot landing comp with lots of very happy flyers. All were winners. We then progressed to the Forbes Inn for dinner and drinks.

Sunday saw more dodgy weather, so once again the Dragon Fly got more dual flying with Nic, Bill and Michael seeing what is is like to be at the front of the line.

By lunch time the weather improved and the keen as ever Dusties towed aloft with Dave May and Trent Brown Leading the pack. 100km was flown by these guys.

Monday was more of the same low cloud in the morning with drizzle clearing by lunch and then breaking up into cloud streets that ran all the way to Grenfell. Everyone launched with Dave and Trent flying home to "Munjal" near Grenfell.

It was great to see Dave Phillips flying his early model Swift (mental blank can’t recall the name) as well as two motor Swifts that were having a great time flying with the hangies.

Sorry I will be unable to make Rylstone and the next Forbes meet will be at this stage on May 2nd/3rd if I get enough interested hangies.

Stay up there, Steve.         

“Notbothered” sent this picture to the RiotAct with the following note:

No story, just a pic of a whirlwind at one of the new subdivisions in Canberra, thought it was a cool pic!

They happen fairly regularly, but haven’t seen one this big

Nic has threw a great video together to be screened at Corinbank

… And brings with it the end of another season of bolting out to the lake to catch the easterlies after work.  This brings to a close the second season of lake dashes for me and was topped off yesterday (April 1) with a magnificent flight with Dave, Nic, Dan W, Brendan and Ed.  After being crook for 3 days I was jumping at the gate to get out there and spread my wings. 

Dave sent and email through in the morning letting us all know that he would be at the lake in the arvo followed by an email a few hours later saying that he had changed his mind due to the fact that the radar showed rain out the lake way.  I called Dave and said that his attitude was just not good enough to which he stood up to the man he is and said ‘F@ck it lets go’.  So we did and everyone met out there at around 5 and took off. 

At the start of the flight there was a shower a few km’s north on the ridge that was passing through which caused no problems as we simply flew up to the side of it and stayed dry.  Cloud base was low and it was effortless to get there using ridge lift and some cloud suck that seemed to be about the place.  We were all having a go at out and returns with Dave going out many km’s from the ridge following cloud streaks before returning to the ridge. 

Once the shower had passed, cloud formed at hill height where the shower had passed through.  It was a magical sight to see as from above the cloud looked like fingers forming and sliding up and over the ridge.  What else was cool was the fact that you could be out over the lake under a cloud streak and have lower wispy cloud to the side of you that you could dive through.  All of this happens of course on a day that I don’t bring along either my still of video camera. 

After an hour and a half of playing ‘under’ the clouds and dodging rain showers it was time to land.  Dave and I decided to top land and after testing what seemed to be rough air on top of the ridge many times, Dave dropped his balls legs and made his approach and pulled off a perfect top landing.  After a quick radio down to Dave to get his report on the air I lined up and came in for a nice smooth top landing too. 

As the wind was quite strong the air right at the ridge seemed quite rough and for me I had to approach slightly lower than normal to accommodate for the extra lift I would get at the point where I pass the top of the ridge.   Once at this point the air was a little rough where the peak lift was but once behind in the take off and landing area it was quite smooth. 

After landing Dave and I packed up and were greeted by Ed who top landed as we were about to leave.  Nic Dan and Brendan landed on the lake bed, and with Dave and I being noble to our fellow flying buddies who had landed below, we radioed down to them to grab their attention at the two shinning full moons of Venus that were shinning down upon them, to which they were happily amused!  To all those who I have flown with over the last 6 months or so after work out at the lake – it has been a pleasure.

>:-)  Happy flying Andrew

Dave sends in a bit of a write up of the last few days of flying here in Canberra:

Well the days may be getting shorter, the mornings colder but that sure isn’t slowing down the Canberra Club’s enthusiasm.

As we near the end of March, the flying has been great and heaps of fun with Spring Hill, Lake George and Pig Hill the launch pads for some great times.

Pig Hill on Saturday saw Karlos, Andrew L, newbie Brendan, Ed and myself having a shot and what could have been, but good launches and landings made for a fun arvo anyway. Brendan who has recently been let loose from Curt Warren’s school is showing good safe skills, keep it up mate.

Sunday saw a similar crowd at Pig Hill with the inclusion of a couple of big guns, Trent and Barnsie.

Conditions on launch were a little testing but eventually Barnsie and Trent were off the hill and on course to the first turn point near Yass. Ed had a ball with several climb outs from low down and searching around the hill for a solid hour.

Barnsie and Trent team flew up to just south of lake Burrinjuck before heading off on their own tracks. Bansie took a course further to the east and more on course line. Trent, thinking that we may have under called the task flew west straight over the main part of the lake giving him a great vantage point to spy on the water skiers below. Turning near Carols launch site he then headed back for Yass aiming to meet back up with Barnsie for the tough looking return leg.

… And tough it proved to be, the guys hit the deck around Murrenbateman on their way back. Nice flight guys.

Monday had a bunch of guys setting their sights on a ridge soar at Lake George after work with Nick and Dan Watters joining the crowd this time round. I decided to give myself an early mark after seeing the sky showing signs of serious XC potential.

It was a 20kph easterly making it easy to ridge soar heading north from Gearys Gap until I got a ticket out and over the back.

Once in the air I had a feeling that I should have organised a driver, as the lift was good and clouds to the west were still lining up.

It was after 3.00pm when I found a boomer off the north launch area and followed it over the back.

With 25kph wind I was finding good lines not stopping until I hit active clouds, getting 3m/s plus.

It was a fun flight ending up not too short of Harden. Being only 23^oC and the end of March, the sky died quickly in the end. But going over 100km in a little over 90 minutes made me think I should have canned work altogether and launched at midday. Anyway, there’s always tomorrow.

Ah, and thanks Karlos for the retrieve. I’m sure you would have rather stayed on the lounge recovering from your big weekend.

Dave