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.