K-Blog: Boredom does not enter the equation

3 days, 3 different sites, 3 totally different flying conditions.

Friday evening I rushed home from work to grab some duning time in Cronulla. It was too South but I setup anyway. Gar came along and we did some hovering and basebarring on the dunes and suddenly, out of nowhere, the wind turned SE, and I got the most beautiful perfect soaring conditions for an hour.

If you're not in you can't win!!

Saturday Jonathan, Alex and Jonas L drove down to Canberra. On our way to Pig Hill, we decided that Lake George looked better so we went to The Collector launch on the Northern end of the Lake. We were the only ones there. Sweet.

(Photo thanks to Jonathan K)

Jono and Jonas ended up getting some great flying in. Jon even top-landed fly-on-wall style on the hill. Nice work. Flying so much in Stanwell pays off...

Meanwhile Alex and I bombed pretty much. I went up for another fly and managed to stay up a little bit but again, I was happy just being there, launching and landing, trying to thermal in wierd conditions. It's all learning.

On Sunday morning Jonathan, Big Fred, Dave and I drove to Blackheath on a good forecast. A stunning day for the mountains. We were joined by some more Sydney-siders and heaps of paragliders.

We watched paraglider after paraglider launch and not only bomb out but get totally drilled in the process in massive sink, barely making the landing field. It was so wierd. We knew there was inversion but some were getting up so we knew it was possible to get high. We waited for it to get a few degrees hotter for the thermals to break the inversion and for some more favourable launch conditions.

We saw some really dodgy paragliding launches. Tandem launching and then touching down just before the edge of the cliff, not having enough airspeed. Pilots falling over on their runs over the many obstacles in their path. It was like a sidehow, seriously. But they didn't seem too worried. I tell you if I was ever interesting in taking up paragliding, it turned me off it for good! I can't even imagine what the poor students who were up there that day were thinking "oh yeah before you get in the air you just have to get over your fear of dying on the run down the hill, because you will fuck it up at some stage". :)

I might be harsh, seeing as it's an advanced launch and the conditions were not ideal but it was kind of scary to watch, if not a little entertaining after a while :)

Golden rule of paragliding - Do not "whoo hoo" until you are well clear of the hill! :)

Well we finally took off and experienced a bit more than expected. I was fully prepared to bomb like everyone else and packup in the field below, resigning myself to the fact that at least I spent a fun day with friends....but alas I happened to launch in the best cycle of the day and went straight up to over 8grand ...so rewarding.

Unfortunately my vid ran out shortly into the flight. I flew around launch for a while waiting for Dave or Jono to get up. Dave ended up going low through the valley and I lost him for a while. My aim was to make it to Lithgow at least. I knew I was high enough but needed a couple more thermals to get there.

Flying over the Sugarloaf I saw Dave and Andy the paraglider low but climbing fast. I went over to join them and climbed to base before heading off over some more ranges.

Trying to keep up with a LiteSpeed is not that easy, but I tried!! I lost Dave over Lithgow. He went straight through a thermal and I stayed because I wanted to be high leaving Lithgow as I was told it was a sinkhole. That thermal was SHIT I was being thrown all over the place, so I glided out to the end of town.

If I had looked around more I would have seen dave climbing in a screamer but no, I did a 180 and landed in Lithgow Oval (I always had a secret desire to land in a football field :)

I was so pissed when Dave told me I was so close to him. Next time charge your radio K and look around more! He ended up 30kms from Rylestone.

A great day. Jono launched at 5pm and still made it past Lithgow. He won the Blackheath trophy for best flight. Nice! When he gets his LiteSpeed I will never see him again!!

3 great sites within 2.5 hours of my home. Spending time with people who are motivated enough to fly. Lots of laughs. Being outside in the beautiful Australian countryside. What a great weekend!