Ed is writing a little something for Soaring Australia about our recent trip the Bright. So far he is up to the Monday where they chased me out to Toc but I am hanging out for his account from Tuesday where he heads off on his first XC - and what a flight it was.

After 2 days of rained out flying (don’t shed too many tears for me - wine tasting, cheese tasting, berry farms, nut farms great company and much talk of hangliding made for a pretty bloody good 2 days) we awoke to a beautiful sunny day in Bright. After breakfast we headed out to the airfield. Our hopes were soon subdued and eventually shattered. “Too windy and damn bumpy up there”, was the quote from Shane who had just landed his trike after a very bumpy flight to test the conditions. Bugger ! Someone suggested that we could go to The Pines.

“The Pines, The Pines sucks donkey balls” Trent’s replied with absolute contempt.

“What’s wrong with The Pines?” I queried.

“Let me put it to you this way, every time they have a competition in this area, and the only place that it’s on is The Pines, everyone votes for a rest day. That’s how bad The Pines are.” Trent added.

“But if that’s the only place it’s on we may as well give it a go”.

“The Pines it is,” Trent relented.

So not particularly enthused we went to The Pines. Once at the bombout of The Pines we found some very helpful people who advised us that Trent’s Santee Fe couldn’t possibly make it to the top of this behemoth mountain. There is a a “boggy patch” and a really “gnarly section at the top”. We would have to cross load into a “real 4WD”. The same people were kind enough to offer to take one more glider on their roof (I think it already had about 5 or 6 gliders on the roof) but buggered if we could find anyone to take the other glider up. There were some serious 4WDs with some serious racks that couldn’t possibly fit anymore than the 3 gliders that they already had on top. It’s not like the brethren to leave a pilot swinging. Where I come from in Canberra, pilots help each other, regardless whether you are of “hangi” or punter persuasion. Anyway there was nothing else for it but to struggle as best we could up as far as we could to the top before getting out and carrying the glider up this beastie hill. After about 10km of driving we discovered the “boggy patch”. It looked like someone had spilt a bucket of water on the track …. not quite the scary, snorkel necessary, periscope required bottomless loch that was described. Next we encountered the “gnarly” section at the top. It did admittedly get pretty steep and rocky … for about the last 50m. Suffice to say we ended up driving right to the top no problems at all.

Trent and I were among the very first hangies setup so I went over to inspect the launch and time the cycles and generally get a feel for the site having never flown here before. The Para guys started taking off around the time I walked over and some were getting some real snippets of lift but some were getting some horrendous sink. One Para particularly was heading out over the pine forest to the bottom left of launch a bit low and dropped like a rock for what must have been about 50ft and luckily wasn’t too far in over the trees as he did an immediate 180 and got out over the bomb out and landed not that far into it. I’d just finished saying to the Liz that it’s getting about as good as it’s going to get when Ollie fronted up at launch, strapped in and ready to go.

“Ed can you move your glider” Trent asked/demanded quite urgently.

“Is it on”?

“Mate, if Ollie’s taking off then it’s on. Let’s go.”

With that we got in line behind Ollie. Stuie jumped in in front of me at my invitation. It couldn’t hurt to watch a couple of good launches before mine.

Naah, you can go before me Stuie. Then I’ll get to see how the professionals do it”.

“If that’s what you want then you better not watch mine then”, Stuie jibed.

With no further fuss Trent then Stuie and then I were all in the air trying to catch Ollie. My goal was to do my first ever cross country flight however it wasn’t to be. After about an hour of scratching around the hill and missing a few opportunities I ended up landing. The best I’d gotten was about 500ft over launch however it was one of those “really good crappy flights”. It was really good because I did some things well and learnt a lot. I started with a well timed, good strong take off. I was finding the thermals reasonably well, infact, for most of the flight it felt like everyone was flying towards my thermal at a height way below me. One of the most satisfying aspects of the flight was the fact that many topless gliders that took off after me were on the deck long before me. I great confidence booster for a non-local in a Sonic. I did have a couple of opportunities that I squandered that I learnt’ from. The times when I did get high I didn’t use well. I should have made bolder moves once the thermals topped out, although my feeling was that the thermals were further over the back and I wasn’t prepared to look for them in the Sonic till I got that bit higher. I simply had no glide out if I was wrong - I’m not that ballsy yet. I never got that bit more height that I wanted to feel comfortable drifting further back. Eventually I landed and I was that keen to go again I deliberately landed at the top end of the bombout with the intention of carrying my gear back to the top to go again. It looks like it is only about 250m walk up the face of the hill. After landing I realised that it was only about 250m up but that it was going to be a lot of work for what would probably only be another sleddy. Just as I was making that decision Trent radioed in that “he and Ollie were 8000ft over Wangaratta” and that he was heading further west along the road to Tocumwal.

