I woke on Monday to a cirrus sky and a light Eatery, so not in a huge rush I headed out to the Nth end of Lake George arriving at 11:30 as I was setting up the wind was slowly getting more consistent but the sky was quite thick with cirrus so I was expecting another XC start maybe to Yass but not the big one I was chasing.

I launched my Moyes Litespeed at 12:30 and had no probs staying up in ridge lift.  At first I was  finding small strong bubbles of lift that would brake up just above 3000ft asl but you could tell it was only a matter of time before one held together and gave me a ticket higher enough to jump the  bit of tiger country over the back. Just before 13:00 I got a solid 600ft/m climb and I reported to Tamar (my driver) I was leaving the ridge. I had a course line set in my GPS for a town named Junee about 175km away but I first had to fly off course line to avoid air space. I took my first few climbs to about 6000ft asl and as got closer to Yass I was hoping to see Cu’s starting and base lifting but the cirrus remained. I had nearly 30kph of wind to help but with no clouds i decided to forget about staying on course and just follow the best looking ground and hopfully that coincided with the thinnest areas of cirrus. As I past Binalong then Cootamundra I was covering distance fast, all my decisions were working and I started to get the feeling this could be my day.

Near Temora I pushed a long glide diving into a dusty lower than I should have and got  a rough save that turned into 900ft/min climb and took me to 8000asl. With  a solid tail wind I focused on good glide lines and with my  Moyes litespeed RS3.5 got a fast run to the small but picturesque Mt’s ENE of Leeton where I joined 3 wedgies for an awesome climb.

At about 17:30 I hit the 300km mark and in hindsight I should have keep going but I hadn’t heard from my driver for 4 hours and I was entering a area I didn’t know. I was south of Griffith and it looked like a  crazy retrieve If I went down in the next 50km.

Looking at a map later I had an easy glide  WSW to the HWY that runs all the way to Hay. Anyway I ended up landing in a town named Whitton where I had easy walk top the pub.

Waiting for my retrieve I was stoked that now  a big flight had been achieved from Lake George it was easy to see the potential of this awesome site and excited for tomorrow hoping the forecast was still correct I called Jonny & Trent to tell them to get ready for tomorrow  because I believe it could be a record day.  Trent and Jonny needed no persuasion and agreed to meet on launch at 9:00. Jonny saying ” I’m not coming down to Canberra for a haircut,  I’m coming to fly to Mildura”.

We were keen and ready It was  Jonny, Trent, me and driver Tim from the US.  The sky looked twice as good as it did yesterday with unreal cloud streets  all the to the horizon. We had one small problem… the wind was insane and so was any pilot who thought they could fly safely in it.  Sadly we decided it was not going to happen today. But it will happen its only a matter of time.

Trent & I showed Jonny & Tim around the flying sites of Canberra and on Spring hill we had winds of 80kph so we all felt a little better we hadn’t tried to launch.

Jonny drove back to Syd without a fly I’m sure he has seen record potential in Lake George and  will be looking out for similar weather next time  he’s around. It will happen its only a matter of time….

Dave