Heading to Nth launch again today. Goal set for Jugiong 34*49.326
148*20.408
900ft
Jugong 96k

How things panned out…
Nth launch ended up being blown out so we upped stumps and headed down to Geary’s. It was still on the strong side so we ended up sitting around for a while until we an air of optermisim wafted through the crowd. I launched first in a lull and almost bombed. Once I did head north though I was rewarded with 3m/s clb to airspace at 5500ft. The trip past Gundaroo, Murrembateman was fairly straight forward but constantly hitting my head on airspace was frusturating. I got high just before Burinjuck dam which made for ascenic crossing. That was pretty much to end of the flight though and I landed just a couple of km north of Carols range and one of our favorite launches in the area. Barnsie made it over the back and landed near Gundaroo. Ed pulled off a nice one landing at Murrembateman.
Another fun day out!
Heading to Forbes tomorrow and looking forward to running in to all the usual guys out there.

What a turn out at the lake today! Ed, Barnsie, Jeremy, Micheal T, Geoff, Pete L,, Jon, Allan (Jeremy’s old man from Inverell) hit Nth lanuch for a day of flying fun. Almost everyone left over the back. Barnsie made it furthest landing near foal at Young. Jeremy managed a PB landing at Harden and.breaking the 100km mark. Nice flying all around guys!

No lift available to Forbes over the next few days… What to do? Well, Dave and I are hitting the lake tomorrow in an attempt to fly in there under our own steam. Wish us luck.

Another great weekend at Forbes. Sunday proved to be a real standout with 4 different triangles of greater than 160km being completed by the various groups of guys that gave it a bash.

Cirrus threatened to shut down the day but to our surprise there were still some great climbs under the high cloud even though the CU development had been somewhat suppressed.

A standout effort was completed by Guy. He stuck with the original course of Forbes – Grenfell – Marsden – Forbes (180km) despite the decorating conditions and made it around! A great effort Guy!

A fun day out for all involved.

Tracklogs up here

Barnsie is really in form these days and flew like a daemon last weekend to claim his latest PB!!! It’s just a shame that this one will be broken again this season …

Friday

After 2 weekend at home with bad flying weather, A 3 day weekend was coming up at Forbes.

Friday it’s Trent Dave Pete D and I. It was going to be windy so we set a bit of a zigzag task down to Woodstock. It was only 98k but knowing that the next 2 days were just going to get better it was a good starter. The air around the thermals was really ruff. I was working on fly these conditions a little safer, trying not to let the glider get pitched up, avoiding not spat out and searching around for the better air etc. I was nerves about the landing with the strong wind and ruff conditions, but in the end everyone landed safely, mine was a vertical decent all the way to the ground.

Saturday

You know your in for a big day at Forbes when you see Guy and Len are there setting up early. They’d set a 312k task NE to Mullaley. Wow I love a task that will bet my PB. Wind was a little less than yesterday, but it was still 30k up at the boundery layer to push us along. I found my self at the back of the que to tow. Steve did a grate job as it was one of the wildest tows. Strait though a booming thermal, we got through it and then climbed in some smother air before going around to drop me back in it and I was on my way. Everyone was already on task and it was a going to be another day of catch up. I tryed to get to Trent and Nath. Nath landed at parkes and trent took a more north track and landed on the other side of range to the NE of Parkes.

Once I got my self over that range, Dave Guy and Len where my next target. The thermals were very rough like the day before, but I was determined that that would not put me off. Dave landed around the 190k to go mark. So I decided to stay high, stopping for more climbs than I probably need too. Most climbs were only 5 – 6500ft. The ’stay high’ trick was working… I was slowly catching Guy and Len. It would be grate to finally have people to fly with after all this time, but it wasn’t not to be.

About 5pm and the day was starting to slow Len had called a town to the north of course line, It was right on 240k mark my PB distance. So I flew on another 8k before turning around and landing at the town.

Thanks to Dave (who was ment to be back in cannberra that night) and Anet (who was only ment to have to do a short retreive) doing the long retrieve to come and get us. We got back to munjal by 2am.

Flight here.

(after 5.5hrs and 248k)

Sunday

After yesterday I would have been happy enough to drive for everyone, but it was a light and variable day. Good for a triangle. Guy and Trent where well underway. We had 3 week-link brakes in the paddock. So by the time Len and I were climbing out we decided to take a short cut and meet up with them half way along the second leg. After a scratchy save at parkes mine we all joined up and went on glide to Trundle. For some reason I was finding some of the best lift lines on the way. Putting me on the top of the stack for quite a few thermal (this just never normaly happens, but improving my gliding is something I’ve been working on for quite some time). Being just weekend flying, I hung back at the top of the climbs for the others to climb up to me. This was probably a bad move coz later on, with only one really bad decision I was left behind. But never the less I still made it home and pulled of a text book landing to finnish off an awesome weekend. 14hrs in the air, a PB that’s taken me 5 years to brake and  440 some-thing ks, I’m a happy man

Flight here.