So after that Deb and Liz came up to help me pack up and carry the gear down to the car so we could go and get Trent. The radio calls just kept coming…

“This is Trent. I’m 20km west of Wang.”

“This is Trent. I’m over a huge lake on the Murray about 50km west of Wang.”

“This is Trent. The thermals are getting weaker. Don’t know how much longer I’ll be in the air for. I’m about 20km east of Tocumwal.”

“This is Trent. I’m over top of Tocumwal at 6000ft. I’m going in to land and give Tove a call.”

Deb (and all of us really) had been after a toilet since before Wangaratta, we eventually found one at a pub about half way from Wang to Toc. Other than that it was an uneventful trip out to Toc. We stopped in town at the Pub to get Trent his well earned congratulatory beers. By the time we arrived at the airfield Trent was half way through packing up his glider right beside the pool at Sportavia having a chat with Tove, who was looking very professional in her business suit, and her daughter Hanna. Tove invited us back to the newly built Heaney palace for a drink and nibblies. We arrived to see Grant and Thorry flying their remote control Zaggy’s. At times it appeared as though they were attempting to knock each others planes out of the sky … great fun. After a few hours of socialising with the Heaneys we left, promising to return for a weekend of flying. You see, after a season away from hangliding to recover from the whole Sportavia thing Grant and Tove, particularly Tove, were keen to get back into the flying. We left, waited half an hour in town for “the regions best hamburgers” to be made and then drove off. We got back to Bright spot on midnight.

To be continued…

The results from the Classic have been added to the CIVL world rankings.

View the Aussies here 

… and everyone else here

While on we’re thinking about Canungra here’s some random photos from the 2007 Canungra Classic.

Monday morning we call in to the strip but the rain had been replaced by a moderate breeze out of the SE. By this stage Pete Wilson had left and none of the remaining tug pilots were up for towing in the lee side of the some of the biggest hills Australia can throw at you. Their position was understandable but it was going to be a great day if only we could get off the ground.

Various options were toyed with. Towing in the flats somewhere, driving to another hill closer to Melbourne, anything. Eventually we settled on the Pines.

The Pines is one of those sites that I had heard about but never been off. Flying over it looked like it would work but at comps in the past, whenever it was a choice between the Pines and rest day the consensus from more experianced pilots would be to head to the river.

Arriving on launch I was actually quite impressed. I think these Mexicans are spoilt when it comes to the height of their launches. We made several references were made to getting a cup of…

About 50 punters and 20 hangies were out to give it a dig. A great turnout for a free flying weekend.

So we set up and talk tasks. Mt Beauty is decided as goal but landing in the mountains with this wind would not be all that much fun. So alternatively heading out to the flaties was also on the cards. Schmitty, Sam, Tony, Oli, Stuie and I, among others, were keen for some ks. Ed was also busting for his first XC.

Of the hangies, Oli launched first with me straight after. Together we climbed through several punters before reaching airspace directly above launch. Everyone else streamed off soon after and the usual suspects were soon up with us ready to go on glide.

A couple of punters headed west for Wang. Oli and I followed for the first 500m before we pulled on some extra speed make the overtaking manoeuvre all the more dramatic.

Our cockiness left us a little low at the end of the ridge. We dived in for a lee sider off the end of the ridge and climbed out to airspace once again. Decision time now, back into the mountains or tail wind into the flatlands. Oli topped out before I did and headed SW.

