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The task and the flight.

Ollie added a new waypoint to our list, Mount Feathertop, the second highest (5200'+) mountain in Victoria (after Mount Bogong) and up in the mountains south of Bright near Harrietville. It's a lot of mountains, but fortunately there is a valley nearby with a road from Bright to Harrietville. We had never flown back there, but Ollie has and does all the time.

The launch was Mount Buffalo, and because of the zero from the first day due to the airspace violation Ben and I were at the back of the setup area. No problem there, I just pushed immediately and got everyone launched very quickly. It is no problem launching at Mount Buffalo with very light winds and nice thermals coming up the face.

We didn't even go over to the rocks to the left but climbed out right above launch. The lift was not particularly strong, not like yesterday at Mystic Hill, but it was easy to get a couple of thousand over.

The start circle was an entry start circle 25 km from Feathertop which put us just north of Clearspot. That means we had to fly eight kilometers to get to the edge of the start circle to get the start and we weren't over the prime ridges which were inside the entry start circle.

I was off 35 minutes after the launch opened and climbed out a few thousand feet before heading over toward a small gaggle a kilometer north of Clearspot and 0.2 kilometers outside the start circle. I had eight minutes to get up from 3,600' to get the first start clock. Fortunately there was a very strong thermal under this gaggle (which it didn't seem to be in) and I climbed right up to 7,200' just outside the entry start cylinder. Half the field came and joined me in this powerful thermal at the perfect location.

Actually, Jonny and Curt were way to the west over some better hills with good lift and in a better position to start and get a good run over mountains before they had to cross the valley to get on the ridge that goes to Feathertop. We would have to cross over Mystic Hill and Wandiligong and then over a ridge to get to the main ridge.

A whole bunch of us started together. Again I was right next to Lukas Bader both at the same altitude and we glided together to the first thermal. Corinna was just behind us.

It was great going up into the mountains instead of along the lower ridges or out into the flats. The mountains are quite extensive and it is a fair ways out to the valley from some of the spots if you get low along the ridge line. We were climbing to over 7,500' so it wasn't a great concern.

After making the turnpoint with not a lot of altitude over the top I worked my way down the ridges heading toward Mt. Porepunkah, where I had started the previous day's task. We have to stop enough times to get high enough to stay up on the tops of the ridges so that you can find the best lift. I came in just over Porepunkah and there was lift just before it.

Scott was low at Feathertop and had to work his way out of a hole but had a better line and made Porepunkah just before I got to it. Getting to 6,500' I headed down the ridge line between Happy Valley and Kancoona Valley. I got down to 3,100' before finding a good thermal on the sunny (north) and windward side. I had to work to finally get high over the hills to the north, 7,500'. This put we in a good position to get the third turnpoint at Dedarang intersection.

Warren was in front of me but low. I had 3000' AGL when I made the turnpoint and I could have headed straight for the hills to the east, which I think would have been the ticket. This is normally what I would have done, but off to my right I say Blay climbing well from way low and Warren had joined him way below me. I decided to join up with them as they had certain lift and I was just assuming that I would find lift on the hill side.

I went over them, and sure enough there was no lift. I searched all around seeing another glider that was turning, but still no lift. Finally the lift came up and Blay found a good core. Still it was weak and we were searching all around and just staying up.

Blay and I headed over for the hill side low and sure enough there was the lift. We climbed out with Warren coming in later below us. Now there was plenty of lift as almost always on the ridges and we just worked together and got to goal.

No problems with airspace today.

Tony Keney sends:

Jonny at goal:

Scott at goal: