Great weekend at Rainbow Beach QLD

The 15 & 16 of December was a great weekend of hanging out with friends in Hang Gliders (and paragliders). There were many new and old pilots. Enda, Jonny, Ant, Jonny, Karl, Scotty, Marty, Danny, Keith and Peter to name just a few who enjoyed scenic views.
Ken Hill and family picked a weekend with near perfect weather for flying the Blow.
It was also Leeroy Patterson's birthday. So a bit of celebrating was had at the local surf club on the saturday night.

I'll let some of these pics tell the story.

Tamborine to Rathdowney 9th Dec 2007

Joel and myself decided to drive to Canungra to meet up with some other club members because the wind was light and we weren't sure which launch to go to. We thought it would be Tambo and Joel said that we should have just gone straight there. This was because we ended up waiting for Rod who had a meeting in Canungra which we were told by Henk and Ronald would last a half hour, so we loaded our gliders on his 4wd (we had permission to do this) thinking he would be straight over and we could go up the hill together very soon. Well one and half hours after we got to Canungra, we finally headed up to Tambo launch. This meant we had to rush to set up before the wind came over the back. And it did about 5 mins before we had finished setting up.

It was a very muggy day and we were completely wet with sweat when we got into our harnesses. Ronald did a virtually no wind launch and just got away. I waited with Big Jon for a cycle to come up the face as the breeze was from the NE now. After a hot wait of about 15 mins thinking I was going to have to pack up on launch, a light puff came up the hill and I knew this was my only chance so I ran as fast as I could. I got away safely and only found light lift. I was gradually loosing height. I got really low and decided to head to the landing field. Half way there I got a good one and took it to cloud base.

Joel managed to get off the hill too, thankfully and also found a thermal to cloud base. We headed off along Misery and Joel got low on Witheren where he got attacked by that bloody Wedgie. He managed to get back up to about 5,000ft and headed off into the Kerry Valley. Unfortunately he found only light lift after that and landed in the Kerry. He then had to walk about 5 or 6km before getting a lift back to Canungra which he was obviously not happy about.

Meanwhile I struggled across the Kerry not getting over 3,500ft until finally finding some good lift on the West side of the Jinbroken Range. I got to within glide of Rathdowney and settled on just landing there and having a beer in the pub. But then I found a good thermal just 700m from where I was going to land. I took it up to about 3,600ft where I saw a Wedgie who seemed to be in better lift than I. I went in under him, which I think pissed him off, because he then started to attack my wing. He got me twice and I could see some small holes in my topsail through my undersail. 4 to be exact. As they were quite small, I was not worried about the integrity of my sail. I had wanted to try and get over the border to try and find Dan who I'd heard on the radio had made it into NSW. But after my encounter with the Wedgie and the path ahead seemed to be lacking landing options and clouds, I decided the Rath pub was a nice option.

After my encounter with the Wedgie I still had about 3,500ft to loose so I decided to do a couple of aerial maneuvers to help loose height. Then I thought that it would be a good time to try something stupid, but something I've wanted to do for a while, a loop. I checked where my chute was. I checked the ground downwind of where I was, then I did a couple of wing overs pulled my vg on full, pulled the bar right back levelled out and let bar go out. Shit what I am I doing I thought as I saw nothing but sky. Then it got worse, I felt my hangstrap go loose. I pushed the bar out in a desperate attempt to get my nose pointing to the ground. My feet hit the sail and then suddenly my hangstrap went taught again. Thank god, I thought. Well, I'd done it, but only just. Yeh hah! Definitely the stupidest most dangerous thing I'd ever done. Gee it felt good.

I then continued to spiral down and landed cleanly at Rath, packed up under a shady tree. I checked my sail damage. Not too bad. A few patches should fix it. Then walked to the shop for burger. Had two schooners in the pub before Joel arrived and then we had to find his glider somewhere in the Kerry and drove home. Just another days hangliding.

Killarney Flight - 93km from Beechmont

On Sunday the 18th of November 2007 I picked up Joel and then Juliette to go up for a possible long cross country flight. I said to Joel on the way up launch "We have someone to drive and the clouds look good, we'll fly a long way today" well, something to that effect anyway.

There were a few people on launch and about 4 novices with red streamers. Warwick was there along with Scotty, Callun and Karl. Unfortunately Karl bombed out after launching first. I heard a few others bombed out with someone deciding the creek might be a good place to crash, oops, I mean land. Apparently others created some aluminum for the scrap metal yard down there too.