“Ok, flaties it is” I thought.

We went on glide until Oli stopped for a slow climb. We were both still high so I ploughed on through out to a cloud over Milawa and a good climb.

That was the last time I had company.

All alone now I thought about my options. “Been a while since I’d caught up with Tove” I chuckled to myself.

I had not waypoints in the 6030 so navigation would have to be from memory and what ever I could see on the ground. A high climb later and I could see a lake in front of me. In a moment of disbelief I thought that it was the lake along the Murray near Yarrawonga. Surely it’s not that close - it wasn’t.

My memory was now jolted from one of the tasks from Sportavia. We flew down past a lake near the Hume highway and that was the one I was now looking at. So I looked north for the other lake. Ah, that’s the one another 50km up there. Tocumwal should be just over to the left a bit then.

So that’s how it went for the next couple of hours. Get to base just short of 7000ft, look around for something I knew, line some nice clouds up and glide along them until I low enough to think about doing it all again. The 6030 was calling a 15-20kph breeze from the south so I stayed upwind of where I thought Toc was.

As towns started to appear along the Murray I tried to work out which was which by asking Ed, Deb and Liz in the retrieve car for some rough distances from the lake.

Still unable to spot Toc I track along south of the river. By this stage climbs were easing off but the air was still quite buoyant. Flying at this time of the day is very enjoyable providing you stay high.

Two great bits of news then came my way. The first was that the airport appeared in view and, second, even better was that when I finished this climb I should have it within glide.

As with every other time I have flown at Sportavia there was a strong climb directly over the hanger. Isn’t that typical?

Eventually I find a bit that’s not going up and land beside the pool. The place is somewhat dielectric these days. Pool is bone dry, grass all dead and cob webs seem to populate the hanger. A real shame after all the work Tove put into this place.

I jump on the phone to see if the Heaney’s are in town. As luck would have it Tove had just arrived home from work and was out at the hanger within minuites. Ed and girls were not far behind.

It had been way too long since we had caught up these guys. Hanna still has the worlds biggest smile and Thorry has become a real little Grant in the best possible way.

The new house is quite a site. Tove has put a lot of effort into getting everything just right. It has really paid dividends.

It was great to see that everything is going so well out there and we promised that we would soon be back out for a fly. I for one am looking forward to it.

So that’s Monday… Ed will soon be sending though a write up for Tuesday as he certainly did Canberra proud.

Tracklog

As the long weekend approached so did the rain. The charts were dominated by several low pressure systems across the country. Phil Schroder warned us to pack umbrellas and people from all over the place were pulling out of heading down to Bright.

Keen on a long weekend away Ed, Liz, Deb and I head down to Victoria anyway. We were resigned to a wet holiday but held out hope that we could get a few tows in with the guys from Airborne that would be in town.

Saturday morning, as expected, we woke to rain on the roof and cloud base well below ridge height. After a quick detour past the airport a consensus was easily reached that this would be the perfect day to visit a couple of wineries in the district.

For self proclaimed non wine drinkers Liz and Ed certainly went through a few reds. Ed and I drowned our earth-bound sorrows and as the girls lived it up on the gourmet food. There are certainly worst places to be stuck on a rainy day.

There were plenty of flying type people in town for the long weekend and most of us descended on the Alpine hotel that night to compare wineries.

There was some interesting stories being told by the guys that decided to fly trikes down from Tumut. Not really suitable for regurgitating here but worth asking about should you run into one of the guys.

Sunday, ended up pretty much the same but Stuie and I managed to sneak a slightly damp tow in the rain. This was the first time I had landed with a totally soaked glider and I was surprised by how well it still handled - lucky as there was still quite a crowd watching from the dry hanger.

So here we were, half way through the four day event. Though the rain was supposed to ease off the ground would still be very wet which would dampen any thermal activity. Weather had been very cruel to us so far so we were not the hopeful for any great flights over the next couple of days.

“Sehr optimistisch”, as Jorg would say, was required, and Ed and I would reap the rewards of a bit of positive thinking over the following two days. More on that tomorrow.

