What an amazing week last week was. Dave topped it all off by pulling out an amazing flight from one of our favorite local sites:

It was the previous Friday that  the forecast was calling  Eastery winds extending inland all the way to south Australia for the start of the following week which is exactly what I’ve been watching out for to do a big flight from my favourite site-Lake George is best known for its after noon and early morning flights because its an amazing dry lake bed with a 40km ridge  facing East so its perfect for  ridge soaring the Sea breeze that pushes  inland on a regular bases. The Canberra club has no shortage of keen pilots who cruise out after work or even get up early to soar the ridge.

As for going XC from the Lake all you need is a prevailing Eastery, which doesn’t happen too often so when I saw the forecast for Monday &  Tuesday I planned to have those days off work. Over the weekend the weather was looking better & better and I was  getting real keen. I got a call from Jonny Durand making some final plans for the Manilla comp, and knowing he was in Sydney I suggested he shoot down the Hume for a fly with me. Jonny had some Red Bull things to sort out on Monday so I said i’ll test the water on and we both have a go at big one on Tuesday which did look like the better day.

Kind of a nice looking day:) Prefect conditions to help Ed crack a new PB. He recently cracked the 100km mark down at Corryong. I we were sure he would better that today.

I was the last to launch at 1:30pm but the four of us (Barnsie, Ed, Pete in the Malibu and I) soon met up near the clouds to begin our day of fun.

With Barnsie at base. Ed’s not far behind so we wait at the top for him to join us. We stay together for the next 70km or so until Ed’s radio goes flat. What a bugger. With the break down in communication Barnsie and I decide to push forward a little faster as the day is prooving to be a real cracker. By now Ed almost had glide to his PB so we knew he would be a happy boy in the car on the way home.

Dustys crack off every where but that’s to be expected when the sky is full of 1000fpm climbs. A real standout was a rough as guts 1400fpm up to base. Luckily, going up at that rate you don’t have to stay in that air very long.

At about the 100km mark we lament not launching earlier and going for the 300km to Hay.

At 4pm the sky still looks good so I make a deal with myself. If I can make the 200km mark by 5:30 I will continue to push through for Hay. If not I will call it a day and land to make for an easy retrieve. RASP was saying that the next day was looking better anyway.

I made my intermediate goal with 15 seconds to spare! Wow thing get flat and samey out here. You really get that idea that you’ve flown off the map when the paddocks are 30km across and not a road in sight. Gulp.

After crossing some pretty inhospitable country eventually I hit the main road running to Hay. What a relief. Barnsie was still 10km or so behind but I spend a long time real low. With 38km left to go we are back together for what was looking like a really tough final leg.

Amazing, we hadn’t seen each other for 200km and here we meet up in the middle over some of the most barren terrain this country can throw at us. This is one of those moments in flying that will stay with me forever.

This climb ends up being very special indeed. 7:20pm at night and we climb from 1500ft amsl to 11500ft at 800fpm. Amazing.

Thoughts now turn to the final glide.

We cross the 300km together as we cruise toward our goal at Hay.

We arrive high and set up a landing at the Airport. The clock tick over to 8pm as we land.

After we land we’re straight on to the phone to see how the other guys faired. Ed pulled out a cracker, after splitting with him at the 80km mark he must have flown like a daemon. He landed not long before us and made 245km!!!

Pete manages 160km in the Malibu and sets a new record for the glider. Great work all. A big thanks to Liz for the huge retrieve!

Tracklogs

Barnsie and I land at Hay Airport for 315km… Full write up to come when we recover.

Brendan had a fun weekend in Bright. Looks like he snagged some of the great weather we missed during the comp:

Hey happy flyers, greetings from not-so-sunny Melbourne.

Just thought I’d better inform as many hangies as I know, that I am hooked.… line, sinker.. the whole farken shebang.  The weekend’s flying out at Bright was definitely the best flying I’ve ever done and I’ve finally figured out why you guys jump off inland hills without any ridge lift in sight and then start searching (aimlessly I used to think) for these elusive things called thermals.

Saturday afternoon I launched off Mt Emu, did some determined scratching for a while, before finally hearing “the sound”.  I really hadn’t had a lot of luck (or skill) with thermalling in the past, but after a few decent rides in the right direction, and about 7,500’ of air between me and the bomb-out, I felt like I’d finally figured it out.  I drifted down wind following the valley to the south and then east, only to realise that unless I was going to cross tiger country and try to make Mystic (like Marty did… a novice pilot… in a Ventura… with no vario) well, I was feeling on top of things, but not that confident.   And as for confidence, well, Marty tripped on launch up at Mt Buffalo the next day.  I’m sure you guys have flown it, but for those who haven’t seen the launch at buff, it’s what, about 3,500’ drop straight down at the end of the ramp.  Luckily, people ran forward and grabbed his side wires.

