DB's Blog

Manilla NSW state titles Days 6 & 7

2010-02-22T17:20:00.006+10:00

Day 6

Task 4 was a straight line to goal of about 122km. It was a fair bit windy from the E-SE. I had a scary moment with a king posted glider turning the opposite way to everyone else in a thermal and he did this for at least 6 turns. So I had to avoid him a couple of times (he was in a kingposted glider with a thick dark blue stripe on the underside). Eventually I climbed out above launch and had a fairly good run to a place just past The Gap.

The circulation in my left hand is poor and my fingers had no blood in them from the cold air up high. I decided to stay low for a while, but got too low and had to do a low save. I then got high one more time before Narrabri, where I just could not find any strong lift and had to land there 30kms (one more thermal) short of goal. Had a great day flying and didn't have to wait long for my team to pick me up.

SE launch task 4.

Landing spot task 4.

Day 7

Task 5 was a triangle course ending back in Manilla. It was light and variable and no-one really knew which launch to set up on. It was coming up the face of the West launch, so I set up there. Unfortunately the wind was mainly coming up the East launches, but Blaino reckoned it would come on again on the West launch, so I stayed there. People ended up launching from every luanch up there.

It did come back on at the West launch and I fianlly got off the hill late at around 2.15pm. I found a very light climb and it got better once I was about 300ft above the hill. I climbed to cloud base and had a great run to about 12kms from the first turnpoint gliding with Conrad over the ranges next to high clouds.

I reached the turnpoint with about 4,000ft. It then seemed to be headwind back towards the second turnpoint and the ground below was in shadows. I found a light climb but lost and ended up on the ground about 3kms from the first turnpoint. My day was over and so was the comp. I had a great time and some great flights and logged another 11 hours flying time. Jonny won the comp for the 10th year in a row.

The organisers were great (Monica, Tinks, Billo, etc.) and it was a fun, casual comp with no launch orders. Our driver, Lars was great and it fun flying with everyone. The Royal Hotel there in Manilla is a great base too.

Manilla NSW state titles Cont.

2010-02-18T09:22:00.011+10:00

Looking out from the West launch.

Day 4

Well Jonny wins the day again and is leading the comp. The day was slow at first and I missed getting to launch in time to leave with the first group. Conditions got worse on launch and some people bombed out. I waited a long time and finally launched at around 2.20pm. I took the last start gate was at 3.00pm and I took the 2.45 gate. I left launch at around 6000ft. As I left so late the only other pilots I saw were on the ground. It was slow going most of the way to the first turnpoint (90km away) and I thought I was going to have to land twice.

Conditions improved just before the first turnpoint and I got there at 6000ft. Then at 5.40pm just after the turnpoint I got a 900fpm up climb. Which took me to 9000ft. I probably could've glided the 24kms to goal from there, but I found another 800fpm up half way there and climbed for a bit, just to make sure I made goal. I arrived at goal 4000ft above the ground. It was so good to make goal. I was 13th for the day and a very happy man.

Oyvind was 2nd and I think Grant was 8th. Unfortunately Neil had vario problems and didn't fly far at all.

Rainbow spectrum in high level clouds.

The Briefing.

View from up high.

On glide to goal at over 8,000ft.

View on glide to goal.

Day 5

It was a very windy and difficult day with many pilots beating Jonny. Scott Barret won the day which puts Jonny back to 4th.

Landing spot Day 5.

I didn't do very well at all. After leaving the start gate I got low and managed to climb back up, but had drifted a long way down wind of the course line and ended up landing trying to get back. Grant, Oyvind and Neil all did quite well for the day.

Manilla NSW state titles

2010-02-15T08:56:00.012+10:00

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.

Rainbow Beach 2009, November

2009-11-20T20:41:00.005+10:00

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

2009-05-14T21:13:00.009+10:00

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

2009-05-03T21:10:00.003+10:00

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!

2009-04-12T11:30:00.003+10:00

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

2009-02-08T11:35:00.006+10:00

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)

2009-01-16T21:44:00.010+10:00

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.

Canungra Classic Competition Oct-Nov

2008-11-02T21:40:00.009+10:00

On Saturday the 25th of October I started an 8 day International hang gliding competition based in Canungra. We flew 3 launch sites including Mt Tamborine, Beechmont and Flying Fox.

My team was Marty, Tim, Joel and Beau as driver. It was a great comp with many highs and some lows too. Joel won the floater class and I came 36th of 55 pilots. Jon Durand Jnr won the comp after missing day one due to illness. Full results are at: http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2008/results_page.htm

We had two days cancelled and flew 6 tasks.

Unfortunately I had a couple of bad landings which resulted in 2 brocken downtubes costing over $320. Making for a very expensive week.

I had some good flights and clocked up another 10 hours of airtime.

Flying Mt Tamborine with Gavin on Day 1

With Gav again

Vid with Gav over Tambo

On Flying Fox launch

Beau, Tim and Marty on Flying Fox launch

Big Trev and Tim on Tambo launch

Flying near Mt Maroon

Maroon Dam with fire burning in the distance.

This was the path most pilots took on this day (to the fire). Unfortunately I had to land 4km short of Killarney, the first turnpoint. A great days flying though.

Beechmont to Toowoomba Sat 18th October 2008

2008-10-22T20:49:00.007+10:00

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

2008-10-19T08:59:00.003+10:00

Keith, Beau, Pete and Marty on Beechmont launch.

Fever broken.

2008-09-14T20:21:00.005+10:00

Well I managed to break my bombout fever today. The wind was very North on Mt Tamborine today. I didn't expect a good day at all. But we headed up and found that there were times when the wind was coming up the face of launch and not too cross wind. But while I was setting up the wind came straight down the road and nearly blew a few gliders over. We kept setting up hoping we could get off the hill. A task was set of Rathdowney with an infinite line.

I managed to launch into a blustery Northerly wind. But I found some lift half way to the bombout. Then climbed to about 3,200ft. I followed Wrangi and Big trev over to Misery ridge where we found a reasonable climb to around 4,000ft. We then went down towards Witheren peak and found some light lift near there with a wedgetail eagle. Fortunately he wasn't aggressive and didn't attack any of us. Although I later picked up old Trev who told us that he got savaged by a Wedgie near Witherin doing much damage to his glider. He was not happy.

Crossing the Kerry valley I lost Big Trev and Wrangi and found myself low on the West side of the Jinbroken range. I picked a landing field and headed for it. Suddenly I hit a good thermal which took me back to 4,000ft. I headed for Rathdowney but ended up low again just 8km short. Again I picked a landing field, but I found another good thermal and was able to get back up to 3,700ft. I thought of heading south towards Kyogle, but looking at the sky and with the strong Northerly. I thought a landing in the hills near the range would not be pleasant and decided to land at Rathdowney.

