Flyin Tambo in May

I was in two minds about what to do today. The sky was blue and wind seemed light. But after looking at Jonny's blog and seeing Ollie fling in Europe, I knew I had to go hang gliding. I spoke to Lee who had been sending some new blood off Tambo and he said conditions were good and he may be doing some towing at the Lawn Farm later. With his use of a DragonFly light aircraft, Flocky, Kenny and Lee have been doing a fair bit of towing lately.

I've been a bit hesitant to fly Tambo lately because of a fence in our landing field. Especially after seeing Big Rig overrun and break his glider last weekend. But then, I thought, I have to face my demons and fly Tambo and deal with whatever landing confronts me.

Our landing field, lower right

So after a bit of a sleep-in and thinking about what I've just mentioned, I headed up to Tambo at about 20 past 10. Cranked up some uplifting tunes and got to launch at around 11am. Quite a few paragliders and hangies were on Tambo launch. A nice SW breeze confronted me and I set up. I knew the landing field should not be a problem today because of the wind speed and direction.

Tambo launch from 4,800ft

After speaking to a few of our club members I dialed in a task of Bromelton-Laravale and back to the Model Airfield. I was one of the last to launch and wind speed had increased a fair bit. I just flew about for while and tried to head out from the ridge out a couple of times. I saw a few hangies landing between the Model airfield and the Turf farm, where I saw Lee towing someone up. It didn't look great, so headed back to the ridge.

Mt Misery

Well the sky was very clear and the views were great. My car was on launch and I was enjoying myself, so I decided to top land at the Long Rd field. This meant I wouldn't have to tackle the strong headwind and I wouldn't have to find someone to pick me up and get me back to my car at launch. So I just thermalled up, enjoyed the view, did a few aerial maneuvers and had a great afternoon flying.

Looking toward the beach

I landed at Long Rd after over an hour of flying. Reaf and Richard and a paraglider also landed there and Reaf drove me back to launch. I then drove back to finish packing up my glider at relaxed pace whilst having a beer. I've decided to place a higher priority of just enjoying my flying now rather than completing a task.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday I reckon. Hang gliding rules.

Standard self portrait