Newcastle Hang Gliding Club

WE SAT ON THE HILL WITH THE WIND BLOWING OVER THE BACK (AT ASPRES WITH ONLY ONE LAUNCH DIRECTION), ONLY A FEW PILOTS COULD LAUNCH DUE TO POOR LAUNCH CONDITIONS. CAMMO GOT A NICE FLY BACK TO THE CAMPGROUND. i WAS GROUNDED, EVEN AFTER BEING IN A PUSH FOR AN HOUR.

WE HOPE TO FLY TOMORROW

There are a number of pilots who are feeling a little tired after the bonfire and DJ event in town.

The worlds have pace that consumes a lot of time and makes it difficult to make posts as well as sell equipment, help with tuning, do my own tuning, fly, stand in a near endless line to have GPS downloads done and attend to every day overheads. The most relaxing time is sleep and flying. I write this as it rains and thunderstorms outside. I have taken off and flown around for 50 minutes, there is no task today. I made some video, photos and when a convergence arrived, I dove down and landed before rain arrived.

The first competition day is a strong North Mistral wind. It is very clear that we do not need to go up the hill.
We had a day of reading and walked up a local hill. I found the clearest Quartz that I have ever seen and a large piece of fossilized coral.

Today is the opening ceremony, it is blown out today, as was yesterday and it is likely for the next couple of days.
Yesterday I went kayaking with Blanki, Katha, Davis, Belinda.
Nice party last night here at the camp ground, the strong winds help a lot with the intensity of hang gliding parties. You cant fly the next day anyway!

Today I iron a shirt, have a shave, parade around....then go and listen to a presentation on local meteorology by a local legend sailplane pilot. Folowed by a compulsary safety meeting.

The first practice day, I made a local free flight out and return from Charbre. The second day was tricky and slow at Charbre launch, we got away at 3:00 the Australian team did an extended task, 140km, taking in some big mountain ranges in the furthest extent of the usual competition area. I made it 150km to take advantage of being out there and take some photos. I was the only one to make it back to the campground, it was a very similar task and result to the first day of the preworlds. Curt was close to making it back to camp landing a little short on final glide.

From the OzReport: The Airborne Rev - Scott Barrett, the designer, and Cameron Tunbridge are flying actual prototype