Rainbow Beach 2009, November

The weekend of the 14th and 15th of Nov saw quite a few new and old pilots from the Canungra Hang Gliding club visit the Blow at Rainbow beach.

Much fun flying was had by all. Thank your very much Ken H and Leeroy P for organising yet another successful trip. My third time at Rainbow in 4 years and Ken & Lee have picked great weather for it weeks in advance.

A great dinner and night out at the local bowls club (ribs mmmmmmm) was had on Sat evening with everyone having a drink and a laugh.

I even managed a good surf on Sun morn.

A nice change from inland flying and a good social experience. Hope to go again next year.

May weekend flying - 9th & 10th

Reagen (Big Rig) getting ready to tow with Tim on the Dolly.

Had a great weekend of flying last weekend. Went to Canungra Sat morning and we ended up going to Beechmont launch after talking to Enda. It was a bit too south and no one looked like they would get high enough to go cross country. We knew Leeroy was doing some aerotow tandems and we decided to go out to Boyland turf farm to get towed up. And as you can see from these photos, we were very glad we did. Big Trev, Reagan, Flocky, Tim, Bodie, Warren, Ant and myself all had grins at the end of the day.

Having a good day!

Two hours flying the canungra area from one tow was just awesome.

On Sunday we ended up on Mt Tamborine launch. It was very light and we waited a long time to launch. Eventually at nearly 1pm I launched. The lift was light and I got low a few times, but eventually climbed to over 5,000ft to cloud base. Then the lift seemed to improve and I flew around for over an hour eventually landing at the Model airfield with Ant, Ronald and Warren.

Two good days flying in Winter! How good is Canungra!

Over Tambo launch at around 5,200ft.

Looking down at the Long Rd landing field from over Tambo launch.

Flocky off my wing.

Another one of Flocky.

Flocky again

Flocky here too. He's a bit of a poser.

And again. I love this shot. Check out the larger version.

Looking East to Tambo launch and Surfers.

Looking East from near Mt Misery

Looking East from over Tambo launch.

Over the Lawn Concepts lawn farm with Lee below in the Dragonfly.

Big Trev's glider where we set up. You may have to see the larger image here.



Over the lawn farm with Lee below in the dragonfly.

Looking down on Canungra from near Mt Misery.

NW from Mt Misery with turf farm.

Looking SSW to the Kerry Valley with Witheren peak to the left.

Looking down the Biddadabah Valley with the Model Airfield mid right.

Looking South into the O'rielly Valley with Hinchcliff Flattop in centre of shot.

Looking SSE to Hinze Dam from over Tambo launch.

Ronald & Ant packing up at the Model Airfield on Sunday.

Finally, a decent Cross Country flight

Well, the weather in South East qld has not been very good for a while now. My last Cross Country flight was the 8th of March and that was only 18km. So I was hoping for something good today.

I met up with Dan and old Trev in Canungra and we drove up to Beechmont. The wind was SSE and no one had launched. It was 10.30am. Everyone thought it was a bit too south and wouldn't be very good. But the sun had come out in the valley after being shaded by high level cloud and I hoped the wind direction would go a bit more East. So I set up my glider. There were already a few gliders set up but no one had launched. Soon a couple of hang gliders launched and a couple of paragliders too. They seemed to be doing ok and the air looked pretty smooth. So I launched and soon found myself struggling for ridge lift with about 15 other pilots. It wasn't much fun as we were all at the same height and were constantly having to avoid each other.

I managed to climb to about 2,500ft a few times but then dropped back down. I got low on the ridge and scratched my way back up. This happened for nearly 2 hours. A few people top landed and few bombed out. Until only myself and Davo were on the ridge (persistent buggers we were). Well the sun came back out in the valley and the clouds were looking better. Eventually the ridge lift died and I got really low and headed to the bombout. Davo was a few hundred feet above me and still on the ridge. Anyway, half way to the bombout field I hit a bit of lift that I could turn in. So I worked it hard. At first it was zeros then 5oftpm up. At 1400ft Davo came in under me! Which surprised me. I was determined to get back up so I kept adjusting to find the core of the thermal, and eventually I climbed to cloud base at 4,400ft. Davo climbed with me but he was about 500ft below me when I headed west cross country at 4,600ft.

It was so nice to be up there again. With a spectacular view of the coast. So off we went. Two of only four people to get away from Beechmont (that I know of) for the day (Jason Turner made Boonah T and Ashley got out to the Turf Farm). But we had earned it. I headed to Gordos and found a 200fpm climb infront of Gordos. Dave ended up on Hinchcliff but there was no ridge lift, and after a while landed at the base of Hinchcliffs. So now I was on my own.

