Bingara Again! :(

Yesterday was supposed to be a high cloud base day with a nice strong tailwind. We were hoping that this would be the day for crushing some huge distance; I was looking to fly around 150-200k. The day turned out to be a lower cloud base day with hardly any tailwind and mainly weak climbs. There were clouds popping through the day but their lives were short lived as they would quickly evaporate just after they had formed.

I started the day with a strong climb out from launch, while many others were stuck low working a different part of the ridge. I then quickly hopped down a few clouds the North 10k to the end of the Borah ridge system. At this point I was all alone with only my friend Mark super low out in front of me. This was not encouraging so I waited for a few friends to catch up. After we all established in a group we pushed north spreading out and taking different lines. I came quite close to landing at this point but managed a low save just 100 meters over the ground. (Note, I wrote a monster of a blog post and when attempting to post it the connection failed, the above portion was the only part that was saved, to rest of this post will be an abbreviation of what I had previously written.)

The day was slow with light thermals, blue holes and a number of low saves. This was this third time that I have flown to Bingara but it was different from the rest, it was hard work. The other two times I flew this route, and most of the flights I have had here in general have been graced with good clouds and flying that was mainly high away from the ground the entire time. When you fly a cross country route and you stay really high the entire flight it is nice an relaxing with the feeling that you will never land and you have all the options in the world. A flight like yesterday that brings you close to landing many times brings out a different set of emotions. At times, low to the ground and almost landing, you feel desperate and like you have no options at all. On this flight a number of times I felt that I was using my only chance to make a low save and this is mentally stressfully, it is not relaxing at all. But, with these times come the low saves and with the low saves come a entirely different emotional wave. At times yesterday I felt SO HAPPY that I had found a climb, and so thrilled that I was not going to have to land in the hot Australian sun. This flight was different in character and subsequently different in emotion. It was more intense, more emotional, and more stressful. It was blssfull at times and almost manic at others. In the end it all worked out to be a great day.

I ended up flying 95k, Brian Webb flew about the same, and Meredith flew a personal best flying over the boys after they had landed and pushing on to fly some 120 kilometers! Congratulations Meredith!!!

Today I will rest and then we will drive to Killarney, 5 hours north. Tomorrow the Killarney Competition starts and it is going to be a blast. We are hoping for huge flights, fast racing and podium positions.

Below are a few pictures that Mr. Brian Webb took of me on yesterday's flight.

More Sending

So, the xc open comp ended but the flying goes on as it must.

The day after the comp had great potential and I left launch early with a few friends under puffy clouds and light winds. After 30k we reached the flatlands and it looked as if we were early on our arrival. The puffy cumulus clouds that we had ridden to this point now ended and there was nothing but blue skies ahead. Two other pilots and I pushed out onto the flats and the possibility of finding a good climb looked grim. Given this I maybe should have followed the main road but didn't. I pushed north towards some good looking clouds but simply did not make it. I landed on some property in the middle of nowhere, walked 4k to a farm where I met a nice elderly farmer and his wife. They offered to drive me to the main road but insisted that they had to have "tea" first. We had cold drinks and some snacks together at their house and after this they drove my back to the main road. This was a full on treat of genuine Australian hospitality. The flight was no where near the potential for the day, but that was no matter, it was great fun and brought me a huge smile that I am still wearing.

This monster of a smile stayed on my face all day yesterday as well. This day graced me with a personal best flight, I flew a monster 100k (62 mile) triangle, landing just 4k from my takeoff point. Meredith, Alex, Brian Webb, and JJ were great company through most all of the flight. There were many highlights throughout this epic 5.5 hour flight including cloud flying, great climbs, getting low in no man's land, and a final glide of 20k under a convergence line at 6pm. I posted it on xc contest and will try and post a few of my other good flights soon.

Today I attempted to fly a 80k out and return with Brian Webb, though it ended as little more than a good attempt. A strong headwind and and some sink drove me to the ground just 20k into the flight. No worries though, I am fully content, and still sore from yesterday's epic triangle.

Below are some pictures of the epic triangle flight, as well as two videos. I think the first video is best viewed for the first time with the volume turned all the way off. The second one was taken on the final leg of the 100k triangle.

Sending

Yesterday was the last day of the manilla xc open and we finally got to fly a valid task. I dont have much time to describe everything as I must go flying, so I will try and sum it up quick.

The day started off slow with really weak climbs over launch. The thermals were averaging 100 feet per minute so it was a bit frustrating. Once high over launch I headed north with the lead group, with a few pilots slightly ahead. The beginning was slow going and huge clouds were developing out in front of us just off course line. One of these clouds developed into a cumulus nimbus that began to rain hard just 10-15k to our west. The climbs were slow, which meant it took forever to pass by this monster cloud.