I took these pics and landed in a gusty North Easterly wind in a field just south of Rathdowney along with Ronald, Cam, Jonny, Tony, Wrangi and Neil. Big Trev dropped just 3kms short, but may have got goal anyway with the infinite line. A big thanks to Mark G, who decided not to launch in dodgy conditions and came to take Neil, Old Trev and myself back to Canungra.

Thermalling just SE of Rathdowney.

Near Rath again.

Looking West from near Rath.

Mt Lindsay from near Rath.

Neil packing up at Rath goal paddock. Tony and Wrangi in background to right.

Video of flying near Rathdowney.

An unexpected great day overall. A good way to break my bombout run. Can now happily do another weeks work before having another go flyin off a hill.

Bomb out fever.

2008-09-14T19:22:00.008+10:00

Well, I've had a bit of bad run lately with my flying. Of my last four flights, I've had a pack up on the hill (1/9/08). Then a bomb out (7/9/08), . Then a bomb out last Friday (12/9/08). Then another bomb out last Saturday (13/9/08).

Here a couple of videos of people landing at the bomb out near Mt Tamborine on the 13th of Sep.

Ant landing.

Mark and Cameron landing.

Big Pete landing.

Marty Landing.

Trip to Melbourne

2008-09-14T18:52:00.003+10:00

I recently went to Melbourne to visit family and spend time with my dad on his birthday (24th of August). He recently had a mild stroke and is now recovering well. He had a good birthday with some old friends and liked the present from Cam and myself of a putter, ball return device and balls.

Veiw leaving Coolangatta airport.

Dad and James putting.

I managed to fit in a some mini golf with dad (68), Cam and James. Also a game of golf with mum (70). Mum and I also visited Werribee Zoo. Which I can recommend to anyone. Young or old.

Meercats at Werribee Zoo.

Mum at Lion enclosure, Werribee Zoo.

Lions at Werribee Zoo.

I caught up again, on my last day in Melbourne, with dad and his girl, Beth at Cam's place where dad played a good game of table tennis. And I got beaten by Cams wife Sally. A bit embarrassing. Well done Sal.

It was good to catch up with everyone, but it does make me appreciate living on the Gold Coast.

Sunday Series - Tambo-Water Tower-Bromelton-Model 17 Aug

2008-08-17T19:33:00.007+10:00

A great day flying from Mt Tamborine for me today. It was the first time that I've completed a Sunday series task with turnpoints. So I was very happy.

I arrived to launch late and most of the good regular pilots were launching as I started to set up at 11.50am. So I thought I wasn't going to have anyone to follow. At 12.15 I got in my harness and headed over to launch. Rod, Derek and myself thought for a minute that we may not even get off launch. The wind was coming over the back, so we prayed for a thermal to launch into. Only 5 mins later it came, and the 3 of us got away. Thank god for that.

Rod went to the right of launch and didn't seem to be climbing very fast, so I went left and prayed for something better. I found it, and got a good 4-5 hundred up to about 5,400ft. And with a big grin on my face I headed out on task. Rod and Derek followed. I had a good glide and found some scrappy lift near the Model airfield. Eventually after searching around I god back up to 5,000ft and headed towards Beaudesert. I found some lift with a green paraglider near Beaudesert and Rod and Derek came over under us low.

Cranking it up over Bromelton.

Great cloud formations looking back to the Kerry Valley.

I got back up to 4,700 and headed to the Water tower to claim my first turnpoint, but the lift was no good there and I dropped to 2,700ft. I then headed back to where I was and found a good climb back to 5,200ft and headed to Bromelton. I found some good lift on the way and managed to stay high. We all want to stay high don't we. I got to Bromelton (the second turnpoint) at 3,400ft. I found a nice but weak thermal right there and as I got higher it got better. At 5,000ft I got my camera out and took some pics and a movie. Rod and Derek were below me then and you can see them in the pic.

Rod and Derek below me over Bromelton.

At 5,450ft I headed back to the Model Airfield (the Goal). I hoped to get a good climb where I had found one on the way out to the north of Beaudesert, but only found light bubbles. Not big enough to turn in. I was sinking out bad and at 1, 200ft about 7km short of goal I thought I was going to have to land. I forged on and found a light thermal. After a lot of shifting around, I was climbing slowly at 200ft per minute which finally turned into 300ft per minute, but then I saw Rod come screaming over the top of me when I got to 3,200ft. I headed off to chase him, but there was no way I could catch him.

Some chicken sheds near Bromelton.

I landed at goal (model airfield) about 4 mins after Rod. Unfortunately I miss timed my flare and dropped the nose to make my landing not so good, but only softly touched the nose on the ground. No damage done. Because I launched after Rod I may be close to his time. I will have to wait till he posts the results to find out.

Just over 5,000ft over turnpoint 2 (Bromelton)

A video whilst thermalling over Bromelton.

It was an unexpected awesome day. With the S-SW wind I thought I may not get off launch. But with a great climb just after launching it all looked great. I managed to get a lift back to my car which was still back on Tambo launch with Rod, Don and Briano. Thanks heaps Don and Rod. So a great day flying with no dramas getting back to my car made it an even better day. I wish all days flying were like this.

Hope to see you on launch soon.

2nd of August Flying Tambo

2008-08-17T19:20:00.005+10:00

Scotty at Long Rd.

Had a good day flying Tambo. Got to 4,100ft and flew out to Misery, but no one was really going anywhere so I decided to fly back to launch and top land at Long Rd. I landed and then talked Scott I, in to land after me. Flew for 1 hour and 40mins.

Thought I'd add this pick for anyone landing at the Long Rd top landing field. Please click on it and view the larger version to see where the star pickets are. There is no wire on the fence at the moment, but watch out for these pickets if you land there.

Beechmont to Moogera Dam - July 12

2008-07-12T22:01:00.009+10:00

Wedgie near Beechmont launch (can you see the hang glider as well?)

There was a nice SE 15knt breeze blowing at Beechmont launch when Regan, Big Trev, Nick, Flocky and myself arrived at launch. There was no hesitation from any of us to set up. It looked great. We launched and all went up fairly quickly to cloud base. Pete, Marty and Ant had Jon Jnr to help them go cross country. So there were a few people in the air when we were greeted by a juvinile Wedgetail Eagle. He (or she, I couldn't quite tell) was very curious and flew with about 3 of us for a few minutes each, coming very close. I had heaps of height, so pulled out my camera for some pics. As you can see he was quite close. This one of the perks of hang gliding, being able to soar like an eagle, with one.

