Enjoying getting high over Mt Tamborine in winter.

Dalby Aerotow March 2013

Enjoying flying again.

Had a nice sky cruise last weekend with my new wing. It's a Moyes Litesport 5. Set me back $8700. I'm still getting used to it as it flys a lot different from the Litespeed I destroyed. It seems quite easy to land so far. This was my fourth flight (2 bomb outs) and I covered about 50km cross country. The flight before that I did about 70km. So I am enjoying being back into the sport. I used to favour left turns, but I seem to favour right turns now.

Vid from 2011

Just a short vid from the Canungra Classic Hang Gliding Competition in 2011. Am flying a Moyes Litesport now and will post some vids and pics soon.

Horrible impact at Mt Tamborine

On Monday the 9th of April, I was ridge soaring at Mt Tamborine on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. I had my right wing facing the hill and I had good height and separation from the ridge. Suddenly I was hit by a strong bullet type thermal on my left wing. It pushed my left wing upwards and sent me turning right in strong sink toward the ridge. I weight shifted left to counter act the turn and steer out of it but nothing was happening. Realising my only option was to speed up and turn right I weight shifted right and speed up but it was too late and I'd lost too much height.

I clipped the 35m high treetops and began plummeting to the ground. I was now just a passenger. Branches in face, then bang.. hit a 6inch thick branch which broke off. Bang again hit another thick branch which broke off. Then crunch, bang I hit the ground. Fortunately I think my right wing hit the ground first and crumpled, which broke a lot of my fall.

I couldn't breath and desperately tried to get some air, but nothing. I was winded and had partially punctured lungs. Finally I was able to get small bits of air in my lungs. I was still zipped up in my harness head down in the forest. It took a while to get out of my harness, but once I did I realised that except for being shaken and in a lot pain, I was basically alright and had survived with no broken bones. It was a miracle.

Getting out of there took hours, lots of help, ant bites, leeches, mossies, stinging leaves and branches. But I'm out and will make a full recovery.

The lesson here is if you get kicked toward a ridge and you have enough height, steer with the kick. Had I just turned right after being kicked I would've been able to turn over the treetops and get away from the ridge.

My old Moyes Contour harness is for Sale!

Moyes Contour Harness in good condition. Blue/Black in black bag.
Will fit pilot of solid build around 177 cm. Made to these measurements: Overall height 177, Shoulder height 149, Chest 110, Hips 106. Has adjustable shoulder straps and zipper is velcroed on so adjustments can be made with that also.
Includes Conar Metamorfosi reserve chute.
Located at Labrador on the Gold Coast.

Price: $770 ono

email: dirkrichard@hotmail.com

Manilla NSW state titles Days 6 & 7

Day 6

Task 4 was a straight line to goal of about 122km. It was a fair bit windy from the E-SE. I had a scary moment with a king posted glider turning the opposite way to everyone else in a thermal and he did this for at least 6 turns. So I had to avoid him a couple of times (he was in a kingposted glider with a thick dark blue stripe on the underside). Eventually I climbed out above launch and had a fairly good run to a place just past The Gap.

The circulation in my left hand is poor and my fingers had no blood in them from the cold air up high. I decided to stay low for a while, but got too low and had to do a low save. I then got high one more time before Narrabri, where I just could not find any strong lift and had to land there 30kms (one more thermal) short of goal. Had a great day flying and didn't have to wait long for my team to pick me up.

SE launch task 4.

Landing spot task 4.

Day 7

Task 5 was a triangle course ending back in Manilla. It was light and variable and no-one really knew which launch to set up on. It was coming up the face of the West launch, so I set up there. Unfortunately the wind was mainly coming up the East launches, but Blaino reckoned it would come on again on the West launch, so I stayed there. People ended up launching from every luanch up there.

It did come back on at the West launch and I fianlly got off the hill late at around 2.15pm. I found a very light climb and it got better once I was about 300ft above the hill. I climbed to cloud base and had a great run to about 12kms from the first turnpoint gliding with Conrad over the ranges next to high clouds.

I reached the turnpoint with about 4,000ft. It then seemed to be headwind back towards the second turnpoint and the ground below was in shadows. I found a light climb but lost and ended up on the ground about 3kms from the first turnpoint. My day was over and so was the comp. I had a great time and some great flights and logged another 11 hours flying time. Jonny won the comp for the 10th year in a row.

