Manilla NSW state titles

Day 1

Well, here I am at the 2010 Manilla State titles in New South Wales about a half hour drive from Tamworth. Yesterday (Sun 14th of Feb) was supposed to be the first day of the competition, but was canned due to strong winds. So we went to try and get fly in a sailplane at Lake Keepit gliding club, but it overdeveloped and started to rain. We (Grant Heaney, Oyven, Lars, Neil Peterson and myself) then went into Tamworth to get some lunch at the Hogs Breath cafe. After that it was back to the pub for drinks and pool.

Day 2 (Mon 15th feb)

Well, last night the rain set in and it hasn't stopped. So today is canned as well. The good news is it is supposed to clear up late this afternoon, so tommorrow should be a good day for flying and also the rest of the week. Our team is: Grant, Oyven, Neil and myself with Lars as our driver in Oyven's land cruiser. So I was stocked to get in such a good team at the last minute. Today we will probably go ten pin bowling and maybe drink some more at the Royal hotel. I am staying at the Imperial Hotel which was quite hot on the first night and is very basic accommodation, but it has all I need and is way better than camping with all this rain.

I pulled a back muscle lifting a glider this morning. It sucks getting old.

View from the belcony where I'm staying. Not really flying weather.

Day 3

Well the rain has stopped and we are going up the hill (Mt Borah) to see if we can fly a task.

We had a ten pin bowling challenge in Tamworth yesterday with 5 Aussies vs 6 Kiwis. The Aussies won! We also saw the movie 'Wolfman'. I give it 2 stars.

Well, we had a good days flying. The task was 96km with 2 turnpoints. But it there was a strong headwind after the first turnpoint and only one pilot made goal. Guess who, that's right Jonny Durand. We climbed to almost 7000ft and had some good climbs, but the day got weaker. I only made 26.5kms from launch.

Oyvind and Lars with our retrieve vehicle.

Grant by his glider with Lars & Oyvind in the background.