I climbed to 5,000ft near Gordos and headed off into the Kerry Valley. I was trying to get to Rathdowney because I had an aerial shot of the town that I took nearly a year ago that I wanted to give to the local pub. I was punching a cross-headwind out there so it was a bit slow going. I managed to get to Laravale at about 4,000ft after climbing to 6,000ft in the Kerry. But it began to shade over everywhere and even rain on me. I saw the Tamrookum road house and thought about landing there for one of their nice hamburgers, but I really wanted to get to Rathdowney. So I punched straight headwind but unfortunately found no more lift and I landed 4.5km south of Tamrookum. Dan had kindly offered to come get me. So while waiting for him I decided to hitch to Rathdowney (only about 5km south of where I landed).

I had a big sign saying "Hang glider pilot needs lift please" but nobody stopped. Until finally a paraglider pilot heading to Killarney saw me and stopped (Kieran from the uk). He dropped me off at the Rath pub. Where I enjoyed a beer and a chat with 'Fred' the female bar tender. Soon Dan turned up and I gave the mounted picture of Rathdowney to Fred who seemed very appreciative.

A very big thanks goes to Dan who didn't even fly his pink glider. (don't worry he isn't gay, I think) It was only about 30km for the day, but I got my much needed fix and am subsequently a very happy chappy.

Qld, Rainy one day, Rainy the next!

Well, I haven't had much to add lately as the weekend weather on the Gold Coast has been not good for flying. I've not flown since the 15th of March and that was a 15min flight from Mt Tamborine. It's Easter and I have four days off to go flying, but it looks like I won't be doing any. After a drive up to Beechmont yesterday only to return home with a wet glider on the roof that never came off the roof, today is not looking any better. Maybe next weekend will give me a chance to get my flying fix.

However, I have had some great kiteboarding sessions over the past weeks.

So this weekend has been great for cleaning the house and reading some soaring mag articles. I'm also planning my long service leave. 10 weeks off with pay - yay! I'll be off to Wanaka in NZ for some snowboarding on the 7th of July for 7 days. Then off to London on the 20th of July for 7 weeks bumming around Europe. One week will be in Cornwall for some surfing/kiteboarding with my older brother and niece. Will probably head down to Italy for some flying with Pablo at Monte Cuccu. Maybe head to Spain and catch up with Montse in Catalunya. Might even head to see the Pyramids.

Over the Range

After a long spell of weekends with horrible weather, finally a good day came along. It was good to get that fix that I so badly needed yesterday. I had one of my best flights ever. 111km. I flew from Beechmont, over the Great Dividing Range and on towards Warwick.

I crossed the range about 5km to the north of the Gap. It was so fantastic. I ended up with 4 other pilots ridge soaring the range trying to get back up. I was the lowest for a while, and after about half an hour of trying to get back to cloud base I decided to give up, and headed out to land. Half way to the landing field I had picked, I found another thermal and got back to cloud base. It was absolutely fantastic to get high enough to see over the range and then to cross it. The views were jaw dropping!! I'd never flown over this area before and unfortunately I didn't have my camera.

I found a good landing field near the main road, where one of our out of action pilots (Dan), picked me up after picking up 4 other pilots (Ronald, Briano, Scotty T, and Rangi). It was a bit tight in the dual cab ute with four of us on the back seat and 2 in the front. We passed 2 cop cars on the way back and Scotty ducked down. But they didn't give us second look.

Here is an account from one of our clubs (Canungra Hang Gliding Club) great members who selflessly offered to come out and drive for us, when he was longing to fly himself but couldn't due to a wrist injury.

Saturday 7th Feb.

Waking up to what looked like a pretty good day, I figured I would drive for the team and maybe earn some “Brownie points” as my hand has not healed properly yet.
I knew there would be a shortage of drivers and after making a few calls I was off to Canungra.
I radioed Ronnie when I arrived there and found that he had got away early from Beechmont and was already at Beaudesert, so I was into his truck and that’s where I headed.
By the time I got to Beauy he had raced ahead & was halfway down the Boonah Valley, He was smoking!

I heard a couple of others – Scotty near Mt Mahomad, Brino and I think Rangi was a bit behind them at that stage.

The clouds were looking good and I was hopeful a range crossing might be on for the boys.
I spotted Scotty off to my left very low but circling just past the sandstone quarry in the Boonah valley and heard Ronnie saying he also was low at “Boonah T”

By the time I arrived at Boonah, Ronnie must have found a good climb and was now just past Aratula heading for the Range. I heard Dirk on the radio for the first time and it sounded as though he was making good ground on the others. I also heard that Murphy had landed in locked Gate and Brino was giving directions to someone for the retrieval. Ronnie ended up landing at the base of the range in the valley to the right of Cunningham’s Gap. Nice big green paddock. I think all the “Lead out points” should go to him for the day!

As he packed up I arrived and we heard Rangi was down to 300 Ft just near Boonah but I thought I heard his vario lightly beeping in the background….
Brino, Scotty, Dirk and Rangi eventually all ended up together right above us in what looked to be Zero’s, drifting towards the range. A sail plane was circling with them for a while and got quite close to Brino at one stage but soon took off at a million miles per hour. I radioed we were happy to pick them up if they made it over & they should go for it !!! They ended up soaring the Range face for a long time trying to get enough height.

Scotty & Rangi ended up going over closer to Cunningham’s while Dirk got fairly low but refused to give up. Eventually Dirk decided to head back towards us to land he hit a boomer out of no where which took him to above 6,000 ft and he ended up going over north of Cunningham,s with a Shaun (Laura’s step dad I think!). Shaun was flying a Single surface glider and had done a fantastic job to appear out of nowhere to get over the range. Brino, who was fighting a bad right turn in his glider all day came in and landed with us.

We picked up Rangi at Mary Vale. Scotty was at the Caltex garage a couple of K’s out of Warwick then we headed back and picked up Dirk a kilometre down the road heading towards Toowoomba.

Professor had arrived late at Beechmont and I think got to Boonah foothills and started hitching back!

Didn’t see ay Parra’s out there! May have been a bit strong on take off….Sunday may be a bit lighter. Hope you have a good one.

It was good to see a good weekend day of flying after a pretty average couple of months. Here’s hoping for some more of the same soon.
Tomorrow looks good! (Family day for me, sorry guys)

Cheers Dan Simmons.

Looking back towards the Range, and an example of field that looks nice, green and good to land in from the air, but in actual fact would be a horrible place to land.

Forbes Flatlands Competition Jan 2009 (it all started with a hangover)

On the 1st of Jan 2009 I woke up to a phone call from Scotty at 6.30am. He was saying he was sorry for sleeping in as we were supposed to leave for Forbes, NSW at 5.30am. I was hung over and tired and not even packed to go. So I forgave Scotty for sleeping in.

We left at 7.30am on the 12 and half hour drive to Forbes. It would be my first time in the Forbes Hang gliding competition and my first aerotow comp. The cross country clinic run by Leeroy and Jonny D in Jan 2006 was not really a comp. What I thought it would be like and what it was actually like were not the same. I expected hot dusty days, high climbs, long distances and flys, spiders, snakes and thistles. I got all these, but what I didn't consider was the massive Dust Devils all over the place.

View from our cabin at the Apex caravan park.

On the first day of the comp many things happened. While waiting in line to get on a dolly and tow up a powerful dust devil came through and picked 6 of us up and tossed us down. I was flipped upside down suffering bruising and scratches and scuffs and tears to my sail on my glider. 5 other gliders were more severely damaged. With minor injuries to other pilots.

Gliders at Forbes Airstrip.

Landing spot after a day of disasters! (forced grin)

Bruises after being flipped by a strong Dust Devil.

2nd task, made goal!!

On the way to goal, task 2.

Task 2 video

Then while dusting myself off and checking my glider over someone flipped off a dolly whilst on tow and nosed in hard. The pilot hitting head first. Unfortunately he died the next day in Sydney hospital. His name was Steve Elliott. We all know this sport has some elements of risk, but nearly all of us choose to ignore that fact to achieve the thrill of flying without a motor, climbing to great heights and flying long distances. Sometimes these risks are made real right in front of us, and it does make you think. But for some crazy reason most of us just keep doing it, myself included, as if nothing happened. Usually at least, a lesson is learnt. I like to think that we are here for a good time, not a long time. Most of us live more in one hour than some people live in a lifetime. (so I like to believe)

Not long after that a pilot tumbled in a strong thermal or Dust Devil, his glider broke and he had to throw his chute. He floated back to the ground safely.

I had to get back on the horse regardless. So, after checking my glider, I jumped onto a dolly and got towed up. We hit some rough air and the weak link broke at the tug end. So, I quickly untangled the vg rope, then dropped the rope from the tug, did one quick turn into the wind and came in to land. There was a Japanese pilot out there looking a gps that fell off his glider. He unfortunately was running in a straight line in front of me. I was too low to turn, so it must of looked quite funny as this guy was running in front of me as I was coming in to land. He could have just walked sideways and it would not have been a problem. Anyway, I missed him.

On the way to goal, task 3 (2 gliders in this shot) Broke height record, 11,500ft!

At goal near Bathurst, task 3.

So, now I was stuck in field a long way from where I towed from. Fortunately Boady and Grace lifted a dolly over a fence and Leeroy flew over to tow me out. After another 30mins, I was back in the air. I flew just over 100km that day and landed just before sunset. I tried not to let the days events deter me. But I was certainly a bit rattled.

The next 2 days I made goal, which was great. I took day 4 off. Day 5 was cancelled due to high winds. Day 6 we elected not to fly in respect of Steve who's funeral was on that day. Day 7 was too windy, but ok to fly. I flew 75km. The last day looked good, but wasn't really and the task was stopped due to overdevelopment.

Joel making the most of a cancelled day. Kiteboarding the AirStrip.

The Vandenberg Hotel, our base for the competition.

Joel, Scott, Joel's dad, me, Scotty I, Kath, Zara and Taj in front.