Looking toward NNE and Hinze Dam from Beechmont

Looking South over Numinbah Valley and Mt Warning (Spot the hang glider)

So, whilst taking my pics, I lost a fair bit of height and missed my opportunity to go West over the back on XC. There some nice cloud lines out in front over the valley, so I ventured out and was rewarded with a nice 500ft per min up. I called Ant over and we climbed to base at around 4,000ft. It is winter isn't it? Jonny came over and a few of us headed west. On the way to Hinchcliff I headed to a nice looking cloud just north of hinchcliff's over the valley. At first I thought it would be just a light one, but then after venturing a little further West I couldn't believe what I was in. 700ft p/m up on the averager turning into 1,000 up with a little adjustment. One of the fasted climbs to base I'd ever had.

Regan came in under me and soon I was at 4,800ft. I pasted Jonny waiting for Marty to climb back to base at Hinchcliff launch. He was complaining about the cold and with good reason. It was about 9 degrees at base. We had cloud streets heading West. So halfway across the Kerry Valley I stopped for another good climb to base.

Regan climbing underneath in the Kerry Valley

Looking East from the Kerry to O'riellys valley and Hinchcliff flat top

Thermalling over Mt French

Jonny had set a task of Beaudesert and on to the Model Airfield for Marty and Ant. But the day was great and I wanted to go further. So Regan and I agreed on Boonah, even though we had no driver. So Regan climbed above me while I was taking some pics and headed off. I climbed some more and gave chase. We got another climb over Mt Mohomet. Again Regan was above me and headed off. I was quite a bit lower and stayed to get more height. As I got to base I saw Regan getting low over the Rathdowney Rd. He found a climb and I headed off. Regan was just leaving that one when I got there.

As I climbed I watched Regan hit nothing and in the middle of the Boonah ranges crossing he started to turn, so I followed again. But he only did a couple of turns and headed off. I had already committed to the crossing and was worried if I'd get accross. I stopped where Regan had because there was a peak below and cloud above. It was scrappy light lift. I saw Regan get nothing and land East of Boonah. I was at 2,500ft and only maintaining. Landing options were available but didn't look ideal. I kept working the lift and gradually climbed. Relieved to be high again I headed to Boonah.

Not sure what to do now, I heard Warren on the radio and we decided to make Lake Moogera our goal. Nick was on his way and Trev caught up with me at Boonah. I found good lift on the North end of Mt French and got back to 5,000ft where I decided to take a few more pics of the awesome scenery. Trev headed toward Aratula and got low, but got back up again.

Over Mt French

Looking toward Moogera

So four of us landed at Lake Moogera after an absolutely awesome winters day. Just over 2 hours of flying and I covered about 70km. I couldn't believe how good a day it was for this time of year. SE Qld rocks.
Claire was there to pick us all up and meet Regan in Boonah pub for a few beers and then take us all back to Canungra. Thanks Warren and Claire.

Nick

Big Trev setting up to land

Big Trev and Warren

Warren coming in to land

Panoramics

2008-07-03T23:03:00.008+10:00

Just thought I'd upload a couple panoramic pics which I like.

Just West of Beechmont Qld

NW from Beechmont

View from the Q1
Doesn't suburbia look like crap compared to country Qld. Imagine what this looked like 50 years ago.

Beechmont Launch (Rosins Lookout)

Triple take launching Hinchcliff, SE Qld.

Winter flying Mt Tamborine

2008-06-22T13:48:00.007+10:00

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

Early morning surf at Cabarita beach

2008-06-22T13:09:00.007+10:00

On the 6th of June I decided to go for an Early morning surf down at Cabarita beach on the Northern NSW coast. It was quite cool as you can see by the fog I saw on the way down. The Tugan bypass is finished now and makes the drive a lot quicker. I was impressed with design of the entrance and the exit to the tunnel.

I went down to Cabarita to hopefully have surf without having to hassle for a wave, but it was not to be. There were 25 guys out there at the crack of dawn. Still managed a few good waves though.

Flying the dunes - Narrowneck & Kingscliff

2008-06-03T20:20:00.017+10:00

On Friday the 30th of May I spoke to Leeroy P who said he was thinking of flying the dunes near Surfers Paradise. I had done this once before with Lee and Jonny and it was great fun so I was keen to have another go. You need at least 20 knts of Easterly wind for it to work properly.

So on Sat morning I went with Joel to check out narrowneck and Lee was to meet us there if it was ok. We got there and found the strength to be great, the eroded ridge was good, but the wind direction had too much South in it. So I said to Joel, "Let's just set up your glider, it's quick to set up and if it's no good we'll pack up and head down to Kingscliff." Joel agreed. Kingscliff faces more South than Narrowneck and should be better.

So as I set up Joels glider, a Channel 7 news crew turned up. Joel was straight over to them and before I knew it he was being interviewed by the nice looking lady reporter.

I helped Joel get in his glider and gave him lots of pointers on how to fly the small ridge without killing himself. He was so eager it wasn't funny. This eagerness was reflected by the female reporter who continued to try to interview Joel while he was flying by running along the beach with a microphone pointed skyward towards Joel. It was quite amusing. Joel was lapping up all the attention. I was just happy seeing Joel having so much fun, even though it was hard to stay up and getting back up the ridge took a lot of energy. I had a bit of a fly and decided it would be better to head to Kingscliff.

Joel flying Narrowneck

Joel on the small ridge at Narrowneck

Soon Lee, Marty and Enda turned up. Lee & Marty saw Joel flying a set up before I could tell them that it wasn't ideal and we should head further South.

So we packed up and all headed South to Kingscliff. The wind was still a bit too SE, but because it was a much bigger ridge it was ok. We set up Lee's Fun and Joels Sonic and took turns flying. It was great fun. Joel headed South, but the ridge got much smaller and he eventually landed on the beach and had to walk the glider about a half a Km back. Lee was having fun landing on top of the Ridge and catching Marty's zaggie glider. I landed on the beach twice, but managed about 4 top landings after a bit of practice. Marty had a fly of Joels glider and loved it. John and his missus turned up, and John had a fly of the fun, in my harness and scared us all when he was headed toward the water. But he managed to land in shallow water not wetting the glider. Although my harness was not so lucky. Well at least my harness gets it's first wash now. Joel tried a few top landings in the Fun which he enjoyed.

Lee & Joel

Lee

Me

Joel

Joel & Lee

Taj and Kath enjoyed taking pics and watching us. Then it began to get dark. We packed up and headed home. Yet another great day hang gliding.

Me & Joel

Marty & Me

Flyin Tambo in May

2008-05-25T21:14:00.005+10:00

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

2008-05-11T20:38:00.007+10:00

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

2008-05-04T20:48:00.004+10:00

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.

