Weird air

Flew from Mystic today and at the end of the day I felt like I understand the weather less, thermals didn't make as much sense as they used to, my wing doesn't have nearly as good a performance as I thought, I didn't really mind being on the ground, and what were the weather forecasters on???
Contributing factors may have been some stability and an approaching front? But anyway, I flew from Mystic, to Clearspot, then Blackfellas, Mt Porepunkah (scratched around there for ages before getting over the top, and once there, no boomer to zap me up to cloudbase), and down the spur-line to the north to land in Running Creek Valley.
What made things difficult was firstly the winds, which I'd have to say were strong and variable - three separate times I was pretty much parked in the wind - which was blowing in three different directions, and everywhere I went the wind was blowing somewhere different. Secondly the thermals were very hard to find - it seemed like you had to be right on top of them when they came through or you'd miss 'em, and they didn't last for very long either. Drop out the side or the back and by the time you'd found it again most of it might have passed through.
Coming down the spur on the other side of Mt Porepunkah the whole area was in the sun but do you think I could find a climb? Nup, there were little bubbles rocketing off here and there, drifting strongly in the wind, but no good climbs and the air was getting rougher and rougher so in the end I got fed up as I ran out of height and landed in the valley.
An hours walking and lifts from a farmer, a retired geological surveyer, and then a regional climate change planner saw me back at the landing paddock and my vehicle but check out this amazing B&B place I came across on the way out!!

Over the Tawonga Gap

Short flight today, but satisfying.
I got to Bright late and arrived on launch to find a really light drift from over the back. After monitoring conditions for a bit I launched in a light puff up the face and got a climb from a bit further down Marcus than usual. It did feel a bit lee-sidey at first, but after going up through a bit of a rough layer 400m up it was a smooth elevator to 2,000m. The drift was from the SW and by the time I had maxed the climb I had drifted a fair ways to the NE, enabling a straight glide to Little Pyramid. I was in a bit of a hurry, because while climbing all of mystic had shaded out and I wanted to get a climb off Pyramid before the fast approaching shade shut it out too.
The shade was just marching up the slope as I flew in to it, and I was expecting that to trigger off residual heat from the slope but if it did I didn't find it. Instead I ended up scratching around the high points, ecking out little height gains here, loosing them there, hoarding all the altitude I could as I waited for the sun and a thermal up into the blue again.
Several minutes later an orange and white UP glider wandered around the corner to join me - Chappo was in the same situation. We gradually scratched lower but then the sun came out again and we started scratching higher - the light lift was drifting fast over tiger country and it was tricky knowing weather to stay with the lift in the hope it strengthened or keep close to safe landing options and risk landing. Anyway, I caught a good bubble up several hundred meters (then lost most of it getting back to the trigger point), then Chappo caught one and stuck with it to around 1,800m before heading over to Mt Beauty. I flew right through the area he climbed out of less than 3minutes after him but couldn't find it - however I got my own climb soon enough and although it was a tight, squirmy little thermal, blowing over no-mans land I stuck with it and rode it up to just over 2 km's. Heading downwind it was an easy crossing, not much sink for the first half, but heaps once over the other side, and I didn't find another climb until I was setting up to land near the Mt Beauty Bakery. By then I was wanting to land in time to hitch a ride back to Bright and had to fly away from the core (big, wide, thermal) and spiral down through the lifty air all around!

Indescribable

Sometimes - very, very rarely - everything just comes together in a way that you hadn't even dreamed it would - ever had that happen?
Well it happened to me today and here's how it went down.
Short version (much more to come) I flew to Mt Feathertop (again!),
...climbed up to over 3,000m, and from there flew across to land at the Hotham ski resort.

I took photos, and a short panorama from above Mt Feathertop...
...but I really doubt that I'll ever be able to communicate the wonder of that flight....
Spectacular... scary.... awesome... incredible....

Does it get better than this?

