Great winter flying

After the uncertainty of the weather forecast, watching for weather signs all the way to the launch (clouds, their shape and size, drift and direction of drift, wind in the trees, birds, smoke, other gliders, etc) it's alway hard to wipe the grin off your face when you finally come around a corner and see gliders circling above launch. "It's on!" you know, and now the race is to get up the hill and pick a good time to launch in to join the mob in the air.



Nath and I had those happy grins on our faces when we came around the corner and into sight of the paraglider launch above Bright today - and it wasn't long until we were set-up, checks done, and winging our way towards the clouds above us.

Cloudbase was around 1,650m, although it varied quite a lot depending on where you were. We flew over to Clearspot and towards the Porepunkah airfield a ways before turning towards Blackfellas. Looking up the valley was the most amazing view of the sun shining through a trough of clouds - fantasy-like colours and shapes!

I got low over Blackfellas but got a low save from a nice thermal that gave me enough height to fly back to Clearspot again (nath drifting along above me). It had been completely shaded over for a bit, but there were light bubbles drifting towards it so I headed in to give it a try. There was a thin thread of lift coming off the northernmost point, and after several minutes of weaving in and out of this a bubble big enough to turn in floated through and gave me the height I needed to make it back to Mystic.

The soaring day was nearly over so but after boating around the hill for a bit I noticed that the gentle northerly winds were ideal for top-landing. I've done a few of these over the last few years, but none that I've been really happy with. It's a bit tricky, as you need to lose height out the front until you are level or slighty below launch (depending on the ridge lift strength) before turning and flying downwind alongside a treeline - aiming below the left-hand side of the launch. As you get close the you get lifted up (hopefully) to launch height, keep flying towards the back left corner, then a quick right turn as you're getting close to the trees at the back of launch and you're down. If you mis-judge the wind or your speed or the lift you'll be too high to land or get blown into trees on your left or behind launch and if there's West in the wind there's an increased chance of collapses due to turbulence from the trees to the left of launch.

Anyway, conditions were good today and for the first time I nailed the approach, landing pretty much exactly where I like to take off from. Woohoo!!
Nath soared for a bit longer before we flew down to the landing paddock after just over 2hrs of playing with winter thermals.

I don't think our grins had slipped from when we'd first seen gliders in the air - it's goanna take an awful lot to wipe 'em off now!!!