The organisers were great (Monica, Tinks, Billo, etc.) and it was a fun, casual comp with no launch orders. Our driver, Lars was great and it fun flying with everyone. The Royal Hotel there in Manilla is a great base too.

Manilla NSW state titles Cont.

Looking out from the West launch.

Day 4

Well Jonny wins the day again and is leading the comp. The day was slow at first and I missed getting to launch in time to leave with the first group. Conditions got worse on launch and some people bombed out. I waited a long time and finally launched at around 2.20pm. I took the last start gate was at 3.00pm and I took the 2.45 gate. I left launch at around 6000ft. As I left so late the only other pilots I saw were on the ground. It was slow going most of the way to the first turnpoint (90km away) and I thought I was going to have to land twice.

Conditions improved just before the first turnpoint and I got there at 6000ft. Then at 5.40pm just after the turnpoint I got a 900fpm up climb. Which took me to 9000ft. I probably could've glided the 24kms to goal from there, but I found another 800fpm up half way there and climbed for a bit, just to make sure I made goal. I arrived at goal 4000ft above the ground. It was so good to make goal. I was 13th for the day and a very happy man.

Oyvind was 2nd and I think Grant was 8th. Unfortunately Neil had vario problems and didn't fly far at all.

Rainbow spectrum in high level clouds.

The Briefing.

View from up high.

On glide to goal at over 8,000ft.

View on glide to goal.

Day 5

It was a very windy and difficult day with many pilots beating Jonny. Scott Barret won the day which puts Jonny back to 4th.

Landing spot Day 5.

I didn't do very well at all. After leaving the start gate I got low and managed to climb back up, but had drifted a long way down wind of the course line and ended up landing trying to get back. Grant, Oyvind and Neil all did quite well for the day.

Manilla NSW state titles

Day 1

Well, here I am at the 2010 Manilla State titles in New South Wales about a half hour drive from Tamworth. Yesterday (Sun 14th of Feb) was supposed to be the first day of the competition, but was canned due to strong winds. So we went to try and get fly in a sailplane at Lake Keepit gliding club, but it overdeveloped and started to rain. We (Grant Heaney, Oyven, Lars, Neil Peterson and myself) then went into Tamworth to get some lunch at the Hogs Breath cafe. After that it was back to the pub for drinks and pool.

Day 2 (Mon 15th feb)

Well, last night the rain set in and it hasn't stopped. So today is canned as well. The good news is it is supposed to clear up late this afternoon, so tommorrow should be a good day for flying and also the rest of the week. Our team is: Grant, Oyven, Neil and myself with Lars as our driver in Oyven's land cruiser. So I was stocked to get in such a good team at the last minute. Today we will probably go ten pin bowling and maybe drink some more at the Royal hotel. I am staying at the Imperial Hotel which was quite hot on the first night and is very basic accommodation, but it has all I need and is way better than camping with all this rain.

I pulled a back muscle lifting a glider this morning. It sucks getting old.

View from the belcony where I'm staying. Not really flying weather.

Day 3

Well the rain has stopped and we are going up the hill (Mt Borah) to see if we can fly a task.

We had a ten pin bowling challenge in Tamworth yesterday with 5 Aussies vs 6 Kiwis. The Aussies won! We also saw the movie 'Wolfman'. I give it 2 stars.

Well, we had a good days flying. The task was 96km with 2 turnpoints. But it there was a strong headwind after the first turnpoint and only one pilot made goal. Guess who, that's right Jonny Durand. We climbed to almost 7000ft and had some good climbs, but the day got weaker. I only made 26.5kms from launch.

Oyvind and Lars with our retrieve vehicle.

Grant by his glider with Lars & Oyvind in the background.

Rainbow Beach 2009, November

The weekend of the 14th and 15th of Nov saw quite a few new and old pilots from the Canungra Hang Gliding club visit the Blow at Rainbow beach.

Much fun flying was had by all. Thank your very much Ken H and Leeroy P for organising yet another successful trip. My third time at Rainbow in 4 years and Ken & Lee have picked great weather for it weeks in advance.

A great dinner and night out at the local bowls club (ribs mmmmmmm) was had on Sat evening with everyone having a drink and a laugh.

I even managed a good surf on Sun morn.

A nice change from inland flying and a good social experience. Hope to go again next year.