Once we’re all resigned to a sledie at Stanwell, we decide to make things interesting by throwing in some water skimming action near the beach.

I went first but come in too high almost ending up in the ocean after rounding some fishing rods sticking up from the beach.

Dave though, picks it perfectly! As you’ll see from the video, there is a pretty small envelope in which to pull this off. Some of the most confident and well executed approach skills I have witnessed…

Needless to say, after borrowing Michael’s camera for this little effort we have ordered a few for our future shenanigans.

Looking at the forecast for light N/E winds on the coast it seemed like an opportunity for a day trip to try a new site. The new site for us is Mt Wandera.

I first heard about this place from hangy pilot Adrian who has been launching from this mountain near his home which is about 20km inland from the coast near Moruya.  Wandera sounded awesome and I first went for a look last year to see this place and on the second attempt found the reasonably hard to find the road to launch. At first glance from launch this site was very impressive. It has a lot of XC potential. It’s launch height is 1700ft above bombout  and it’s surrounded by incredible scenery. It’s just one peak in this massive range running north and south, and only a couple of climbs over the back is the Araluen valley, once there you could end up back in Canberra or track further south to Cooma.

Spoilt for choice in the Canberra area we forgot about Wandera this past season but every now and then Adrian would let us know what we a were missing out on. So lately I’ve been looking out for the weather that would work. With the XC season getting a little docile around here and light winds forecasted for the coast it seemed like a good chance to check out Wandera. So Trent, Nick and I threw some wings on the roof and headed down for the day.

It started out overcast on the coast with some sun starting to brake through as we arrived on the Mountain. By the time I was ready to launch there was little sun on the ground and the cycles were becoming further apart.

After some patience I ran off into a gentle bubble and turned left to head along the rock face to the west. I got a gentle bubble that formed into 300ft/min over launch and joined by Trent we were a little surprised to be in something so solid given the 18c temp and lack of sun. It took us straight to base which was only 3600ft  but that was enough to take in the incredible scenery. Looking south down to Narooma, North to Ulladulla, Pigeon House Mt and over the back to the Araluen valley. I had high expectations for this site but this was so much more than I expected.

Nick had a good launch but missed his ride out. Trent and I optimistically headed on glide along the range to get another climb which would give us glide over to next valley west, but it wasn’t to be and 30mins later found ourselves landing at the northern end of the Buckenborra Property.

We headed home with huge smiles (due in part to the cold beer we were necking) and absolutely stoked at the flying a new site with such amazing potential.

See in September Mt Wandera.

Dave

Dave, Nick and myself finally took up Adrian’s offer to fly Mt Wandera, a site that he and his brother have established near Moruya on the south coast. These guys have done a great job on the site clearing a perfectly shaped dirt ramp from the treed ridge

This site is ideally situated for some really fun flights over the Araluen valley and on towards Canberra.

The view from launch. It looks like a fair glide out to the bombout which may seem intimidating to less experienced pilots. This is partly due to the optical illusion that takes place with the treed ridge in the foreground. It is difficult to gauge depth perception on your height relative to the bombout. A similar thing happens to your perception at Tongara.

Worst case scenario, with out any lift you would make it in a Sting or better. Nic, in an older Sting was able to pick a nicer paddock beyond the usual bombout. Nice work dude!

Dave and I managed a nice climb out over launch and possibly over estimated the day a little. How good would it be to make Araluen the first time we fly the site and only a week before the start of Winter?

Too good apparently! After reaching base at around 3300ft we headed off along the ridge to the north, where, if we conected with a climb we would have had the airstrip within glide. Instead, we followed lines of buoyant air out into the Buckenbowra valley to the NE of launch.

The flight ended too soon but it was enough to get a taste for what will be possible from this site.

Tracklogs

Even if the retrieve was a little eventful you can’t complain about the scenery.

The retrieve. A picture tells a thousand words.

A big thanks to Adrian and Craig for pioneering this fantastic site. We are really excited about the potential of this place. Thanks again to Craig for picking us up, without you we would have been stuffed.

Can’t wait for spring and the flights we will be having in this area.

Camberwarra last weekend. A real nice site to run off and a whole lot of hangies to share it with. Unfortunately we couldn’t manage more than a sleddie but it was lots of fun anyway.

Dave getting a little caught up in the moment and bungs on his best punter impersonation.

Managing these large areas of unlandable terrain proved quite technical and many different methods of crossing are evident from tracklogs and stories shared over beers since.

Once we hit the flats on the other side of the forests we were still not ‘out of the woods’ so to speak. They have had a lot of rain down that we. Large amounts of surface water are still evident and this makes for some very slow areas.

Dave Seib wins both days and I limp around to goal on both tasks which means I maintain my second place in front of Conrad and Big Jon. One day left, let’s see how things pan out.

So go-karts and bowling where the call of the day.

While we’re sitting here. Check out Oyvind’s blog at http://www.ellefsen.net/ he is giving a great blow by blow rundown of each task.

Again we wake to 15kt easterlys. Again we set off down the hwy. 160km to Dulacca is the call.

Just like the past few days, the first 100km is dominated by real racing conditions. We had to pull the handbreak with 55km to go. This put a lot of guys on the deck as it was necessary to circle in zeros while the sky clouded over.

Rangi won the day leading the guys from the first start into goal. Seibsy took the third and flew the quickest time and moves back into then over all lead.

I limp into goal in 6th place and hang onto second overall.

Results here http://www.hgfa.asn.au/%7Edhgc/

Today looks pretty much the same. No complaints, the flying here has been awesome for this time of year!

We waited a while and eventually a 78km task to Chinchilla was called and off we set. I was in a reasonable position for the third gate at 1:30 so headed off with Conrad.

The first half of the track was a real race with 3.5m climbs to 6.5 grand. Everything changed with 25km to go and we we’re into surival mode. At this point we were caught by the gaggle and we all groveled together into goal. Nick Purcell was first in from our gaggle.

Dave May took the third gate and set a very fast time into goal possibly winning the day. We’ll see how things pan out with the results in the morning but it looks lime I will now be leading in he overalls.