Sunday series - Task 9 April 08

2008-04-17T15:00:00.005+10:00

Sunday 13th of April
(For Briano)

Quite a big turnout on the hill at Mt Tamborine. I went out with Joel and got a lift up the hill with Flocky. A few guys were there that hadn't flown much lately like Ziggy and Warwick. There weren't many clouds and no-one was too enthused to launch in the light shifting Westerly breezes. I think Flocky was first off and got low near the bombout. Then he found a slow climb and Big Jon was off under him. Everyone got in their gliders then and lined up. There were two main groups off on the task to Rathdowney then Model.

I ended up in the second group and after a long wait to get off I found some light lift to the left of launch. Only 50up. I persisted and drifted back a bit and then it was 250fpm up. Finally after a lot of shifting it turned into 400fpm up and soon I was at 4,000ft and off to Misery.

I met up with Paul A (Rowdy) & someone else on Misery . Paul headed straight West to Chicken shed ridge and seemed to not be loosing too much height. But I decided the clouds looked better over Witheren. So I headed off South and about 2km in front of Witheren found a 500fpm up from a fire near the Chicken Sheds in the Kerry Valley. This was great and I headed off down the Kerry, but found nothing else and I was setting up to land with someone else at the Kerry turnpoint when I found some light lift. I persisted with this for quite some time it was only 100fpm up. Then left it at 2,200ft and headed more south and found some more light lift. I edged closer to the Jinbroken range and the lift improved a bit and I got to 3,500ft and was able to get over the range, but a massive cloud had formed over Tamrookum area and blocked out the sun where I was headed. I then ended up landing about 13km short of Rathdowney which was the first turnpoint. This got me to about 8th position for the day with Neil first Warren second and Ronald third. I was about 30km from the start and Neil made about 43km. Well done Neil.

Now about Joel. Joel wrecked his knee kiteboarding a while back and it was just getting better until Joel landed in the bombout. He landed ok, but put his bad leg down first which stuffed it again. Poor bugger. Then because Warrens car was full, I had no one to pick me up. So Joel drove my car out to get me with a very sore knee. Thanks buddy. Really appreciated it.

Hang gliding, Bike ride and Storm March 08

2008-04-17T14:21:00.006+10:00

Sat 15th of March found us on Beechmont launch. Gary, Rangi and myself launched around 10.30am into an nice ENE breeze of around 18knts. Cloud base was low at around 3,500ft. After about 20 mins we all got up high enough to head West. Rangi chose Gordos and Gary and I went to Hinchchliffs. I had a good line and easily made it to cloud base over Beaudesert, but found nothing under it and decked it just south of Beaudesert. Gary landed in the Kerry and Rangi made it to the base of range past Mt Walker. Good effort Rangi. Although it took us ages to find him. Not all roads on your gps exist. Here are some pics heading away from Beechmont.

On Good Friday I took my Suzuki SV650s for a ride. I went over Tambo to Beaudesert, to Rathdowney. Then over the range via Lions Rd. Then to Kyogle, Uki, Murwillumbah to Natural arch and around Hinze dam to home. There is a great cafe in Uki that makes excellent smoothies. About 350km and a good ride. Here is a pic taken just before getting to the border. I did get a little wet.

The train tunnel Lions Rd.

On Wed 26th of March there were some great storm cells in the evening which made the sky really spectacular. Here are a couple of pics.

Dalby Weekend 8th March 2008

2008-03-17T18:17:00.007+10:00

On Saturday the 8th of March myself and few others thought we would give flying from Beechmont to Dalby a try, around 250kms. It was the day before the comp started and Michelle had said that she would drive for me (god bless her). Well, if we didn't dream we'd never get anywhere right.

I launched around 9am not long after Jonny Jnr. He was still on the ridge at Beechmont while I was climbing. I saw a glimpse of him over Hinchliffs and then he disappeared. It was quite windy and brave paraglider (Gavin) was in the air also. I managed to get to Hichcliffs ok, but took a while to get back up. Eventually Gavin found something good in front of launch. Yay, and under him I went. Then Rod S, Gavin and myself were all at cloudbase over Hinchies. Go Rod, I thought. Nope. Go Gavin I thought... not keen either. Ok then, I'll go. I headed West to Witheren, Gav headed more NW and Rod headed SW. I got nothing at Witheren really and continued on to near the Rifle range where at 1,800ft I found a 700ft PM up. Gavin thought, Yay, and came in under me. We had a great time thermalling directly opposite each other.

I then saw Rod near Beaudesert and headed over. I lost Gavin but could see someone really low under us. I thought he would just get up in what Rod and I were in, but I found our later it was Enda and he landed there. Rod and I headed off, Rod went more SW and I decided to do the safe thing and follow the road. Not sure where Rod ended up, but I ended up having a great landing 40km from Beechmont. Well, I gave it a bash.

Michelle picked me up after getting Enda and we then continued on to Dalby. There we found Jonny. Surprise (not). The guy is a freak. An inspiration to us all though. Warren also made it out there later in the day too. Well done guys.

On Sunday I did a couple of early morning tows to practice my landings. (Broke an upright recently). But it was really windy which meant my approach was not good (dropped way short), but landing was easy in the strong winds.

Everyone waited patiently for the winds to drop a bit before starting the comp. Except for some tug pilots who had a race to 1,000ft which looked quite spectacular in the strong winds. I launched just before the main field at around 1pm. It was a bit rough low, but not too bad once above 500ft. I got off tow into a 700ft up and got to 6000ft quite quickly. After that I had trouble finding good lift and I kept drifting away from the road to Chinchilla, which was the only road I knew and michelle (who kindly drove for me) had no good maps. So I knew I had to stay near it if I was to be found easily. I headed back to the road and lost height rapidly landing near the road 40km out from Dalby. Good, fun, flight though.

We went back to the hanger to drop something off to Leeroy and say goodbye to everyone. Lees towing students were a bit sad because with the strong wind they didn't get to do much towing, but I'm sure they had a good time and gained a lot good info from Lee and the other ledgend pilots out there.

Snowboarding in Japan - Jan-Feb

2008-02-07T18:08:00.005+10:00

Scotty, Fiona, Sean, Stan, Tate and myself arrived in Osaka together on the 26th of Jan. After spending the night at the airport (Being woken by the police for a passport check, and then being asked to move by the cleaners) we were a little sleepless and tired boarding our plane to Sapporo. We then got on a bus to Rusutsu, where we were greeted with good snow and a great resort. Unfortunateley Tate stuffed his problem knee traversing on a flat and had to book a flight home.
Then there were 5.

Rusutsu was great and we all found soft snow in between the trees.

Then it was off to Sapporo again where we visited a few different locations around the city including Tiene.

Then it was off to Otaru to board some more mountains around there including Kiroru. Which was great. We then headed back to Sapporo.

