After being blown away on Friday and Saturday (which saw only a rough landing at the airport in a Blokart), Dave and I were keen on getting a fly in on Sunday.

Winds seemed pretty fresh on the ground but the forecast was for it to die down through out the afternoon. We decided to have a look at Spring before making the trip down to Lanyon if it was too strong. Simon D joined us on the way out obviously having similar thoughts. Chop also turned up soon after. Karl was also there to get some video of us in action.

With the wind a little on the strong side Dave and I decided to set up a little lower on the hill over near where the old tower was. This is a perfect launch in these conditions. Wind was straight up the hill and perfectly laminar as it makes it’s way up the consistent slope. The others decide not to fly due to not feeling confident in the stronger conditions (… and Karl looked a bit seedy).

We set goal for Gundaroo and turn our gliders with a bit of help. Both of our launches felt great as we rocket up from the hill.

We spend the next two hours punching head wind in the lift lines that were set up across to Poacher’s. There were beautiful cloud streets all day but none wanted to suck us up to base to make the glide over the back. So we were resigned to staying around Spring.

An eagle, heading XC, joined me at one stage in a nice thermal out of the bowl. He joined the climb up wind of me and fitted in with my circles. As this was a good climb and we both wanted to head off we circled together over the back almost to the point of no return. I chickened out and headed back for the ridge. As I was on my way back again I hit a much stronger climb. This did not go unnoticed by the eagle and he soon came back in to join me.

Once again, he was soon coaxing me over the back but again I was too chicken. When he eventually left, after giving up on me, he had a pretty good glide back towards Gungahlin. I admired his disregard for airspace but was not going to head that way myself.

A nice breeze in the bombout made for uneventful landings.

It was a hard day and a very easy day to land but amazingly enough there were still about 40 pilots in goal. We had 5 Aussies in goal just missing Adam who dragged down the Brazilians in the middle of knowwhere. I am guessing that Australia will be leading the teams event after day 1.. GO AUSSIES!!!

- Jonny Reports

Last night’s task seemed pretty straight forward. With ridges to follow on all legs we all knew it was going to be quick. I packed plenty of water for the trip but alas not enough super glue to hold the wings on when the flutter kicked in:(

Lenny also met a similar fate. Chesters and Speedy are still walking out of the alps after pushing hard and getting very low.

That just left Andrew to finish the race in style. I managed to take line honours but it was nowhere near enough to make up the 200 point penalty.

Another fun race.

Google Earth

Condor Task and Flight Tracks

Different tactics for the last two turn points.

Final scores

As you can see from the picture the display looks very similar to the 5030 but that is where the similarity ends. The 6030 sports a completely new circuit board and faster CPU. The firmware, at least for the first release, is similar to the 5030 but there is new functionality planed for the future. We will have the 6030 at the Worlds for some real world testing and if everything goes well we should see some initial production units in September. A Brauniger version named the Compeo+ will also be available soon.

Some of the improvements:

Physical:

Less bulky – about 30% smaller than the 5030
User replaceable batteries.
User replaceable pitot tube
Memory card slot
All ports have rubber covers

Batteries:

Two banks of two AA cells (alkaline or rechargeable)
Auto-switching from bank one to bank 2
Two built-in chargers with individual status LEDs– will charge both banks at the same time regardless of charge state of either bank.
Precise battery status shown during power-up and power down (in addition to battery status shown in run mode)

Airspeed

New pitot pressure sensor gives much greater speed range (12-180mph /20-300kph)!
Will read airspeeds for paragliding through sailplanes

Keypad

Improved key allocation eliminates need for “Next function” scrolling
Speaker hole no longer penetrates keypad – should provide better keypad durability
button presses are more responsive

Interface

Bluetooth connection to cell phone for real-time position reporting and plotting (soon)
USB download/upload

Operation

“Next function” scrolling eliminated
Analog vario on map page
Text now in multiple languages
Improved Menu structure

As hinted below, I approached last weekend with a slightly different tack – More on that later.

In the end we ended up with two great days of flying. Spring was we and truly blown out by 9am Saturday morning. The wind talker was calling in excess of 40mph. So on a whim Karl, Ed, Simon S and I head down to Lanyon. That place is amazing – the wind was perfect.

We all launch and have a ball in the buoyant if a little rough air. Lift lines extended out over the suburbs allowing us to push a couple of km headwind with no loss of height – a great feeling.

