We're here at Scott and Monica's in Belmont, just south of the Airborne factory in Redhead which is just south of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. It's been on at the beach for a few weeks and for sure Monday and Tuesday this week after Gulgong.

Early Monday afternoon I drove for Ricky Duncan who test flew a prototype Airborne glider (more on that very soon) at Redhead, a very short distance from the factory. The wind was straight in (easterly) and there were two whales jumping out of the ocean a hundred yards off shore (no Japanese experimental whaling vessels any where around).

I went back later in the afternoon and flew the prototype with Scott Barrett at Redhead over the Awabakal Nature Area (forested area in the picture below). Take a look at the cliff line to the north on the satellite version of Google Maps where we were soaring. Here's a shot from Rob Hibberd out in an Airborne trike looking at the cliff line that we were soaring from the upper left hand (south) side (the launch area) to the lower right hand side.

For a higher resolution version click above.

Scott points out that Redhead can be tricky and has cost lives. You have to know what you are doing with respect to the soaring and wind conditions. There are flat rocks below launch to land on in an emergency (but it looks difficult) and the real landing area is off to the south (right of launch around the corner) on the beach in the picture (or just above it depending on the wind direction and strength).

I wouldn't go there without Scott to assure me that the conditions are right. We were actually going to go to the beach (the one that you see above) across from Scott and Monica's place to go dune soaring, but the winds were too light.

On Tuesday after work, we went out and flew Merewether. The winds were southeast, which is the right direction for that launch. Stewie and Adam Parer were there. Adam had been flying there all day. He would do a loop, get real low, put the tip of his Airborne C4 next to the cliff just above the beach, and work his way back up again.

The launch is in the upper left hand corner. The landing is out of the picture to the right (although you can land at the beach when it isn't full of beach goers). Click above for a higher resolution version.

Saw Tony Barton on Monday. He and Stewie are getting ready for an overflow class of new hang glider pilot students on Monday. They wanted Curt Warren to come up and help out, but Curt had his hands full with three students. Isn't it something that two of the major hang gliding instructors (three instructors - Tony, Rohan, Lee - in Australia produce 80% of the new pilots) in Australia are Americans?

Curt has a Wills Wing Condor and with Rohan's help is getting together a "scooter" towing operation. More on that later.

Discuss Newcastle at the Oz Report forum