Flying the World Championship Site

Somehow I figured out a way to fly and help Lora out with her work. I flew from Tasmania the day Lora finished up at her Border Ranges field site. The plan was for us to spend a few days together tasting wine and sitting on a beach. Here's a picture of Lora at a wine tasting bar. We learned quite a bit about Australian wines especially about blends.


We then took a drive from the winery and found this scene of a series of ancient volcanic plugs. You have to pardon the slant of the picture due to the fact it was balanced on top of our car.


After our drive I noticed the wind had slackened a bit and so we raced down to the beach and I had a 30 min evening soar. The spot was unique in that after you launched from the point dune you could soar over to two condo buildings and soar them. The really funny thing was that you flew very close to them and I was able to talk with vacationers on their balconies... not to mention looking in their rooms.
Since the site was so beautiful and the forecast for the next day was perfect for flying, we decided to spend it back at Point Cartwright. Here are a few more pictures of the site . It's located a 100kms north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. We met a few local pilots who were very friendly. The picture below is one I took looking back at launch and the point.

I flew for a total of 3 hours that day. It was AWESOME! One of the coolest things was when an Australian fighter jet, an F-111, flew by only about 250 meters in front of and level with me. I was too blown away to realize that I might quite literally be blown away from it's rotor. All went well though luckily.

A picture of a local pilot flying from launch.
Ok so after a few days together I dropped Lora off at the airport and my plan was to go flying for a few more days and then drive the car up to the northern sites(1700kms away). So I met up with a Gold Coast pilot, Mark, and we drove 600kms south, in the opposite direction. We were heading to our first flying competition. This competition is a team based distance comp where each team is made up of three novice pilots, one intermediate, and one advanced pilot. The theory is that the advanced pilot will help launch the novice pilots into a thermal cycle and then launch himself. Then all five pilots will use the thermals to fly as far as they can for the day. The novice pilots distances each get multiplied by 3, the intermediate by 2, and no multiplier for the advanced. The winning team after three days gets bragging rights for the year. The comp is called the State of Origin after a rugby game between the states here.

Here's a pic of Ralf and Mark at launch. This flying site, near Manilla, Australia, was just used for the World Championships last month so it's really plush. It has four launches in each direction all covered with astroturf for easy no snag launches.

A pic of a few of the 100+ pilots in front of launch. The way it works is you launch into a thermal of rising warm air and use it to gain height. You then glide away searching for another thermal to regain height. then repeat and fly 100's of kms. The current world record is over 400kms.

Below you can see a few pilots circling in a thermal to gain height. Look in the brightest part of the pic. (You can enlarge any of the pics just by clicking on them.)
Well how did we do you may be asking yourself. Mark and myself were the only members to fly away from the hill. I flew my first cross country flight of 12 kms!!! I was so excited and now am hooked to this part of the sport. Just to prove it wasn't a fluke I then flew two flights of 6 kms. Here's a pic looking along the ridge back at the launch site.It's directly below the largest cloud very close to the lowest part of the ridge. This was the first time I had to judge a landing site away from where I launched from. I learned a ton including when to launch. I think all three days I launched a little too early in the day. Usually I would hit an inversion layer at around 1200 meters and proceed to get bumped around until I had scared myself silly. Then I would head out alone searching for another thermal. Sometimes I would find one and sometimes not.
All in all it was a great experience. Our team was in the middle of the pack in terms of rankings. I placed 33rd out of a little over 90 pilots.
To all of my flying friends...when are you coming over here? I've flown 10 different sites all over Oz. We own two cars. Let's go flying!

Have I mentioned recently that I have the best wife in the WORLD?

Pictures of Crescent Beach, Tasmania

I already told you a little about this special place in the last blog. On Friday Lora and I hiked in about twenty minutes to this beautiful little secluded beach at one of the most southerly points in Tasmania. I was able to do a little flying while Lora took pictures and enjoyed the views. In the distance you can see Tasman Island as well as Cape Pillar, a series of Dolerite columns sticking right out of the ocean. If you remember a previous post I posted about the Totem Pole you will be familiar with this area already. It is right around the point you can just see in the distance.

