A Sunset Soar over Tambo

Well Wednesday the 31 of May was my last flight i had. I met Keith in the Tambo bombout and proceeded up the mountain. On the way we noticed big Trev at the outpost cafe and asked him if he wanted a ride up. With great enthusiasm he accepted and we were off. On arriveing we met up with Jay (there for a tandem) Josh and another pilot whose name escapes me at the moment.

It was quite cold on this particular day and i made a quick call to add a sweater and pair of wooly mits to my ensumble. After setting up we sat down to wait for what we hoped would be our wind teck (Jay) to launch. Anyway it turned out he was taking way to long and in the end Big Trev hooked in and walked out. Now remembering some advice id been given ages ago, that if you see Trev launching then its on, i decided to get hooked in as well and follow him out. Trev ran off and i watched him glide a ways without loosing too much height before launching myself.

With stronger than normal winds hitting the face i decided to mimic Trevs launch and hop of the hill with only a few steps. I immediately started to climb and wasnt long before i was hooked into a nice thermal just out from the hill. At this stage trev had lost a bit of height and was now venturing out towards the bombout in the hopes of finding a little lift. I didnt last to long in my thermal and followed the big fella out to see what more i could find.

By this time Josh had also launched and was heading for the bombout as well. I messed around with a few bullet thermals but they were pretty useless. I headed for the far end of the bombout to loose height before starting my approach. At the same time keeping a watchfull eye on Big trev who was also doing the same thing. We both came in on final and Trev landed first. At the last few seconds i noticed the wind suddenly change to downwind. With nothing that could be done i just kept committed and landed just behind the big fella. It wasnt a bad landing considering the rapid change in conditions but it did bring back memories of how my landings once were before heading back with Lee to the training hills.

We both walked our rigs over to the pack up area. As we put our gliders down i said "who ever told me to launch when Big Trev launches is full of shit man!". Looking over at the big guy i pretended i didnt know he was there and followed by saying "Oh! hi Trev! enjoy your flight?" "Who told you that crap bit of advice" he said in reply laughing. We then watched as Josh came in for a landing. Big Trev noticed he flared quite early and quietly mentioned it to him when we were all resting under my open wing. He also tried giving him some advice on what he does when landing.

We sat there for almost an hour watching as Keith had one of the best flights ive seen him have at Tambo. He sure did pay us back for making him wait in the Bombout on our last flight. He flew really well. Josh at the same time was embarressingly on the radio trying to get other pilots whom we didnt even know to maybe come down and pick him up. I had a feeling that Keiths radio wasnt working when i radiod him, but felt i should keep him in the air for as long as he could, and not to let anything he heard coming from the bombout preassure him in landing to drive us back up.

Eventually he landed, not perfectly but well enough to be happy with his 1.5 hour flight. What made him even more happy was when i told him he probably clocked up enough time to also put him past his 25 hour restricted licence time.

We all packed up and instead of going to the cafe for lunch had to go back up the hill because Josh wanted another flight. Now i was a little pissed about this because Keith was to nice to say no to Josh, instead agreeing to drive for him on another flight. I didnt believe that because we bombed early that this meant the better pilot on the day (Keith) had to retrieve so i decided not to fly in principle. As it turned out Keith insisted and even almost begged that i go. In the end i decided to set up. I thought poor Keith could also feel better about picking up two pilots instead of one.

Once set up Keith said that he would probably go left rather than right but i had other plans. Josh was first off and went left. He didnt do to well and started sinking quite early. I launched straight after and turned right and stuck into the ridge. I climbed immediately and before long found myself at around 2700 feet. I soared up and down the ridge with ease before noticing i had forgoton to put my sunglasses on. Dam! i hate flying with our my glasses. Its not the glare and the sun that bothers me , its the wind and the cold air. 5 minutes later and i was crying like some one had taken my tonka toy as a two year old. I didnt want to land straight away because of the awesome relaxing flying conditions, so i just squinted when flying into headwind.

At one stage as i flew over launch i yelled to keith from abou 2300 feet " i forgot my glasses!" He heard me and walked to his radio. "Your kidding!" he said as he laughed. I flew the ridge for about 20 minutes before heading out to bomb. Josh by the way ended up finding a flight saving thermal and got up with me before following me out to bomb as well. I watched from high as Josh landed running forward and nose diving his glider in the ground. "thanks Josh" i said from high. "now i wont feel so bad if i do the same thing".

I did some tight 360 at the far end before starting my approach. On final i noticed the wind sock change direction again. I thought i had enough time to do a quick course correction and did so with ease. I didnt land perfectly but better than i would have if i had landed cross wind i think.

Keith pulled up shortly after and drove us back up the hill to retrieve our cars. He also mentioned how awesome my glider looked each time i banked. Apparently the sun that was fast setting would bring out the beautiful colours of my wing. He said that even though he didnt fly he felt honoured to be listentening to the crowds of spectators who had stopped to watch us soar. Thanks Keith i said with a manly hug, before jumping into my ride to head back to Brissy.

All up 40 minutes.

Im running a little low on gliding pics at the moment as well as wanting a change, so thought i would show you you Sam. These picture were taken over the weekend. Sam is the first to buy one of my new tight laced steel boned corsets for her Schools Semi formal. I think you would agree she looks awesome. Later lovelies!!