Another triangle!

Another fun day of flying around Bright - when it's good here it is SO good!!
I launched at 11:45 right into a nice climb up to 1,500m. Meandered around over the hill until I was back down near launch - which was packed out with hang-glider in Bright for the Bogong Cup...

...climbed to 1,600m then wandered around again, till I found myself down at 1000m way up the back of the bowl out the back of Mystic. Stupid, there was no way I could make it back to launch without a climb and if I didn't find one soon I'd have to bomb out near Wandi. If I stayed on the NW side of the ridge I was far more likely to get a good climb, but doing that risked bombing out below Marcus - which is not only a pretty mediocre place to land (old tree stumps, sloping ground, lots of blackberries...) but it has hardly any vehicle traffic and is a long walk from the LP and lifts back up the hill.
So I started working my way back but before I had to make the left-or-right decision I felt through the wing that there was a thermal somewhere around. A bit of of very motivated searching and I had it located and was circling up out of stupidity.
From here it was a short hop over to Clearspot, where I bubbled around just over the hill for a bit before climbing to 1,900m.

I'd drifted over towards Mystic in the climb so I kept going, topping up a bit as I flew over towards Goldmine. Got there low, climbed to 2,000m (the day's improving!) and headed off down the ridge towards Mt Feathertop!

The ridge was working, and I climbed over the Growlers Creek Hill (?) to 2,200m, and then in a light, drifty climb that had me at 2,300m as I crossed over the smoko bowl.
I had a really nice line for the glide into Feathertop and the air was even smooth enough for me to very successfully relieve an increasingly pressing need!!
I got the first climb, and another good glide enabled me to skip the second point and head further in. I didn't find a climb here though, but tried flying back out on the other side of the ridge and quickly connected with a weak, drifty climb that eventually took me to 2,600m directly in front of the summit - a great spot!!
The air out the front was quite boyant, so I spent a while meandering around in it, taking pic, watching Brian come blasting in on his SR8...

...overfly the summit...

...spiral up for a bit of height, and head back out again. Man he is fast!!
It was still fairly early in the afternoon and I spent a while longer boating around over the mountain and enjoying the view. Now I've done the Feathertop hike a few times, and the view from the summit is great, but I've gotta say - it's got nothing on the view from over half a km above the summit...

I was trying to get as high as possible because there's this flight, and I've been wanting to fly it ever since the first time I got above Feathertop, but to pull it off I'll need a really good day - like today, but a bit higher....
Well, a bit higher didn't come through so I headed back the way I'd come. Super glide back - along a very similiar path to the one I took on the way in - caught a thermal to 2,700m on the way out and nearly turned around and headed back in again...
... But didn't, and ended up low (1,300m) over Growlers hill. But there was a thermal there, and I rode it up to 2,650m - did I say it was a great day? - before heading up the ridge, arriving over Goldmine with 2km between me and sea-level. A light drifty thermal here gave me another 300m for the height-bank and I turned right towards Pyramid.
The glide over wasn't very good, but I still arrived over the high point of Pyramid hill at 1,500m, a certain place for a good thermal. Sure enough I hunted one down and in short order was back at 2,500m.
I'd been looking at the GPS, trying to work out how far I had to fly over the Tawonga Gap to make the day a triangle (I'd liked doing one on purpose the other day) and thought that about half way might do it, but all the way over would be better. However I wasn't too sure about, once over the gap, getting a climb good enough to get me back so decided to turn around when I was down to 2,000m. The top of Pyramid is about 1,200m, so assuming a similiar glide back (but hoping for a thermal along the way) I'd arrive over the highest part of the hill with 200m clearance. If that didn't work I could skirt the high point around those heated slopes that feed the thermals that lift off the top, or at worst land at the foot of the hill alongside the Tawonga Gap road.
The glide over was pretty good, and I stopped to circle in some really light air - trying to locate the thermal that should be around it but couldn't - before turning back when at the 2,000m mark.
I arrived back over the hill with about 150m spare - but man it felt like I wouldn't make it for a good bit of the way back!
Another climb to 2,500m and I pointed the glider towards Mystic hill...

...and got a fantastic glide over!! Approaching Mystic I still had this much height!!

But then I hit the sink, which soon had me lower. I kept going towards Clearspot until I was down to 900m, then turned around and flew down to land.
Have I ever said that I like paragliding?

REFLECTIONS:
Well, I certainly wasn't rushing around today, and although my legs were pretty sore by the time I landed (when I'm thermalling I tend to push on the harness stirrup, I must feel that if I push harder I'll go up faster...), overall I still felt pretty fresh :)
I've been making an attempt to have a 'mental break' from the concentration of flying every now and then - a sip of water, taking a few pics, lean back and watch the wing, etc - and it seems to have helped in allowing me to get past the 4hr point. A number of earlier flights stopped before then because I suddenly started making a bunch of dumb decisions. It could also be that it was nice relaxing air to be flying in today. But with that amazing 6:30hr flight at the start of the month, 4:30hrs the other week (I felt good after that one also), and 5:20hrs today I'm hoping my flying skills have progressed another step upwards!

I'm a bit sorry I didn't head back in to the summit when I got that 2,700m climb on the way out - and tried looking for a climb a lot further past the peak as it may have drifted a ways over the back... Ahh well, it was good to spend a bit more time enjoying myself over the peak - I'm certainly not complaining about the day - it was just great!!