Eventually we passed by the cloud and kept working down the edge of the darkness. In the end I broke off from the group and pushed out front alone , under some dark clouds that I had mixed emotions about. This line took me on a 35k final glide under a cloud street. I got rained on in the end of the glide just above the ground and my gear got a bit wet. I landed in Bingara, 95k away from where I started a few hours earlier. This was the only valid task of this competition so the overall results were only based on this day. Out of 116 pilots I placed 9th, yeehah!

I took all of the pictures shown here. A few were meant to document the skies and 2 were meant to document the mustache which I trimmed for the first time yesterday. I cant quite get a picture to do it justice mainly because it is fully blonde.

XC-Open Day 6

Yesterday we had the second task of the manilla xc open, but the weather again did not cooperate. The task was set to be an open distance task with one turn point 80k to the west. There was a strong headwind component as well as overdevelopment behind and then in front of launch. The pilots that launched early were able to climb out and push out front just in time to get a shower from a nice cloud that dropped out. Some of the pilots ran from the rain, some spiraled down in the shower and one pilot threw his reserve. I was on launch when this was taking place so I was forced to rush my glider into a ball and cary it under a tree. After this the conditions cleared up and I flew twice, landing no more than one kilometer away both times. This was extremely frustrating, but in the end the day was worth zero points as there were not enough pilots that made it far enough to have the task count as valid. I eventually went up for a third flight where I was finally granted with some good conditions that allowed me to climb a few thousand feet over launch an fly back to Godfrey's farm where I met up with my Swiss friends and my special French friend Nina. 

Today the conditions will hopefully be better than yesterday.  Overall this week has had the worst flying conditions that this area has seen in the last 2 months.  How do you break a drought in Australia?  You schedule a paragliding competition and have 100 pilots come in from all over the world.  I feel bad for many of the pilots that are only here for this week as the flying has been crap.  I on the other hand am not disheartened because I am in Australia at least for another 40 days and my time will come to send it huge.   

The first picture below was taken by my campmate and friend Fred from france.  It is of me two days ago racing under dark but gentle skies.  The second picture is of a wild monster that I encountered in my tent.  The third is of Nina and I waiting out a storm in my beloved home, my tent. 

After the first five days of the Manilla XC-Open being not much more than rain, yesterday we finally had a task to try and fly. There was cloud overdevelopment in the area and the potential for much more. Due to this, Godfrey called a race to goal task that was kept the pilots in the local area between Manilla and Mt. Borah. Typically the tasks in this comp will be open distance, but the special conditions yesterday called for an atypical task. The task was 67k or so; it was a triangle from launch to town to upper manilla to launch. The task was a 30k triangle that we were supposed to fly twice, and it was an elapsed time start.

After launching I climbed to cloudbase and started out on course with a dozen other pilots. Soon after we exited the start most of the plots stopped for a weak climb though, though I did not. I continued flying further down course under the big dark cloud, mashing the speedbar as the climb got stronger and stronger. This move was only executed by myself and 2 other pilots. We left everyone behind us and we were out front leading the day, flying just under the dark clouds at base all the way to town where we tagged the first turn point. Soon after this as we were heading back towards launch and the next turnpoint the task was stopped due to overdevelopment. It was a good call to stop the task as conditions were getting potentially dangerous with rain and the distance and BIG clouds overhead and all over the course. So in the end, even though I and two others were in the lead the task was not worth any points at all.

I would love to go further into the details of this flight, but I need to go eat breakfast (muesli, mango, peaches and milk) and rush off to the pilots meeting. Today looks better than all the days past, and the days ahead look better than this. We are in for some epic flying. If anyone reads this today I will probably be at cloudbase mashing the speedbar on the edge! Think about that! Yeahhhh!

I did not take any pictures yesterday as I was on the bar the entire flight. Meredith did get one pic of me after we had landed. In this shot you can see just some of the dark skies that we were flying under. Woop Woop.

Another Wet Day in Oz.

Rain rain go away please come back another day (or in two months when I am out of the country). Another windy wet day here at the River Gums Caravan Park, really not too much of both but it isn't flyable that is for sure. I can feel the good weather approaching and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

Manilla xc-open

The Manilla XC-Open started yesterday; this is a paragliding competition that will run for 8 days in total. There are approximately 100 plots participating in the competition. Only 25 or so pilots are from Australia, the rest are from all over the world. There are pilots here from Germany, Spain, Switzerland, England, Poland, France, New Caldonia, South Africa, Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand, China, Canada, Norway, Czech, Japan, USA and others. There are only two pilots here from the US, myself and Meredyth Malocsay.

The format for the competition is open distance racing. So, everyday (weather permitting) all of the pilots go up to the launch, we wait for the conditions to get good with enough rising air (thermals) to allow us to get high above launch, and then everyone launches and attempts to fly as far as possible throughout the day. The idea is to climb high in a thermal, glide for a few miles downwind, find another thermal, climb in it and repeat as necessary. It sounds simple but it is not always so easy, there is a ton of decision making involved; often one wrong decision will put you somewhere where you can't find any lifting air and you will be forced to land. During the day some pilots may only make it a few miles from launch, and some may make all the right moves and go very far. On the decent days flights will range from 50-200 miles or more. Each day you get a score coresponding to the distance you fly relative to the other pilots; at the end of the week your four best scores are taken to determine what place you get. The competition is primarily an individual competition but you are also scored as a team. You select your team mates before the comp, I am on a team with my three swiss friends. Our team name is Agent Orange because our gliders are all part orange and for other reasons as well.

