- just after BrianW - and we both got a nice climb that went close to cloudbase (just light whispies over Mystic at that stage) around 2,100m. I headed over to Goldmine (nice looking cloud there) and as I left saw Brian, KarlT, FredG and CraigC thermalling over towards Wandi. After a brief search I connected with a climb (triggering off the GM point, 3m/s) and while climbing towards the cumulous above saw the others had decided to head directly to Mt Ebaneazer. By the time I'd reached CB (2,400m here!) I'd lost sight of Brian, Fred and Craig but could see Karl heading towards the Reliance ridge (looked like he got some pretty strong sink). 
I had heaps of height and there were really solid looking clouds along the ridge...
...so I headed straight towards Ebaneazer also.
The flying was really nice! I remember some pretty funky air from last spring but so far I haven't felt anything like that this year. Today, for instance, there were a couple of times I jumped off the bar smartly, and once the wing flexed with a bit of a snap (might have been a frontal collapse if I didn't stop it), but all in all I've found things quite benign. I'm usually comfortable enough to take photos with both hands off the brakes (using the bar for pitch control) and I'm wondering how much of this is due to the wing I'm flying, how much due to flying at the top of the weight range, and how much due to the conditions. For sure the wing helps a lot - since I've gotten used to it (Gradient Aspen II) I've had far fewer collapses than I did on a DHV 1-2 and flown in much rougher conditions (around the end of last summer). I think because it gives you so much more information about the air around you it is easier to anticipate (and check) most collapses well before they occur.
Anyway, as I got closer to Ebaneazer another glider was also gliding in
- and it was Rob. He was flying a Avax RSF and I was interested to see that the Aspen had a comparible glide and slightly higher trim speed - although I'm sure he could leave me in the dust once he used his speedbar.
We arrived at around 2,100m to find widespread lift in the area so we just kept on going (partly due to a combination of the cloud above us getting darker and shade approaching the spurs above Harrietville we were aiming for). As we crossed over Harrietville I could see someone (turned out to be Brian) scratching on the spur south of Harrietville and as we flew further and further in (chasing the sunlight) spotted a couple of wings well above us and much closer to Feathertop.
Rob was ahead of me and hit some sink going in to the ridge - he nosed around but didn't find anything and turned around for the glide back out to Harrietville. I took a slightly different path in and as I crossed over the spur felt the wing pull forwards ever-so-slightly into.... YES! LIFT!! But then I dropped out the other side. It was felt very small and very light and wasn't in the same place twice as I bumbled around trying to stay in it. It felt like it was being drawn deeper towards Hotham but when I ventured a bit that way I lost it completly. I turned back but what was there was there no more and after a few searching turns I was getting uncomfortably low a long way from the nearest landing site so left the spur and headed for Harrietville. Everything except the upper ridges was shaded over by now,
... and the air was quiet and dead as I glided down (not even a beep) to land next to Rob in the Harrietville quarry. Brian had landed somewhere nearby and Karl up the road a bit.
In retrospect (that wonderful thing), I think I should have waited in the lift over Ebaneazer until there was sun on the Feathertop spurs before crossing - there was heaps of lift there and if I'd flown back to near the edge of the cloud I think I could have easily maintained height there and waited for a better time to cross. OR, topped up near to cloudbase and taken a more direct route across - I would have been even further from sunny ridges but there was a darker line of cloud stretching towards Feathertop (convergence?) and I might have gotten a really good glide all the way there at cloudbase.
Things to remember for next time...
Fred and Craig made it to above Mt Feathertop, and we heard on the radio one of them reaching 3,100m by flying up the side of one of the clouds. From here they flew along the Razorback ridge to Hotham (as they flew in, Ollie was flying out on his hang-glider - apparently he took a really good line and made it back to the Mystic LP on the one glide from Hotham...), got a weak climb there and made it back out (encountering hail on the way), to the smoko bowl (Fred got a 6.5m/s average climb there), and glided down to the Mystic LP as the now blue-black clouds near Harrietville dropped a bunch of rain. Awesome flying, and some nice timing there too....
Fred had a video camera with him - hopefully he posts some of the footage of the flight!
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