We had a night out in Sapporo visiting a bar called 'Booty' which was great. Although when asking directions to this bar a Japanese girl misunderstood and thought we were asking for her Booty! 'Goodbye' she repeated 3 times. And on my long walk back to our hotel at 5am I slipped over on some ice and landed hard on my cheek. Then I got slugged an extra 1,500 yen for sleeping in past 10 am.

Then it was off to Furano.

Where it had not snowed for a couple of days. So we did a day trip to Asidahki. Where it snowed all day and we thought we had lost Sean, But we found him and we had a whole day with good snow falls. Unfortunately it meant a day of not really being able to pick a good path down the mountain as it was white out most of the time. At least we had a good dusting on every run. There were only about 40 people there for the day. And there was only one lift which was a gondola which held about 100 people which was never full. So a pretty good day all in all.
This was my last day snowboarding. I then found myself in Tokyo. Staying with a freind called Jason. He showed me some good nights out with his work colleges. His place was small but we managed to enjoy our short time together. Then I went on the bullet train back to Osaka airport to fly back to Oz.

Soon I was on the small plane back to reality. It was crampt and uncomfortable in the Jetstar flight from Japan. Still, I survived.
Can't wait for a good fly hang gliding now. I may have to wait a while though.

Wild weather hits the Gold Coast

2008-01-01T11:37:00.000+10:00

After spending Christmas with my family down in Melbourne, I left a sunny 35 degree day on Friday 28th Dec to return to 30 to 40 knt winds and rain squalls. It's now Tues the 1st of Jan (Happy New Year) and this weather looks staying with us until Saturday. Too wet and windy for flying or riding a motorbike. Too gusty for kiteboarding. So here I am writing this blog.

I went down to the seaway this morning to check out the surf. As you can see I found that most of the beach has gone.

I then went to broadwater to find some poor buggers' trimaran washed ashore.

A wall of rain & a holy tender.

Great weekend at Rainbow Beach QLD

2007-12-31T12:51:00.000+10:00

The 15 & 16 of December was a great weekend of hanging out with friends in Hang Gliders (and paragliders). There were many new and old pilots. Enda, Jonny, Ant, Jonny, Karl, Scotty, Marty, Danny, Keith and Peter to name just a few who enjoyed scenic views.
Ken Hill and family picked a weekend with near perfect weather for flying the Blow.
It was also Leeroy Patterson's birthday. So a bit of celebrating was had at the local surf club on the saturday night.

I'll let some of these pics tell the story.

Tamborine to Rathdowney 9th Dec 2007

2007-12-11T21:22:00.000+10:00

Joel and myself decided to drive to Canungra to meet up with some other club members because the wind was light and we weren't sure which launch to go to. We thought it would be Tambo and Joel said that we should have just gone straight there. This was because we ended up waiting for Rod who had a meeting in Canungra which we were told by Henk and Ronald would last a half hour, so we loaded our gliders on his 4wd (we had permission to do this) thinking he would be straight over and we could go up the hill together very soon. Well one and half hours after we got to Canungra, we finally headed up to Tambo launch. This meant we had to rush to set up before the wind came over the back. And it did about 5 mins before we had finished setting up.

It was a very muggy day and we were completely wet with sweat when we got into our harnesses. Ronald did a virtually no wind launch and just got away. I waited with Big Jon for a cycle to come up the face as the breeze was from the NE now. After a hot wait of about 15 mins thinking I was going to have to pack up on launch, a light puff came up the hill and I knew this was my only chance so I ran as fast as I could. I got away safely and only found light lift. I was gradually loosing height. I got really low and decided to head to the landing field. Half way there I got a good one and took it to cloud base.

Joel managed to get off the hill too, thankfully and also found a thermal to cloud base. We headed off along Misery and Joel got low on Witheren where he got attacked by that bloody Wedgie. He managed to get back up to about 5,000ft and headed off into the Kerry Valley. Unfortunately he found only light lift after that and landed in the Kerry. He then had to walk about 5 or 6km before getting a lift back to Canungra which he was obviously not happy about.

Meanwhile I struggled across the Kerry not getting over 3,500ft until finally finding some good lift on the West side of the Jinbroken Range. I got to within glide of Rathdowney and settled on just landing there and having a beer in the pub. But then I found a good thermal just 700m from where I was going to land. I took it up to about 3,600ft where I saw a Wedgie who seemed to be in better lift than I. I went in under him, which I think pissed him off, because he then started to attack my wing. He got me twice and I could see some small holes in my topsail through my undersail. 4 to be exact. As they were quite small, I was not worried about the integrity of my sail. I had wanted to try and get over the border to try and find Dan who I'd heard on the radio had made it into NSW. But after my encounter with the Wedgie and the path ahead seemed to be lacking landing options and clouds, I decided the Rath pub was a nice option.

After my encounter with the Wedgie I still had about 3,500ft to loose so I decided to do a couple of aerial maneuvers to help loose height. Then I thought that it would be a good time to try something stupid, but something I've wanted to do for a while, a loop. I checked where my chute was. I checked the ground downwind of where I was, then I did a couple of wing overs pulled my vg on full, pulled the bar right back levelled out and let bar go out. Shit what I am I doing I thought as I saw nothing but sky. Then it got worse, I felt my hangstrap go loose. I pushed the bar out in a desperate attempt to get my nose pointing to the ground. My feet hit the sail and then suddenly my hangstrap went taught again. Thank god, I thought. Well, I'd done it, but only just. Yeh hah! Definitely the stupidest most dangerous thing I'd ever done. Gee it felt good.

I then continued to spiral down and landed cleanly at Rath, packed up under a shady tree. I checked my sail damage. Not too bad. A few patches should fix it. Then walked to the shop for burger. Had two schooners in the pub before Joel arrived and then we had to find his glider somewhere in the Kerry and drove home. Just another days hangliding.

Killarney Flight - 93km from Beechmont

2007-11-22T21:01:00.000+10:00

On Sunday the 18th of November 2007 I picked up Joel and then Juliette to go up for a possible long cross country flight. I said to Joel on the way up launch "We have someone to drive and the clouds look good, we'll fly a long way today" well, something to that effect anyway.

There were a few people on launch and about 4 novices with red streamers. Warwick was there along with Scotty, Callun and Karl. Unfortunately Karl bombed out after launching first. I heard a few others bombed out with someone deciding the creek might be a good place to crash, oops, I mean land. Apparently others created some aluminum for the scrap metal yard down there too.

Big Trev said the task was Rathdowney with an infinite line. Some said that was too easy, but I liked it. Mainly because I thought I might be able to get there.