Big Trev said the task was Rathdowney with an infinite line. Some said that was too easy, but I liked it. Mainly because I thought I might be able to get there.

I launched at about 11am and Joel wasn't far behind. We all got up to around 2,600ft quite easily, but then the cycles shut down and we lost height gradually. Joel, Big Trev, Ronald and myself eventually got up high enough to go over the back after going up and down a few times. Big Trev rocketed off then, Ronald and Joel and I followed after waiting for a bit. Joel and I left at around 3,800ft. Joel was in his Sonic so he had trouble staying with me on glide. I got to Gordos and dribbled West at only about 3,500ft. I saw Joel getting low in front of Gordos. I hoped he'd get back up and he did. Because I stumbled upon him at the Southern end of the Jinbroken Range. Well done Joel I thought. He'd just broken his PB by about 5km.

Over the Jinbroken Range.

Joel flying over Jinbroken

Joel again

The Storm

We noticed a huge storm building behind us over O'riellys and we headed off towards Rathdowney 15kms away. I lost Joel again, but we ended up together again soon. We had a great time thermalling opposite each other. Now we were 2km East of Rathdowney. I decided not to fly directly over the town but to head South as there was a cloud on a range there that I thought we could both reach. I lost Joel again and the cloud didn't give me much lift and I was losing height. I headed North for a bit and found some good lift. I couldn't see Joel and I think his radio was turned down, so I couldn't talk to him. I decided to head to a big Rocky range to the West of Rath thinking I could ridge soar it for bit of fun. I got there at 5,000ft and found good lift so I didn't get to ridge soar it. Then I saw Joel come in below me but just over the top of this spectacular range. He thermalled up to me and I got him on the radio and exclaimed "How good is this!". The views were awesome. We were about 5km East of Maroon Dam. Joel said to me "Where to now?" "I don't know mate" I said. I looked around and at landing options. I decided to head straight south over the range as I saw a landing option in a small valley. I didn't think it was a good idea for Joel to follow as I didn't really know where I was going and I didn't want him to get into trouble with landing options. I knew I could get by but if I was in a sonic I wouldn't have gone where I did. So I left Joel behind.

A fire near the rocky range

Looking NW near Maroon Dam

The rocky range I wanted to ridge soar with Maroon Dam in the Background

I found plenty of lift and found myself above a squawking Wedgie. I thought he was going to attack me with all of his squawking, but he just checked me out and flew around me for a while. I was in heaven. Just myself and a wedgie over some of the most fantastic scenery I'd ever seen.

I followed some ranges for bit then crossed over my landing option at 7,000ft to another smaller range and into a large valley. I started getting low and was sussing out a landing option near a road and a bridge. I had no dams to pick the wind direction so I started circling over a tree to monitor my drift direction. I was getting worried as there seemed to be no real drift, and landing with a slight tailwind and down a slight hill can easily end in pain. Then all of a sudden, whooshka! Is that a word? 700up on the vario. I cranked it tight and eventually found myself at 7,800ft. You little rippa! Bloody cold though. I radioed to Juliette who was driving that I would try and get to Killarney. I could see Killarney now and had an easy glide to it.

Wayne, Ronald and Regan had already landed there, but had no driver. I got to Killarney with a fair bit of height and wound down throwing in a few aerial maneuvers. I was dying for a leak and found a nice field with a toilet block in it 300 metres from the pub. I landed next to the toilet block and went straight for leak. The boys had got a lift to where I landed and we walked to the pub for a feed and some refreshments. Juliette and Joel turned up about an hour later. We loaded up the car (6 people, 5 gliders and harnesses in an old Skyline wagon) and drove over the range towards Boohah. It was quite crampt, Joels smelly feet and the cars smelly brakes made me a bit nervous. Then we crossed a cattle grid a little too fast and the rear vision mirror fell down. We dropped Ronald at Canungra and Regan and Wayne at Beechmont. I finally got home at 10pm. I heard that Rangi and Tony actually made it to Warwick too. Those guys are really the legends. Congrats guys.

A bit of a vid from the days flyin.

What a day. Certainly a flight I'll never forget. I'm sure there'll be some more great days coming up this summer. Joel flew about 60km in his sonic. What a little legend. He flew really well. Watch out when he gets a Litespeed. I'm sure he'll be kicking my arse once he gets one.

