Ants Hang Gliding adventures

2009-11-12T22:25:00.002+10:00

oooh my new websites!

For the best corsets in Brisbane Australia go to www.iskyC96.com

For the best medieval bridal and formal gowns in Brisbane Australia go to www.moonstarmagic.com

Hell yeah!

Drained!

2006-10-18T01:39:00.000+10:00

A fairly disappointing day for me today, I decided to go to Rainbow again with Keith for what we thought would be a relaxing fly. Once again we prepared with Keith crashing the evening prior at my joint.

We also teed up with Rainbow instructor James to do our intermediate exam so we could progress to the next license level in our hang gliding careers.

We cram studied at breaky after only a few hours sleep (we went to bed after 2 am). We also crammed on the drive up. We had both studied prior to this though, so felt pretty confident. On arriving we went to James's home and sat the exam. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be and i immediately wished i had been as dedicated to its study as i had been with the restricted exam.

It seemed to take forever and after it was finally over and we had gone over our incorrect answers we were totally drained. About 3.5 hours had passed! To be honest i really didn't feel like flying in the end and only decided to do so because of the distance driven to get there. Anyway we both aced the 100% part and passed the 75% part nicely.

We went to the blow and set up. Keith was first off this time while i slowly walked my wing down the dune to launch. Five minutes later and i launched nicely and started a slower climb than i was use to above the ridge. Keith got nice and high but i had real difficulty reaching the same level, until the last part of my flight which saw me get up. Later James said both Keith and himself had got convergence and that it was only a small window, and that's why i missed out. I wasn't even aware you could get convergence so close to the coast so have to look into that a little more when i get the chance.

Anyway i once again had extreme trouble getting low enough to land and once down asked James how on earth he can fly his 220 and land so well. I then asked him if he wanted a fly of my baby which he immediately said he would love to. He launched and did a circuit before landing and saying, "man your gliders flying so fast!" "that's why your having trouble pulling on the speed to land" So after a bit of hang loop re-rigging he was off. The first comment he made when he landed was "Man this thing's a sweet ride!" which made me feel awesome. Try it now he said.

With out going into great detail of what happened next with my launches i will only say one thing, I was so upset and pissed with myself. It involved some thing called the Rainbow Shuffle. The guys tried making me feel better by saying it was because i was not use to my new hang point and i was tired but i knew it came down to one thing. I rushed it. A mistake that saw my wing pull me over on top of it.

Anyway i got off in the end and flew out in what felt like a completely foreign glider. My base bar was way out in front of me and it just didn't feel right. I did seem to be flying slower and after a quick fly in the very fast prevailing light i started an approach. Keith said it was an awesome approach, as he and James were watching he could hear James say "he should be turning about now!" and as he said it i did it exactly at the same moment, as if i had heard him. Apparently the whole approach was excellent and i was able to pull the bar in more to get the right speed to loose height. At least i did something correct that day.

Now im not sure if i will keep the hang point there but will give it another chance the next flight i have at Canungra. Anyway after landing i just rested there under my wing thinking of my Rainbow shuffle and beating myself up. I was almost in tears. Its definitely not what i wanted to happen the same day i pass my intermediate test. James said not to worry about it and that he's pretty sure it wont happen again. He also said that the reason i thought i could get away with launching like that was because i got away with it on my last flight on my last trip up. Now that i do agree with.

Anyway we packed away on the dune in complete darkness with mozzies attacking us, stacked both the gliders on the trolley and slowly wound our way back through the forest to the car with a moonless sky. It sucked! We went back to James's house for a while then started our way home at about 7:30. Got home at about 11:00pm, Kieth flaked while i stayed up completely disappointed with myself and watched 'Poseidon'

Lessons of the day, Never fly tired or drained. Never rush, and always stay focused.

A absolutely epic day!

All up 1 hour

Well after countless wedding invites i finally got to go to my first
school formal. I had a sweet coastal schoolgirl ask me shortly after i took an order to make her a formal dress. My only prerequisites in accepting were 1. As long as she asked her mum and dad (especially her dad) 2. That i wouldn't be wearing a suit, as long as she was happy with what i wear to work then id be honored to be her date. She was more than happy with what i was wearing and said her folks were the ones who gave her the confidence to ask me in the first place. Here are some of the pics. It was at the Hilton. There were about 3 schools outside waiting at the time. Out of all the schools we definitely made the most spectacular entrance. As you can see we arrived in a very hot 54 Chevy with an 8 Harley Davidson motorcycle escort (very loud, especially because they started revving their bikes when we stopped to get out). We had hundreds of people cheering us. Jasmine's was by far the best dressed and was talk of the night, "Whose the guy she's with?" was probably the most asked question of the night, as well as "where did you get your dress!" "Awesome corset, wish i had thought of that" was another frequent comment. She loved the attention.

Well it was a long wait to go to my first formal but well worth it. Her
mum and Dad were so proud and took tones of pics of us which i am yet
to receive.

Rainbow Radness, the City of Sand!

2006-09-21T17:35:00.000+10:00

Now I've been meaning to cut down on the amount I write per adventure but yesterday was something special. I've wanted to fly Rainbow ever since getting my wings, and after all the promised trips and talk about going, both Keith and myself decided to take the plunge and go ourselves.

I had previously spoken to Local Rainbow Hang Glide instructor James about a journey up. The night prior after speaking with Keith we decided to go for it. Keith arrived at my house at 10:30 that night so we could get an early start to the day and get ahead of the Irwin memorial traffic. Im also lucky that my new next door neighbour happens to be a weather forecaster for the Beaureu of meteorology, (sweet ey!) so a few reasuring words from Gordon and Shrek and Dunk..., I mean Keith and Ant were on another wirl wind adventure.

Once we reached the sleepy little town we contacted James who gave us instructions on how to get to the Carlos Sand Blow carpark. As soon as we arrived excitement took over and we decided to walk the 600meter track to where we would eventually set up. We were greeted by the most amazing sand dune we had both ever seen. It was massive! You really didn't realize how big it was until you saw people walk out to its center. At this point our excitement had deepened and we both started back to get our kit.

Arriving back we met up with James, A real nice, friendly easy going bloke who was more than happy to help out. We got to the task of signing up as new Rainbow members. Thanks again to Keith for paying my way. The past few days I've been resting my back, feeling like it was going to go at any moment. I decided to forego walking my glider in, incase I should throw it out before my fun actually began. Keith on the other hand was keen to carry his glider by himself. Now there is no way I could let a mate almost twice my age do that so I grabbed an end and shared the load. James on the other hand had the right idea and pushed his glider on a make shift cart he had made. Once we got there I borrowed the trolley and went back for my little Sting.

I was half way back when Keith ran up to help guide me through. Awesome little two wheeled cart! Keith now plans on making us one each. You rock man!! After getting back to the dune with all our gear it was time for a site brief as well as learning what we could expect from a 15-20 NNEastely. Once over we were left to set up while James jumped in his ride and walked down the dune. We were both left wondering now what do we do? and where is he going? and Is he coming back? In the end we were grateful with the way things panned out thus making us think for ourselves.

As soon as we were ready I helped Keith turn his glider around, which by the way is next to impossible with a 20 knot sea breeze behind your back. You literally bust a gut! Once around I shadowed him down to where James had headed. At least we could follow his footsteps. Half way down we saw him fly around the corner, fly up the far top end of the dune and float in to land. Hey that looked easy enough! Once Keith was down I ran back to my bird, jumped in, did a radio check and with keiths help turned around, I then took the reins and slowly walked through the rotary conditions before reaching laminar air.

Once I was with James he said he would show me his favorite launch site. He pointed to a lady walking just infront and said just run towards her. Hmmm... I thought to myself, think ill wait for her to move first. Once happy I took maybe 2 steps and I was rocketing up to the heavens at a phenomenal pace. Its been around 6 weeks since my last flight and I had the biggest grin on my face. I boated infront for a little while and once Keith was out began our ecstatic radio chat. One of the first comments out of my mouth was "hey man we can sit our intermediate exam now!" 'Hell yeah! I forgot about that!!" was his reply. Unfortunately we changed our frequency to James's 14 channel open. After about the first 5 minutes I got so sick of the extra radio banter that I ended up pulling the plug. We all just flew and flew.

The evening prior I had shown Keith a video of me doing some interesting tight turns close to the ridge at Beechmont. He had later commented that he suddenly felt his style of flying was pretty boring. He must have really taken it to heart because he stated to carve up the air like I've never seen him do in the past. He was doing almost every thing but looping! It was great to see, you could tell he was having a great time. Later James was heard to say "man that guys going to wear a hole in the sky!!"

After plugging my radio back together I asked James if we could go around the crescent of the dune. He said" you can try, I can pick you up if you land on the beach, but there is a retrieval fee"! " what's that?" I asked "A carton of beer" was his answer with a slight laugh. I boated around before I decided to leave the others and see what lay 50 meters round the dune. Feeling good I decided to try another 50m , then 100, then 200 then 500. Before long I had traveled about 2 kms round the crescent. I then had this sudden feeling that I might find it extremely hard to get back considering it was so north and I'd be hitting a 20 knot head wind.

I turned around to start what I thought would be bit of a battle. It wasn't so hard in the end. Maybe taking me twice as long to get to launch as it did to get to the middle of the crescent. Looking at all the different coloured sands was amazing! It was easy to see how the area got its name. Once back it wasn't long before I decided to try my luck landing. I pretty much did it in one go. I came in with speed and at the last second decided to elevate down from about 3 meters.

I went over and sat next to James and watched dare devil Keith tear up the sky. Later watching as he came in for a touch and go landing. We were certain he was going to over shoot and head out again but he some how set it down with style. We both laughed, whistled and clapped as he slowly started walking backwards flying the glider over his head. A few minutes later we were sitting and having an break. We talked a bit and James said we should practice some approaches while we were here. The comment was also made by James how difficult it was to get down low to even start an approach. I agreed in particular. Im not sure what it is but I tend to frequently fly higher than most. Now i know its not skill, because flying on a day like today doesn't take any. Like the rest I pretty much just let the wind take me. I put it down to my weight to wing load ratio. All day I was at least 200-300 feet above the others.

Being high is usually what I want flying inland but when your trying to land on a sand dune at a coastal site it can really suck. I would have to fly way out to sea before I even stated to loose height. Id then head back to the dune to start an approach. What was difficult was that as soon as I hit the dune id be shot up again by about 150 feet.

Anyway we sat a while before heading back out. But not before changing our radio frequency back to our Cunungra home club channel. We also gave James a lesson in tone squelch. May as well, He has himself an icom40s! No wonder he hates flying with his radio on. Anyway I was first off again. This time doing the laziest launch ever. Jay would have fainted. I ended up gliding sides ways down the dune whilst gaining height, it was awesome!! 10 seconds later and I was at about 1300 feet.

All day I was desperately looking for sea life in the ocean with out any luck. This flight I concentrated even harder. I finally saw a small dark object about 200 meter out. After staring intently I realized it was a HUGE! Sea turtle. My day just went up a notch (not that it needed to) and I started screaming to Keith to hurry up and get off the dune and check it out. Once Keith was in the air it seemed to take forever to point it out. I wasn't about to give up trying though, knowing it to would be a hightlight for him as well. I finally got him to see it. He was very impressed.

For the rest of that flight I practiced approach runs. At first with James on the ground. He gave me some advice by telling me to go further back up the dune before turning. He then jumped in and took off himself. I ended up doing about 10 dummy runs. Sometimes getting low sometime not. A lot of the times I had my feet dragging in the sand (BTW we decided to fly shoe less for the rest of the day) What a feeling that is! flying while dragging your toes through the sand, totally magic!

In the meanwhile I had a few people stop and watch me do this. By the 5th dummy run I had even more! And by the end I had quite a number. I knew they were all thinking I must be having trouble landing and they just wanted to see what was going to happen to me. It was soooo funny. Id just fly down after eventually loosing my height, get into hang drag my feet through the sand and fly off again.

Keith in the meantime was again carving up the air. This time even closer to the ridge. I eventually came in for a touch down, nice and close to where my harness bag and belongings were lying on the beach. I jumped out and took a few more pics of Keith in the air, talked to a pretty girl, then sat and watched as he too came in for a nice landing. Before our last flight James had said that we should land at the beach and he would get his wife to pick us up and take us back to our cars. But before flying Keith and I decided amongst ourselves that we would pack up where we set up.

Once we were both on the ground we chilled a bit, hi fived a lot! and eventually decided to pack up. We hadn't seen James for some time and thought he must have beach landed. What an effort it was taking our wings back up the top! We basically walked backwards with them flying above our heads the whole way.

One thing I have failed to bring to your attention is this little thing called sand. I cant begin to tell you what impact that stuff has on you and your gear. I expected it to get in my harness and though my wing but wasn't prepared for its full extent. It was so hard to undo my buckles because of the sand and undoing my carabeena was almost impossible. This stuff gets in everywhere! Radios, camera, sunnies, and everytime you go for a fly you literally have to dig your base bar out. I think today was probably even worse due to the wind blowing it around so.
Anyway towards the end you really can't give a shit and just pack it away with the rest of your stuff.