I launched at about 11am and Joel wasn't far behind. We all got up to around 2,600ft quite easily, but then the cycles shut down and we lost height gradually. Joel, Big Trev, Ronald and myself eventually got up high enough to go over the back after going up and down a few times. Big Trev rocketed off then, Ronald and Joel and I followed after waiting for a bit. Joel and I left at around 3,800ft. Joel was in his Sonic so he had trouble staying with me on glide. I got to Gordos and dribbled West at only about 3,500ft. I saw Joel getting low in front of Gordos. I hoped he'd get back up and he did. Because I stumbled upon him at the Southern end of the Jinbroken Range. Well done Joel I thought. He'd just broken his PB by about 5km.

Over the Jinbroken Range.

Joel flying over Jinbroken

Joel again

The Storm

We noticed a huge storm building behind us over O'riellys and we headed off towards Rathdowney 15kms away. I lost Joel again, but we ended up together again soon. We had a great time thermalling opposite each other. Now we were 2km East of Rathdowney. I decided not to fly directly over the town but to head South as there was a cloud on a range there that I thought we could both reach. I lost Joel again and the cloud didn't give me much lift and I was losing height. I headed North for a bit and found some good lift. I couldn't see Joel and I think his radio was turned down, so I couldn't talk to him. I decided to head to a big Rocky range to the West of Rath thinking I could ridge soar it for bit of fun. I got there at 5,000ft and found good lift so I didn't get to ridge soar it. Then I saw Joel come in below me but just over the top of this spectacular range. He thermalled up to me and I got him on the radio and exclaimed "How good is this!". The views were awesome. We were about 5km East of Maroon Dam. Joel said to me "Where to now?" "I don't know mate" I said. I looked around and at landing options. I decided to head straight south over the range as I saw a landing option in a small valley. I didn't think it was a good idea for Joel to follow as I didn't really know where I was going and I didn't want him to get into trouble with landing options. I knew I could get by but if I was in a sonic I wouldn't have gone where I did. So I left Joel behind.

A fire near the rocky range

Looking NW near Maroon Dam

The rocky range I wanted to ridge soar with Maroon Dam in the Background

I found plenty of lift and found myself above a squawking Wedgie. I thought he was going to attack me with all of his squawking, but he just checked me out and flew around me for a while. I was in heaven. Just myself and a wedgie over some of the most fantastic scenery I'd ever seen.

I followed some ranges for bit then crossed over my landing option at 7,000ft to another smaller range and into a large valley. I started getting low and was sussing out a landing option near a road and a bridge. I had no dams to pick the wind direction so I started circling over a tree to monitor my drift direction. I was getting worried as there seemed to be no real drift, and landing with a slight tailwind and down a slight hill can easily end in pain. Then all of a sudden, whooshka! Is that a word? 700up on the vario. I cranked it tight and eventually found myself at 7,800ft. You little rippa! Bloody cold though. I radioed to Juliette who was driving that I would try and get to Killarney. I could see Killarney now and had an easy glide to it.

Wayne, Ronald and Regan had already landed there, but had no driver. I got to Killarney with a fair bit of height and wound down throwing in a few aerial maneuvers. I was dying for a leak and found a nice field with a toilet block in it 300 metres from the pub. I landed next to the toilet block and went straight for leak. The boys had got a lift to where I landed and we walked to the pub for a feed and some refreshments. Juliette and Joel turned up about an hour later. We loaded up the car (6 people, 5 gliders and harnesses in an old Skyline wagon) and drove over the range towards Boohah. It was quite crampt, Joels smelly feet and the cars smelly brakes made me a bit nervous. Then we crossed a cattle grid a little too fast and the rear vision mirror fell down. We dropped Ronald at Canungra and Regan and Wayne at Beechmont. I finally got home at 10pm. I heard that Rangi and Tony actually made it to Warwick too. Those guys are really the legends. Congrats guys.

A bit of a vid from the days flyin.

What a day. Certainly a flight I'll never forget. I'm sure there'll be some more great days coming up this summer. Joel flew about 60km in his sonic. What a little legend. He flew really well. Watch out when he gets a Litespeed. I'm sure he'll be kicking my arse once he gets one.

Flying the Canungra Classic 2007

2007-11-09T22:02:00.000+10:00

Classic Comp 2007

Well, I finally left work on the Friday night to check in for the classic. Half way to Canungra I wondered why I even left home. The sky was black and branches were flying across the road. With Joel and my gliders on the roof I thought they were going to not only get really wet, but maybe get damaged by hail. Fortunately I managed to park under cover at the show-grounds before the first storm hit. Made it by about 1 minute.

Once the gliders were safely under cover I then had to set up camp. So after I waited for another storm cell and heavy rain I managed to set up my tent in the light rain. I then registered, had a few drinks and tried to get some much needed sleep.

Day 1 found us at Mt Tamborine. I was in position 51 out of about 62. I flew with Joel for a bit. We both made it accross the canungra road to Witheren. But we separated going to Chicken shed ridge. I found nothing on Chicken shed ridge and landed on the Western side near the Rifle Range. Joel landed closer to Beaudesert. The bugger beat me in a Sonic. (I now fly a litespeed 5). I possibly should have gone in alternate launch and got off the hill a bit earlier.

Day 2 saw us at Beechmont. I missed going alternate because I was sitting on the wrong side of the room. All 20 spots were gone by the time I got to the end of the line. So I was at the back of field on launch and by the time my turn came to launch the sea breeze had come in and my ticket XC was gone. Spewin. Managed to top land after an hour and half of ridge soaring.

Day 3 and we were back at Tamborine. The wind was 5knts SW. I managed to get in Alternate launch today which meant I was 11th off the hill. Unfortunately the lift was very light for me, (I weigh over 90kgs and fly a litespeed 5) So after about 20 mins of struggling with a few other pilots trying to stay up I had to head to the bombout. I hit some strong lift on the crosswind leg of my approach which made me go straight instead of turning like I wanted to. Which meant I had to pull on the speed and make a low slipping turn over a house. I came over a fence by about 10ft and with the switching wind conditions. I was now landing cross wind with heaps of speed and was heading to a steak in the ground. I managed to pull up ok but hit a hole in the ground and twisted my foot badly. Then nosed in. I was very hot and angry with myself. I had the option to re-launch because I'd landed in the bombout, but I said to my good driver, Marty that i was pissed off and wouldn't re-launch. But by the time we got back to the launch (Nathan wanted a re-fly) I had cooled down and figured we were on a hill and I had a glider so why not fly?
My foot was burning, but I ignored the pain and ran off Tambo once more. At first it seemed a bit of dejavu. I'd been in the air for 5 mins and was getting very low to the right of launch. I was turning to head to the bombout when Whooshkaa. I got a great thermal which I had to bank really tight in, and eventually found myself at 6,000ft. I then went on to fly over 36kms. My best distance for the whole comp. But my foot ailed me for the rest of the comp. I tried to ignore it.

