Finally we flew, and on a great day, worth waiting for.
With the forecast for winds reducing to light winds out of the southeast we head for the north facing launch at Mystic Hill above Bright. The idea is that the thermals coming up the north facing hill (into the sun) will overcome any southern wind and we'll get off safely.
The hill is full of paraglider pilots when we get there to setup, it is Saturday after all. They are in a hurry to get off the hill before it comes over the back (it doesn't) and to get out of our way. We are quite a mob.
The task committee calls a 120 km task, 26 km out to the Ovens intersection just before Myrtleford Hill, then 30 km over to Mongan's bridge which is a bit north of our usual turnpoint at Running Creek, then 23 km north up the east side of the Kiewa valley to a bridge in the middle of the valley then back south 42 km to the Mt. Beauty airport. You can see the task at the URL above.
Jonny gets ready on launch first and I'm right behind him. We've seen lots of paragliders get up so the only issue is waiting for good launch conditions. Ollie launches first in the launch line to our left after Jonny waits for a a better cycle. Lukas takes off in that line after Jonny then I take off for a picture perfect launch much appreciated by Belinda. I tell her all the steps I'm going to take before the launch to set it up correctly, and then the running just completes the preparations.
We climb out right away. It's no problem getting to over 6,500'. The airspace limitations are 8,500' MSL further north in the Ovens valley, and 4,500' MSL on the north part of Myrtleford Hill.
I make it over the Clearspot and climb on up again. There are no cu's, the wind is light, but the lift is chunkier than that which we experience at Forbes (which is such a nice mellow place when there aren't cu-nimbs about).
Way out in front, I see Jonny and Lukas heading toward Mt. Porepunkah across the valley to the east side of the Ovens. I remember this old Steve Moyes trick. You can stay just outside the 20 km entry start circle by staying just south of Mt. Porepunkah. I follow them three or four kilometers behind.
I catch lift just on the east side of the valley and work it up until I can jump over to Porepunkah will enough altitude to have plenty of clearance. There are a couple of paragliders nearby working the lift so it looked good to me. Jonny and Lukas are high above me.
I slowly climb up to them as they get colder and colder. I dressed warmly for this task, given that it would be only 28 degrees in the valley. It looked like we might be able to get to 10,000' late in the day. I timed it just right climbing to 7,700' and getting up with Lukas and Jonny just as the first start gate opened. The second one would be twenty minutes later.
I told Scott Barrett on the radio that I had gone to Porepunkah if he wanted to try this trick. He would later and take the second clock.
Jonny, Lukas and I were alone and we headed down the ridge to the turnpoint at the Ovens intersection which is at the end of the ridge, which is why we went over to this ridge to begin with. We stopped a couple of times for lift but it was not much of a problem getting down the ridge. I saw a few pilots working their way along the west side of the Ovens, but no one was near us. I was keeping up with Jonny and Lukas.
Tagging the turnpoint we all headed right into Myrtleford Hill. Jonny in front on my left Lukas just behind him on my right and me bringing up the middle from behind. Jonny found some broken lift and we worked it together. I switched to my map screen so that I could see how the thermal drifted and also to check on how close we were to the 4500' airspace. We started circling at 2,800' MSL.
I thought that the lift that we were in was too weak so I went further north where I knew that the lift would be better from the shape of the hill. I also knew that it was out and south of the 4,500' airspace (although the floor above us was 8,500'). I hit good lift and after a few turns Lukas and Jonny came in under me.
Climbing to 6,500' I decided to head out toward the next turnpoint. Normally you just follow the little hills to the west toward Running Creek. The hill are reasonable thermal sources. Jonny and Lukas started out with me also to my right a little and Jonny was heading a little more toward the Happy Valley a hundred meters or so to my south. I wondered at the time why he was over there away from the lift source that I was heading toward (well I was headed just to the south of it as Jonny and Lukas kept pulling me in that direction).
After five kilometers of gliding and hitting little bits of lift I made a slight turn to the north and found the thermal that I was looking for. Jonny and Lukas continued heading west. As I twirled up I switched on to my mapping screen and immediately saw that I was just inside the 4,500' airspace. I raced to get out of it. Well, that was quite a screw up on my part, after I had been so careful at Myrtleford Hill.
In four kilometers I caught up with Lukas and Jonny and we thermalled up in unrestricted (except the general 10,000' limit) air. We were almost at the end of Happy Valley.
One more thermal together to over 6,000' and we jumped over into the Kiewa Valley and headed toward Mongan's Bridge. Jonny headed further south and Lukas didn't see him. I stayed along the ridge line going toward Running Creek then jumped north toward where Jonny had gone but further east of him. I was heading for a ridge line ahead. Jonny meanwhile caught the lift much higher up an earlier ridge line and was climbing out just behind us as Lukas followed me.
I jumped onto a ridge line just south of Running Creek that looked like it would produce. I had to search around to find it and it was weak. Lukas was working a thermal next to me, and it was poor also. Later Lukas would tell me that this ridge usually is very good and we were just unlucky.
I am talking to Scott Barrett on the radio. He is fast catching up with us as we work the weak lift. I race across the valley to a small hill near the bridge to try to get up. The lift is weak there. Scott passes high over our heads and Lukas and I waste a total of twenty minutes getting back up.
Scott tells me of a strong thermal ahead down (north) on the hill side. I race down to it and yes it gets us back on course. Lukas is right over my head as we climb under Scott.
Scott heads down the range as we continue to climb out. He is far ahead of all the other folks from the second start time who are now under Lukas and I climbing in the same strong thermal. At six km out from the last turnpoint, the one to the north, Scott spots Jonny coming back low from the turnpoint. Scott is now only twelve kilometers behind Jonny and gaining on him.
I race to where Scott got up and climb out with Michi. As we climb out fast Scott comes in low underneath us and finds the good lift. We head off for the turnpoint with Michi just ahead of me.
I race back toward the hill but find weak lift and have to slow down and get up. Scott is further south down the range but he also gets low and has to slow down. I find some good lift and climb out fast. Soon I've caught up with Scott and passed over him and a few other pilots.
A find 800 fpm to 8,000' and go on glide. It looks like a have goal, but I get nervous near the end. It just doesn't feel right. I hug the hill side instead of going into the valley, and take an extra climb 6 km out. I've been experiencing bit of 6.5 to 1 so I'm nervous.
Of course I get way too high and take forever to get down to the goal, losing a few minutes on the guys that I was way ahead of.
But because I went into airspace, the rule (that I wrote, actually) gives me a large penalty, enough to wipe out all my points for the day. Ben Dunn suffers the same fate. Everyone else was able to stay out of the little piece of airspace that we went by.
Jonny wins the day getting to goal first and fastest.