We Started a frantic pack up at 5:15 and walked my glider back first in almost dark surrounds. By the time we got back for Keiths wing it was dark but the sand along the path was illuminated enough for us to make our way back. We saddled up and went into town. We decided to have dinner at the Rainbow hotel. Afterwards we bought a six pack each for James as a thankyou for looking after us as well as he did. We found his street ok but found it extremely difficult to locate his house due to lack of house numbering and letterboxes. We got so frustrated I remember saying "what's with this place don't they get the mail?" We ended up ringing James and getting him to walk out in the dark street to wave us down. He then said that they don't have a mail run which made us laugh hysterically. Anyway we both thanked, hugged, handshook the guy before giving him his beers and heading off.

We were both still on our highs half way through our return journey. The other half we were just tired and listened to loud music. By the time we got back to my house it was 11 o'clock, we were knackered. Keith flaked almost straight away with myself a couple hours later.

An absolutely awesome day! All up 2 hours.

Frack I'm sore!!!

Coming Together Nicely

2006-07-13T17:42:00.000+10:00

Well well well, Tuesday the 12th of July was my last flight and what a beauti! Firstly i met Keith at the Tambo bomb out, parked my car and headed up the hill in the little red Toyota van. On arriving we were greated by fresh winds coming straight up the face. There were a couple of Paragliders on launch and were readying to fly out to the open blue before conditions got to strong.

The first paraglider pilot who was obviosly the more advanced pilot had all sorts of problems getting off. At one stage lifting off to a few meters above launch before geting pounded back into the face. After a couple more dicey attempts he finally got away.

The next young fella who mentioned he doesnt really fly as offen as he should inflated his wing and fought desperately to get off the hill. You could see he was definitely having troubles and at one stage even seemed to stop going forward all together, instead taking a step backwards. After fighting it he ended up going forwards slowly but by this stage was going sideways towards the bushes. It was at this stage i sprinted down and gave him a helping hand and was able to give him the extra strength in a push to get him away.

Afterwards i began wondering if i had done the correct thing, but was sure id seen this practice done before. Later that day i dropped into Phil Hystek to let him know and was given the all clear, that if it looked like he was going into the bushes that it was probably a good thing. I also caledl the pilot later to appologise if i had startled him. He didnt even know i had helped him. He then thanked me for all i had done.

Anyway after setting up I jumped into my harness and was walked out to launch. This prooved to be my most difficult launch ever. The wind sock was blowing in every direction and at one stage i almost gave up. It eventually came good for a few seconds and i took advantage of my small window. I ran real hard and got away nice and clean.

Conditions infront of launch were shithouse and i got belted big time. There seemed to be alot of turbulance out front that after fighting it for ten minutes almost made me give up and land. Just before i did i cored a pretty sweet thermal that took me to about 3200 feet before i flew out of it, It was taking me too far behind launch for my comfort zone.

Keith by now was getting ready and after a few words of adice from myself on conditions launched as well. He flew quite well but on a few occasions got extreely low to the second shelf. So much so that i felt a little sick watching him. Before launching we both promised each other not to take any unneccessary risks so i felt confident he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately he made a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up flying to the bomb out after 15 to 20 minutes. You should have seen his landing! I watched from 3 grand above launch as he glided in on final for a smooth landing ritght in front of the wind sock, touching down perfectly on his feet.

After congradulating him i told him id like to get at least an hour in the air before joining him. Gliding above the ridge after breaking through and getting above the crap air was nice and smooth. I watched as an advanced paraglider launched and got messed around by the unforgiving conditions. I then heard him later say to a few of the other inexperienced para pilots that it probably would be better to stay on the ground. They were happy at the call and were content in watching us fly around.

After my hour was up i headed to the bombout where i made it with 1500 feet to spare. I flew around a bit longer before starting an aircraft style approach. I judged it perfectly and flew in for a perfect landing. Im not sure what im doing with my landings these days but its deinitely working in my favour (touch wood). After bleeding of speed i was joined by Keith who automatically congradulated me on a sweet flight, and that the landing was basically iceing on the cake.

We both sat and had bit of a picnic under my sting before i packed up and got out of there. We were both on huge highs from that point. After driving back up top i thanked Keith for another memorable day and started back home.

All up 1 hour

The Byron Bay Ninja

2006-06-21T20:55:00.000+10:00

Yo finally! Flew a different site on Tuesday the 13th of June. Actually cant believe I did it at all. I woke up at ten to ten to the sound of a text. It was my mate Keith asking if I wanted to go down and fly Byron for the day. Normally I wont even go to Tambo at that late in the morning. Im not sure what sweetened the deal but I think the fact I had nothing else planned helped a lot.

I think I also supprised Keith by agreeing and after meeting at Nerang Coles proceeded to throw his kite on my car. Moments later Keith and Ant were of on another whirl wind adventure. Not knowing what to expect we had a lot of time to think about and discuss what might happen. On reaching Byron it wasn't hard to find launch. All I did was pull to the side and let a van with gliders on the roof pass by.

Once we found a park we jumped out and walked up towards the lighthouse. That's when we saw it! a ramp launch was something I didn't expect and I got a few more butterfies in my stomach. Im not sure why I didn't expect it, considering I've seen pics of it on Jonny's blog.

After making our way up we met Neil , Ashley and Marggi. All very nice and very helpful pilots. The wind was blowing about 17 knots at this stage and we waited a while to see a couple of pilots launch. We were also given some good advice from our new friends. It didn't look that difficult but even though we were both very excited we both admitted to being a little nervous.

After half an hour we decided to get our gliders and set up. Unfortunately the car was a ways off. I ended up dropping the gliders at the bottom of launch after mistakenly driving 100 meters back up a one way road. Oh well ill know for new time. We then had to carry our wings up a narrow steep path. After reaching the top I was completely nakered. I didn't even feel like going for a fly I was so out of breath and tired. I really need to start working out again.

Keith, a guy almost thirty years my senior made it look simple and went straight to work setting up. I finally got my shit together and set up myself in the narrow track tucked away behind the ramp. After hiding my camera and wheels, which for the first time ever I opted not to use I threw on my sweaty and got ready. We both watched as Neil launched with a tandem passenger and then we were told we could go anytime.

Seeing I already had my shirt on we decided I may as well go first. After putting on my balaklava I was given an odd look from one of the wire assists who instantly said I looked like a ninja. Fortunately for me the balaklava doesn't just keep me warm up thousands of feet by the clouds, but also stops my hair from being pulled out by my harness. With that in mind I decided to look a little different from everyone else and proceeded up the ramp. I guess Coastal pilots don't need the extra head protection considering they only ever get to a few hundred feet of the ground.

In the end im glad to have had the extra warmth. The winds were blowing at about 20 knots at this point and I was assisted out with 2 wire assists. It felt strange putting my glider on the ground without my wheels. I suddenly felt a whole lot taller as I put my foot on my cross bar to steady my wing. After giving the all clear Keith andwire assist 2 got behind me as I picked up the kite and took two strong steps and was away. Launch felt good and was confirmed by Keith who had also over heard a fellow local pilot giving me praise. (You rock Ant!!) The only mishap of the flight was that I had forgotten to check my harness cord placement and found the one lead I needed to unzipp my bag was down by my feet. Anyway after a bit of jitting around I managed to free it and was able to relax.

Finding lift was easy and within about two minutes I was well on top of the pack. There were actually a lot of people flying this day and being on top was a good way to stay away from the mayhem. A little while later I watched as Keith also launched and made his way up. The sea breeze was excellent and made for an easy, effortless and constant glide. After a while I decided to experiment and see how close I could get to the far edge of the cliff before turning back. This was where the surf hit the point and its deadly rocks below. It wasn't long before I had enough confidence to fly all the way out and over the treacherous image, at times getting pretty low according to Keith who was obviously keeping his distance. Flying over amazing cliffs being battered by the sea was something that I had always wanted to do. I felt very confident and always flew at a height that if I did suddenly hit sink id easily make the beach to land.

We were joined by a wedge tail eagle and a few sea hawks, they were more than happy to share the sky with us. A while into the flight a beautiful rainbow appeared out to sea, not having my radio to contact Keith I found myself yelling and pointing as I passed him on a couple of occasions. About 20 minutes into the flight it became really busy and after sacrificing precious height to do my point passes found myself in amongst every one. Oh well good practice I guess. It didn't take too long before I got on top again.

After the first 35 minutes I found myself starting to look at my watch. 45 minutes in I started to get very bored, although I didn't want to land without flying for at least an hour. To be honest I was bored out of my mind. Flying Byron might be great initially but it didn't take me long to realize that not much happens. That its only a very small fly zone and you don't have to be a genius to stay in the air. It gave me a whole new appreciation for Tambo and Beechmont. In the end I found myself counting down the last twenty seconds before doing one last wing over and heading out to do my very first beach landing.( oh yeah coastal flying is great for wing overs)

As I flew down I thought if I stuff this landing I think im going to have to give the sport away, or at least ill never live it down. I was actually suprised how fast I came in. It didn't look or feel at all like I thought it would after watching a number of pilots land. But then again being a country flyer im use to having the bar pulled in for speed. I actually judged the spot where I wanted to land perfectly and ended up landing without a worry in the world.

I stood on the beach still hooked into my glider for a few seconds before turning around and walking sideways up a narrow track to where the pull down zone was and where the cars were parked. Walking up the narrow parth with a set up glider while still being in my harness was quite an experience. Im sure ill get better at it the more I fly there.

After getting out of my glider I met up with a mate I've flown with at times at Tambo (UK Matt) and quickly accepted a ride back up to my car. Once back up top I met a few pilots who had just watched Keith land. "hey your mate sure over shot" they said. Shit! What's he doing down there I though. He only over shot by 100 meters or so. To be honest I think if your not use to the conditions it would be a very easy thing to do. The strange thing was we could see his wing tips fluttering which meant he was obviously packing up down there.

After arriving back below I walked down to meet him. As soon as we saw one another we laughed exstatically and had a manly hug. We spoke for a while before I decided to go and collapse my wing myself. I immediately formed a dislike for sand which seemed to get over everything. And I wasn't even in a sandy spot. I wondered how Keith was dealing with it, having decided to pull down on the beach.

After throwing our gliders on the roof we decided to go into town for dinner. By this time it was about 630pm. I spotted an Earth and Sea pizza restaurant I recognized from my dinners at Bulimba and that was that. We were seated in front of a warm fire and were brought over ice cold beers. We then reminisced, sent text messages to all our pilot friends (who turned out to be very envious) over I think the best pizza I've ever eaten. The staff at the restaurant were also excellent and seemed to be just as excited as ourselves over what we had just done.

Keith was happy and said we both out flew the locals. The locals were very impressed with our flying and wanted to know who trained us. Others there said it was the best flying day they had had in about a month, that it was perfect. So all in all it was a perfect flying day.

Thanks for Keith for getting my ass out of bed and for joining me up as a member of the Byron Hang gliding club. You rock man! Thanks also to all the nice Byron pilots who helped keep us safe. We'll be back soon i hope.

My new motto for life is as follow:

Live life to the fullest....
Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt and
Dance like no one's watching!

All up 1 hour

A Sunset Soar over Tambo

2006-06-01T14:29:00.001+10:00

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!!

The Perfect Thermal

2006-05-07T20:45:00.000+10:00

All righty then. Ive been putting off writting this little epic, but after just getting off the phone to Lee feel its time. I was a little dissapointed with a couple of aspects of the last days flying but Lee made me feel a whole lot better and put my mind at ease. Silly really, considering i class it as one of my best flights thus far.

Well Well Well, it all started last Monday when i went to Tambo for a fly. I had made plans with Kieth to crash at his house that evenning and fly the following day also. Getting to the hill was fine and i met up with Derk. After Derk launched Warick and Kathy drove up followed soon after by Kieth. The day looked awesome and we started setting up. Derk found it very easy to get on the ridge seeing that the winds were slowly getting stronger and stronger.

Unfortunately they got to strong and both Warrick and myself ended up not flying and packing up. But not before going to one of the top landing paddocks id not seen before for a look. It looked a bit dodgy but i think if you can land at Beachmont then the Long Road paddock shoud be fine. I think the fact it has a barely visible electric fence running through the middle of it was bit of a turn off but think ill give it a go one day.

As things turned out Warick and Kath stayed the night as well which totally rocked. I had taken what seemed my whole kitchen with me and later that night started on preparing a famous Singh curry. Im pretty sure everyone lliked it, but unfortunately Warrick found it all a bit hot and i thought he was going to die after the first bite (and i didnt even put chilli in it!). To his credit he finally got through it though, but not before a ten minute wait between bites for his mouth to recover. Anyway as it turned out it didnt get to much better for Warrick, he also wasnt able to eat the ice creams later for desert for fear the cold would hurt his teeth. Im actually laughing my head off reminising about all this. He did call himself a whimp that night (or fragile? cant remember exactly). But i think what he lacks in his dinning is made up by the fact he fly's exilarating Hang gliders. Something that is described by most as one of the most dangerously cool activities imaginable. Good on ya mate! and dont worry not many people read this blog.