Stuck for ideas on how to impress the other half in the lead up to the big season ahead? Steve gives us the hot tips on how to really wrack up those brownie points…

High Flyer’s,

A couple of weeks ago my wife, Anet, asked, as we have never celebrated in any way our wedding anniversary over the last 21 years, if this year we could do something memorable – maybe go away somewhere ?   At once my romantic side got carried away as I told her it was already planned. I was already going away and she would be more than welcome to join me for a romantic 3 days in Forbes. Anet could not wait and promptly organised time off work.

Friday was a warm day with a North West wind when we arrived at the airfield at 10am.

As we were staying in Grenfell and Pete would be going home to Canberra the boys decided that a zig zag down wind run to Woodstock would be the go as this would give plenty of cross wind practise and keep them close to home.

Dave, Trent, Barnesy and Pete all headed off together after leaving me a list of turn points and goal co-ords. Anet hooked them up, did the ground marshaling and then drove Pete’s Land Rover whilst I drove Dave’s Nissan. Pete made Woodstock in the Atos then flew head wind back to Cowra. The retrieve could not have worked out better. With good radio contact we were able to track him down and then check out the landing paddock just ahead of Pete’s landing. The owner was very excited to have a practising Forbes competitor land in his paddock. Anet then got to ride shotgun with me in the Nissan for the next part of the adventure.

Meanwhile the other boys had also made Woodstock then decided to float around and check out the local farm land to look for a good hiding spot eventually landing in a paddock of very solid stalky Canola stubble next door to Fred Fayes massive Ag strip, just out of Cowra. This was great. When combined with directions from Trent, Anet and I finally got a bit of time together as we played hide and seek retrieves.

Saturday saw Nathan, Noma, Evgeniya, Michael, Len, Guy, Roger and Dave with the Millennium join us. As I did not know the little Russian girl, Evgeniya, I made her wait until late in the day for the air to settle down before I towed her in her new Litespeed 3.5. She towed and flew exceptionally well and was keen to join the boys for Sunday. It was great to see Michael has his Aeros all sorted and after a small adjustment to remove a left turn he was flying very well. Thanks also to Michael and Deb for helping out Noma after his car broke down on the way out to Forbes on Saturday.

With Saturday’s South West wind a task was set for Mullaley near Gunnedah. Anet was again Ground Marshall and Retrieve driver for Dave, Len, Guy and Barnesy who flew a new PB. What better or more memorable way to celebrate your 21st wedding anniversary than driving for this great bunch of hangies, on a romantic outback all day, all night adventure. 

Nathan flew over to Parkes to visit his rellos and the rest stayed local, landing back at the field.

Sunday saw very pleasant temps, light winds and the boys even returned my wife so she could enjoy more time at the field. Dave May had to go home, sacrificing the best day to be with his family. See I’m not the only romantic, considerate partner.

A rather challenging triangle task was set and completed by Len, Guy, Trent and Barnesy with Trent pulling off a tree top height save at the first turn point. Meanwhile, Nathan having had a very pleasant visit the previous day decided to fly to the rellos again on Sunday. The rest of the flyers set their own tasks and most landed back at the airfield. Michael and I did the retrieves giving Anet a bit of time to just hang out and enjoy the relaxing surrounds and great company that was to be found in the Dragon Fly hanger at Forbes air field. Although the thief was unable to be there and was sorely missed the other Dusties tried hard to make up for him with many great vanishing tricks of their own. Sending co-ords then hitching a ride to town or landing in difficult retrieve sites then moving. This was extra exciting for the retrieve driver who didn’t have a phone with him. On Sunday the disappearing trick almost backfired on Nathan as when we got back out to his glider, a local was just about to load it onto his vehicle, thus making a glider disappear.      

Thanks to Bill for the Dragon Fly, Anet, Dave Phillips, Michael and Roger for the retrieves and to all the guys that helped to make such a memorable 21st anniversary. A special thanks to Anet for the marshaling and keeping all the paper work records in order.  Finally a big thankyou to Terry and Trish for having us at your house yet again.

I hope to do it all again soon and may even let Anet come with me, even if it’s not an anniversary as every trip out with you guys is a very special time to remember.

Steve

A few pics from Nath to set the mood…

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