The best of both worlds

Today was a Tambo day with westerly winds of about 10-15 knots. My launch wasnt to much better than my previous one. I dropped a wing but recovered nicely. I immediately started to thermal up above launch. 25 minutes later and at about 2500 feet i watched as Joshy took off.

Russ on the other hand was still on launch and i could tell he was watching me to see how i was going. A few minutes later and i hit 3000 feet. Joshy! I yelled over the radio. "Im at 3 grand! a new personal best. Joshy yelled back "awsome! well done mate". As Joshy climbed steadily over the bowl i suddenly hit nothing but sink. I found myself at launch height once again and decided it was best to head for the bomb out. Half way there at around 1500 i hit a bit of lift and began to work it. That bit of lift saw me make the best recovery yet and i drifted with the thermal, circling back up over launch to about 3500 feet.

Things from this height seemed a hell of alot smaller and the view was incredible. The sky was mostly blue with a few dark clouds way off in the distance. Joshy was at about the same height at this stage and we both kept climbing. At around 4 grand joshy yelled over the radio" Anthony! how awesome is this?" "I recon, sweet dude" Joshy climbed a little higher with me following in the next bit of lift about 10-15 minutes later. "Joshy!" i once again yelled over the radio, "I'm at 5000 feet!" i said exstatically. Russel launched soon after and immediately said "hi Anthony, I've been watching you from down on launch, your doing really well" "Thanks Russel" i said.

All this time one of my leg loops had been cutting into my leg, and what started as a mild pain turned into a real aggrevation. I watched from about 5 grand as Russel landed haveing unfortunately not being able to find lift. A few other pilots by now were also in the bombout. I decided then and there to land myself and i headed from over the top of Mt Tamborine to the bombout. I arrived over the bombout at 4500 feet and i saw in the distance the model airplane field. I thought to myself, shit i could hit nothing but sink and still make the distance if i felt like going on my first ever cross country flight. But haveing never landed there before i decided to play it safe and land in familiar territory.

Trying to loose height was the only minor concern i had of the whole flight. I actually found it hard to hit sink and ended up getting a tad concerned. Nothing to worry about, it was only at that moment i realised this isn't like driving a car. I cant just pull over and get out. and with the steadilly increasing pain of the leg loop rubbing my already broked skin and the pending, am i going to land on my feet or not on my mind, i began to worry a little.

I ended up spending the next 15 minutes doing hard banks and figures of eights to loose height. I asked Russel for a wind report in the bombout and was told that it was pretty light and to come straight up the guts and land. I did a few more figure 8's and turns to loose height before at the last moment seeing that the wind sock was pointing north east and rather than take Russ's advice changed my approach to head into the wind. Coming in on final was extreemly turbulent and even though i had my hands in the correct possition and came in with tonnes of speed still found myself belly flopping at the last second.

Russ cam over and unclipped me from my wing and said "here ill take your glider and park it and we''ll go over your landing if you like". Russ said where was your aircraft approach? He mentioned rather than loosing my height infront of launch i should have lost it over the far end of the bombout and then set my self up for an aircraft stly approach and land. He also mentioned that the wind had been pretty switchy over the past half an hour and i should probably taken his advice and landed straight up the guts of the field. After such a great flight i was pretty much brought back to earth and was even a little dissapointed, actually quite dissapointed. Russel did say however that i did come in with alot of speed and i did land with my wings level and that was good so i didnt feel as bad after that.

I began packing up and watched as a couple of other pilots came in for some pretty attrousous landings wich made mine look pretty sweet, and in turn made me feel alot better. A couple of minutes later and i watched as Josh came in on final. After getting into prone possition he was hit suddenly by some crappy air that threw him around quite alot and with speed on he glided in for landing. Unfortunately for Josh it too wasnt the best of landings and he found himself running alot before suddenly nose diveing the glider into the ground.

Even though our landing were'nt the best we still found solice in reminising over the other high lights of our flights. We had both achieved personal bests in height and we were both safe on the ground.

I got a lift back up the mountain with Russel and Kirsty picked up my car, drove down and picked up Josh befor heading off to the Bearded Dragon for a beer and more reminising.

All up 1 hour 45 minutes