Beechmont to Toowoomba Sat 18th October 2008

Last Saturday was looking like a good day for flying. I was glad of this because I had made plans for Sunday. The wind was ESE on Beechmont launch, a bit gusty and around 12 to 15 knts. There were clouds forming and base looked reasonably high. I got there early so as to set up and get off the hill before the paragliders got there for the last day of their comp. A few other hangies turned up to launch early too. Warren, Big Trev, Nick, Garbor and Big Rig were among them. Marty had already launched by 9.15 am with some free flying paragliders. No one seemed to be getting high and I was a bit unenthusiastic.

I launched after Raef and Courtney. Big Trev found a good climb at the far North end of the ridge. I got to the end of the ridge at only 1900ft and saw Warren, Big Trev and Marty going over the back at about 4,500ft. I found something and started climbing. It got better, but I had to move upwind to find the better lift. I cored it well at about 2,800ft and climbed to 5,000ft. The view is great there at that height. You can see Hinze dam, Surfers Paradise and some cool valleys and mountains.

I headed towards Hinchcliffs, where I could see Warren and company getting high over the flat top. Nick followed and Garbor was there too. I had a fairly good run to near Mohomat (8km south of Beaudesert). Garbs was helping Marty along and we all seemed to meet up just before the Boonah foothills where Marty's arms got tired (again?! are they painted on Marty?) and he went in to land back at Beaudesert. He could smell the Jim Beam in the bottle shop I think. Good effort though mate. Another good XC in the XT.

Then, at the Boonah foothills the other guys had managed to stay high and keep going while Reg and myself struggled low in erratic lift that seemed to move after every second circle. We persisted and finally got up and crossed the Boonah hills to meet up with the others who were all high and just leaving the Boonah T area when we got there.

Again, here I struggled in the erratic lift and tracked North and then back East looking for a decent thermal. After dropping to 1500ft, I finally found something good and got back to base. I heard on the radio that the others were struggling a bit too. But by now they had got a fair distance from me.

Mt Walker looking NE

The trouble with the day was that the lift was erratic and broken. The clouds seem to build and disappear very quickly. I would pick a nice solid looking cloud to fly to, but by the time I got to it it would've almost gone. Plus after I passed Mt Walker I was flying over ground I had never seen before. Also, no real plan had been made (mine was just to fly as far as I could). We had no driver too. But I guess all this just made the day more interesting and more challenging.

WNW looking towards Toowoomba

I heard on the radio that Big Trev and the others had followed a big power line to Toowoomba and got up near a big fire on the way. In this pic above you can see the clouds look better to the right. I saw the power line and the fire, but there was one cloud over the fire and not much else and it was a long way off. So I chose a different path, just to the right of those two big yellow circle fields. There was a big forest to cross, but the clouds looked much better.

So, off I headed towards Toowoomba. I managed to cross the forest easily and found a good climb near a cloud that had almost dissipated. Then things got difficult. I started losing lift and getting low near Haliden. I spotted a go-cart track and thought of landing there. Then I saw a good field near the main highway to Toowoomba and decided it would be a good option. All of sudden, I hit a good one and climbed back to 5,000ft. I was drifting to Toowomba and was now within glide of it. Right on the edge of range I heard gun shots and looked down and saw a rifle range. I hoped they wouldn't have pot shots at me!

So, anyway the clouds had all gone west of the range except for one great looking one. Of all the places it could've been, it happened to be right over the airport. Bummer. Can't go there. So I spotted a small hill to the North of town that I thought it might have some lift near it. It did, but it was small patchy lift and wind was now quite strong from the NE. You can see this hill in the pic below.
And so endeth the flight. 145km for the day and 4.5 hours in the air. Yay!
So, with no driver the 7.5 hour trip home was not so enjoyable. Rangi was kind enough to drag his sick arse out the house and come an get Warren, Big Trev, Reg, Nick and myself who all landed miles apart take us back to Canungra. Thanks heaps mate.
Garbs wound down near Laidley, in the same field he landed in the day before!

Some local pilots on Beechmont Launch

Keith, Beau, Pete and Marty on Beechmont launch.