Day 4 was back to Tamborine. The wind was 15 to 25 knts from the W-NW. I was no. 20 in Alternate launch. It was really rough and unpleasant in the air. I eventually ventured to the north point after going up and down a lot. There I found a very violent lee side thermal which got me where I wanted to be, albeit with a few more grey hairs (got so many now who cares). Only ended up at the Model Airfield. But the headwind was so strong I was pretty proud of that. Only 7km for the day.

Days 5 & 6 were cancelled so we were on Day 7 now. Back at Beechmont. Wind was 12 - 18 knts E-NE. I was 15th in Alternate launch. Which was good I thought. After a long while of going up and down trying to get enough height to go over the back I finally got high enough height with all the top pilots (Jonny Jnr, Attilla, Dave Seib, Etc.). But right then nearly everyone turned around and headed back to the ridge. What's going on here I thought. I later found out that everyone had gone back for a later start. Well, I was there, with enough height to go over the back, so off I went. I got to Gordo's and only found a pilot bombing out and just enough lift to get me to the Kerry valley. I was struggling when I found myself suddenly surrounded by about 20 pilots. All circling in nothing. I spotted Big Trev heading out alone and figured following him was a good decision considering we were all losing height. Wrong! I soon saw Big Trev land followed by myself and a Ridgid wing. Bummer.

Day 8. Again we were at Beechmont. I was number 37 off the hill. The lift was light (5knts E-NE) and I had trouble getting over 3,000ft. Even got as low as 1,400ft and thought I was going to bomb out. Finaly, I drifted over the back at 3,700ft. I found some violent lift at Gordo's but couldn't get much over 4,000ft.
Ended up decking it in the Kerry Valley to only make 16km from launch. Took me over 2 hours too. But I was still pretty happy for the day.

Overall I ended up being about number 52 out of 62 pilots. I was very happy as I had learnt a lot and had a lot of fun. Even beat Atilla (best in the world) on Day 2, but so did a lot of guys. Anyway, it was a great comp with a lot of great pilots. Much fun was had by all.

See ya on one of our hills soon I hope.

Last Weekend in September flying Tamborine

2007-10-02T19:31:00.000+10:00

The weekend of the 29th and 30th of September was the start of the Canungra Cup paragliding competition. Jon Durand who is in the top ten ranked hang glider pilots in the world has ended up being in the Paragliding comp as well as the hang gliding comp this year. Unfortunately conditions on launch got unsafe so most of the paragliders never got to launch on Saturday, including Jonny.

The goal was Rathdowney and one paraglider made it apparently. Anyway quite a few of us hang glider pilots managed to launch and have good fly on a windy blue sky day. We also tried to get to Rathdowney and some pilots did and flew back towards Tamborine. The headwind was very strong and our progress towards Rath was very slow. I managed to get about 20km from Tamborine and had a nice two step landing on my feet in the Kerry Valley. Joel picked me up just after I'd finished packing up.

Cam setting up. Rangi to far right.

Sunday was similar conditions with a strong W/NW wind. About 13 of us hangies launched and the day was cancelled for the paragliders. So poor Jonny has yet to fly in the comp and the rest of the week may not be too good either. The headwind seemed even stronger than Saturday on Sunday and we had no goal named as well.

Henk launching

There's a hangie and a paraglider in this shot somewhere.

I managed to get across the valley ok and made it to the model airfield (about 7km from launch). So with no where really to go I pulled out my camera to take some pics, but I think my camera has developed a fear of heights as it wouldn't work properly at all. So here is a pic of the the Witheren range from about 5,000ft. It seemed to work fine once I was back on the ground though.

Over Witheren Range at around 5,000ft

Jon Senior came over to my thermal and I asked where he was headed. He said a few had landed at the Turf farm near Flockys and was headed there. So I decided to go there too only I didn't make it and had another good landing in field just near Flocky's place. Joel and some of the other low hour pilots, such as Simo, Dan, Courtney, Rob and Ant, had some good flying at Tambo also.

The field I landed in with Witheren Range in the background.

Overall it was a hot weekend with some good flying and some great thermals up to 7,500ft. By the way I'm now wearing knee pads and my knee is healing up nicely.

The Canungra Classic Hang gliding is now less than two weeks away, so Joel and I are looking forward to flying in that.

Sep 9 Kissin the Gravel

2007-09-10T19:15:00.000+10:00

The launch on Sunday.

Well, there was an unofficial task to the Boonah T. I ridgesoared Beechmont for nearly an hour before finally getting up to 4,000ft with Derek and Neil. We all got to Hinchcliffs ok, and Neil got up easily and went on West. Derek and myself spent nearly another hour on Hinchcliffs. Derek landed at Hinchies bombout field and I was about to follow as the wind had died off. I managed to find a thermal half way to the bombout and eventually get back up to 4,000ft.

I headed West again and found a huge rain band in the Kerry. It looked really heavy. I decided to try and get infront of it. I found only light lift and started loosing height. I made the mistake on not really deciding on a good landing field. Then I made the mistake of thinking I could clear a fence and road. Soon, as I heard my harness just clip the top of a fence I was crashing onto a gravel road. I was soon greeted by the owner who couln't believe where I had landed with out hitting a fence. We were both glad that I didn't do any damage to fences and also the fact that I was 3 feet short of running into the electric fence.

The fence I only just cleared in foreground and electric fence in background.

Scrape marks left by my knee and base bar.

And finally for you bloodthirstys, what you get when you don't set up your approach right.

I was very upset with myself and more worried about the 2 weeks of pain that a scraped knee can give (inglewood) than any immediate pain. At least Joel was kind enough to drive out and pick me up. Glider seemed to survive relatively unscathed.

Sunday Series Task from Beechmont to Moogera Dam.

2007-09-03T22:06:00.000+10:00

As Joel and I drove up to Beechmont the clouds were looking very good and our hopes were up. We arrived at just after 10am to find lots of people and many gliders already set up.

It looked good, but then the wind died and the valley was in shadows. So no one was keen to launch. Soon the wind picked up a little and Kath launched. She wasn't gaining much height but seem to be ridge soaring quite well. Of course then there was a bit of a rush. Soon there was 15 or so paragliders and hang glider ridge soaring in light lift. There was a call for no more pilots to launch as it was very congested with everyone at the same height. Some bombed out after choosing to search for lift out in the valley. Some eventually gained enough height to go over the back. After seeing a few pilots getting up off the point I decided to launch and fly out to them, but was rewarded instantly with good lift right in front of launch.

It was worth the long wait to launch because I soon found myself going over the back with a great cloud street almost all the way to Moogera. I caught up with a gaggle of four over Mohomit (is that how you spell it?). Kath was one of them and we flew together almost all the way to goal. It was an awesome flight.

