N.purcell <<email>> writes:

We had a great weekend out at Dalby on the 9-10th. Kiero arrived from Tamworth in his new Lancair that he just finished installing a new engine. He flew in just for the AGM and to clock up a few more hours. The Saturday was looking a bit stable but once we got airborne the day proved a lot better than we thought. Rangi (Dave Stevens) was the first away with a low tow to test a few adjustments out. Rangi found some light lift and decided to play in that for a bit, while the rest of us got going. I think we had 10 gliders all set up ready to go by 12:30.

We finally got our fingers out and got going with light lift above the airport to around 4300ft. A few of us headed off down the road towards Jandowae, 47km towards the North of Dalby. It was really good to see 6 gliders all working together in the light thermals on an average looking winters day. Most of us only made it to Jimbour, 25km away, with Cam landing 5km further down the road. Yoda and Rangi managed to stay high and tried to fly back to the airport, unfortunately only making it about half way back.

Sunday was looking similar to Saturday, but with more wind that would prove a bonus pushing up towards the east and with a bit of luck over Toowoomba and the Great Dividing Range. Once we got going we found slow climbs over the airport to around 4000ft. Once we moved down wind the climbs got a bit stronger with average climbs around 400fpm. Rangai was one of the first to launch again but ended up decking it on the Warrego HWY 16km out of Dalby. I could hear Cam on the radio calling good climbs 15km in front of me. I was being patient staying in slow climbs just trying to stay high with most climbs now going to 5000ft.

I flew with a couple of sailplanes from Darling Downs Soaring Club for a while getting to 5700ft. My next thermal was a ripper getting me high and very cold at 6700ft. Meanwhile Flocky was heading back to the Airport for an easy drive back to Canungra and Cam was setting up for a landing at Highfields north of Toowoomba. I got low at Kingsthorpe and found a great little thermal that got me high again. I headed east over the range averaging 130kmh at trim with 3/4 VG, the wind was really blowing.

Meanwhile Dee, my awesome driver was working her way threw Toowoomba some 27km behind me, so I waited in some light lift 40-100fpm while she caught up. When Dee was back underneath me on the freeway I headed off at 5300ft. My next glide took me 25km further down the road, approaching some low hills before Minden and with the wind blowing around 10-15nts on the ground I decided not to risk getting low on the lee side of the hills. I had a nice landing next to a road and a couple of minutes later Dee arrived with a big smile on her face..

For what originally looked like a chilly winters day, it turned out to be a lot better ending up 131km from Dalby, Thanks to Blaino and Bruce for Towing over the weekend. I took some video on Saturday and Sunday and have finally put them together. Hope you like the footage. Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_UEhYD9kRo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atle5aFa2Lo.