Here are some pics from the air show on Saturday. As usual use the left and right arrows on the picture to look through the images. Photos by Brenden Geeves.

Yesterday, Deb, Dave and I headed up to Tongara with high hopes of heading XC south along the ridge. 25 degrees was the forecast and they were right on the mark. Launching conditions were perfect with a NW wind up high but as usual the was a nice breeze being funnelled up the valley and straight up launch.
I went first but end up bombing out after scratching below ridge height for the 20 mins or so. Dave launched next and scratched like a champion and managed to get up above the ridge. He bounced between the ridge height and 500ft (one climb up to 100 above) above for the next 2.5 hours. A great effort on what what proved to be a very tough day. Dave is flying really well at the moment. The time he has been putting in over winter is really paying dividends as we approach the flying season proper.

As testomony to the difficulty of the day, Deb picked me up from the bombout and I had another go. A similar result awaited me and I was once again watching Dave from the bottom of Macquarie pass. Thanks must go to Deb for driving up and down the pass all day to pick me up.

Dave makes his first top landing at Tongara just behind launch to top off a great flight.

We finished off a fun day with Blue Tongue Larger on tap at the Robertson pub.

My calendar must be broken. It thinks that it is still winter…

Over the weekend Dave and I headed up to Newcastle in the hope of maybe going round in circles with some of the locals. Ryan, Dan and Karl also drove up to to check out the night life.

Saturday, started out pretty average. 8/8 cloud cover and base below the hills. We head out to Freeo’s at 10am but things still weren’t looking good. After a whole lot of procrastination eventually it was 3pm and it was on at Scenic on the coast. Low ridge runs were the order of the day. Not booming but at least it put a smile on our faces for the BBQ at Mon and Scott’s that night. That night the food was great as was the mix of a nice bottle of red and Scott’s stories from the World’s the week before.

Sunday, we wake a little later than usual to the nice surprise of sunlight streaming through the curtains. Conversation revolves around heading out to Brokenback. There’s a whole lot more enthusiasm amongst the usual crowd today. Dave and I are stoked as we’ve had some great flights from the North facing cliff launch.

Mon and Tink graciously offer the drive for us (A big thank you girls!) so we head off to launch. Along the way things start to look ominous with cloud base getting lower as we head inland. Our fears were short lived though as once it started to burn off it dissipated very quickly.

Arriving on launch saw many of the familiar smiling faces we come so accustom to when travelling to a random hill in the Hunter. It’s great to catch up with everyone who missed out on the BBQ the night before. Our thoughts soon turn to flying when Cam lobs off and goes up.

Launching today could have been pretty tricky but everyone knows what they’re doing and we’re all off the hill in minutes despite having to wait for nil wind cycles as it was predominately blowing from over the back.

At first, lift was pretty good but I failed to commit to my first solid climb with Scott and Cam among others. I saw which direction they took off in but being 200ft below them I was not sure how much height I would have up my sleeve to make the next ridge south along the range.

Things got slow and scratchy after that. Several guys had a go at getting back but they were not having much luck landing at a few km away. Eventually Dave and I were left on the ridge together. For at least half an hour we scratched at ridge height in little more than zero sink. The day was still relatively young so we hang on for a good climb. It came in the form of a messy 2m/s climb to about the same height as Scott left. So that was enough for me.

I tracked back to a cloud along course back to Newcastle (the optimistic goal) but was greeted with the climb of the day along the way. Huge, smooth and 3m/s to cloud base. With the recent rain in the area I was keen to stick to the relatively dry mountains. This worked for a while with a couple of low saves along track down the range. I ended up landing a couple of km short of where Cam and Donny ended up - Bellbird (not that I knew it’s name while I was enroute). Scott made it back to Cessnock and landed at one of the ovals in town. Dave managed to get high as I was heading off and had a dig at heading down the ridge.

A fun day sharing the air with a whole lot of great pilots and even better retrieve crew. Thanks again, Tink for driving to random paddocks and picking us up, Scott for putting me up for the weekend, and especially Monica, for all the above.

Mon also managed to take some great pics of Scott, Dave and I.

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.