I was so glad to make goal. Lee, the legend that he is was there to pick up Kath had some beers with him and I thought, well it doesn't get much better than this. A great flight, someone to take you back to your car and few cool beers around beautiful countryside. Many pilots made goal, including Nick, Cameron, Neil, Derek, Warren, Wrangi etc. I ended up being 6th for the day behind Warren, Cameron, Nick and Neil. If only days like this happened every weekend.

Aerotowing from the Lawn Farm at Boyland

2007-09-03T21:42:00.000+10:00

On Saturday the 1st of September a few members of the Canungra club went out to do some aerotowing with Lee, Flocky and Barfly. Nick landed there after launching from Tambo. Wrangi came out along with Joel and few others.

Conditions were a bit light we were told by Big Trev and some others who flew overhead. Kath towed up and managed to stay up for quite a while before landing not too far away. I was about 5th to get towed up after a few came back for a re-tow. It was very hard to stay up even though the clouds looked good. I landed short of the tow paddock and packed up.

Then there was a bit of a spot landing comp which Joel won. Good, fun day. There should be more days like this coming up again soon too for those who want have a tow locally.

Trip to Cook Islands back in June 07

2007-08-30T23:17:00.000+10:00

A bit of a late entry here. Back in June I went to the Cook Islands with 7 others, Kath, Lee ,Taj & Nita (Lee's mum), Scotty & Fiona and Joel.

We spent 7 days on Raratonga and 6 on a beautiful island called Aitutaki. The main reason for going was to kitesurf. 6 of us had kiting gear (Nita and Taj are not into it yet). Scotty had done some research and told us that it should be great for kiting and the wind should be up. Unfortunately this wasn't so. After a few days of no wind on Raratonga we started going a bit stir crazy.

We went snorkeling, climbed up the hardest tracks I've ever been on and nearly got lost. It was very steep and if there wasn't any markers you never would've known there was a track there. Joel and Scotty did it waring thongs! My nike sandals were broken afterwards. Only Joel made it to the highest peak with Scotty getting to within 30m of the summit. I got to about 300m and Kath and Fiona turned back about 500m from the top. Lee took Taj & Nita back only after about a kilometer as the mossies and track looked bad.

The wind was teasing us. Only a couple of knots short of being able to kite. Joel eventually had had enough after cracking open coconuts and drinking beer and sitting on the beach looking at the ocean. On the 5th day he grabbed his kite and set up. I told him he was mad. He planned on launching from the reef near our beach house. There was just enough wind to get going and off he went. He did a few runs and managed to tack back to where he left. He scraped his board on the reef as he came back in and was lucky to get away with it, but he got his fix. Unfortunately for Joel this was his only real kite session for the whole trip.

Taj after a big session.

Then it was on to Aitutaki. Poor little Taj (18 months old) couldn't pop his ears on the small plane (no pressurised cabin). He screamed and cried the whole 50 mins.

Aitutaki is one of the most beautiful islands I've ever seen. A massive lagoon with several small islands close to the reef. So after we'd found our accomodation and been attacked by millions of mosquitos I went and hired a moped as there was still no wind.

The next day still had no wind. So on day four at Aitutaki after lots of drinking, Kayaking to a small island, exploring the island on the moped and opening even more coconuts, Joel gave up. He decided to head back to Raratonga and hopefully find more wind there. That night as Joel was getting on the plane the wind picked up! Poor Joel. He found no wind on Raratonga and lost his keys to a moped. He did go skinny dipping with some Scandinavian girls though apparently.

The rest us of thanked the wind gods and went out on a boat to an awesome sand island which we kited off and had lunch on. We also went fishing on some reefs and we caught some good snapper which we ate for dinner. Yum! The next day we went back there on a boat and kited all afternoon. The last two days made the whole trip worth it.

Sunday Beechmont

2007-08-16T21:19:00.000+10:00

Well last Sunday for me was a day I'd rather forget.
Joel and I arrived at Beechmont to find new student and mate, Scotty ready to launch with Lee overseeing.

We waited to catch some shots of Scotty launching, but he seemed to have a few demons to overcome to launch. We eventually gave up on him and set up our gliders.

We saw some paragliders having a good time of the conditions soaring quite easily.

But by the time we were ready to launch it had all turned to shite. Enda bombed out. After a while old Trev launched and seemed to be going only up. So after I waited for someone to land on the shelf I launched and tried to get in what old Trev was in. Bad decision, as the wind in the bomb out was SW and what Trev was in wasn't there for me. Hence a short flight and a big stack in the bomb out. Not happy Jan! So after I destroyed my antenna and stuffed my wrist, shoulder and both knees. I decided that launching at Beechmont when the wind in the bombout was anything west was an extremely bad idea and I was a dickhead for even launching. Anyway I'm glad that the guys that launched from Hinchcliff generally had a good flight and Old Trev, the legend that he is got up.

See ya on the hill.

Sundays Tambo to Jacobs well flight

2007-08-09T17:27:00.000+10:00

Hi all.

Just wanted to say what an awesome day last Sunday was. I arrived at Tambo launch at around 10.30 with Joel and we had no driver. Rob launched and seemed to stay up ok. Well, the wind was about 15knts, and from the SW. I caught up with Rod and asked if there was a task. He said no, but some were thinking of heading to Jacobs Well. Awesome I thought. I've always wanted to go East.

I jokingly said to Joel, "Here's the plan, I'll fly xc, you topland and drive." "Yeah, right!" says Joel. I really just hoped we both went xc and worried about getting the car later.

Anyway, Joel launched after a couple of pilots, then I launched about 15 mins later. Then lots of people launched. Soon there was about 15 or so in the air. Everyone seemed to top out at around 3000ft and it was quite windy. Then I heard on the radio that Big Trev and few others were heading off. Damn, I thought, as I wanted to tag along.

So with a few pilots in the bomb out and some gone east, I just searched for some good lift for another hour. I saw Joel topland and thought I might just do the same. 10 more minutes I thought. Then suddenly on the north point Neil and myself got some good thermal action and soon found ourselves high enough to head off. Yeh ha!! So, with frozen fingers we headed NE. Lucky Joel toplanded. I told him where we were and he headed East after stuffing his face with Subway.

Soon we were crossing the M1 near Strawberry Farm. I couldn't believe how awesome the views were.

I got low just over the M1 but eventually found some lift and made it to where the others had landed at Jocobs Well. Rod was still in the air there after flying around there for an hour enjoying the views.

I flew around for a while too and was able to take a few snaps and a movie. Then just before the seabreeze kicked in I saw a big thermal on the surface of a lake which looked pretty cool.

Then Rod landed, I followed and Neil landed last. Joel turned up just as I finished packing up and we went to strawberry farm for an ice cream before heading home. Thanks for the pick up Joel. It was definitely a flight I'll never forget.

See you on the hill.