Sorry about the lack of updates here guys, the net access here is super flakey so blog post have proved to be somewhat of a patience testing procedure.

Here’s the first few days in a nutshell anyway…
Day 1 canned due to wind

Day 2
A great look around the local area. I land out near the really scenic old town of Gubbio. The savage airspace restrictions around the area are realized with a couple of the top guys receiving zero for the day (a protest was lodged but the original decision was upheld.

Day 3
We went expected to get high today so a task up and back along the ridge was set. Conditions proved to be better than expected and it ended up being a fairly easy task with 80 pilots in goal. I took the second start not realizing that the guns had already taken the first.

It was Wolfy, Mario and I pushing trying to catch to guys in front. We got a bit low just past the first turnpoint. After scratching together for a while Wolfy landed and for the first time this week I was happy not to have any lead in my harness.

Mart and I flew the rest of the way together coming in at 60th for the day.

Day 4 canned due to rain on launch. Things fined up later in the day and a few managed to fly but we would have been pushing it to get a task in the small available flying window.

Day 5 sitting at HQ now. Looks ok outside. Tomorrow looks a little dodgy so fingers crossed for a task today.

Once we’re all resigned to a sledie at Stanwell, we decide to make things interesting by throwing in some water skimming action near the beach.

I went first but come in too high almost ending up in the ocean after rounding some fishing rods sticking up from the beach.

Dave though, picks it perfectly! As you’ll see from the video, there is a pretty small envelope in which to pull this off. Some of the most confident and well executed approach skills I have witnessed…

Needless to say, after borrowing Michael’s camera for this little effort we have ordered a few for our future shenanigans.

Camberwarra last weekend. A real nice site to run off and a whole lot of hangies to share it with. Unfortunately we couldn’t manage more than a sleddie but it was lots of fun anyway.

Dave getting a little caught up in the moment and bungs on his best punter impersonation.

Brendan had a fun weekend in Bright. Looks like he snagged some of the great weather we missed during the comp:

Hey happy flyers, greetings from not-so-sunny Melbourne.

Just thought I’d better inform as many hangies as I know, that I am hooked.… line, sinker.. the whole farken shebang.  The weekend’s flying out at Bright was definitely the best flying I’ve ever done and I’ve finally figured out why you guys jump off inland hills without any ridge lift in sight and then start searching (aimlessly I used to think) for these elusive things called thermals.

Saturday afternoon I launched off Mt Emu, did some determined scratching for a while, before finally hearing “the sound”.  I really hadn’t had a lot of luck (or skill) with thermalling in the past, but after a few decent rides in the right direction, and about 7,500’ of air between me and the bomb-out, I felt like I’d finally figured it out.  I drifted down wind following the valley to the south and then east, only to realise that unless I was going to cross tiger country and try to make Mystic (like Marty did… a novice pilot… in a Ventura… with no vario) well, I was feeling on top of things, but not that confident.   And as for confidence, well, Marty tripped on launch up at Mt Buffalo the next day.  I’m sure you guys have flown it, but for those who haven’t seen the launch at buff, it’s what, about 3,500’ drop straight down at the end of the ramp.  Luckily, people ran forward and grabbed his side wires.

So after another hour of flying and a few more very pleasant moments of heading skyward, I headed north for a while, then decided to turn around and land at Mt Beauty airfield.  I mean, you can’t do better than an bloody airport for an ‘out landing’, they have huge windsocks and nice flat manicured grass.   Anyway, after floating aimlessly for another half an hour or so and confirming that, yep, the valley wind had done a 180 and gone katabtic, I made the silly decision to land elsewhere.  There I was thinking, why land at a deserted airport, when further to the west I could see a paddock with a windsock and another hang glider in it – someone to talk to while waiting for my retrieve.  It turned out to be called Tawonga bomb out.  Not such a great decision for two reasons.  One, the unusual southerly meant I’d be landing downhill in a small paddock (not gracefully as it turned out).  And two: (and most important) I didn’t realise that Mt Beauty airport was the goal for the last day of the comp that had been going all week, and an hour or so later the airport would have become one big impromptu hangie meet with lots of beer.  Damn.