I'm going to post quite a few pictures because: 1. They are just so good. 2. I'm still high from flying this special place.
View from below as I flew directly over Lora's head.

The rugged Tasmanian coast line. Me with a little height over the dune.


Our friend Josh just as he's about to leave the ground.


A few more of me in mid flight/turn. Really no one else flies here so I can't really put any pictures up besides me and a couple of Josh... ok one of Josh.


Until next time. Don't forget to try the video link below too.

Tim

Crescent Beach, Tasmania

Well, I'm going to try and post my first youtube video clip to our blog. Lora and I went to a beautiful beach in S. Tasmania a few days ago with a friend named Josh. The winds were light but I was able to get a few 20 minute flights ridge soaring the dune. It was absolutely beautiful. I will be adding a post with the pictures Lora took next.



Well it works. Just push the start button on the screen. This video wasn't really edited much so they will only get better. The really great thing is now I've figured out how to post video so be prepared for anything.

Tim

Return to Paradise...for half of us.

Well, after helping Lora hang traps for four days she kicked me out of the tent and sent me on my way to go flying. I looked at the weather forecast and decided to head back to Rainbow Beach. This time I was able to fly both days I was there for extended periods of time. It was awesome! I flew to the right of launch this time and travelled down the ridge for almost 10 kms. Along the way I noticed I was catching up with three stingrays going my way. My first thought was of course if one of these knew Steve Irwin. Ok bad joke. Really these things are so graceful as they move through the water. The cool thing is that I was over 1000ft above them. Really cool!
Running out of time at internet cafe. Love you guys.

Tim

Paradise Found

Well we’ve found paradise. It’s called Rainbow Beach and it’s exactly what we’ve been looking for in an Aussie beach town. This town is small and not at all touristy. We’ve been staying in a really nice little resort motel with a great swimming pool and Jacuzzi. The best part of this area though is the beach and surrounding dunes. The ancient dunes stretch for close to 15 km with a beach to match. Of course what drew us here is the flying. It is a very famous place for hangliders and paragliders. That means at least 10 pilots know about it. Yep, that's me below.


As you can see from the pictures it is quite beautiful. After a day of sitting around because of high winds I was able to get into the air the following day. Below are some pictures of me taking off from the top of the dune. This dune is huge! There is so much sand here. Once in the air you can choose to fly north or south all the way along the dune.





I also have a picture of my flying assistant, Lora. She has been great over the past few days. Flying can be quite a frustrating sport and most wives wouldn’t stand for it. But Lora has really been great in helping me stay calm and remembering where we are.



Here’s a shot that Lora took (she took almost all of them) from the shade of the trees on top of the dune.

I was able to snap a few pictures while flying. Most are not good enough compared to the ones Lora took from the ground, but I thought I would include one shot looking north. You can just make out a few other paragliders flying back towards me. Well, I couldn't load this last picture. Oh well. For those that don’t know about this sport paragliders are always losing altitude because they do not have a source of thrust. In two cases, both providing lift, a pilot can stay up in the air. The first way is by using a rising thermal of warm air. The other way is to use wind rising quickly over a hill…or dune. This is what I had to work with here at Rainbow Beach.

After flying for an hour and a half I was getting hungry so I decided to land on the beach down below. Lora drove the car down and got a great shot of me landing. The landing is a bit scary because this beach is popular for families to drive down. I was surprised by the number of cars driving quickly through the landing zone. I hoped for the best as I came in for a landing, hoping that the cars would see me and stop for a minute. I have to say the best part of landing on the beach is that you just unhook from the harness and jump in the beautiful green Pacific Ocean.

Well after relaxing for an hour and having some lunch I decided to have another flight. This time I just walked up the lower dune from the beach and took off. It took me a go or two before I was high enough to use the lift. This time I flew for about 45 minutes or so. Lora snapped a few more shots of me.

One of the cooler things I experienced up there was flying above Lora who was just on the edge of the beach in the shade reading one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. It was pretty cool turning circles while looking down at Lora relaxing on an absolutely beautiful beach. Paradise indeed!

P.S. Hey Adam and Shela, let’s meet up for a flying vacation over here soon. Lora is even ready to learn to fly. She needs a lady flying partner.