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

Flying Hinchcliffs Launch

Met some fellow club members in Canungra and we decided to head up to Hinchcliff launch. About 10km from Canungra. The clouds looked pretty good and a task was called to Boonah T and then to Kalbar. The usual people were there, Warren, Neil, Paul A, Cameron, Richard, Tony, Henk, Ronald, Wayne, Briano etc. Most of us struggled to get above 2400ft. Henk won longest on Lauch for the day I think, with a few of us not far behind. Cam got away within 5 mins. I launched just after Paul A, but he found some good lift and got away way before me. Finally the 5 of us left on the ridge got up after over half an hour or more.

Wayne on Launch

Paul A with Warren behind (Blue Glider)

Briano with the Green Sail.

The Bombout claimed only one.

It seemed to top out at 4000ft, but I hung around for bit longer and found some more lift and got to 4700ft. Henk had already headed off and was getting low on Witheren. I headed West to get a thermal on Witheren, but found nothing. I pushed on to Chicken Shed ridge and at 2600ft found some lift on the Southern end near the airstrip. It was only 200ft per min up and then it started to rain on me. I hung with it till 3900ft and headed off towards Beaudesert to catch up to Paul. It kept raining on me all the way and the whole area was in shadow. I got to Beaudesert at 2300ft and headed south to get out of the rain, but found no more lift and landed into a weak SE breeze 1km South of Beaudesert. Game over.

Paul coming in to land.

Tom over where we landed.

Paul who had been waiting for me just West of Beaudesert, also in a bit of rain landed with me and Tom came in to land with us also after flying through some rain. Quite and enjoyable day though. I think Ronald, Warren & Cam got to Kalbar.

Pauls Landing

Toms Landing

Tamborine to Boonah T flight - Sun May 4

A Google Earth image of my flight path.

Another beautiful winters day on the Coast led Joel and myself on a days hang gliding trip. We arrived on launch to find quite a few Hang Gliders and Paragliders there setting up. Dan, Scotty 1 & 2, Rod, Derek, Pete and more were there, plus many spectators who clapped after each person launched. Which was unusual but good. Conditions were very light and a few ended up in the Bomb out field. So we waited until nearly 1pm before launching. I got off ok in the light winds and found myself in a very light thermal with plenty of others just out in front of launch. Some people were getting too close for my liking so I left the thermal and came back in under everyone. Eventually I climbed to around 5,500ft near launch. The paragliders went more south towards misery and all got low.

I headed out with Briano and Dan towards Chicken shed ridge which worked well for us. We got to Beaudesert at around 5,000ft then Briano headed W/NW of Beaudesert and Dan and myself headed out to the West and got a good climb near the quarry. I saw some good clouds a bit more W/SW and Dan headed a bit more W/NW. There was also a fire where I was headed and I found a good climb there. Dan got low and headed back closer to where I was. I waited for him to climb back up to me so we could continue flying together, but after nearly half an hour I began getting very cold and started shivvering and my fingers were getting numb. So I headed out to the Boonah T. I got there at 2,500ft and began to warm up again, but the clouds had all gone, it was about 3pm by then.

So I found a light thermal and just flew around enjoying the view and afternoon sun. There was not much wind and I decided not to land at the Boonah T as the field seemed to slope down with direction I was going to land. So instead I found a nice uphill field to South West of Boonah T and landed safely there. 46km all up for the day. Several times at cloud base. Some nice long glides. I was a happy Chappy.

Don and Rod came to pick me up just after I'd finished packing up which was great. Thanks guys. Dan did get back up, flew to Boonah T and headed back to Beaudesert, but landed a few Kms East of Boonah T.

Joel was going to launch just after me, but it was so light that he would have had to run really fast and with his wrecked knee he chose to wait until more wind was coming up the face. So by the time he got off the hill I was already gone. He bombed out with Scott and Karl and managed to get a ride up the top again to pick up my car. He then had to wait for me to get back from my flight. Thanks buddy. I didn't get back to Canungra till 5.20pm.

So not such a great day for poor Joel, but I had a grin from ear to ear.