Yesterday. The sky was looking awesome. Nicely formed CUs in all directions although there were only very weak to no cycles reaching down to ground level. The usual crew, Dave, Karl, Ryan and I met out at Pig.

We chose Pig Hill instead of Lake George Nth launch because the last time we had a sky like this with no breeze on the ground the lake was not high enough to get into the rising air that was feeding the nice fluffy clouds above.

A few punters had the same idea including Michael Imholz in his newly acquired floppy version. Simon D, also left his Litespeed on the car and flew his paraglider. Bob came out for a look at proceedings but did not launch.

Time to commit aviation came around and Michael lead the way. He gave it a good go but was soon in the bombout. A few more punters streamed off the hill but all but one went down. Premek, in his pale blue punter snagged a great cycle off the nth launch and fought his way up to 1000ft above launch. From what I have seen, Premek flies pretty well so it’s always worth keeping an eye on what decisions he makes through out a flight.

I was lined up ready to go but this cycle was not long enough for me to get off into the same air. It was another 15mins or so before the next cycle blew up the east facing launch. I was off quickly followed by Simon in his punter.

Lift was tight and multi cored. I quickly climbed above launch but was topping out at 200ft or so above. Up and down Simon and I went before being joined by Michael on his second flight for the day.

A few false starts later I was starting to loose the battle with gravity. 300ft below launch I hit a beauty off the usual spine that runs down between the two launches.

The climb started out at 1.5m/s and was relatively uniform given the broken lift I had been getting. An inversion at about 500ft above launch was the reason for the weak cycles on the ground. Once I was able to break through this barrier the climb took off at 3m/s to cloud base at 3200ft above take off.

I focused on working out what was happening in the day as early as I could. I discovered that the cores were generally shifting upwind so each time a climb would begin to peter off I would head 50-100m NE (head wind) and be rewarded with a nice core. Other things to note was the turbulence in the lee side of each of the good climbs which later help me when I was on glide. This also had the effect of luring me into turning to too early when hitting lift. Stabbing through this lively air was consistently rewarded with a climb on the other side.

Ryan, in one of his first thermal flights, flew very well. He also hooked into a nice climb originating from the usual spine. In this form he will be in for some great flights over the coming months.

Once reaching base I decide to follow the ridge to the north towards Wee Jasper. With lift much stronger up high I planned on staying up near the clouds.

There was some strong sink on glides but it was only small pockets. I was getting better glides by leaving each climb headwind and crossing the area of sink at 90 degrees to the wind.

This worked well until I ran out of clouds to follow about 15km north of Pig. I followed the same tactic I had been using and it continued to work well despite the lack of clouds to indicate the next climb.

A couple of eagles joined me a climb or two later and we were back up to cloudbase height without a cloud above us. Nice to know the ridge was still working but it was now time to leave the ridge and try and cross Burrinjuck dam.

There is a lot of tiger country ahead and I was not going to head in there given the limited height I was getting to. I flew to the edge of the lake but soon chickened out and turned back to the safe landing paddocks behind me.

A ran out, nil wind landing later (forgot VG - oops) and I was on the deck after 30km. 16km NE of Wee Jasper along the road to Yass. A fun flight for this time of year and a great sign of what is to come.

Dave swung around to pick me up after Karl and he, and a load of punters had a boat around launch but were not lucky enough to get that magic elevator out from the hill.

Thanks for the retrieve Dave!

A tough task.

After getting a great start I was a little over optimistic as I set off on course. This mentality saw Chesty and I race to the deck only a third of the way into proceedings.

It looks like it was a great race with Tex taking the cake closely followed by Andrew and Speedy.

Sorry about the delay. Youtube did not want to take the video for some reason.

Condor flight tracks

Google Earth Tracklogs

What a weekend of contrasts?

Saturday saw Karl, Ryan, Dave and I at Spring with a whole load of punters. Conditions were pretty light for hangies and paragliders alike. Punters were up and down all over the place as we set up. Karl worked up the courage to launch first. Ryan was then off not far behind. Both of these guys launched with plenty of style and airspeed. Pretty to watch.