Haven't got time for a long post here, but just wanted to say that TODAY I FLEW OVER MT FEATHERTOP!!!!!!
I've been eye-ing this flight off for over a year now, and to finally do was just indescribable!
It wasn't easy - I got a climb from my first foray onto Bungalow Spur, but couldn't find one when I pushed in further and had to fly back out through some very unwelcome sink. The trees were looking awefully ominous for a minute there, but then I got out of the sink and soon after found another climb and this time it all went smoothly. Got high, transition in further, got another climb, and flew in to Feathertop!
For a few short minutes there I was filled with an incredible sense of possession - I'd beaten the mountain, that sucker was MINE! Yeah!!!!
Awesome views, pics here , will post more later.

another milestone

Two flights today, the first one I launched around 1:30 (Daylight Saving time - 1 hr forward) and climbed to 1,400, then crossed towards Clearspot. I arrived well below the height of the hill and had to scratch around the side before getting up to 1,500 in a narrow, drifting core. Above 1,300 it was easy to stay up, and I boated around taking some pics while watching Ollie climbing up and waiting for Rob to come across. We headed out towards Blackfellas, but Rob didn't like the look of it and turned around for another climb while watching me get lower and lower as I searched for lift. He stayed high and further back, which was a smart move as after desperately working tiny bubbles and even ridge soaring I ran out of height and options and landed on the outskirts of Bright.
I eventually got a lift from Alex, who very kindly drove me up to my car on launch, but once there the conditions on launch (N-NNW at 5kts, gusts to 8kts) proved too tempting and I relaunched. By now (4:30ish) there were small rough-edged bubbles coming through but not many thermals. I did catch a few, but they were extremely narrow and hard to stay centered in. Max height was about 1,200m. FredG and MichelleB drove up and launched after a while (on a Boom5 and UP very high aspect ratio wing) and we flew around for a bit before they landed. I kept flying for until I ran out of bubbles and then landed very pleased with a smooth toplanding in 4-9kts of NNW wind. I wasn't sure it'd work out and was prepared to forget the idea but it all went very well.

Today's flying also puts me over the 200hrs mark - Hooray!!
I arrived home to find that my advanced rating had arrived in the mail - nice timing!

It is ON at Bright!

I took off from the Mystic launch around 12:30 today - 

- 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!

Above the snow!!!

Sometimes, when you fly, it's like you somehow sidestep all the rules and slip into a place not made for people - a wonderful place, breath-takingly beautiful, sometimes scary, a place run on laws you can't see and only dimly sense. No visit is the same, nor lasts long enough - for we are but foreigners in this wondrous place - but once you have been there the memory sinks deep and is never fully forgotten. At every chance you will strive to get back, and, if you do get back, strive to stay a little longer, to learn a little more, see a little further. Each visit fills, to the exclusion of all else, the moments that measure it's duration and overflows into a deep satisfaction that lights all else for a time afterwards. But only for a time... until the vividness of that memory is burned through by everyday living and you wonder did it really happen? Did I do that? Surely such sights are not for men but for eagles and angels and the winds and the stars. But the memory is still there, however deep, and when the chance comes once again - to slip by the rules and re-enter that wonderful place - you leap for it with anticipation.

So yeah, you could say it was a pretty good day's flying yesterday. A lot of the boxes that go into making a 'great' flight were ticked for me - flying with friends, a good recovery from a bad place, flying difficult air and flying it well, taking off early and landing late, trying new things, wonderful views... Something I've wanted to do for a long time now is fly above the snow, and as I was thermalling above the ridge near Mt Ebeneazer I looked down and there it was - snow all under and through the trees along the shadowed side of the ridge! I've flown to Harrietville a number of times and several times to Harrietville and then onto somewhere else but never (until yesterday) there and back again. It was a good decision to turn back to launch when it looked like I wouldn't make the crossing to Goldmine - despite the others all being ahead. It was good to get a bit more of a feel for the air before heading over - and then heading over in good air. It felt great to find a climb where I thought there should be one - and then to stick with it through the light inversions and to pick it up again after the wind shear layer nearly to cloudbase. It was good to stay over the high ground - and to set the goal of flying back to Bright. It was great to just clear the last ridge and glide slowly to the landing paddock as the few clouds in the sky faded and the thermic part of the day ended.
Yep, the whole day was pretty good!!

The stats:
flight time: 2hrs 15min
max height: 1,912m
peak vario: 6m/s, steady around 1.8m/s (thermals were not small, but very unorganised air and difficult to 'core'. There seemed to be several light inversion and there was a wind sheer layer around 1,600m)