One of these excursions I was rewarded with a nice smooth climb from the mountain in front. It turned into a 4m/s as I followed it back to launch. It was the smoothest bit of air all day so I pulled out the camera and got some happy snaps on the way up. Eventually I had to leave it at 4500ft due to airspace around launch. I still had the camera in my hand as I left the still booming thermal and was treated to an interesting ride as I flew through the upwind turbulence with only one hand on the base bar. Mental note made.

Karl managed to land at the oval in a rather exciting manner using every inch of available space. The rest of us landed in the bombout. Spectacular wave clouds covered the city as we retrieved the car from the top of the hill.

With the climbs we had and a similar forecast for Sunday I was keen to head XC. That night I had the maps out to see what the plan of attack would be in order to avoid airspace. It was pretty simple - stay under 4500 until we were a few km south of Williamsdale. There airspace lifted to 6500 which was higher than I expected to be getting that day anyway.

We set goal for Bredbo with waypoints at Williamsdale and Michelago. Karl, Dave, Chop, Ryan, Dan and I line up to fly.

Karl gets off and takes a couple of climbs in front of launch but the rest of us are unable to get off the deck because the wind was now trending almost due south on launch. The wind blows up the slope for a moment and I take the opportunity to get off but there’s no such luck for the others so it ends up being just Karl and I in the air.

Ridge lift was almost nonexistent so we bounce around in the light thermals for about half an hour before I snag a good climb. Karl missed this one but was still climbing so I try heading a little south to test the waters. I hit massive sink and come back to the hill 600ft below launch. Luckily there was a clearing with few turbulence creating trees on the up wind side that allowed me to hug the terrain and eventually climb back up. I then climb back out to 4300ft and head off along course. The southerly wind now meant that we would be pushing cross headwind in order to follow the task.

I follow the ridge down over some areas without roads really not wanting to get low. There are regular climbs along the way so things never look too bad. For the largest crossing I had a family of happy eagles to help me out which was nice to know before diving in.

The ridge I was following eventually peters out and but I needed more height to make the next ridge back to the east. This is where I make my bad decision for the day. I try to push on down the ridge rather than flying back and looking for more height. This leaves me with nowhere to go but back into the valley low - a position I was never going to recover from.

I scratched the best I could in the rotory broken lift but I eventually land at Williamsdale after travelling for about a km at 300ft over the Monaro Hwy. Good publicity.

Chop and Dave swing by and pick me up just as a sailplane passes over head. Thanks guys!

A few more photos from the weekend can be found here.

So how do we go about this flight in the future? My thoughts are: -

- Stay high 4500 is the max and you will need every bit to make the next ridge back on the eastern side of the highway.

- Be patient. Don’t try the crossing until you are in the perfect position to go for it.

- Once you have made the jump it looks like a pretty easy run down to Breadbo.

Let’s Give it a bash!

Here in Canberra, during winter, we tend to fall into a bit of a hole flying wise. We look at the stereotypical Canberra winter as a no flying period. We either don’t fly, travel away or chase the odd ridge soar at Spring to meet the minimum currency requirements until summer comes back into view.

Why do we collectively write off nearly half the year?

Granted, the weather is the major factor but is total abstinence really necessary?

After heading up to Newcastle last weekend, the cogs in my head started to tick over. The shear enthusiasm of the guys up there overcomes the relatively poor met conditions. The weather up there was not that great with wind on both days and substantial cloud cover on the Sunday. I would have pulled the pin half way out to the site but the locals power on leading to two great days of flying.

It was not going to be an epic XC day, nor would we get to ten grand but the lessons you can learn on days like that are invaluable. The convergence lift lines formed by two valleys meeting were straight out of a textbook with wind lines on the lake to show exactly what was going on. There was also some great lift in regular cycles. I had never seen these conditions so far outside the regular flying season – Then again, had I really been looking?

So, back to work last week. I let these experiences bounce around in my mind… Average temps over winter are a little higher up there but not that different. They seemingly have fewer sites that take the prevailing westerlies at this time of year. They have to travel further to those sites. Still, the Newcastle guys fly all year.

They have the critical mass up there with so many experienced pilots to fly with any time you want to. That helps. Seeing Scott, Cam, Ricky, Adam, Ebbs, Kiero or any of the other great pilots climb out in front of you is a very inspiring sight. Even if I don’t manage to climb as well, I can see that it can be done and I know that with more practice and perseverance one day I will be able to do the same.

Back to Canberra, things are a little scaled down. Though the ACT flying scene is growing at a healthy rate we don’t have the numbers or the mass of experience. So, how can we try and close this gap?

… This is starting to get a bit long so I’m going to post a few ideas over the next few weeks as to what I feel is going to help my flying and hopefully any else in the same boat.