Flying the Canungra Classic 2007

Classic Comp 2007

Well, I finally left work on the Friday night to check in for the classic. Half way to Canungra I wondered why I even left home. The sky was black and branches were flying across the road. With Joel and my gliders on the roof I thought they were going to not only get really wet, but maybe get damaged by hail. Fortunately I managed to park under cover at the show-grounds before the first storm hit. Made it by about 1 minute.

Once the gliders were safely under cover I then had to set up camp. So after I waited for another storm cell and heavy rain I managed to set up my tent in the light rain. I then registered, had a few drinks and tried to get some much needed sleep.

Day 1 found us at Mt Tamborine. I was in position 51 out of about 62. I flew with Joel for a bit. We both made it accross the canungra road to Witheren. But we separated going to Chicken shed ridge. I found nothing on Chicken shed ridge and landed on the Western side near the Rifle Range. Joel landed closer to Beaudesert. The bugger beat me in a Sonic. (I now fly a litespeed 5). I possibly should have gone in alternate launch and got off the hill a bit earlier.

Day 2 saw us at Beechmont. I missed going alternate because I was sitting on the wrong side of the room. All 20 spots were gone by the time I got to the end of the line. So I was at the back of field on launch and by the time my turn came to launch the sea breeze had come in and my ticket XC was gone. Spewin. Managed to top land after an hour and half of ridge soaring.

Day 3 and we were back at Tamborine. The wind was 5knts SW. I managed to get in Alternate launch today which meant I was 11th off the hill. Unfortunately the lift was very light for me, (I weigh over 90kgs and fly a litespeed 5) So after about 20 mins of struggling with a few other pilots trying to stay up I had to head to the bombout. I hit some strong lift on the crosswind leg of my approach which made me go straight instead of turning like I wanted to. Which meant I had to pull on the speed and make a low slipping turn over a house. I came over a fence by about 10ft and with the switching wind conditions. I was now landing cross wind with heaps of speed and was heading to a steak in the ground. I managed to pull up ok but hit a hole in the ground and twisted my foot badly. Then nosed in. I was very hot and angry with myself. I had the option to re-launch because I'd landed in the bombout, but I said to my good driver, Marty that i was pissed off and wouldn't re-launch. But by the time we got back to the launch (Nathan wanted a re-fly) I had cooled down and figured we were on a hill and I had a glider so why not fly?
My foot was burning, but I ignored the pain and ran off Tambo once more. At first it seemed a bit of dejavu. I'd been in the air for 5 mins and was getting very low to the right of launch. I was turning to head to the bombout when Whooshkaa. I got a great thermal which I had to bank really tight in, and eventually found myself at 6,000ft. I then went on to fly over 36kms. My best distance for the whole comp. But my foot ailed me for the rest of the comp. I tried to ignore it.


Day 4 was back to Tamborine. The wind was 15 to 25 knts from the W-NW. I was no. 20 in Alternate launch. It was really rough and unpleasant in the air. I eventually ventured to the north point after going up and down a lot. There I found a very violent lee side thermal which got me where I wanted to be, albeit with a few more grey hairs (got so many now who cares). Only ended up at the Model Airfield. But the headwind was so strong I was pretty proud of that. Only 7km for the day.

Days 5 & 6 were cancelled so we were on Day 7 now. Back at Beechmont. Wind was 12 - 18 knts E-NE. I was 15th in Alternate launch. Which was good I thought. After a long while of going up and down trying to get enough height to go over the back I finally got high enough height with all the top pilots (Jonny Jnr, Attilla, Dave Seib, Etc.). But right then nearly everyone turned around and headed back to the ridge. What's going on here I thought. I later found out that everyone had gone back for a later start. Well, I was there, with enough height to go over the back, so off I went. I got to Gordo's and only found a pilot bombing out and just enough lift to get me to the Kerry valley. I was struggling when I found myself suddenly surrounded by about 20 pilots. All circling in nothing. I spotted Big Trev heading out alone and figured following him was a good decision considering we were all losing height. Wrong! I soon saw Big Trev land followed by myself and a Ridgid wing. Bummer.

Day 8. Again we were at Beechmont. I was number 37 off the hill. The lift was light (5knts E-NE) and I had trouble getting over 3,000ft. Even got as low as 1,400ft and thought I was going to bomb out. Finaly, I drifted over the back at 3,700ft. I found some violent lift at Gordo's but couldn't get much over 4,000ft.
Ended up decking it in the Kerry Valley to only make 16km from launch. Took me over 2 hours too. But I was still pretty happy for the day.