Anyway, suffice to say that spending a few hours at almost 9,000 amsl flying around those ranges, zigzagging from one potential bomb out to the next, made me realise what you guys have been going on about all this time.  Fark me it was awesome.  And the next day at Mystic was almost as good.  We had to work a bit harder for the lift, but I managed to stay up until I decided it was time to land.    This may not sound phenomenal to you guys but it was a revelation to me. 

So here I am thinking that in the right conditions this inland stuff is not so bad.  I mean, despite hot and high launches, with nil or light and variable wind.  And despite crossing tiger country to find unfamiliar landing paddocks with powerlines everywhere, down-slope landings, dusties, thermals and not to mention rotor from the rapidly approaching trees at the end of the paddock.  Despite all that, if I take it one step at a time and don’t get to big for my boots, this inland stuff is not so hard… Well, you guys already know and have done for a while, but it was pretty damn awesome.   I’ll be back there within a few weeks.

Take it easy guys.   Get high.

Brendan “Turtle” Cammack

Things have been a little quiet on the flying front since driving down to Mt Beauty from Forbes last week. We managed one task in windy conditions on Tuesday but the remainder of the week continues to look questionable. Fingers crossed he high level winds back off despite the forecast.

The lack of flying though has given us plenty of opportunities to catch up on the social side of the sport  that we just didn’t have time for back up at Forbes.

We’ve been to wineries, the Bright Brewery, Fishing and Falls creek to be snowed on. Will post some pics after the 12pm briefing today.

Adrian Connor has been doing some work on one of his local sites followed by and fun flight. Can’t wait to get down there and join him.

Hey Trent and crew,

Done some major clearing of site Sunday to make it much safer for launching. Conditions were looking good, so launched into ridge soarable thermic lift. It pumps when sun bakes granite cliff face. Within 3 min was thermaling to low base of 3800ft.

To cut the story short, went cross wind towards Moruya. A few more very easy thermals to town flying over river and town, just a short milk run, could have flown for good while but landed at highway near the bridge for beer at pub nearby. You guys are going to have to check this site out. awesome views.

Heres some pics.

Cheers Adrian.

View Full Album

By 8:30 the clouds had popped and it was blowing up the face at Beechmont. After a fairly frantic collection of our flying paraphernalia for the day we set off up the hill.

A couple of punters and a hangie were already in the air by the time most of us arrived at launch. With no time to stuff around a task was promptly set and alternate launch opened.

Beechmont > Boonah T > Croftby > Moogera was set. 88km.

The Dusty’s all scored great launch positions in the top 20. We all launched early which gave us the opportunity to take the first start gate high. Many of the top guys were suck over launch after not picking up the easy ticket out that we scored.

Sitting out at the start gate, I was in great position to see who was taking the first gate and who was planning to wait around for the second. Rohan, Ricky, Conrad, Kiero, Cam, Neil, Warren, Barnsie and Dave are nicely setup to take the first. After hanging back for a while to ensure that there were no false starters among them we charge off for the Kerry Valley.

We bounce along until the other side of Mohammad (Mount) where Rohan and many of the other guys dive in low into a big shaded area. Barnsie, Dave, Conrad, Kiero and I stay further north to try and get around the shaded area that was now covering all of the “Locked Gate Valley” which lies right along course line.

This diversion took us almost 10km off course line. This proved to be a very slow option as the guys we had just bypassed had now climbed out and were able to track directly for the turn point as the clouds along course were now starting to disperse.

We were also a little coursious in this area as both Canrad and Kiero were forced to pul out gret saves in order to stay in the air. I took the safer option by staying high but paid the price by being very slow up until the turn point. The other gaggle overtook us.

Barnsie, Dave and I were still together up right to Boonah T. I headed off early an picked up a slow climb over town. Barnsie, climbed higher at the turn point and passed over my head to join a sailplane climbing further along course. Dave, pushed a little hard at this point and was forced to land at Boonah. This was a bugger as Barnsie and I only needed one more climb to 7000ft before we set off on glide 10km to turn point 2 and all the final leg into goal at Moogera Dam.