Anyway the following day arrived and i was the first one to leave for launch. Arriving i was met by Josh and then soon after by my slumber party Buddies. Jay was also getting ready for a tandem. Soon after Lee and Kat rocked up and it was all one big reunion. I hadnt seen Lee and his fam for a couple of weeks due to Dalby Big Air and Inglewood. I also met the Managing director of the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia whom i had briefly met the day prior. We all set up and Josh was the first to launch. Kieth was next to follow and i think Warrick after him. I was lucky last.

Both Josh and warrick found it easy enough to get on the ridge, but unfortunately Kieth didnt last too long and started his approach to the bombout as i launched. Running off was good and i found lift immediately and thermaled a little in front of launch. I circled once then headed off to the right. It was then i made my first and only mistake of that flight. I turned to sharp in towards the mountain before getting appropriate height to clear any trees i may hit. After turning as sharp as i did i immediately new i might be in trouuble and quickly made the call to pull the bar in for as much speed as i could get and follow through with a very tight controlled turn. I pulled it off quite well but not before almost soiling my harness.

This has played on my mind for a while this week but after speeking to Lee was told i handled the situation extreemly well and its probably not something ill be doing again in a hurry. Actually he brushed it off quite easily making me think ive probably been over thinking it and building it up into more than it is. The fact that Josh immidiately got on the radio from above and screamed he thought i was going to die, as well as going on about it later that day didnt help either.

Anyway it took me quite a few minutes to compose myself and to get my heart rate down. I immediately hit lift and got to about 2500 feet in a matter of moments. The day was awesome and the relatively strong headwinds made for a pretty easy ridge soar. Not only that but there seemed to be alot of other lift around (thermals). Both Warick and i soared like legends and it was great to have the mountain to ourselves. We were also able to really talk over the radio with out fear of cluttering up the airspace. It was great to have a chat and help one another into lift and i was immediately reminded of when i hadnt had my license, watching, listening to other pilots flying with their friends, thinking how cool it would be to do that. Well now im living the dream. Ahhh shut up Ant! , get a life man!

Poor Josh stayed low alot of the flight but managed to get higher later towards the end. Im not sure what it was about the day but i ended up flying 1 hour 40 minutes before landing, and i landed not because i was tiered and uncomfortable but because i just though it was a good time.

Anyway a little after Kieth landed Kathy drove down to pick him up, but not before i said to Warrick, " hey if Kathy's going down would you like to see if we can go cross country and at least make the model airplane field?" That sounded good to Warrick and we both set our sights to getting as much height as we could before our arduose journy into the strong headwinds.
At one instance we got pretty close to one another at about 3 and a half grand. Warrick was the first to venture off the ridge a looked to be doing well before i decided to take the plunge. We managed to get out towards the bombout before i began loosing presious height.

I ended up getting extreemly low and had unzipped my harness to come in for a landing when i hit a little lift. I thought i had only just enough height to do one last circle and if i fell out then that was it. I was lucky enough to not loose any height and gradually started rising. I really worked that little thermal and within about 5 minutes had managed to core it beautifully. I went from being 350 feet above the bombout to almost 4000 feet above launch. It was a miracle save! Before launching i had put on for the first time a black silk balaklava in the hope it would stop my hair from getting ripped out by my harness. Well it did more than that! It also seemed to keep my face warm, especially when i breathed. It would in the cold atmosphere above act like a mini heater with every breath i took. A real good $20 spent there.

Once above the ridge i again decided to try my luck penetrating the Westerly. I did get a little further but i once more found myself in a flight saving thermal. This time i cored it like i've cored know other. I actually got into this turn where i didnt have to work the glider at all. I just found the perfect angle to bank and didnt move a bit. The glider just seemed to rotate by itself as i screamed up. It was actually the best thermal id been in (or i had just managed to core it better than the rest) It was a totally different feeling and i yelled over the radio that "this is the best thermal ive ever been in!" Unfortunately i forgot about poor Kieth in the bombout and i immediately heard a "shutup Ant!" come over the air waves. "Sorry mate" i said, "but it is!"

Anyway by this time Warrick had managed to do extreemly well and was about a kilometer or two infront of me. I decided that it was now or never and decided to pull out of my Perfect thermal before getting to far over the ridge again. I flew for a while longer before trying yet again to punch out. "hey Warrick" i yelled over the radio, "if you have landed and see me coming towards you talk me over because im not sure where im going". I was so commited to going on my first cross country i was a little disappointed when i realised it wasnt going to happen. Actually in the end i was more than relieved when i had made the decision to land in the bomb out.

Before landing Jay got on the radio form launch and said what are you two (Josh and I) doing? Are you going cross country or what? "Im landing" i said, "Im getting tierd of going out, loosing height then scratching my way to base again" and with that i found myself at the far end of the bomb out. I judged my height well and flew on my down wind leg of my aproach while at the same time unzipping and getting into prone. I turned just before the tree into final before seeing Josh do the same thing on the other side of the paddock. I pulled on the speed and gave a little flare knowing the wind was quite breezy on the ground. I effortlessly glided in for a perfect landing. What an awesome way to end an awesome flight. I looked around to see Kathy watching me and i was exstatic! Finally! Someone saw me have a perfect landing! And its a blue eyed blonde! Sweet!! "That was perfect Ant!" were the first words out of her mouth.

After landing both Kathy and Kieth went off to pick up Warrick, while both Josh and i packed up. Josh immediately called his girlfriend on the phone and organised a few thing with his work, while i just lay as stunned as a mullet shaded under my wing thinking of what an awesome flight i had just had. You couldnt wipe the grin off my face, and when seeing Warrick drive up and get out of the car it was like when Luke Skywalker saw Han Solo for the first time in 'Star Wars' after they had blown up the Death star. It was awesome! We had so much to talk about and we all immediately started reliving what we had just done. Even Kieth said "i may have bombed out straight away but hell! i enjoyed being in the bombout for 1 and a half hours watching you guys fly!"

Twenty minutes later we found our selve having lunch at the Outpost Cafe in Canungra. Half an hour after that we were back on Tambo. The other guys decided to go for another fly but i wasnt convinced. Knowing from previous experience that when i have had a good flight i should leave it at that. A little peer preassure from Warrick and Kieth and i found myself setting up once more.

Josh launched first and we watched as he went straigh down. Well i think this is going to be short and sweet i thought to myself. I was next in line but had to wait a while before going. The wind went to nill and even briefly started coming over the back. Eventually i got off. I headed the opposite way as Josh and managed to find a little lift but only for a few turns. I headed straight out to the bombout as i heard Josh say "now Ant i want to see one of those perfect landings ive only heard about but never witnessed."

I started my aircraft style approch with tonnes of height and noticed that the sock below was blowing East. This should be interesting i thought, ive never landed from that direction before. Josh in the meantime was giving us all kind of landing advice saying, "its not very windy down heare so you all better do a real hard flare."

Now its been a while since ive flown Velvet and i thought id have a bit of fun with it. To loose height i pulled the bar in real far and spiraled down real quick (probably about 6 tight turns). I thought what a great opportunity it would be to do one of those effortless Jonny Junior landings. I rode the base bare in on final and thought id do what Jonny does with ease but at the last second it all got a bit ahead of me and i stuffed it big time. I landed on my feet but ended up running and noseing the glider in. I felt like a real wanker and Josh managed to make me feel even worse.

Both warrick and Kieth came in for perfect landings thus leaving me wish i had stayed up the top. But then if i had stayed up the top i wouldnt have got to share in Kieths excitement on nailing his landing. Something he hasnt been able to do for sometime. Not only did he nail it perfectly but he also worked out as to why he's been having so much trouble. Well done mate!

After packing up we all got back to launch and packed our cars. After more congrats and hugs we all went our seperate ways. Unfortunately at the time i was still in bit of a bummer mood so i didnt enjoy the car ride home as much as i would have if i had not stuffed my previous landing. But im feeling a little better now and am focusing more on what a bought out of the day. I think i learnt more thermaling on that 1st flight than i did in the previos 3 put together, and my 1st landing was the best ive ever done as well. It was a perfect way to end an almost blemish free, almost perfect flight.

All up 1hour 50 minutes

The Highs and Lows of a Cobbler Peg Dickhead

2006-04-26T09:52:00.000+10:00

Well what can i say! What a day i had yesterday. If there is any of my entries id rather you didnt read well this is probably it. Even though it did have its high lights the downers seriously out weighed them. Now i warn you its going to be long.

I woke this morning to the sound of a text i recieved from Kieth regarding wind forcasts from the bitch (wind talker). Being 6:30 i decided i needed more beauty sleep and instantly fell back into my deep slumber. Funnily enough i dreamed i was already at Tambo with a few of my flying mates. We were in a huge shopping centre style underground car park at Canungra (like the one at the brisbane myer centre), and Lee was calling me to get in the car "hurry up, we're going up the hill, it's on Ant , it's on!!"

Anyway before we reached the hill my alarm went off and i slowly dragged myself out of bed and packed my days rations and equiptment. 5 minutes after waking i got a call from Brandon, "where the hell are ya? It soarable at Beechmont!" "Holy crap!!" i said looking at my watch (7:30) "im on my way!" Just over an hour later i arrived at beachmont to find a few unhappy paragliders who were stuck on launch due to stronger that expected winds. Although it looked awesome from a hang gliders perspective. Where the hell is Brandon!

I was luckily enough to get reception and called Brandon on his Mobile and was told he would be back in 5 minutes. Being the only Hang glider pilot on launch i decided to set up and see who else would turn up. After Brandon arrived we chatted a while before about 7 other hangies arrived including Josh who i hadnt seen for a while. It was good to catch up and he commenced showing me his new "advanced" (he seemed to enjoy saying that word) glider. Actually it looked really nice and i looked on with envious eyes.

Soon after we watched as Cameron McNiel launched and decided to hook in ourselves. I was next to launch with Josh and Russel Ferrier soon to follow. Conditions were quite nice and we boated around for a time. Now before launching there was much talk about landing in the top landing paddock due to the strong winds that were coming up the face. About 15 minutes into my flight i noticed a sea eagle thermaling and decided to wander over and see how close i could get to it.

Now i thought i had been spoilt by my Wedge tail eagle experience! I was amazed at just how close the great bird let me get on my initial attempt. At first he was only meters benieth me and whilst banking looked at me with a piecing gaze. I was actually supprised at how big he was. I kept flying whilst keeping tabs on my new mate. At the same time listening to the other envious pilots saying "look how close that eagle is to Ant!" A few times i had to try lookind behind me to get a visual. The highlight of the flight was when he got so close to the nose of my glider that i was convinced his wing had touched mine. Later Russel said how even though he was a great bird he sure didnt know what he was doing in the air. His thermaling skills were crap. In reply i said "i have a feeling it was the other way around this time Russ, i think he was relying on me to find the magic air."

Anyway after about 50 minutes flying around i asked Russ what he planned on doing landing wise. "Good question Ant, i was just thinking about that". We radioed Kenny who was setting up on launch and asked for some advice. He said he'd been monitoring our conversation and thought we should be fine as long as we didnt go over with to much height and to not venture to far back passed the creek bed.

5 minutes later i watched as Russel started an approach and watched him glide in for a perfect landing. A few seconds later he radiod me to say he was down safely. But as he walked up a bit raioded there was serious rotor half way up and to set up for final well behind the dry creek bed. Reluctantly i agreed before watching Josh start his approach. I watced as he turned into final and was shocked at how his wing was rocked violently by the unsteady air. He made it ok and i started my approach after trying to loose some unwanted height.

I was doing pretty good and heard Russel say to set up behind the dry creek bed, that he would talk me in. I did so in an almost aircraft style approach but on turning into final was hit big time by rotor. So much so i lost much needed height. I had speed on the whole approach but in the end didnt proove to be enough. At this stage i was heading straight for the far bank of the dry creek bed. Now ive seen enough pilots in precarious last second delemers try to rectify with a last second direction change to know not to try. Hey! ive been there myself, so i decided to keep commited and stay on coarse. All the time knowing there is know way i was going to make it. I flew to the bank and before hitting tried to flare hard. Funnily i ended up with my glider on top of the bank in the paddock and my body in the creek bed.

I shook my wing a little after impact ot let Josh and Russ know i was fine. I finally draged myself up out of the gully and started what seemed to be a long walk back to the main gate. Luckily my wing was flying most of the time in the stiff breeze thus making my long walk that much easier. On arriving i threw myself down in an embarresing hump. You were doing well until the last minute Anthony Russ said. "Tell me about it" i said at the same time looking down at my footwear that was absolutely covered with Cobbler pegs. Not only my shoes and socks but also my harness, shirt, pants and in small sections my glider. Especially my material grip tape i have on my cross bar, there were literally hundreds on each one.. " Great!" i said in a huff, "What else can go wrong today, this is going to take forever to remove."

Anyway we watched as a coastal pilot Mat came in for final. He did quite well until the last few seconds when he lost his speed and hit a bit harder that he would have liked, seriously bending one of his down bars. Immediately Josh yelled you need more speed than that! Even though i didnt feel worthy enough after my last landing to dish out advice, I tried to comfort him by saying you looked great, that you did a nice approach, and that the only problem was the lack of speed at the very end. "Dont worry to much about it. I've done that heaps! You should see the bends ive put in my Down tubes ive bent!" I think that did help a bit and he started packing up.

Once both Josh and i got back to Launch we found extreemly favourable conditions. "Want to go for another fly Ant!" Josh said immediately. Well if i wanted to go for another fly immediately i wouldnt have just landed i said sarcastically but secretly rubbing my fingers whilst looking at the over head clouds. I let Josh set up while i said hi to Kathy and got a fix on Warrick. All the while picking the annoying cobbler pegs out of my shoes and socks. Kathy left to pick up Warrick and i was left to help Josh out to launch. Once he launched i immediately got envious and after hearing how nice the conditions were decided to set up again.

There were a couple of other pilots on launch but they were staying put on the ground while i quickly set up for my new flying adventure. All the time for some unknown reason more and more of the public were stopping for a gork (i think it may have been due to the public holiday). In the end there were about 35 people lined along the hill. One last toilet stop and i did a thorough pre flight check. I got in my wing and got another pilot to give me a hangcheck and assist me walking out. I remember him holding the nose of the glider down quite low thus preventing it from flying above my head. Once out i thanked him and picked my window.

I had a good launch but once in the air felt a little stranger than normal. Almost immediately i new what i had forgotton to do and my heart sank deep down into my stomach. Oh shit! i thought. I forgot to put my leg loops on. I immediately got straight into my bag and fumbled around looking for my zipper. Once found i zipped up tight and pushed my feet deep into the bottom of my harness. Luckily enough my harness has always been to short for me and on this occassion it worked in my favour, i wedged myself in nice and tight. Once i felt quite secure in my harness i thought wheater or not to let Josh know. It didnt take to long and within a few seconds radiod the news to Josh.

"Joshy Joshy" i said over the radio. "listen mate ive done something really stupid" (i remember a friend of mine say the exact same thing to Lee when he was ground towing and forgot to put his leg loops on and decided to use the same line) "I think im going to go straight out to the bombout and land". "What have you done" was his reply. "Ive forgoton to put my leg loops on" i said. "YOU DICKHEAD!!" was his response but to his credit he said "if you bombout ill pick you up". I said thanks mate ill owe you one. Josh also mentioned that we may both be bombing and that for the last 25 minutes he has struggled to get high enough to top land (to no avail).

Even though i was flying without the aid of one of my main safety devices i felt confident enough to try and get high for a top landing. I searched a while longer around Josh before heading to the right side of launch. I almost got up and after 5 or so minutes radiod "this i crazy, i think ill head out to the bombout now and land on my wheels Josh" "ok then" he replied. I headed straight out still with that sick feeling in my stomach. A few seconds into my flight to the bombout i hit a little lift. I made the decision quite quickly to try my luck again. I actually applied myself and used all my concentration. I decided to let the glider do most of the work and before long found myself at launch height once more. A few seconds later and with my vario still chirping i was at about 2250 feet. I heard Josh say over the radio "you'll make it at that height Ant!" But i was still not convinced. I managed to get another hundred feet before i heard the sound every pilot dreads coming from my vario. I quickly made the decision to head for the top landing field and soon found myself a third of the way there.

About this stage i hit a huge amount of rotor and was knocked around so hard that i was thrown into the direction of final, whilst only a third of my way out. I was also loosing presous height the whole time so think the reason for such a thrashing was because i hadnt had my bar pulled in as far as i normally would, I was trying to conserve height. I quickly got back on course and at this point i stumbled on my next delemer.

For some reason the top paddock was littered with cows. This isnt fair i thought to myself. I knew i was going to land the furtherest from the gate i had ever landed but still within the boundaries of the paddock. I saw a small opening between two cows and decided it was now or never. I remember seeing the cows stop chewing and lift there heads as i came in on final but they did not move an inch. At the last second i decided to fore go my wheel landing and get into hang. I probably got into hang about a second or two before i flared. I pretty much did the whole thing in one movement and i was amazed to have landed on my feet. I radiod Josh that i was down to his amazement. I also told him if he was still finding it difficult to get high to go to the right of launch and look for my last minute thermal. In reply he said "yeah im in it now. I should be there soon"

I looked over a few meters to my right and saw a stunned cow looking at me. I then looked a couple of meters to my left and saw another cow. "What the hell are you lookig at". "Yes i know im a knob" i said. A few minutes later while back at the gate I watched as Josh flew into final and screamed at the cows to get out of the way. He landed on his feet before haveing the glider nose down into the ground. Hey i just did that i yelled and proceeded to watch in total amazement as he decided to climb down the steepest part of the gully and walk throught he dry creek bed instead of walking around. Unbelievable i thought.

Once we were at the gate i said i cant believe what i had just done and hit myself real hard in my upper arm. "Dont worry too much" Josh said, " i launched and then realised i hadnt done a preflight". That made me feel a bit better but still didnt stop me from beating myself up. I remember Lee Patterson telling me that i punish myself to much when im not happy with my performance but think he'd be the first to give me a deserved clip over the ear.

Half way through packing up UK Dave radioed me to see if we wanted a lift back to launch. "Awesome! thanks mate." Once back i met up with a few of the pilots who had stayed on the ground. Mainly paragliders as well as the hangie who had given me a hang check and walked me out. He instantly came up to me and appologised for not asking me about my leg loops. He said he felt absolutely terrible. I told him not to give it a second thought that a pilot is always in charge and that it was my own fault.

Ive actually forgot once before to put my leg loops on, but realised at the last minute on my walk out to launch. The fact that i had my wing flying above my head at the time helped identify the problem because i couldnt feel the pressure around my legs when the wing lifted high. Unfortunately my pilot mate held it down hard this time makeing it impossible for me to realise what i had forgotton to do.

A bit later just before the sun sank I sat and watched Josh throw his zaggi around still pretty upset at what had just occurred. Soon after Brandon O'donnel came over to say hi and ask me about my day. Not a good question, and i let it all come out. From the Highs of my eagle experience, cow judgment landing and catching and coreing my last minute thermal when i needed it the most, to the lows of my Gully landing and my ever depressing leg loop story. I think he could tell i was quite upset with myself and procceded to say "dont beat yourself up to much Ant. It sounds like you identified the problem quickly and got on it straight away", Thanks Brandon.

I then got in my car and drove home before i was hit with yet another sickening feeling. I had just walked in through the door when Josh sent me a text asking if i had shut the gate at the top landing paddock. Im certain i did, and went into deep thought about whether i did or not, as well as thinking who was the last one through. I got myself so worked up that i had to call Brandon and ask him if he was still on the hill. He mentioned he was still around and that he would check. I havent heard back from him so I'm guessing all's good.

There's alot i can take and learn from todays events. Im still mad at myself and think ill always be, but thats probably for the best.

All up 1 hour 20 minutes

A Sleddy with the A Graders

2006-04-16T10:36:00.000+10:00

Well i jumped in the van today and picked up my brother Jas before heading down to Tambo for what i was hopeing to be a good flying day. The last time i took Jas the wind came over the back just as i and a few other pilots were about to launch, thus making my debut fly infront of a family member a non event.

We got on the hill at about 9:00. There was know one there at all but once i started setting up alot of spectators stopped to watch. An hour later alot of pilots arrived and the hill was soon packed with people setting up gliders. Luckily i had a prime possition and launch was easily accessable if i wanted to launch early.

A few paraglider launched and didnt make it look to promising, but most managed to stay up in lift well out from the second ridge. The wind was extreemly light at this stage and i had a bad feeling it might turn and cancell the days flying yet again. It was forcast to blow east later that day so i knew i better hurry.

Once again there was a lot of procrastinating on who was going to be the first hangy to launch and Big Trev kept saying i should be the one. Knowing he only wanted a wind teck i laughed, stood my ground and socialised a little more before deciding id had enough and wanted to get air bourne anyway.

I hooked in and had Mic give me a hang check before manoovering to launch. I hadnt planned on launching straight away and think i dissapointed alot of spectators by sitting down under my wing whilst waiting for the wind to pick up. At this stage the wind wasnt blowing at all and even started blowing over the back slightly. I heard one pilot say i dont think everyone will get off today and i instantly knew my decision to hook in was a good one.

Once i hooked in so did a few others and i decided to run off as soon as a good cycle came through. Haveing Rangi and Rod Stead down infront throwng grass and kicking up dirt really helped and once the dust stopped blowing down the hill and showed an upward drift slightly i decided it was time. Haveing the A graders around me saying "only launch if you feel comfortable Ant" was a bit of a wake up call that i was going to have to sprint my guts out. I picked up the glider and ran fast from the word go. I got airbourne a little before the end and went straight out whilst both Rangi and Jas took pics.

I didnt bother turning onto the outer ridge seeing there was know wind at all, instead deciding to head straight out to the bomb out and hope fully find something on the way out. Thats where the paragliders were getting up and it didnt take long before i hooked into something worth going for. I hooked it right and started to gain height. I cored it nicely and heard someone say over the radio that the glider out in front (me) was thermalling well and to head out there. Man i felt good!

It wasnt long before i had Regi and a couple of other pilots thermaling with me. I got to launch height after thermalling for a few minutes and noticed a hang glider way benieth me. It seems like a while that i'd seen another glider from this perspective (actually only two flights) and i enjoyed it alot. I didnt last to much longer and fond myself heading out to the bombout looking for a miracle bit of air. I thought i found something and circle twice before deeming it to risky and setting up for a nice approach. I came in for an aircraft stlye approach but whilst turning into the paddock at the tree hit a last second thermal which made landing that little much more difficult. I eventually hooked it around and after gaining a bit more unwanted altitude found myself pulling my whole body through the A frame to loose as much height as i could at the same time gaining much desired speed.

I glided down nicely in the end and landed almost dead centre of the bombout. I picked my glider up and walked it over to the side just before Raef flew in for a nice landing. Once he came over also i asked him a few things about his flight as well as getting a bit of feeb back about my own launch. He said it was good but i shouldnt have pushed out at the last second. I was pretty shocked at this comment because i thought it was a perfect launch and didnt believe there was anything that could have done wrong. Anyway after what had been a good little fly was now a bit tainted.

By now over half the field was in the air and the other half launching quickly. There was a huge gaggle happening to the left of launch and it didnt take long before pilots started heading for the bombout. Once again it was awesome watching people fly in and i think i gained alot from the experience. I felt really good that i was in the company of Big Trev, Rangi and alot of others who have alot more experience than me thus confirming the tough conditions. Quite a few pilots that landed actually came up to me and said without and inquiry from myself what and awesome launch i had had and after me asking if i did anything wrong said no they couldnt fault it at all, thus bringing me up to my 'fly high' once more:)

Rangi showed me some photos he took of the whole affair and i was pretty happy, especially after he told me he would be more than happy emailing them to me. Everyone seemed to land well and before to long the bombout was littered with gliders. Jas drove in and we threw Jays tamdem glider and Russels glider onto the car before driving them into Canungra where they loaded up Russels car with their kit and drove off.

I had lunch with Jas while alot of the other pilots rocked up. I met up with Warrick and Kath and asked them if they had planned to go to Beechmont. We procrastinated a while before warrick got Lee on the phone who was on the beech and said the waves had white tops and that it should be good. Warrick then heard from Jay and was told it was looking good and that he was setting up for another tandem. I asked Jas what he wanted to do and in the end headed up to Beechmont. We arrived to less than favourable conditions with most of the valley cast in shaddow and the wind hardly blowing.

Phil hystek was on launch and Jay was all set up to give his tandem flight. I knew there was know way id be setting up unless it got alot better real fast and sat to play the waiting game. Half an hour later Warrick and Kath drove up and were amazed to find such a poor looking site. We chilled for another hour before Jas and i decided to leave and Jay decided to pack up, but not before telling Jas that if he gave him a bit more notice and as long as he only had one tandem to give on the day that he would take him up for a tandem as well. Happily and quietly Jas said "I'd be up for that"

It was good to sit on the hill anyway and was a relaxing way to finish the day.

All up 20 minutes.

Good Practice, Good times, Good mates!

2006-04-02T21:48:00.000+10:00

I rose at about 7:15 today and started by doing my daily water and mueslie bar packing routine before a big flying day. I arrived at Canungra Cafe at abouut 9 oclock and met up with Trev, Brandon, Dirk, Juiliet, Nick, Raef, and a couple of other pilots id not met before, one named Dave who happened to be out for a flying holiday from the UK and who ill hopefully be flying with on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I offered to drive us all up as long as someone could drive my car down from the top once i landed. Juiliete, who i had only just met said she was there to drive for the day and it would be her pleasure. Sweet! so we loaded up my van with a record number of wings and started off, at the same time running into Warrick and his lovely girl friend Cathy who ended up following us up.

We were welcomed by light winds and it didnt take long for us to set up. Two days ago i had published in the national Soaring magazine a story i wrote about my Gliding course experience. So as you can imagine i recieved alot of attention and feed back. I didnt expect to much, thinking no one has probably read it yet and that id be safe. Instead i had so much possitive feedback i was almost overwhelmed and even a little proud.

Todays conditions were quite difficult and most pilots found it hard to know when to launch. It was the kind of day that was very hard to read and apart from looking at the obvious signs i decided to watch Big Trev instead. If anyone could call it Trev could. It seemed i wasnt alone, as soon as he launched so did most others. Although it didnt amount to much as we all ended up heading straight for the bombout. (apart from Trev who got high and went cross country, barstard!)

I must have been one of the first pilots to leave the hill and as i did so thought how nice it was not to be the last person like im so use to being, especially after helping so many others off first. I headed straight out and didnt find anything i thought worth going for so instead decided to concentrate on a nice approach and kick ass landing. I pulled off both of them! and found myself doing those really cool bleed off the speed runs after touch down landings.

I was so happy i could hardly controll myself. Ive wanted to land like that my whole career! Once again there were no pilots but two paraglider guys who were unknown two me. I pulled up to the side and threw myself in an exaused lump under the wing. I said to one of the punters " why am i alway so exausted? especially only after a sleddy! I was only up for a 10-15 minutes. I should be fine". In reply the punter said "its all the addrenalin in your system, it has that affect" "Actually i hadnt thought of that, your probably correct" i said in reply.

Being the first glider pilot in the bombout was great because i got to witness about ten other gliders fly in to land. Some quite ordinary and a few quite exceptional. Dirks landing was a little ordinary apparently, but i think he did quite well considering he was trying to set up an approach whilst trying to avoid hitting Brandon in his paraglider. After landing and whilst packing up, Brandon came and showed him some footage he took through the whole delemer. Dirk couldn't believe what he was hearing, "you mean i was trying to avoid hitting you while at the same time trying to avoid hitting the ground and you were holding a video camera and filming me!" Well he said something like that while every one else was laughing. So did we again as we remineised later that evening over dinner.

Half an hour later Juilete drove in followed closely by Cathy. I heard Lee Patterson say to his student he had come to retrieve that they were going to have another fly and to jump in the car. I then had a thought of a second flight and after putting it to my friends decided to go up again for another go. We all jumped in my car and drove back up the hill to much more favourable conditions. We set up in time to see Lees student who also happenens to be named Lee launch into a great cycle and get high instantly. This was extra insentive for us and we rushed even more.

I was the second one out after Dirk and thought i was doing well before hitting sink and flying out to bomb. My approach was good but i slightly miss judged my flare by a second and gently rolled on my wheels. Oh well cant win em all i thought. I met up with Dirk who said he had totally redeemed himself from his last landing and was now much happier. We watched as Warrick flew in nicely for a perfect landing thus also redeeming himself from the previos landing and then Uk Dave. Then we all stood around chatting for a while whilst still on our sleddy addrenalin highs.

A little while later Lee drove up with a couple of beers for not only him and his newly signed off student Lee, but also for the rest of us. Unreal! i thought to myself, how sweet it is to sink a cold one in the bombout with flying buddies. Thanks Lee that was awesome!

The girls drove up a few minutes later to join the fun. I was asked by Cathy if i had a girlfriend and after saying no was told she had a beautiful 21 year old daughter who she would be more than happy i meet. Im still not sure how to take that. I actually felt a bit strange at the time but in the end took it as one of the greatest compliments any mother could give. And yes i saw all her 4 children in a photo she had and they were all extreemly beautiful. Ive not seen their father but can safely say they definitly get their looks for their mum.

We went back to Lees house and had a couple more beers before going to the Canungra pub for dinner with the guys and more story telling. It was great and definitely beats packing up and sharing your days experience with know one but a boring computer. Ahhh, im sorry computer i still love you :)

Well done to Lee for achieveing his gliding license, thanks to the other Lee for his help and shouting the beers. Thanks to everyone for all their kind words to my article and thanks to all my flying mates for an awesome day. See you next time.

All up 30 minutes

Redeemed

2006-03-17T23:42:00.000+10:00

I awoke today at 8:10 to the sound of my almarm beeping. I flew into action and started packing my pack with my ice cold water, fruit and muiseli bars. I immediately got a call from Kieth to give me the low down on gliding conditions as well as possible launch sites. Tambo pumpin he said, meet me in the bombout and ill drive us up and leave your car there. Sweet ill be there in hopefully an hour i said. Wishful thinking i thought to myself but who knows i might get lucky.

Lucky i got, i drove from Ferny Hills through Brisbane to the highway without getting one red light! "Sweet! Im on the highway, I'm in for a chance". 5 minutes out Kieth rings to say "change of plan, Lee will pick you up and take me to Canungra where he'll meet me and drive us up to launch".

Lee and Jonny both drove me in, all excited about what the day may have i stall for me. "Its looking good Ant" Lee said, "if you get to 5000 feet again you better go cross country". "We'll see" i said, "we dont have a driver and my car is in the bombout". "listen Ant" was Lee response, " if you go cross country I'll pick you up!" . Hmmm, i thought to myself, no excuse now, and as the other boys eyes widened as they looked at me i said "hey thanks for the offer mate we'll see how we go". I still had to make sure i got Kieth back up top before mid day so he could get ready for work.

Launch was almost nill wind but still coming up the face slightly. I still hadnt eaten, gone to the bathroom or had any liquids this morning and wanted to make sure i did all three before leaving the mountain this time. I mentioned to the guys that i probably wouldnt be ready for about forty five minutes or so. I got a bit of negativity from this statement and had Raith volunteer to set my glider up while i got to work taking care of my other concerns. Twenty minutes later i was doing a pre flight and giving myself a hang check before swinging my glider round and walking past the spectators to launch, just in time to see Raef run off.

There wasnt much breeze about and Raef did seem to struggle quite alot. I stayed sitting hooked into my wing on the hill for about ten minutes more before deciding that things werent looking like they might improove and that if im not lucky the wind would start blowing over the back. So i told Kieth who was behind me by this time that i was outta here. "have a good one mate" he said.

There was hardly any lift at all and all my scratching experience didnt amount to much on this day. I watched as Raef flew in on final and nose dived his glider into the ground. I watched and waited to see him get up and walk to the side of the bombout to see that he was ok. I flew for about ten minutes before i decided to stray out a bit more. I got a few bubbles but couldnt seem to make the most of them. I headed towards launch and noticed the wind sock was pretty limp. I decided on an approach that would see me come straight up the main paddock to land. Just at the last moment the wind sock started to blow south (i think its south) and i decided to change my approach slightly to fly into its direction. Id never landed this way before and was hoping i was doing the correct thing. It wasnt to much of a course correction, just a wider circle before final. But then i noticed it change again and decided to just go to my plan A landing.

I came in fast and watched as the ground came towards me fast. I looked straight ahead and waited for the correct time to flare. I chose my time perfectly and did a text book style landing, my best yet! It was almost perfect and i wha hoood!! with excitement. I looked over to see if Raef was watching but he was busy behind his glider doing something else. F%#K!!! i thought to myself, no one saw me again!

I put my landing down to one thing and one thing alone. Im at the stage where ive gotten quite good at flareing to late and have now work out that critical milli second that im about to crash. It's at that second i push up have every thing work out well. Actually if i flare even a second sooner it may even be better. We'll try for that next time.

I watched as Keith came in for a nose dive landing. He would have done quite well but forgot to raise his arms and flare hard, at least he came in with his wings level. I was and still am stoked with my sleddy run. If i land that well each time i dont mind bombing at all. Well maybe for a while that is. W e both Listened quite intently as Raef gave us some good sound flying advice as we packed up, and then headed back towards Canungra. I drove Kieth back up to Tambo before heading home myself. Great Day. Thanks to Keith for being my fly buddy for the day, Raith for all his advice and Lee for the generous offer to retrieve. Hoping to stay at his Kieths house a night or two next week and get a few serious hours up.

All up 20 minutes

The Pink Punter

2006-02-20T19:48:00.001+10:00

Not much to mention today. Went to Beechmont. I was the first to arrive. Jay and his student Mark met me 20 minutes later. Jay asked if i could throw Mark off whilst he talked him into the bombout. His last landing was pretty disastorous with a broken upright. Mark hadnt flown since before Christmas and if he was nervouse it didnt show.

Anyway Jay drove the 40 minute drive to the bombout, once there i gave Mark a hang check and assisted him out. A few last words of advice and he took off. Nice Launch. He flew straight down in lttle over 10 minutes and was set up nicely for an approach by Jay. Unfortunately he waited a bit long and ended up on his wheels. Although he almost got it right i was later told.

I was joined in the meantime by Lee, Josh (who wasnt happy i hadnt called him to let him know i was coming), Kenny, Ben, Warrick, his beautiful partner Cathy, Jonny and a few other Punters (paragliders). Most of us set up. Kenny was first in line with me second. A paraglider pilot with an old pink glider asked if he could launch before us, yep go right ahead we all said with the thought of a free wind teck on our minds.

So the Pink Punter set up and seemed to wait for ages before he took off. Once he did we were all shocked to see his radical flying behaviour. This knob flew straight for the right hand ridge. We thought he was going to change course before getting to low but he just kept going. He cleared the trees by only a meter or less and at one stage had to lift his legs to make it over some others. Once he was settled his flying manner didnt improve much at all and we all held our breath on quite a few occassions thinking he was going to die.

Anyway whilst waiting for him to launch i think we missed alot of the best lift. I to was a little to keen by this stage and probably payed the price for asking Kenny if he minded if i launced.
Kenny was more than happy with my decision to run off. I launched well and headed for the bowl. I instantly hit lift but only for a few seconds. From that point on i scratched and ended up bombing after only 20 minutes.

Most of the other eager pilots stood their ground after seeing me fly without success. Once i flew to the bombout i hit a nice therlmal which at around 6-7 hundred feet saw me gain a bit more height. I thought id be a legend and pull of a miracle recovery but unfortunately the damage had been done. I found the wind socks and noticed they were hardly blowing at all. I decided to land straight up the guts of the paddock and once in hang pulled heaps of speed on. The speed helped big time considering i hit a huge wind gradient and hit a last second sink pocket. I flew in fast with the ground flying past my knees. I chose my time and pushed as hard as i could. My arms were'nt up overly high but i still found myself landing well. I ran with the glider for about 4-5 steps to bleed of speed. I was extreemly happy with my landing in almost cross wind conditions and walked my glider to the far fence and collapsed in its shade while fumbling for my water.

I looked up to see Josh had launched with Kenny and Ben. I watched with envy as they ridge soared a while before seeing Josh loose the lift as well and head to the bombout. Josh landed well, although he flew quite a ways up the north paddock. He blammed it on a nil wind gradient. He flared quite early however and he parachuted up a meter or two. Luckily thats all that happened. Josh has stupidly stopped using his wheels and i now dislike being in the bombout whilst he lands in case he hurts himfelf. Ill definitely be the one taking him to hospital.
Josh immediately radiod Jay and asked if he could send Jonny down to pick us up. I cant believe he did that! but then if anyone was to be so bold it would be Josh. Jay radiod back saying Jonny picked him up yesterday and wasnt driving down again. His last words were " how good are you at oral sex?"

We both started packing whilst watching Kenny eventually glide towards the bomout with a tandem passenger. We both secretly desired him to bomb because we new we would get a free ride up if he did. Jonny alway picks Kenny up if he bombs. I was actually content with the thought of climbing the mountain. Luckily Kenny Bombed and Jonny started down to pick us up. Ten minutes later and Ben flew in nicely with a landing that mirrored my own.

We all started packing up when we noticed the pink punter maniack land way off in the distance well beyond the bombout boundaries. Jonny drove in and we loaded the Toyota dual cab 4wd ute with our harnesses and 4 hanggliders before noticing the pink punter running or hobbling quickly (he wasnt that fit and carried a few extra poundage) towards us in a frenzied fit. Once he reached us he asked if we could fit him in. Unfortunately we were totally packed and appologised saying there was no way. This wasnt what he wanted to hear however and he asked again and again. In the end we had to all get in the ute to show him there was definitley no room. Kenny did offer to take his glider and harness up, but he would have to start walking.

We arrived up top 45 minutes later with no guilt what so ever. Serve him right we thought. Maybe the walk would serve as a reflection period for his crazy eratic flying. We did mention to him he was a bit wreckless but it was water off a ducks back.

Anyway Josh decided to fly again and after launching battled endlessly to stay in the air. He automatically assumed id be picking him up and seemed a little put out when i said "not likely." "Hey!" if i wanted to go to the bombout again then id risk another flight" i said. As it turned out he scratched like he had never scratched before. In the end Jonny Jnr (worlds number 4 and Australias number 1) talked him into a few bits of lift that saw him eventually reach a descent height where he took over and got high enough to top land. Once up he immediately flew to the top landing field but not before being joined by a family of 3 huge wedge tailed eagles. They flew right next to him, a nice reward for such a grueling effort. His miraculous save reminded me of my save a couple of months ago (Hmmm... blog entry). Anyway even with Jonny's remote helping he did extreemly well to get up. Its the best flying ive seen him do to date.

By this time about 3 hours had passed since we sent the pink punter on his way. It was only as we were all getting ready to go that we noticed him walk down the road. He was absolutely coveres it cobler pegs, thorns and other seed bits and pieces. He looked absolutely knackered. He said he knew his way but he had to have gotten lost. Anyway serves himself right.

All up 20 minutes

Ant Saves the Day!!

2006-02-03T19:55:00.000+10:00

I wagged work today after being coherst by Monkey Boy to go for a fly. It sounded like a good idea considering i may not get another for a week or more due to the desperate effort to complete a three quarter renovated house for my sister and partner before they leave for the Philipines. Jay also mentioned he probably wouldnt get another chance for a while due to teaching and other commitments.

So with a quick text to my friend Amanda who owns the hair sallon next to my shop asking if she would be a pet and put a "due to an emergency, Moon Star Magic will not open today" note on my shops glass door, i was off to Beechmont to see what the day might bring. I think ill have to get a propper laminated sign for Amanda to put up, considering this is starting to happen on a regular basis.

On reaching Beechmont we were greated by unexpected light winds with no cloud at all. We decided to set up with Jay's main goal to get off the hill pretty soon. Now i havent been in this sport for long, but i have to admit i didnt have a great feeling about staying up in this weather, so i mentioned id be staying on the mountains edge for a little while yet and if Jay wanted to be my wind tech he could go right ahead.

Once set up i had Jay assist me to launch where i decided to wait until things in my mind got better. Jay on the other hand jumped in to his ride, did a quick radio check with myself and ran off. From the get go the poor barstard struggled and on one occassion i was possitive he was down for the count and on his way to the bombout. If it wasnt for a minor miralce and a saving last second thermal he would have been.

I watched him scrath for about 15 minutes before noticing the winds pick up a little and the swarms of swifts (sparrows) thermaling in more of a forgiving nature. I was now happy with the conditions and radiod to Jay that id hopefully be joining him soon. To be completely honest, the day had only improved marginally and I was sure as hell that id be having a sleddy.

I made one big mistake today, and that was launching without knowingly doing a propper flight check. I remembered on launch, and rather than risk ground handling my glider to the side did a quick visual check of all my bungies, tension, pit pins and everything else i could do without physically getting out and looking. I remembered quite well putting my dive sticks in because i always make a big deal doing so. I just thought it was safer than parking the glider myself with no wire assist then walking back to launch alone, and i was quite confident all was good. Jay had given me a hang check before launching also.

Jay who by the way also took up his video camera was by this time was hovering over launch at about 2000 feet waiting to see me run off. I did so in style and within one minute was astounded to pass his height. I couldnt believe it. We both got in the same thermal together and went for it. All the while Monkey boy was getting some sweet footage of myself flying around. After eventually falling out of the thermal as it passed over the back i hit a little sink then a little lift for a while before getting the sign from Jay that he'd just cored a craker to the left of launch. I looked over to see him doing well before venturing over myself whilst at the same time loosing height rapidly. I made it over the power cables with only 50 feet to spare i think, and once over cored a beauty.

I circled over and over for a few minutes before giving up when it lost its guts, and after loosing alot of height thought id get back on the ridge while i still could. Jay by now had sunk to the low point of the ridge to the right of launch and wasnt looking to good. Fortunately i was able to core a couple more thermals and rather than go down found my way working steadily up. I think i reached cloud base in just enough time to watch as Jay came in for, in his own words "a lazy landing" which saw him stumble forward and hit the deck with his stomack, and at the same time hurting his ankle.

After giving me the all clear I was told not to worry about him and to enjoy the flight. Not a problem mate, i can certainly do that. I just flew and flew. I hit sink but always managed to recover. Earlier on that day i mention to Jay that i missed flying Tambo and that i wanted some thermaling action. Well i got it today. I had time enough to try and read the terrain and try to work out where the best lift might be. I flound myself on the opposite side of the ridge right of launch making the most of the southerly winds that were being directed upwards from it.

On two occassions i came very close to bombing, getting down well under launch but on each occassion managed to get back up. Jay had bombed after 45 minutes in the air and although i knew it was hot in the bombout wanted at least one and a half hours fly time. I also knew he had a slightly hurt ankle and knew if i bombed id be the one walking up the mountain, and on a day like today that wasnt to appealing. It was nice and cold up here at cloud base and i wanted it to stay like this forever.

After getting to cloud base for the 3rd time i noticed a single cloud in the distance and steadily moving closer. A minute later Jay brought to my attention that a cloud was forming in front of me just out from launch. Sweet! i thought, a knew experience to be had, and with the bar pulled in i headed towards it. It was amazing to reach it and see the wispy wooly bits of cloud flying all over the place, slowly kneeding together to form a fuller one. I hung around for a few minutes before hitting a little sink. It was at that moment I thouht hey that'll do, ive had enough now, how awesome was that!!

I let myself sink out to about 2400 feet then turned to go cross country and land in the top paddock. Ive always disliked landing there but today couldnt have cared less. I actually pulled the bar into my legs and picked up heaps of speed on my down wind leg. I was hooting and enjoying every second of it. I decided this time to see if i could spot land and picked out a nice patch of thick grass about 10 meters away from an old rotten log. I got in hang whilst on my downwind leg. I flew to my left then into final without taking my eyes off the target. I was luckily enough to land exactly where i wanted. I turned at the creek gully this time but didnt pull enough speed on for final thus hitting a wicked wind gradiant that saw my flare to be useless. I think i also got carried away with the whole sot land thing and compromised speed for getting my goal.

Anyway apart from that all was great and i radiod Jay that i was AOK. Unforetunately the reception wasnt to good and he was left worrying about me for quite a while. I packed up in my knewly found hot hell and threw my glider harness and gear over the fence whilst putting my packed away glider in an inconspicuous possition behind the gate.

Now for the suckfull part of the day i thought. Now i have to walk all the way back to my car in the sun. I jumped the fence picked up my harness threw it over my shouler before picking up my helmet and radio. I took about three steps before this bikey dude on a ducaty pulled up and asked if i wanted a double to my car. Your kiddin!! i thought, how good is this??? Yeah!! i yelled in excitement and once again put my hang gliding helmet on and jumped on for my second ever Motor bike double. My first was when i was abou 16 and i hated it. I kept leaning the opposite way to try and regain balance. This time i just went with it and within 5 minutes was shaking the anonomous riders hand. Turns out he's a local on the mountain and has been slowly getting back into paragliding. His name was Andrew. I said thanks mate i hope i can return the favour some day and he was gone.

"Monkey Boy, Monkey boy over", i radiod to Jay. A relieved Jay said that he was glad i was ok and that i have to start taking my phone with me in the future. A good lot that will do considering i dont get reception on the hill. I drove back to my car, tied my glider on top and drove the 45 minute drive to pick him up. On arriving i noticed him running around trying to find cocoons for his young son Jessy. Hurt ankle my ass i thought.

All up 1 hour 30 minutes

On this flight i wasnt scared at all, I looked forward to it and couldnt wait to get off the hill and into the air. Althought i did find myself in the toilet making one last pit stop before leaving. Not sure what that means. I finally got home and have just had a nice cold beer with a good old fashion Singh candle lit curry, Mmmm curry.

Eagle Boy Marlborough Man!

2006-01-29T19:52:00.000+10:00

I took the initiative today in heading off to Beechmont alone. Having had no solid commitments from any of my flying buddies i packed the car anyways and headed down. I was the second pilot on launch. Suddenly about a dozen or more, mainly A grade pilots turned up. Most of whom i knew, a couple that i didnt. The wind was very south and at first blowing quite hard. Probably 20 knots with some gusts.

I was a little nervouse at the thought of flying, even though i knew i had flown in similar or slightly harder conditions. My nervousness not made any easier by one of the other pilots on launch who was slowly putting even more doubts in my head. Luckily though i spoke to every other pilot as well and was told id have an awesome flight so hurry up and get ready! I also finally met Rangi who turned out to be a really nice, friendly and helpful guy, and after launching turned it on for all of us by doing some spectacular and cool flying.

A course was set for all those wanting to fly cross country and after most pilots launched i again almost found myself without any flying company, although there were lots of people still on launch. I was happy when Kenny, Michelle, Kieth and Warick turned up with tonnes of eagerness to go for a fly. All apart from Kenny were quite new to the sport and refered to myself with my pittiful 15 or so hours as being quite advanced, thus giving me bit of a swollen head.

In the end alot of us were standing around wondering wheather to launch when i said "thats it, i'm otta here" and started walking to my glider. On the way i saw my negative pilot friend who had earlier said, "i wouldnt launch if i were you", slowly starting to pack up. I got in for a quick hang check by Kieth, and was walked out by Michelle and Steve. Five minutes later and i was sprinting off the mountain in a typical Ant launch (awesome that is).

I started getting sucked up and rather than keeping mainly to the right of launch flew mostly to the left. I just copied most of the A graders and it wasnt long before i saw the wisdom in doing so. Even though the day was a bit blowy, once in the air it was quite smooth. I flew with Big Trev, Big John and a few other pilots including Kenny who was giving a tandem flight. Once again all fear dissapeared once in the air and aprehension turned to full excitement.

By this time there was no blue in the sky at all and with the overcast conditions came the odd shower in the distance. I knew i better keep an eye on this whilst flying around. I must admit i love flying with the sun out and the fluffy clouds alot more than days like today, but i wouldnt have missed this one for the world, for reasons that will become aparent shortly.

The flying was smooth and the light rain made for another experience to be had. I love lying in bed listening to the pitter patter of rain on the roof. Similar can now be said about the sound of rain on my flying wing. It wasnt anything seriosly heavy and i kept a keen eye on all other pilots to see if they were high tailing it out of there. But we all just kept boating around.

A little past 2800 feet and i noticed a bird a little benieth me. A minute later and alot closer i realised this was no mere bird but was a fully fledged Wedge Tailed Eagle. By this time it was almost at my height when i noticed it was thermaling round and around. I thought to myself how cool it would be to fly with it and a second later decided to try. Hey why not? i have wings too i thought. I moved closer towards it and found the lift. I kept to the thermaling rules set to humans and decided that the eagle would determine the circling direction, considering he was there first.

What happened next was unbelievable, an experience ill never forget and an experience i thought id have to wait for alot longer into my flying career to achieve. Both the eagle and myself were at the same height (about3000 feet)when he started getting closer and closer, (with a little help from myself with some tighter banks :)) But the great bird didnt seem to be bothered. At one stage he would have not been more than eight meters away, and for the first time i understood why he was called a Wedge Tail. I always took the name for granted and never thought it might actually mean they have a wedge looking tail, Deeerrrr. Well they do, and a very distinct one at that.

This beautiful creature must have been about 3 meters in wing span. Another experience i wont forget was when he turned his head and looked at me. It all happened so fast. Even though we were circling in the same direction it happened when we crossed paths in a turn. He just looked over at me with those head centred eyes that only birds of prey have and that was that. That 1-2 second look is something that will remain with me for ever.

All this time i was pretty much laughing and looking with awe when i realised i had drifted a bit far over launch. So after he looked at me i quickly straightened up and got back on the ridge. I turned to find my new feathered friend and continue our interlude but he had completely vanished. I couldnt see him any where. Now, im not a full on hippie, religious nut or overly new age, but id have to class that as one of the most spiritual experiences i've ever had, and hopefully not my last.

After composing myself i noticed quite a bit of rain moving steadilly towards me from the far point of the ridge. I also noticed Kenny drive back to launch after landing and packing up. I saw Paul Alan fly benieth me, and i watched as he approached to land. The light rain finally reached me but didnt make to much difference to my flying. At one stage i was almost at the clouds and still steadily climbing. I got a bit nervouse and pulled the bar in and headed out over the valley. I got hit by a few harder gusts and still found myself rising. My nervousness increased after a few seconds of hitting even more lift. I finally hit sink and for the first time ever found the sound of my vario telling me i was going down, to be a comforting one.

I hit alot of sink from that point and didnt find it long before i was almost at launch height. Not to worry i thought to myself ive been high for almost an hour, ill get up again. Big mistake! I watched as Jay and a tandem pilot got ready to run off, but could tell he was watching me to get the ok that there was still some good air about. A few minutes later and i found myself back to my old scratching ways, and in the end decided to give it away and be the only one to bomb out thus far.

I started my glide to the bomb out and hit sink almost the whole way. I got to the paddock with alot less height than usual. I started an aircraft style approch but ended up crossing the bombout half way up rather than its end to save height. I got into hang and started the down wind leg of my approach, then final. I came in with heaps of speed and at the last second flared. I landed not perfectly on my feet but well enough to be pleased with. The other funny thing i brought to that approach and landing was the feeling of excitement not apprehension. For the first time i wasnt nervous, i was actually looking forward to it.

After my typical laughing my head off i cant believe i landed well moment, i picked my glider up and walked it over to the end of the field, turned it around and collaped under it. I didnt care i had bombed and hadnt made any retrieve plans, I was still on my eagle experience high and the thought of walking the hours walk up the mountain didnt bother me in the slightest. I decided to just lie there for a while and see how the other few pilots whome i saw from the air getting ready flew. But no one launched. I knew seeing me hit nothing but sink must have turned most of them off.

Sometimes i think i love lying under my wing in an open field after a good fly as much as i love the flight itself. Lying there reminising while looking at the surrounding farms, paddocks and sky. Its actually post card material, and i offen think if i had a cowboys hat and a cigarette i could be in a Marlborough add.

I watched as Jay launched 15 minutes later on his 10 minute tandem flight before joining me in the bombout. I then witnessed Kieth launch and scratch his ass off for about 5 minutes before landing. We then all watched as Michelle and Warrick, who had mildly better flying experinces than the previous two, glide in to join the fun. Actually Michelle and Warrick did much better than Jay and Kieth. They got up after a good direction call and boated around for 15-20 minutes each. The only reason Michelle landed was due to a mis-communication between her and Kenny on launch.

They were all a little disapointed with their short flights but were happy to have gotten off at all. I was delighted with the company and set about telling all about my latest flying adventure.

After helping them pack up in the rain we drove back to launch. I met a couple of blokes on the hill who were flying remote Zaggis. After a quick "hello" and a "hey! i have a zaggi but ive never learnt to fly it", took up their offer to show me how. I had a quick lesson but with my latest flying accomplisment still fresh in my mind found it hard to concentrate. After everyone had gone i found myself alone lying on launch whilst looking up at the sky as well as over the valley, all the while grinning.

All up 1 hour

Party at Cloud base!

2006-01-16T20:06:00.000+10:00

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 :)

Almost Perfect!

2005-12-23T22:33:00.000+10:00

Monday the 19th of December was by far my best day, where every thing I've learnt thus far has come together and worked in harmony. Both Josh and myself arrived on Tambo at about 10 o'clock. Jay had just talked Mark into the bombout and was now flying his remote controlled zaggi wing. Marty and a few other paraglider pilots were also on launch and were getting ready to head out into the open blue.

Josh went straight into his Ive got to get off this mountain as fast as I can mode whilst I strayed out, said a few hellos while at the same time checking out the air. Jay started his drive down the hill while both Josh and I at this stage kept setting up. 15 minutes later and I walked Josh out to launch. A minute after that and he was running off the hill in a rather gentle stride. I watched him for a few minutes to get some idea of what the air was doing and then started back at setting up. Kenny by this stage was on launch setting up his tandem glider to give a couple of girls a double. Pretty girls as well! After seeing and chatting to them I think ill be getting my tandem license one day;)

A few minutes later and I heard Joshy over the radio, "hey Anthony, not much out here hey!". I watched as he started circling the bombout to loose height to land then went back to getting myself ready. Jay by this point had arrived in the bombout in enough time to watch as Josh set up his approach. I waited a minute or two before going back out to see if he got down ok. I was supprised to see an empty bombout and thought shit! He must have pulled a Jonny Jnr and got up from a couple of hundred feet off the ground. The only problem was I couldn't see him anywhere in the sky and eventually spotted a glider up by the round about on the ground. Shit he over shot that by a long way I thought to myself. I wonder what happened there?

I started getting in my harness when Michael, another hang glider pilot walked up to me. "I was just wondering who between us was going first?" he said in a humorous manner. "I'll go if you like", and with a quick hang check Michael walked me out to launch. After receiving a bit of advice from the old boy I this time waited until I was completely happy with the conditions and sprinted of the hill in a launch that even I was proud to be apart of. Sweet I thought, at least I'm off to a good start. I started to fly along the second shelf before hitting sink and making my way out to the bomb out. Half way out to the landing field I hit some lift and started working it. At first I fell out but then got back in and extended my circling legs. Dam! I thought as I drifted back to launch while steadily gaining height, I'm doing great! and with Jay looking on in the bomb out felt even a little proud of myself. I circled up to about 4 grand up and over launch with a big cheesy grin on my face. Mic had also seen me find the lift and had also jumped off and joined me flying around.

At about the greatest height of my flight I remember looking out at a few almost fluorescent white fluffy clouds in the distance and thought how amazing it would be if they were a little closer. At the time they appeared almost level to me but not quite and I wondered if I was at cloud base. It was about at this point that I hit a huge bit of turbulence that almost felt like someone had flown into me. A wicked jolt! I almost crapped myself and decided it was time to get back over launch a bit more. I also had that dreaded leg loop cut into my thigh again like the previous day and after about 40 minutes decided id had enough and headed towards the bombout.

At this stage I hadn't yet decided to land but wanted to be close by when the point came where I couldnt stand the leg loop pain any longer. I was actually quite low at one stage and close to the landing field. I was lucky enough to find more lift and once again cored another thermal. I was circling like a champ and getting higher and higher when everything hit me at once. The pain in my leg, dehydration, and the fact I was getting seriously dizzy from thermaling. Jay, Josh and Mark had since arrived back on top by this time and Jay said "hey Ant, nice thermal, that should get you back up".

About 30 seconds later and I broke out to set up a landing approach. I noticed another unfamiliar glider on the ground being packed away. Remembering Russels advice about aircraft landing approaches, I made my way to the end of the field and began to loose height. After judging I was at a good height I made my way across to the road and flew straight up it before hanging a left into the side paddock. I was out of my harness at this point and had my hands down low in the correct position. I pulled the bar right in and flew into the bombout with tones of speed which felt great. I went to trim for a few seconds before pushing the bar way out in a flare that saw me land on my feet almost perfectly but with a slight sideways step to keep my balance.

I couldn't believe it and started laughing hysterically. I picked my glider up and walked over to where the unknown pilot was packing up. "Did you see that!, Did you see that ! I said. I landed on my feet, Unreal! The pilots name was Andrew (I think) and he said "yeah I saw. You seemed to come in low he said but you had tones of speed which really worked for you". "Well done" he said. Where the f#%k is Lee I thought to myself.

2 minutes later and Jay called over the radio, " Hey Ant have you landed?" "Shit didn't you see it" I said, "it was so sweet!" "Why did you land?" he asked, and I proceeded to tell him it was just time. One minute after that and Josh launched. Jonny at this stage had driven in with Michelle to pick up Andrew. Ten minutes later and Josh was once again on the ground (luckily in the correct field this time) . Dam I thought to myself I bet he'll be pissed about that. I told Jonny it probably wouldn't be wise to talk to Josh but he couldn't resist. "How are ya Joshy?" he yelled "Fu#cked!" he yelled back in a shit house tone. Told ya Jonny.

Jay sent Mark on another soaring flight in which he too over flew the bomb out and landed in the tall grass well past the bomb out boundaries. 25 minutes later and Jay drove in to pick us all up. I knew Joshy wouldn't be happy with going home until he had a good fly so rather than go to Beechmont asked if I could get a ride back with Mark when he left. In the end Mark and Jay decided to go to Beechmont anyway to try and get another high glide in. On the way there we stopped into the outpost and picked up my mate John Clark.

We got to Beechmont waited for 15 minutes before both Josh and Mark set up. I decided not to fly. I wanted to leave on a high and four days later still appear to be on it:) Joshy launched and flew for about 5 minutes before hitting sink and bombing out again. Great! I thought to myself, now I have to pick him up and drive all the way to Brisbane with both him and his stinkin mood. I hope he cools down in the time it takes for me to get there (bomb out).

On arriving in the Bomb out I was greeted by a less than happy Josh. Apparently Mark had freaked on final thinking he was going to hit the fence, stalled and broke an upright. Luckily all the excitement took the emphasis off Josh and he seemed to be in a tolerable mood. I did explain to him that having 3 flights in one day was actually a lot better than one long one like mine, and that the experience he received from 3 launches and 3 landings would prove to be invaluable. I think that helped a bit but deep down I'm pretty happy with my one 'almost perfect' flight. Next time ive decided not to over tighten my leg loops and to take my cammel back with me. I think actually eating something on the day before flying would help as well.

All up 1 hour

The best of both worlds

2005-12-18T09:33:00.000+10:00

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

Hmmmm.....

2005-12-12T12:20:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure how to feel about yesterdays effort in the skies. Firstly my launch sucked big time and I landed on my wheels. However I did pull off an amazing recovery which saw me fly from under the second shelf to over 2800 feet, a person best (height that is). The day started after both Josh and I arrived at about 11 o'clock at beechmont. I helped Josh launch and watched him rise steadily. Half an hour later as I was about to hook in I noticed Josh heading to the top landing paddock. Not sure as to why, I waited ten minutes and radioed him asking if he wanted a retrieve. He confirmed and I picked him up. He told me that after getting high he hit nothing but sink and rather than risk bombing out thought he'd land and launch again.

Once we arrived back on launch Josh helped me out and I did my worst launch ever. I launched cross wind and dropped a wing big time. I recovered well though and proceeded out. I was and still am pretty disappointed with that launch considering that launching has always been my strong point of flying. I'm definitely taking out some spare wind socks next time. I ended up scratching for the next 40 minutes and at one stage even got lower than the second shelf in front of launch. I was later told by Kat she had been a tad concerned.

I recovered a little to see Jay bomb out at the bottom of the mountain and to see Joshy take off. Josh didn't last long however and I was surprised to see him fly out to the bombout after only a few minutes on the hill. I saw him do a nice approach and land. "Joshy" I called over the radio, "was that you that just bombed?" "Yes" he said, and proceeded to blame it on a harness malfunction. Yeah right!

I tried flying a little differently this time and made a conscious decision to let the bar out to trim as often as I could remember. Ive always had it pulled in a bit, but nothing I thought would make a hell of a lot of difference (5-10 cm). I was either wrong in doing so or conditions on Sunday were a lot better than my previous days. I found I held my height quite easily when I let the bar out, and when I was flying in the right direction gained more height when traveling straight than I did in previous flights.

All of a sudden I found my self come from 1600 feet to about 2200. The conditions changed suddenly late that afternoon and flying became extremely pleasurable. I kept climbing and the wind turned into a very smooth laminar constant breeze. It was unreal and I was so moved at the whole experience I was almost brought to tears.

All of a sudden I found myself go from scratching my ass off trying to stay in the air to peacefully and effortlessly gliding about the sky. There were about a dozen gliders and paragliders with me at this time with quite a few of them carrying tandem passengers. I looked at one of the tandem passengers pass me with Brandon and her face said it all. It must have been her first flight and the expression she held described exactly how I felt. And I've flown about 30 times.

At one stage I looked out to see that the clouds above me seemed a lot closer than they had ever been before. Wow! I said to myself, "I'm going to finally touch a cloud", one of my greatest dreams. I was at around 2800 feet at this stage and thought if I just persist a little more I may just get there. Now I've flown at about 2600 feet before but never really felt to much difference in temperature. I guess jumping off a hot mountain and climbing to around 200-300 feet more made some difference because I suddenly felt it. It was beautiful, and I felt like I was standing in front of an air conditioner on a very hot day. Sweet!

Unfortunately I never made it to the clouds. Maybe next time. It was only towards the end of my almost two hour flight that I started to sink faster than I climbed and I thought that if I wanted to land in the top field I had better think of heading out there. I turned toward the paddock and began my short flight. I watched as Jonny landed with Michele and somehow ended up with his glider facing me as I approached on final. Half way back to the field the air suddenly changed and instead of being constant and laminar became quite turbulent and difficult.

I got out of my harness and swung up into hang. I put my hands on some newly added grip tape designed to remind me at what height they should be. Only one problem, I had unknowingly put the tape two high, but below where I normally have them, so I at least had some control. I did one or two s-turns to loose height and as I turned into final I suddenly lost air speed and lost a lot of height. I pulled the bar in but it wasn't enough so I put one arm on the base bare and pulled into recover at least part of my lost speed. It was enough to make sure I came in with glide but due to every thing happening at once I forgot to put my hand back on the down tube in enough time to complete a flare. My arms were to high any way so it wouldn't have made to much difference I think.

Coming into final I also noticed I didn't just have Jonny and Michele lying under their wing watching but also Lee, Kath and a few other pilots. So as you can imagine I felt pretty shit house and very embarrassed about landing on my wheels. I'm not sure who it was that yelled it out but after I herd 6 out of ten I felt even worse. More so because Lee had been there, and the week before had helped me get my landing confidence back. After he explained that my hands were still to high I was a little shocked, especially considering I had put my grip tape on to prevent that. I felt like an even bigger moron when I learnt I had put it in the wrong position, dickhead! Lee did congratulate me on a great fly however and Jonny did say that coming from below launch to the height I made had been a great recovery so it didn't seem all that bad. Especially after an awesome high glide that almost moved me to tears.

Anyway ill keep pushing and hopefully will have it perfect one day.