So, yesterday was the first day of the Comp. It rained all day and we didn't even go up to launch, today is the same. I will try and post results and stories as the occur, other info can be found on the competition website www.xc-open.org.

The first picture below was taken of me by my friend Dominik Dusek. The second I took of the local caravan park wildlife; the birds are ground parrots and they are everywhere here. The last photo is of me in the campground looking preppy. Note the pants and sweater; it was actually cool out yesterday!

Some Nice XC Action

Today the conditions were good for flying west towards the town of Narrabri. There were at least 60 people on launch today. My 3 Swiss friends and I pushed out onto the flats first and rode the lead for a few K moving slowly to let some others catch up to help along the flight. There were nice puffy clouds developed all around and down wind as we flew from one cloud to another moving west; dipping into the mist of each cloud as we went on and sometimes climbing deeper into the whiteroom was amazing. I and most of the other pilots furthest down wind had an easy time until around 45k where, though the clouds looked good, conditions deteriorated and the climbs became light. I landed after flying 42 miles (67k), and many others sunk out around this distance. My last few thousand vertical feet were killed in 1.600 feet per minute sinking air which flushed me to the ground. When I returned to town after some hitching I heard from a Polish pilot that two Polish pilots were still in the air flying at 210K out!! I wonder how far they made it?

I managed to take a few photos today on the smooth glides. The pictures speak for themselves but i will say it anyway, IT WAS AWESOME!!!

The first pic is of Sebastian and Urs (Swiss friends) as they glided just behind me pushing west, the next two are of a boomerang 5 just as we popped out the side of a cloud. Yes.

Local Wildlife

Some of the local residents up on Mt. Borah's launch.





An adolescent King Parrot pruning a tree in the campground. Tropical birds fill the riverside caravan park here.


Have you seen this mustache? WOW!

Some Evening Flying

Yesterday was no good for flying the midday though we had a chance to do some evening soaring. The flying was OK; there were a lot of pilots on launch and a few took some pictures of me boating around.

Day 2 and 3

Yesterday was my first full day in Australia. Waking in the morning I learned, as I had suspected from the evening before, that Australia is HOT. Later in the day I realized that Australia is REALLY HOT. I haven't seen any thermometers here and my suspicion is that they have all broken through their tops. They say that we are in the middle of a heat wave; a heat wave in Australia in the summer. It was probably 105+ Fahrenheit (40+C) yesterday and today, but dry.

Yesterday I got to make my first real flight on my new glider the UP Edge. The glider is super fast and responsive and also quite demanding; there is no taking the hands off the breaks on this on, it can really get away from you quick if you aren't on the ball. Its definitely a step up from the Trango 3 in its performance and handling requirements. After a short hour long flight on it yesterday I still was not feeling confident in it or in my ability to handle it, it seemed really twitchy for me.

Today was different, the air was nice and I really started feeling great on the new wing. After launching a few pilots headed north and I managed to connect all the dots and complete a 57 mile (92k) flight north from Manilla (the town I am staying in) flying with my Canadian friend Alex for part of the flight and with Burkhard Martens (author of Thermal Flying) for most all of it. Burkhard and I landed on the edge of a small town after hitting a stiff headwind where we were promptly picked up by a few Swiss pilots who kindly took us back to Manilla.

All in all an amazing day. I had some big smiles and made some new friends. I even managed to snap a few marginal pictures during the flight.

Today I arrived in Australia. Getting here only took a 30 minute drive to the airport, a 2 hour flight, a 3 hour layover, a 14.5 hour flight, 2 hours of rushing through customs and to the train station, a 6 hour train ride, a 1 hour bus ride and a few minutes of walking. Now I am in the world famous Manilla Australia. Manilla is a small town of 1,000 or so residents, located in the norther New South Wales, 130 miles (200k) from the coast.

I will be in Australia for the next 56 days and I plan to enjoy ever minute of it. My primary focus for the trip is to paraglide. I will be entering in Australia's three big national paragliding competitions each of which will last one week. The format for the competitions is racing over a typically pre set course usually ranging from 30-100 miles with around 100 other competitors. I hope to learn a lot and maybe even do decently in the comps. I am on a brand new glider the UP Edge and I am super stoked to get it out and see what it can do.

Tomorrow will be my first chance to fly in Australia and I cant wait. For now I am off to bed here in the Manilla Riverside Caravan Park which seems to be a great place. I will post up pictures, stories and results as they come. Oh, I will also be posting on the status of my mustache as it is growing rapidly.