Lots of happy faces with 20 something in goal. Barnsie should manage about 10th for the day and me in at 16th (or there abouts).

If the first start gate won the Rohan won the day with ricky second. If the guys in second gate were fast enough the Jonny won with Flocky second.

Nice work either way guys!

Tracklogs here

Task 1 Results

Jonny’s also posted a video of the day

The usual crew have assembled for another fun filled week of flying that is Canungra Classic.

Our first taste of Canungra this year was from Mount Tamborine. The locals were sceptical expecting that day would blow out. As usual though, our optimism prevailed and we managed a great little triangle down towards Witherin, across to Beaudesert and back to the turf farm.

Barnsie, Dave and I flew a lot of the course together. I really enjoy flying with these guys as our flying styles work in well together. Hopefully we can share more flights in the coming week.

Tracklogs here

Nic scores a very nice Little flight at Stanwell…

Andrew has really been wracking up the airtime over the past week. Wracking up this sort of experience during what used to be considered the off season is exactly what is required to perform at your best as next season rolls around. Let’s hear about it:

The weekend of 9 – 10 May saw Dave and myself crack up around 3+ hours.  Sat Dave and I hit up Pig and enjoyed two extended sled runs turning in little bubbles that never managed to provide enough to climb in as they were short and sharp.  After 2 turns it would be gone and it was time to move on.  We observed two eagles fly past climb a few meters then fly off never getting any higher than the hill.  The inversion around was visible and it seemed that we were about at the top of it on the hill!  Top notch fun all the same.

Sunday Dave, Turtle, Barnsy, Marty (from VIC) and late in the arvo Porter flew Lake G (no cars were damaged during Porters Landing which was a relief ).  It was an absolute ripper of a day with smooth air and nice ridge lift.  About 1km North of Gearies Gap on the top of the ridge line there was a back burn happening and Dave managed to get up to 4500ft in a steady 200ft/min up.  I also managed to climb up but only to around 3700ft.

From here Dave flew the ridge all the way to Collector with my self and Turtle getting to the wineries a little low.  I turned back to the south to head back to the higher ridge and better lift where as Turtle kept going and ended up landing in a rather unusual landing paddock.  As he flew around to the winery he ended up lower than the ridge and lost lift and then couldn’t make it out to the lake so landed in a paddock between the highway and the ridge.  Funny as, but gutsy effort to try to punch north.  Lesson Learned here is to always have a nice place to land within glide   Dave and I top landed back at Gearies a little later and Dave headed home.  I stayed on to keep flying and enjoyed a number of top landings and flying on the south side flying in the air around my mates R/C gliders.  It is always cool flying around with R/C slope gliders.  I managed to grab one of my mates planes and turned it tail wind and let is go hahahaha.  Not nice I know but he was high and had plenty of height to recover in – fun times!

Tuesday 12 May saw Dave and I head to Stanwell Park for a leisurely Maz.  Our enthusiasm paid off with both of us cracking up over 2 hours.  After about an hour in the air Dave headed South to the next ridge.  I decided to go hell for leather for it also and was defiant to the end, which was a very low end at that!!!  I go to the south ridge very low and ended up having to turn back and land on the south side of Stanwell beach.  Lucky for me Tony Armstrong was on his way back to launch so after he confirmed that I was a Hangy I was in the car and on the way back to launch to get my car.  I drove back down to get my glider and after the quickest pack up and and then set up once back on launch I was airborne again.  By this point the wind had eased and the chance of flying up and down the coast any great distance had gone.  After a while Dave went into land approaching over a pond on the Southern side of the beach.  From the air it looked cool and once down he was straight on the radio telling me that I had to make the same approach as it was awesome.  After 20min I decided to land and came screaming in over the pond and landed on the beach.  It was nice to land in the silky smooth coastal air as it feels like you are landing on a bed of foam as it is so smooth you wouldn’t know you were flying which is a little different feeling after flying inland all summer!!!  A big thanks to Tony for taking me up to my car and having a laugh or two on the way.  Cheers.

Anyway a great week has been had as usual with the Canberra crew.  If only we were all keen we might get out there and fly more often !!!!!

Thief >;-)