Overall I ended up being about number 52 out of 62 pilots. I was very happy as I had learnt a lot and had a lot of fun. Even beat Atilla (best in the world) on Day 2, but so did a lot of guys. Anyway, it was a great comp with a lot of great pilots. Much fun was had by all.

See ya on one of our hills soon I hope.

Last Weekend in September flying Tamborine

The weekend of the 29th and 30th of September was the start of the Canungra Cup paragliding competition. Jon Durand who is in the top ten ranked hang glider pilots in the world has ended up being in the Paragliding comp as well as the hang gliding comp this year. Unfortunately conditions on launch got unsafe so most of the paragliders never got to launch on Saturday, including Jonny.

The goal was Rathdowney and one paraglider made it apparently. Anyway quite a few of us hang glider pilots managed to launch and have good fly on a windy blue sky day. We also tried to get to Rathdowney and some pilots did and flew back towards Tamborine. The headwind was very strong and our progress towards Rath was very slow. I managed to get about 20km from Tamborine and had a nice two step landing on my feet in the Kerry Valley. Joel picked me up just after I'd finished packing up.

Cam setting up. Rangi to far right.

Sunday was similar conditions with a strong W/NW wind. About 13 of us hangies launched and the day was cancelled for the paragliders. So poor Jonny has yet to fly in the comp and the rest of the week may not be too good either. The headwind seemed even stronger than Saturday on Sunday and we had no goal named as well.

Henk launching

There's a hangie and a paraglider in this shot somewhere.

I managed to get across the valley ok and made it to the model airfield (about 7km from launch). So with no where really to go I pulled out my camera to take some pics, but I think my camera has developed a fear of heights as it wouldn't work properly at all. So here is a pic of the the Witheren range from about 5,000ft. It seemed to work fine once I was back on the ground though.

Over Witheren Range at around 5,000ft

Jon Senior came over to my thermal and I asked where he was headed. He said a few had landed at the Turf farm near Flockys and was headed there. So I decided to go there too only I didn't make it and had another good landing in field just near Flocky's place. Joel and some of the other low hour pilots, such as Simo, Dan, Courtney, Rob and Ant, had some good flying at Tambo also.

The field I landed in with Witheren Range in the background.

Overall it was a hot weekend with some good flying and some great thermals up to 7,500ft. By the way I'm now wearing knee pads and my knee is healing up nicely.

The Canungra Classic Hang gliding is now less than two weeks away, so Joel and I are looking forward to flying in that.

Sep 9 Kissin the Gravel

The launch on Sunday.

Well, there was an unofficial task to the Boonah T. I ridgesoared Beechmont for nearly an hour before finally getting up to 4,000ft with Derek and Neil. We all got to Hinchcliffs ok, and Neil got up easily and went on West. Derek and myself spent nearly another hour on Hinchcliffs. Derek landed at Hinchies bombout field and I was about to follow as the wind had died off. I managed to find a thermal half way to the bombout and eventually get back up to 4,000ft.

I headed West again and found a huge rain band in the Kerry. It looked really heavy. I decided to try and get infront of it. I found only light lift and started loosing height. I made the mistake on not really deciding on a good landing field. Then I made the mistake of thinking I could clear a fence and road. Soon, as I heard my harness just clip the top of a fence I was crashing onto a gravel road. I was soon greeted by the owner who couln't believe where I had landed with out hitting a fence. We were both glad that I didn't do any damage to fences and also the fact that I was 3 feet short of running into the electric fence.

The fence I only just cleared in foreground and electric fence in background.

Scrape marks left by my knee and base bar.

And finally for you bloodthirstys, what you get when you don't set up your approach right.

I was very upset with myself and more worried about the 2 weeks of pain that a scraped knee can give (inglewood) than any immediate pain. At least Joel was kind enough to drive out and pick me up. Glider seemed to survive relatively unscathed.

Sunday Series Task from Beechmont to Moogera Dam.

As Joel and I drove up to Beechmont the clouds were looking very good and our hopes were up. We arrived at just after 10am to find lots of people and many gliders already set up.


