Winter flying Mt Tamborine

The cool South East Queensland winter often sees us with Westerly winds, meaning Mt Tamborine launch is used quite often. On Saturday the 14th of June only 3 of us turned up to fly Tambo. Warren, Dan and myself. The breeze was light and Dan had to make a repair to his glider, so we waited for a while before launching. We saw Flocky get towed up to 2,700ft before getting off in a thermal over Mt Misery. He then flew over to launch and got nothing and struggled to get back to the Tow paddock. Marty got off tow into something a flew around for a while.



We decided to launch at around 1pm. Dan was off first, then Warren and myself. Warren got up a bit, Dan got low and was heading for the bomb out. I was following him and halfway to the bombout I saw Dan landing. I though I would be landing with him soon, but I hit a light thermal and turned at 900ft. It was brocken and kept moving. But I was determined not to bomb out. I worked hard and eventually got back to the ridge, but only at ridge height. With Warren above me we finally got up to 3,000ft. I flew for nearly an hour and top landed.

On Saturday the 21st of June, I found myself heading up to Mt Tamborine again with Joel. We were first to the to launch at about 10.15am. But soon many others turned up including Jon Jnr fresh back from his US trip. The wind was a gusty SW at 12-18knts. None of us were too enthusiastic. But eventually Joel and I decided to go. Joel was first off and I was next and of course all the rest followed then. It was a bit rough, but once you got a bit of height it was ok. We struggled to get up over 2,500ft, but Enda seemed to be getting over 3,000ft off to the North point. I headed over, but I hit lots of sink and came back much lower than I would've liked.




I got back up and after a while of searching for good lift I saw Jon Jnr launch. He was only just above the tree tops and he flew the whole way to the North point at this height. Then right at the point he got into a thermal and was climbing well. I decided to go over there and try again. This time I was much more successfull and climbed to 4,300ft with Jon & Nick I think. More gliders came over and we all headed out towards misery. We all got low (2,000ft) before finding some light lift. Eventually we got back up and I decided to head back to launch to topland.



I did few wing overs over launch while Brian kindly drove my car to the Long Rd field. I landed with not quite enough speed and softly nosed in. A big cowpat helped soften the impact of gliders nose. A bit embarrasing. Flocky came over to topland also. We went back to Canungra to have a bite and pick up Joel who had got a lift from the Bottom landing field. Another 2 hours of flying in clear blue skys. It's great being able to fly all year round, even if it is a bit chilly up there.

See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6kmg3IY5U