Sunday Aug 17 saw Dave, JP and myself out at Binoes for a fly.  As always when we arrived it was on, although this time a little on the light side of things.  Once all three of us were set up and all the usual badgering had taken place we were ready to go.  JP took off first and climbed quite well for the first few minutes before loosing luck and bailing out.  As JP went into land at the bombout Dave and I were still standing on launch watching him come in for what was a pretty funny landing.  The bombout was full of cows and as he got closer to the ground the cows ran off in a stampede all of which JP caught on film as he approached which can be found here along with a number of other vids that he has loaded up onto youtube.

I was next to take off and found a nice little thermal to the NW side of the range and managed to climb up a few hundred feet above launch, which was short lived as I then came down to ridge height just as quick!  Dave then took off and found some good lift and got on the radio and told me to get under him.  Once I was under Dave (not in an Anoos sense) I managed to climb up again but not nearly as high as Dave did.  The next 15 minutes or so comprised of climbing up in little thermals and scratching along the ridge.  At one point I got a third of the way below the hill and started to bail out to the bombout even telling Dave over the radio that I was gone.  Straight after my turn towards the bombout I hit a bit of turbulence and then the vario started beeping slightly.  So I slowed the glider up as slow as I could and put her into a gentle turn and made about 3 full turns in constant lift and saw myself back up just above hill height.  I was pretty stoked as normally I would have been on the deck.  Another 5 min went by and I managed to stay just above the hill when I saw dave starting to circle and going up just above launch.  I flew out under him and too started to climb.  I got up pretty well in this thermal which felt stronger and wider than the others had been.  With each turn I made I drifted further SE along the ridge and slightly over the back.  Dave meanwhile was a good few hundred feet above me and had decided to go on glide over Binalong.  It was cool to see him off on glide as it didn’t take long for him to disappear (at which point I will point out that that those topless glider really do glide amazingly well)!  I soon lost the thermal and was once again going down.  I decided at this point to try something different.  Instead of going back to the ridge I flew out over the bombout hoping to score a thermal.  My move nearly worked but I was too low.  Just as I made it back over the bomout I saw that the trees below were moving around so there was obviously a gust of wind or a thermal going up.  My vario started to beep momentarily and I managed a few turns maintaining zeros at which point I was now down wind of the bomout and needed to bail to make it home.  Once I landed JP and I packed up and headed just over 10km down the road to pick up Dave.

On the way home we went past Spring bombout to collect Dave’s car and JP and I decided to hit up spring for another 30 minute frolic on what you could call a nice ‘glass off’ of an afternoon.  All in all a top 10 degree winters flying day!!!

Happy Flying – Andrew >:-)

So winter seems to have finally set itself in over the past few weeks.  Although it has been bloody cold the Hangies have been out in force around the ACT.

Saturday 2 August Trent, Dave, John-Paul, Nic and I headed out to Binalong for some nice winter flying.  On the drive out we drove through wind rain and gusty winds.  Dave thought it was absolutely perfect and that he was definitely going cross country!  When we arrived at the hill the rain has stopped and the wind was slower than it had been back down the highway but the temp was a balmy 4 degrees.  Dave has been to Binalong a few times now and not once has he not been able to fly there.  I can’t wait to hit it up this summer.

Sunday saw Dave, Jeff, Ed, Nic, Carl B and myself flying at spring.  When we arrived the wind was quite strong but as we were setting up the wind slowed and we all eventually took off.  I flew in Trent’s Sonic 165 for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the flight.  My landing was ace.  As I came in I got into ground effect with speed and my feet softly dragging through the grass, then as the speed bled off I pushed out, rose up a feet or two then stopped dead and landed gently on my feet with the glider resting back onto my shoulders,  it was perfect.  I’m not sure whether it’s the fact that I was flying a 165 as opposed to my 154 Buzz or me just having a good day but my flare was tops.  This landing reminded me about exactly what this sport is all about – having fun.  I can’t wait to get my Sting III as I’m sure it will exceed my expectations.

Saturday August 9 saw Dave, John-Paul and I flying Spring.  When we arrive it was going off with rain and sleet falling!  Top notch conditions.  In being as keen as we are we hung around for 30min waiting for the rain to clear and then set up.  I take off first (again flying Trent’s Sonic) and tested the air.  It was rough and all over the shop but plenty of ridge lift to play around in.   One thing I did during this flight was practice a few stalls  I noticed that the stall characteristics of the Sonic are way different from the Buzz.  When I put the buzz into a stall and hold it there it simply mushes and more or less turns into a parachute where as the Sonic becomes very heavy and drops the nose.  It was good to feel comfortable doing this in a glider that I had not flown much before.  Landing time came around pretty quickly for Dave and I as we were freezing our nuts off.  I came in first and landed across the road.  Dave then came screaming in between the trees and pulled up very nicely with a text book flare.  John-Paul stayed up for another hour giving him nearly 2 hours in the air and also landed across the road (just).  The Fun 190 only just had enough penetration to get across the road and land with the strong head wind.

Anyway lots more flying fun on the way as the weather will soon be warming up again!

Happy Flying - Andrew >:-)

Want to win a neat little RC Chopper courtesy of thebombout.com??? Read on…

It seems the Google Australia crew have gone pretty nuts with their Google car.

A huge chunk of Australia’s roads have now been photographed and incorporated into the street view database. This coverage not only includes most urban areas but also significant coverage of rural and in some cases downright obscure isolated places – perfect as that’s exactly where we like to set goals during comps and free flying. No more surprise power lines on final glide now.

Check it out - Click on the blue roads to view photos

So how I win the chopper?

Here’s the challenge:-

Your task is to have a bit of a look around and see how many hang gliders you are able to find photographed in Australia in street view. Gliders can be flying, setup or still in the bag though it is my final decision as to whether it’s a glider you’ve found or something else - canoes and carpet salesmen don’t count.

The person who is able to identify the most hang gliders by the 30th of September 2008 will get the chopper.

Send your entries, including locations, through to huntingforhanggliders@thebombout.com before the end of September.

Good luck!

TIP: You’ve all seen the little green twitter box on the left hand side of the page. Keep an eye on it for clues as to where some of the gliders are located. Better still, follow me on twitter by clicking here and signing up. Once you are following me on twitter then you can set it up to send the updates through to your phone for free.