It looked good, but then the wind died and the valley was in shadows. So no one was keen to launch. Soon the wind picked up a little and Kath launched. She wasn't gaining much height but seem to be ridge soaring quite well. Of course then there was a bit of a rush. Soon there was 15 or so paragliders and hang glider ridge soaring in light lift. There was a call for no more pilots to launch as it was very congested with everyone at the same height. Some bombed out after choosing to search for lift out in the valley. Some eventually gained enough height to go over the back. After seeing a few pilots getting up off the point I decided to launch and fly out to them, but was rewarded instantly with good lift right in front of launch.


It was worth the long wait to launch because I soon found myself going over the back with a great cloud street almost all the way to Moogera. I caught up with a gaggle of four over Mohomit (is that how you spell it?). Kath was one of them and we flew together almost all the way to goal. It was an awesome flight.


I was so glad to make goal. Lee, the legend that he is was there to pick up Kath had some beers with him and I thought, well it doesn't get much better than this. A great flight, someone to take you back to your car and few cool beers around beautiful countryside. Many pilots made goal, including Nick, Cameron, Neil, Derek, Warren, Wrangi etc. I ended up being 6th for the day behind Warren, Cameron, Nick and Neil. If only days like this happened every weekend.

Aerotowing from the Lawn Farm at Boyland

On Saturday the 1st of September a few members of the Canungra club went out to do some aerotowing with Lee, Flocky and Barfly. Nick landed there after launching from Tambo. Wrangi came out along with Joel and few others.



Conditions were a bit light we were told by Big Trev and some others who flew overhead. Kath towed up and managed to stay up for quite a while before landing not too far away. I was about 5th to get towed up after a few came back for a re-tow. It was very hard to stay up even though the clouds looked good. I landed short of the tow paddock and packed up.



Then there was a bit of a spot landing comp which Joel won. Good, fun day. There should be more days like this coming up again soon too for those who want have a tow locally.

Trip to Cook Islands back in June 07

A bit of a late entry here. Back in June I went to the Cook Islands with 7 others, Kath, Lee ,Taj & Nita (Lee's mum), Scotty & Fiona and Joel.


We spent 7 days on Raratonga and 6 on a beautiful island called Aitutaki. The main reason for going was to kitesurf. 6 of us had kiting gear (Nita and Taj are not into it yet). Scotty had done some research and told us that it should be great for kiting and the wind should be up. Unfortunately this wasn't so. After a few days of no wind on Raratonga we started going a bit stir crazy.



We went snorkeling, climbed up the hardest tracks I've ever been on and nearly got lost. It was very steep and if there wasn't any markers you never would've known there was a track there. Joel and Scotty did it waring thongs! My nike sandals were broken afterwards. Only Joel made it to the highest peak with Scotty getting to within 30m of the summit. I got to about 300m and Kath and Fiona turned back about 500m from the top. Lee took Taj & Nita back only after about a kilometer as the mossies and track looked bad.


The wind was teasing us. Only a couple of knots short of being able to kite. Joel eventually had had enough after cracking open coconuts and drinking beer and sitting on the beach looking at the ocean. On the 5th day he grabbed his kite and set up. I told him he was mad. He planned on launching from the reef near our beach house. There was just enough wind to get going and off he went. He did a few runs and managed to tack back to where he left. He scraped his board on the reef as he came back in and was lucky to get away with it, but he got his fix. Unfortunately for Joel this was his only real kite session for the whole trip.


Taj after a big session.

Then it was on to Aitutaki. Poor little Taj (18 months old) couldn't pop his ears on the small plane (no pressurised cabin). He screamed and cried the whole 50 mins.


Aitutaki is one of the most beautiful islands I've ever seen. A massive lagoon with several small islands close to the reef. So after we'd found our accomodation and been attacked by millions of mosquitos I went and hired a moped as there was still no wind.

The next day still had no wind. So on day four at Aitutaki after lots of drinking, Kayaking to a small island, exploring the island on the moped and opening even more coconuts, Joel gave up. He decided to head back to Raratonga and hopefully find more wind there. That night as Joel was getting on the plane the wind picked up! Poor Joel. He found no wind on Raratonga and lost his keys to a moped. He did go skinny dipping with some Scandinavian girls though apparently.

The rest us of thanked the wind gods and went out on a boat to an awesome sand island which we kited off and had lunch on. We also went fishing on some reefs and we caught some good snapper which we ate for dinner. Yum! The next day we went back there on a boat and kited all afternoon. The last two days made the whole trip worth it.