Unfortunately, the big fella up in the sky pressed the half flush button not long after they launched. This forced just about everyone down to the ground. Karl and Ryan fought gallantly to get back up but the congestion in the air made it very hard to stay up through the weak periods. They both had great nil wind landings in the tricky bombout.

Dave and I waited until the flush was over and hung out for the first sign of somebody going up. Then it happened off to the right of launch. I streamed off closely followed by Dave. We quickly made our way up the stack and bounced around at the inversion 500ft or so above launch. The usual crowd of punters were up at this height so we all bounced around together. Back and forth we went for a while before Peter led the way out front. I followed out NW to the road before catching the adventurous punters from there we punched another 500m out but got nothing. Pete and his wingman turned back for the ridge but did not have enough height to get back up. After another hundred metres or so I too retreated but snagged some zeros on the way back. I stuck with that climb until I was back near the ridge.

Phil Robbo was up by this stage in his Airborne Fun. He held a pretty permanent position above the crowd of punters in the light lift on the range.

By this time Dave had managed to scratch back up to ridge height after getting pretty low. Watching him scrape back up from a certain landing was pretty impressive.

After a couple of hours in the air it was time to land so I headed off on a death glide to the hills NW of Spring. Feeling for the lift line heading out I was able to reach the tree line of the hill but was too low to make it over to the windward side. So in defeat I turn back to head for Spring.

In any other conditions the bombout would have been beyond glide but I pointed my toes and hitched a ride in the same line of lift that I had taken out there. It all worked out nicely and my C4 got me back without any problems.

Karl and Ryan were packing up by the fence near the road so I lined up to land beside them. It seems I had a little more VG on than I expected and ended up throwing in a big flare to stop before the fence. It worked. The guys in the paddock managed to get it all on video so I’ll post it on here when I get my hands on the footage.

Dave’s landing was a little more sensible in the middle of the paddock.

Blue Tongues in the bombout topped off a great day.

Sunday. The wind was forecast to pick up (in the form of a small boat alert) so we planned to get out there early. 11:15am, I turn up at the hill to be greeted by a couple of the new guys, Phil and Rick.

Up the hill we head. Things are looking a little ominous. The wind has hit early and it looks like we’ve missed our opportunity for a fly. Lanyon should have been the call for the day but we were in the wrong place now. Bugger.

Dave turned up and after some pondering we called it quits on the day. Rick and Phil were keen to hang on for the wind to die down but signs did not look good. They head off but leave their gliders on the hill for a late afternoon sortie.

As Dave and I head down the hill we jump out of the car to have a quick look at the other launch at the northern end near the old tower. There was a wee bit less wind blowing up this launch and that was all we needed to convince us to setup. A quick flat setup later and we were good to go. With only two of us there, there was no way that we would both be able to fly as the second person would not be able to attach the nose wire by themselves. Dave was the keener of us to fly so he would have the honour.

Then we, rather I, was saved when Ryan arrived to give me a hand off. We each launch without a problem but there is a disclaimer. Do not take these conditions as normal launching conditions. In anything other than an advanced wing, launching in such wind is not going to work as you simply will not go forward. Be warned.

Obviously there wasn’t a problem going up, quite the opposite to the day before. We were topping out about 500ft above launch. Also there was noticeably less traffic in the air. Kind of an understatement as it was just Dave and I.

After an hour or so feeling the air around Spring we head South to the next hill. It works well and we are able to get just as high down there. The next step was to jump back to the One Tree range but we just couldn’t get high enough to make the jump. Eventually we settle for a glide to the Barton Highway just for something different. We both get a great glide out there and land right beside the road. Ryan provides quite a service today, picking us up and giving us beers. We owe you mate.

At the end of the day. Phil and Rick return and are rewarded for their patience. They scored an hour or so in the air and a nice sunset to top it off. Nice work guys!

A couple of weekends ago this dude got up at the lake. I like his style.

Anonymous forwarded me the following:

“Check this out. This guy made this hot air balloon out of garbage bags, duct tape and a pedestal fan, and used it at Lake George at the weekend. He managed to get it up to 250m. It’s a solar balloon so you don’t use gas, just the sun heating the air up on the inside of the bag. Pretty crazy, hey!! “