http://goldcoasthgpg.com.au

http://ozreport.com/ozweather.php

I'd called Jonny Durand Jr. on Sunday morning at 7 AM, and following his advise made sure that I got to the Beechmont launch at 8:10 AM (7:10 AM Day Light Savings Time, which most of you use for summer hours, but which is not used here in Queensland). I was there first (other than Matt, a paraglider pilot who was still sitting in his car as the wind was too strong), and the wind was 19 mph on launch gusting to 23 mph. On the previous day, we got there early also, with the winds at 20 mph gusting to 25 or 28 mph. No one flew on that day.

But the winds seemed to be quite a bit less than on Saturday (the tall trees under the high voltage lines next to launch weren't roaring as they had on Saturday) and soon Jonny was there and said it was time to setup and fly. I was a bit concerned about flying given the strength of the winds, the cloud base at 3,000' (the launch is 1,800'), the apparently likelihood of rotor in the bomb out LZ in front of launch but behind a high range of hills, the fact that the sky was almost completely grey with cu bottoms, and my unfamiliarity with the site (in spite of checking it out with various pilots and on Google Earth).

I was about ten minutes behind Jonny setting up and he got off before me. I wasn't going trying to be slow, it was just that I wasn't quite as motivated to get going. Jonny got up in ridge lift and worked the bowl to the left a bit before getting 800' over launch and heading over the back.

I got out and up soon after (9:09 AM) and worked the ridge lift until I heard from Belinda that Jonny had gone over at 2,600' and that the guideline was to leave the hill at 3,000'. They were concerned that Jonny had landed behind the hill. Raef and his brother had just arrived at launch and were setting up. Other pilots would come later.

I waited around at 600' over launch until I found a nice thermal and took up to cloud base at 3,100' drifting in it over the back. Now the Beechmont launch is on a thin plateau, only a couple of kilometers wide and you quickly find yourself over a narrow valley, then over a lower range, then over the next valley and up against a hill side that is at about the same level as the Beechmont launch. I headed for Hinch Cliff which is the hill side to the northwest and a turnpoint in the Canungra club's list (you can down load the list here). This was a recommended spot to get up.

Down to 1,300', a mere 800' over the valley floor I started working ridge lift and broken up thermals thinking about the ridges upwind of me and not wanting to land in the narrow valley below. The sky had opened up and there were lots of little cu's around. Belinda and Laura had spotted Jonny getting up here but he was no longer around when I got there.

It took a while but finally I found another nice thermal and drifted with it over the back for almost two kilometers climbing to 3,600'. There was a thin range of hills behind me (to the west) with a larger hill in the middle of the range. I had heard that this larger hill was the hang out of a notoriously evil Wedge Tail eagle that had shredded many gliders, and as I was plenty high, I avoided that hill and flew directly into the next valley, a large open flat area (finally) south of Beaudesert.

The wind was averaging about fifteen to eighteen mph out of the southeast. I had heard earlier from Jonny that it was thirty knots, but thankfully it wasn't. I really appreciated getting onto the flats (although there were plenty of hills including the Great Dividing Range ahead) as the thermals smoothed out, there was clear landing areas, and the fear of Mr. Rotor subsided. Unfortunately, it also meant that there weren't obvious spots to go to to find lift, although there were plenty of thin cu's overhead. It was raining twenty kilometers to the north.

The valley was 20 kilometers wide with open farm areas. It was as green as Ireland (or western Washington). The last time I had flown in this area it was brown and devoid of plant life. I searched around for lift under cu's and in the lower hills in the valley but didn't find much. It looked like I might land so I headed out to a landable area that unfortunately was under a blue spot in the sky. As I approached I saw the wind go ninety degrees to the prevailing wind across a small dam (pond). I headed right for the area that it was indicating and sure enough there was the first good thermal in the valley. It got me to 4,000', the highest I had been in the flight. Still no sign of Jonny. It was 10:15 (9:15 your time) and I was a mere thirty one kilometers from launch.

I now had another small range to cross before the next wide open valley and then the high peaks of the Great Dividing Range and the next turnpoint south of Toomwoomba (on a plateau just over the mountains). After I got high I headed for the cu's over a small but sharp southwest/northeast ridge line. The highway west went around this ridgeline but the sky near the highway was blue. I wanted to get under the good looking cu's.

I had heard that the area along this ridge line to the south and north was likely to be behind closed gates, at least that is what I remember. I dove back into the ridge heading west south west (down wind) under the black clouds. No lift.

I started off 1000' over the ridge line, but down to 2,700'. I lost a mere 400' going almost two kilometers down it, but I was going way off the highway into territory where I didn't know how long it would take me to get out.

After going under a bunch of clouds and finding nothing I turned around when it seemed that I was too far back in. I loss 800' coming back out against the wind watching the one landing area that I knew I could make (lots of trees back up in the valleys). Finally I had to peel off on the lee side to be sure that I could make it to an LZ.

It turns out that Jonny had already landed not too far away and was watching me. He had gone on the lee side also and had had his butt kicked. He went and found the biggest nearby LZ and landed.

I braced for Mr. Rotor but it wasn't too bad (or not as bad as I thought it would be). I ran away over the trees as far away from the ridge line as I could, first coming over one field that looked okay, but was still close to the hill, then going over to another smaller field, with the wind blowing like stink, which allowed me to soar a little knoll at the down wind end of it.

Then I jumped back to the next field and then one more behind it which had an uphill slope into the wind and was the biggest field so far. It turned into a smooth landing in light winds. I walked the glider out a kilometer to the highway and Belinda found me. I had landed an hour and twenty two minutes after launching going a mere forty one kilometers.

The sky was filling up with thick clouds from the north, but still it looked good to the south and west. Jonny called me later to say that he had watched me fly on the ridge line and that an hour later the other pilots who got off behind us were flying over his head.

Maybe tomorrow.

It sure does seem strange flying here. You launch in pretty high winds. The sky is grey. It is very early in the morning. You've got to get over a large mountain range quite a ways away to the west and over little ranges before that. You've got to worry about Mr. Rotor. The cloud base is very low at launch, but rises as you go west. You really just want to get out onto the flats which are 130 kilometers away where the good lift and high cloud bases are. You are looking for the east winds to help you go far past Dalby. It is emerald green below you.

In addition, there are monsoons to the north, not all that far away and towns are getting flooded. It's cloudy all day at the beach and at launch.

The Queensland RASP showed less lift than you needed to stay up at 10 AM, and we were in the air an hour earlier and staying up. The XC Maps showed even less lift. They both got the winds about right. They both called cloud base about 1000' too low.

The flight.