More Flying....

Yesterday I awoke to overcast skies and a less than promising forecast. It seemed a good day to catch up on the grocery shopping and do a little exploring. I had heard that Lukas Badaker, Attilla Bertok, and Gerolf Henrichs were at the Sky Ranch towing their hang gliders and trying to make some long distance flights. I thought I might go check it out and see what they were up to. It also happened to be on the way to Gunnedah, which proclaims itself the “Koala Capital of the World”.

When I got to the Sky Ranch, it seemed deserted. In the hanger there was a pair of brand new Litespeeds with the smoke inlay sails. Uh-oh, I was having glider envy. I wandered over to a couple of trailers and found Lukas. We chatted for a while before Willi (the Sky Ranch owner) showed up. While we were talking a butcher bird came by for a handout of cheese, and Willi started to sing to it. The bird started singing back, and before long it was creating the most amazing symphony of bird sounds one could imagine. It really doesn’t take much to entertain grounded hang glider pilots. Anyhow, it turns out that Willi hadn’t renewed his commercial towing permit, so he was only towing for a few friends, and it didn’t look like there was going to be any action anyhow, so I moved on.

I started my Koala hunt at the Gunnedah visitor center. The lady behind the desk was very helpful; however, she told me that my chances of finding a Koala were not good. The best time to see them is in the early morning and evening, and even then she hadn’t heard of any sightings recently. It was now the heat of the day. She suggested a wildlife park a few kilometers down the road. It sounded interesting, but I really wanted to see one “in the wild”. She got out a map and pointed out a few possible spots and sent me on my way. Well, within ten minutes, I had my quarry – a nice big Koala having a snooze in a eucalyptus tree. I guess I made enough of a ruckus to disturb him, since he opened his eyes and ever so slowly turned to gaze my way. These are definitely not excitable critters. Pleased with my find, I continued on my way.

When I got back to camp, the skies were darkening and the wind was picking up. It looked like we might get a thunderstorm. There is a huge drought going on right now, and any rain would be welcome. Sure enough we did get rain, along with the full sound and light show including thunder, lightning, and a double rainbow.

This morning brought clear skies and fresh crisp air. I had that feeling I get when I know it’s going to be a good flying day. I headed out to Godfrey’s to hook up with the other pilots and ride up the hill in the “Borah Basher”. When I got there, I discovered that Peter and Helmut had given up on the flying and had already left. It looked like I would be the only hang glider pilot flying. The paraglider pilots were all discussing the wind. It was blowing about 20km/h at the top – just fine for a hang glider, but a bit strong for paragliders. Also, the direction was due north – not the greatest, since the ridge of hills that includes the launch runs basically north – south. I was still convinced it would be a good day – now I just needed to convince some other pilots to go up or else I’d be flying by myself. A few pilots drifted off to run errands or pursue other distractions. As our numbers dwindled I could see cumulus clouds popping up over the hills to the east. Finally, the wind backed off a bit as a pearl-like string of cumulus started to form above launch. I could hardly stand it. Two of the remaining pilots decided they wanted to go up - alright! Lets go!

I set up as fast as safely possible under rapidly building cloud streets. The wind was light on launch, and a couple of paraglider pilots who had come up separately launched with mixed results. As I was finishing setting up, a hang glider passed overhead heading north at cloudbase. That would be Lukas coming from the Sky Ranch. He had probably already been in the air an hour.

The north-east launch on Mt. Borah is even lower than the west launch where we flew the other day. This and the cross wind conditions would definitely make it a challenge to avoid ending up in the bail-out LZ. The two paraglider pilots I had ridden up with were both waiting on launch. A nice cycle came in, and James inflated his wing, and then put it back down. “Do you want to go ahead?” He asked. I did. That cycle had ended, and I had to wait a couple of minutes for the next one, but as soon as it started to come in I went. Soon it was deja-vu all over again as I found myself desperately scratching in the low hills just above the bail-out. After about 3 weeks (so it seems) of that I finally ended up with a smooth consistent climb that took me over the top of the mountain.

My main goal for this flight was to check the adjustments I had made to my harness. On my last flight (the first long one in the harness), I had found it very difficult to tilt the harness to the efficient slightly head down position. I spent most of that flight tiring myself out trying to remain streamlined.

Unfortunately I quickly realized that my adjustments were incomplete. As recommended in the manual, I had removed the spacer that limits the travel of the slider along the back-plate. I had not, however, shortened the pull-back cord the corresponding amount. Now the slider *could* move back to where it needed to be, but there was nothing pulling it there. I hadn’t noticed it when I hung in the harness this morning, since I just put one foot on the ground to give me the leverage to tilt the harness. From 5000ft I found it quite impossible to get a foot on the ground. Any concerns I had about squandering a good portion of a good day vanished since I still needed to make more adjustments before the harness was ready for a long flight. I had a very enjoyable flight nonetheless. I practiced making turns in my non-preferred direction (right), and experimented with retrieving my camera from my harness and taking pictures without doing un-intentional loops or wing-overs. After flying around the valley for an hour and a half or so, I headed back to Godfrey’s place to land next to my van where there was a nice grassy area to break down in, and a nice tree to hang my harness in to finish the incomplete adjustments.

Find Google Earth file of the flight here.

See the flight in the HOLC here.