So after another hour of flying and a few more very pleasant moments of heading skyward, I headed north for a while, then decided to turn around and land at Mt Beauty airfield.  I mean, you can’t do better than an bloody airport for an ‘out landing’, they have huge windsocks and nice flat manicured grass.   Anyway, after floating aimlessly for another half an hour or so and confirming that, yep, the valley wind had done a 180 and gone katabtic, I made the silly decision to land elsewhere.  There I was thinking, why land at a deserted airport, when further to the west I could see a paddock with a windsock and another hang glider in it – someone to talk to while waiting for my retrieve.  It turned out to be called Tawonga bomb out.  Not such a great decision for two reasons.  One, the unusual southerly meant I’d be landing downhill in a small paddock (not gracefully as it turned out).  And two: (and most important) I didn’t realise that Mt Beauty airport was the goal for the last day of the comp that had been going all week, and an hour or so later the airport would have become one big impromptu hangie meet with lots of beer.  Damn.

Anyway, suffice to say that spending a few hours at almost 9,000 amsl flying around those ranges, zigzagging from one potential bomb out to the next, made me realise what you guys have been going on about all this time.  Fark me it was awesome.  And the next day at Mystic was almost as good.  We had to work a bit harder for the lift, but I managed to stay up until I decided it was time to land.    This may not sound phenomenal to you guys but it was a revelation to me. 

So here I am thinking that in the right conditions this inland stuff is not so bad.  I mean, despite hot and high launches, with nil or light and variable wind.  And despite crossing tiger country to find unfamiliar landing paddocks with powerlines everywhere, down-slope landings, dusties, thermals and not to mention rotor from the rapidly approaching trees at the end of the paddock.  Despite all that, if I take it one step at a time and don’t get to big for my boots, this inland stuff is not so hard… Well, you guys already know and have done for a while, but it was pretty damn awesome.   I’ll be back there within a few weeks.

Take it easy guys.   Get high.

Brendan “Turtle” Cammack

Things have been a little quiet on the flying front since driving down to Mt Beauty from Forbes last week. We managed one task in windy conditions on Tuesday but the remainder of the week continues to look questionable. Fingers crossed he high level winds back off despite the forecast.

The lack of flying though has given us plenty of opportunities to catch up on the social side of the sport  that we just didn’t have time for back up at Forbes.

We’ve been to wineries, the Bright Brewery, Fishing and Falls creek to be snowed on. Will post some pics after the 12pm briefing today.

An out and return to Tomingley was called 185km. Conditions start off light in the padock. Eventually he usual cantidates assemble at the start gate over the quarry tto the north of the strip. We are in a good place for the start at 9500ft. The usual start gate games are played and a group of pilots leave at the first start. Most of the guns hang around for the second or third starts.

I take the second with Lucas, Noma, Pedro and Guy amonst others. We scream all the way to the turnpoint. I tracked to the east of the Nth Parkes mine and get a great run to Peak Hill before catching the guys from the start gate in front. Some of the real quick guys from the last gate catch me in the same spot on the way back after the turnpoint.

At this point Jonny, Blinky, Balaz and I get a nice little gaggle happening and cover the next 50km very fast despite the 20km head wind.

Wow it’s fun to fly like this with Jonny. I have learnt that one of the biggest differences in our flying style is the speed in which he cores a climb. We glide in at 90kph and with only minimal deviation he has found the core and in one movent it’s VG off and we’re rocketing up at 4m/s. Pretty to watch.

The fast run continues back to within 20km of the airport where a change of gears it required. It takes me 40mins to cover these last few kms. Damn I was scorching too.

After eventually making it in I find that my story of woe is a common one and we get into the beers to drown our sorrow.

Dave was also really moving around the course after taking the last start with Jonny. At one stage it looked like he was going to catch me but unfortunately he landed 40km short. Barnsie, up to his usual tricks of staying in the air forever landed just 10km short of goal. Great work Dustys!

Forbes – Grenfell – Eugowra – Gooloogong was the task for today. Given the stronger than expected westerly winds for the day it was thought that a triangle would be too tough. This zig zag task called provided a neat way of staying within a short drive of Forbes but meant that we would not have to punch straight into the headwind.

The day provided some awesome flying with all the guys in our car making goal.

The Dustys, making quite a habit of this whole being in goal thing.

Results are also in with me picking up a 16th and Dave coming in only 6 mins later in 22nd. Great flying by the whole team. Let’s see more of that sort of action tomorrow guys!

Results so far

Flights in Leonardo

Well yesterday was an interesting day with a few of the guns down early. The manditory start proved to be a bit early for a few of the top 20 that were not organized enough to get in the air early.

Being in 21st, I took the last gate but I still had not managed to get high by then.

Tony G, Noma, Len and I struggled for the first 20k before finally stumbleing into a 3.5m/s to 7000ft.

Today we’re off to Marsden (near West Wyalong), then back to a point along the Henry Lawson Hwy about 25km north of Grenfell. 130km.

Forbes > Grenfell > Caragabal > Len’s Place

150km triangle. With light winds out of the NW makes the first leg down wind, the second head wind and cross wind home.

30 mins to launch. Good luck everyone!

I had the perfect start to the task but then managed to get low for 20k either side of the turnpoint. I struggled around but was pretty slow. Pete and Barnsie got close to goal but were sucked tothe ground by a blue hole on the way back.

After making goal I climbed back out take a whole lot of photos of Forbes and the surrounding area… I’ll post these up when I get a chance. in the mean time here’s a pic of where I eventually landed in town.