Party at Cloud base!

I got a call from Jay today saying I should come to Beechy for a fly. A little apprehensively I agreed. I haven't flown for about three weeks and in my world that may as well be three months. Seems like ages ago I took to the skies and I have to admit I'd built up a bit of fear in that time.

So I jumped in my newly polished van and headed down to meet Jay on the mountain where he planned to test fly Marky's new Sonic 165. At the Nerang turn off I got a call from Jay, "where are you? Its pumpin!" 2 minutes later he called back asking if I minded if he launched. I said go ahead just as long as there's someone to wire assist me to launch. After arriving I met up with Paraglider Ben who jay had organized to help me off.

While setting up Jay called me over the radio to ask if I was going cross country with him. Still being a bit nervous of what was to come I said lets see me get off the hill first. I just wanted to fly. A minute later and he called me again. Do you mind if I go? You'll be ok once Ben gets you off (the mountain that is). Not knowing what to say and not wanting to hold him back I said "yeah no worries". Deep down knowing I didn't want to fly without anyone else in the air or on the mountain to watch out for me. So Jay flew off and Ben told me he would throw me off before leaving as well. It was at that moment I said nuh! Hey ill set up but im not flying alone. Ill just wait I think, hopefully someone will turn up.

It turns out Jay only made it to Hinchcliffes and was now shitting himself that I was flying alone. After about an hour he finally got me on the phone and said that hes glad that I stayed on earth after all. After collapsing my glider I went and picked him up hoping desperately he wanted to fly again, thus making my 110km trip down worth my while. After we got back it still looked pretty sweet and we both got ready. This time Jay walked me out and I ran off in what I was told a very nice launch.

What had I been afraid of? It seemed like second nature once I was in the air. I instantly turned right and started getting sucked up by one of the numerous clouds above. 2 minutes later and Jay asked "hey Ant what's it like up there?" Awesome I said. Totally smooth, nice and cold.

15 minutes Later and Jay launched again. By this time I was at about 3100 feet and very close to cloud base. Im sure I've been there before but due to the lack of clouds on those couple of days cant be sure. I watched as Jay did a few spectacular wing overs way beneath me. "Hey man" I yelled over the microphone. "Im about to officially hit Cloud base for the first time!!!".
Yeee Haaar!!! was Jays response, "go for it man!". I cant believe this I thought to myself, Im gonna actually touch a cloud.

I kept climbing to about 3300 feet . I stuck my head out as far as I could and looked up. There it was! It was only meters away from me. I jokingly reached in vain saying "come here let me touch you." But no good, if my arms were only longer by about 15 meters I would have reached my goal.

10 minutes later I tried to get a fix on Jay and was surprised to see him about 3 kilometers in front of me and well above cloud base. He was actually climbing one of those really fluorescent bright white clouds that are really tall and look as though they've been spewed out of a volcano. What the F#%k! How the Hell? were my next words. "Hey Ant!" Jay yelled out "come over here man, this is sick!!" Check the size of this cloud! So I immediately pulled the bar in and headed off towards the boy. Unfortunately I hit a lot of sink and found myself drifting back toward the ridge to gain height.

But I kept at it and again found myself up by the clouds. At one stage I even saw that I was above a few of them by a few meters but when I pulled the bar in to reach and touch them fell into sink and fell short. Never mind I thought, I'd rather touch one of those fluffy fluorescent white ones not a dull foggy daggy one. I did fly through a bit of foggy cloud but that doesn't count.

Whilst flying around Marty was on the mountain waiting for the wind to die down so he could fly his paraglider. He was saying things like "hey Jay are you flying with a virgin?" "A virgin no longer Marty" was my response. "Get a hang glider and get off the hill" was my next. "yeah I was wondering when id be hearing that line" he called back.

Jay in the meantime had wondered off to far and both myself and Marty were both having great difficulty getting a visual, and neither of us could raise him on the radio. I actually got a little concerned, a few minutes later and I saw him way down under me B lining it to the ridge and trying to stay in the lift. It was almost comical. Here was a guy who had climbed up the most amazing cloud, was on top of the world and was now just trying to stay in the air. He made it back in the end and 10 minutes later was up high with me again.

I flew for about an hour and fifteen before heading to the dreaded top paddock to land. I looked over to see Jay way under me but way right doing the same thing. I got in hang and headed for the paddock. This time I took Lee's advice and tried to do the whole thing in an aircraft style approach. Last time I did figure of eights which combined with rotor sucked big time. I actually judged it perfectly and turned into final at about the tennis courts. All of a sudden even with full bar in I started to loose speed. I did put one hand on the base bar to give me a little extra speed but put it straight back again. I glided in perfectly but still got a few rotor jolts. Even with the extra speed I still dropped quickly, even though afterwards Jay did compliment me on how smooth and nice my final glide was. Unfortunately I think I waited a milli second to long and flared a bit late. I calmly and gently belly flopped into the nicest patch of thick grass.

I didn't beat myself to much up over flaring to late. It was still a nice approach considering. And the flight rocked big time. What turned out to be a "what the hell did I come down here for day?", turned out to be a winner. I carried my Glider over to Jays unhooked and walked up to the guy and gave him a 'thanks man,' hug. We were both pretty ecstatic about what we had just done. Jay said it was one of his greatest ever flights, if not his best. He says that every flight though I think, But then again so do I ;)

All up 1 hr 15 minutes

ps. driving home that afternoon all i could do was look up at the clouds and think how lucky i am to be able to do what i do. I had just been up there :)