All up 1hr 45minutes

Back to the Training Hill

2005-12-05T14:23:00.000+10:00

You have no idea how sore and tired I am. I usually write my piece on the evening of an adventure. Not this time.

I went back to the training hill yesterday to try and work out my landings. Having had a few disastrous encounters with terra firma I decided to finally do something about it.

My day started with an early morning Josh pick up, then straight to Tambo for an early morning fly before any other pilots arrived. In the end Josh drove his car down as well. He dropped it at the bombout and we headed up the mountain in my car. On arriving we met Jonny, Lee and a few others, as well as a student of Lee's that Jonny was throwing off. Lee came up to me and asked if I wanted him to drop my car to the bombout, seeing he was heading that way anyway to talk his student (who also happened to be named Lee) down.

After setting up I changed my hang straps around in an attempt to slow my glider down which has been flying at 'light speed' speed. Lee launched soon after on his second ever high glide, followed 10 minutes later by myself. It was nice to be walked out by Josh for a change. A speedy run and I was off. At that time of day I found it extremely hard to find the lift and ended up heading straight for the bomb out where a group of students and other pilots had started to gather. Great! I thought to myself, just what I want to see considering I hadn't landed on my feet for what seemed an eternity. The pressure was on. My approach was good and I came in for touch down. A few seconds later and I was on the ground. I couldn't believe it! I had landed on my feet. Unreal! I thought to myself, although it hadn't been the prettiest of finals and probably comprised of more ass than class.

I walked my glider to the side of the field where Lee started telling me what I did wrong and what I need to do better. He also said it was great that I had asked to come to his training fields to work out my landing delemer, and that we would probably leave by 2 o'clock. Cool I thought, just enough time to have another fly. After we watched Josh roll in for a pretty sweet landing we packed our gliders away and headed back up.

On arriving we found the skies full of hang gliders as well as the hill full of pilots ready for launch. There were also quite a few paraglider pilots eagerly waiting for the wind to slow down. I tossed Josh off and watched him steadily climb. I went back to setting up. When I was about to hook in I heard Jonny Jnr call out "Ant!" I walked over to see what he wanted. "See how the conditions are slowly changing" he said. I said I had noticed a difference in when I first arrived to now. What do you think I should do? I feel pretty confident I can fly this easily enough (and had flown much worst in the past), but would have Jonny call it for me. "you should be fine at this stage", Jonny said, "but keep your wit's about you in case it gets any stronger". He also brought to my attention how many of the advanced pilots had begun their way out to the bombout. It must be getting pretty dirty up there he said.

I decided to go for it and Jonny came over to give me a hang check and walk me out. Whilst hooking in Jonny noticed Dirk (also quite new to the sport) had drifted way past launch. "that's enough Dirky" he said, "I'd be heading back if I was you". We watched with Brandon O'Donnell, and Richard Glassock for the next 5-10 minutes as Dirk slowly edged his way forward. He finally made it back and once over launch headed straight down, probably to get a new change of underwear. That was enough for me and I again asked Jonny for some more input. " I'd probably give it a miss Ant", he said. "Pack up and come with us to the training hill I reckon". I started packing up whilst chatting to Brandon. Brandon was also heading out and I arranged to give him a ride.

We met at the Outpost and had some lunch before meeting Lee, Jonny, Kath and a bunch of new students. We followed them to Koralbyn where I saw the most impressive training hill id ever seen. It was awesome and I compared it to the rolling frontier plains I'd seen on the movie 'Dances with Wolves'. This should make my landing practice a hell of a lot easier I thought.

In the middle of setting up I felt an extreme itchy stinging pain coming from one of my Ass cheeks. I went aside pulled down my dacks half way and realized I had a tick settling in. I couldn't believe it, id never had a tick before. I showed Lee who explained I probably got it from Tambo. I tried to act real cool, but deep down was freaking out. The thought of having a parasite sucking my blood out really got to me. Lee advised me to drown it in sunburn cream while Kath went to work looking for the tweezers. After a few minutes the tick started to back out and Lee pulled him with a clockwise twist. After both Kath and Lee were done examining my bum I was happy to be given the all clear, he was totally gone. Feeling a little embarrassed about the whole affair Kath tried making me feel better by saying, "don't worry about it Ant, I've had to pull them out of Lee in worst places than that". That did make me feel better and I started back at setting up.

I finished in time to see one of Lee's 9th day students launch from the top of the hill and land beautifully. Shit! I thought to myself. Now I'll really feel like crap if I stack it. I wish I had one of those funs (training glider). My first run was pretty ordinary. Launch was good but the thermic conditions had me holding on a bit to tight. I ended up landing on my wheels. Lee told me that's exactly what I've been doing on all my other flights, holding on tight and way to high. "Not enough control Ant. Move your hands up only when your about to flare". I tend to agree. I worked out exactly what I had been doing wrong. I started the walk back up the hill. It was then that my own training hill days at Murderers Gully came flooding back to me. I realized that the beauty of the region didn't make a hell of a lot of difference. A hill is still a hill, and when your walking a glider up it with flat tyres, all hills suck. It took me almost 35 minutes to walk back up top. Half way I thought, Dam! At this stage ill only get one more run in, and at the thought of having to do this again, I don't even want to do that.

On arrival up top I threw myself down in a gasping for air thud. I don't want to do anymore I said to Brandon, who by then had strolled over to see if I was ok. "don't worry mate" he said, ill carry it up next time. I always wanted to no what it was like to have a hang glider on my back, to know what it feels like". It sure looks so much cooler than paragliders. (Actually that last comment 'MAY' have been said, I'm not sure, it was pretty windy at the time and I was still a little delirious from my climb, I'm sure I heard him say something along those lines)

Take two was a little better but I was still in my holding on to high mode. On the third flight I decided to fly from half way up the hill which was still at a good distance and would give me more than enough glide to complete a flared landing, it would also save my legs, as well as Brandon's from any more climbing. Ok I thought, deep breath, think about what you want to do, and I was off. I saw Lee and headed straight for him. The glide was sweet and a little after my glider had gone to trim I pushed the bar out and flared with style. Yes I thought to myself, finally! It was at that stage it all came back to me. I remembered my own training days and it was all good. Lee all the while was being extremely encouraging. I went again and had another perfect launch, flight and landing. I went again and almost pulled a hat trick but pulled the bar in hesitantly half way though a flare and had a bit of a fumble, but a fumble with style:) We all had a break and then went back to it. I launched again and landed perfectly. One more time I thought, lets make it a good one. I want to leave on a high.

Lee at this stage was on top of the hill behind me. After yelling clear I started another nil wind launch. I glided beautifully and timed my flare well, with a no step landing (I think). I sighed a sigh of relief and eventually turned my glider around to see Lee jump with his arms up over his head as if someone had just scored a goal. "That'll do Ant, that'll do", I quietly said to myself with my newly regained confidence. By the time I had packed my gear away it was about 7:30pm and by the time I arrived home it was about 9:30 pm. On the way home Josh had called me saying, "what happened to you today?" I explained that after launching for the second time from Tambo I went on my first ever cross country fly and flew to Rathdownie. Really!! He said in amazement, that's unreal!!!............ He's so gullible ;)

I thought id go to the hill, find myself a nice out of the way slice, and practice by myself. I had no idea Lee was going to give me the kind of attention he gave me. I felt a little bad and tried my best not to take up his time, but I felt extremely thankful the whole afternoon for his generosity. Thanks Mate. Thanks also to Kath and Jonny for your advice and kind words. Brandon your a legend mate! Thanks for your strength big fella. You should be club president!

All up 15 minutes (Tambo sledy)

PS. Whats this pink stuff all over me? Is this what its like to be sunburnt? I guess there's a first time for everything :) Later Lovelies

Down Bar Bending

2005-11-30T14:02:00.000+10:00

Yesterday started with one thought on my mind, Flying! About midnight the evening prior Josh called me from the Foo fighters concert where he was being paid to do security work (tough life!) to confirm I was going to Beechmont with him early next morning. Of course! I said, wouldn't miss it.

After picking me up we proceeded back to Josh's house to pick up his girlfriend Amy. She also worked the night before and was ready the moment we drove in. Luckily like myself, both Josh and Amy are morning people. Makes life so much easier.

Amy also brought a video camera so we were quite excited that we would finally get some footage of us flying that was longer than a 13 second launch on a still picture camera.

On arriving we found the wind blowing over the back which sucked big time, and with Jonny Jnr, Lee, Kenny, Jay, various other pilots and a handful of women hopeful for a tandem double we settled in to play the waiting game. Jonny found comfort in throwing his Zaggi off and flying it around, even though it was still blowing over the back. But somehow, just like he fly's hang gliders he seemed to work wonders. I guess being number 2 or 3 in the world helps. Josh pulled his newly built Taipan wing out and tossed it off, just to see it come crashing down. It really didn't fly very well and we all felt so sorry for him that we pulled it aside to see how we could make it fly better. We cut, stuck tape and shifted weight and finally got it to a flyable stage. Meanwhile I asked Jonny if he wanted to try mine out. He was so supprised how well it flew. The best he's ever flown. He now plans on ditching his and purchasing a new wing.

Now I was more than happy for jonny to fly my brand new zaggi, but after Josh came over and grabbed it saying he was going to fly it I began to get a little vervous. Especially considering the flying conditions were atrocious. He has flown it before, but when the wind was perfect. It didn't matter how concerned I appearded, it didn't bother young Joshy and he tossed it off over and over. I didn't want to appear like a barstard so I didn't say, "no Josh, leave it alone", and because of this politeness had to witness my beautiful little flying toy get nose dived into the ground on quite a number of occasions. What even made it worst is that Josh is one of these guys who seems to have an unlimited amount of energy and even the hot sun didn't stop him from trying to fly it for what seemed an eternity.

Having waited on launch for a couple of hours I decided to set up. I thought I may as well. Conditions would come good sometime, I'd like to be prepared. Luckily for me everyone else saw this and decided to do the same. Even Josh joined in making me think, hell I should have done this ages ago. I would have saved my zaggi from quite a few new scratches and bruises.

When conditions finally came good I once again found myself helping off most of the other guys, and once again I found myself last on the hill. After being a wire assist to a very new pilot Keith, who was about to have a fly under the careful watch of Lee as well as a bit of radio instructing I jumped in my bird and walked myself out to launch. It wasn't overly windy by that stage so I thought id risk it. I did well. After watching Keith have a bit of a dodgy launch it was my turn, and after a few deep breaths ran off in a launch that would make any instructor proud. I even have the footage to prove it, thanks to Amy:)

I immediately started ridge soaring the mountain. Conditions were still not great but even with the amount of north in the wind still made for an easy ridge soar day. Having Amy on the ground shooting tones of video of Both Josh and myself was awesome. Everytime I looked down she was peering up at me through the lens. I couldn't believe how long she filmed us for. I decided to take advantage of this and began to do a few closer flying maneuvers. I also did some really tight turns close to the ridge. I find I get a lot more out of flying this way anyway. Anyone can fly up and down a mountain ridge, and after a while i find it becomes boreing. Scratching to stay up and constantly moving, practicing your skills is where its at in my book. Although it does take it out of you, and in the end I flew straight out to the bomb out after only an hour.

Apparently on my way out Lee was getting ready to talk Keith into the bombout as well. In the middle of my approach he was heard to say just follow Ant, his flying and approach is looking really nice. Coming in on final was the only crap part and I found my self having my hardest landing yet. I actually ploughed in this time and about a second before I did thought to myself, this is going to hurt. After hitting the ground I immediately got to my feet and righted my glider to show anyone on the mountain who may have been watching that I was ok. After swearing my lungs off at the top of my voice I picked my glider up a walked it over to the edge of the field. I looked at one of my down bars to see a whopping great big bend in it. I couldn't believe it, I'd never bent a down bar before. I then thought to myself, shit if Josh sees this he'll never let me live it down so I frantically started kicking the shit out of it and violently forcing my weight on it in an attemp to bend it back.

Meanwhile back on the ridge only Amy and Lee had seen my fu#ked up landing and Amy immediately overheard Lee say to Keith his student, "ok, now do exactly what Anthony did, up until he landed that is". I watched Keith glide in to quite a nice landing, although he landed way to far up the paddock near some power lines. After Lee was finished telling him off I congratulated him on a nice landing (apart from his final resting place). I didn't realize it until he took his helmet off but he was as sick as a dog. He looked terrible and had to crawl out of his harness and wing almost on his hands and knees. Im so glad I don't get air sick. Unfortunately he forgot to take some air sickness pills and paid for it big time.

After bit of a chat I helped Keith over to where my glider was positioned. He fell straight to the ground. I then went back to trying to bend my tube back before anyone caught on. Especially Josh who by now was starting his own approach to the bombout. Perfect I thought to myself, you wouldn't even know it had been bent. I looked up to see Josh fly in and at the last minute loose airspeed and him too plough in. Shit that was hard I thought to mysely, and from about 60 meters away could see he too had bent his down tube. A lot worse than mine, it was like a dogs leg.

I slowly started walking towards him to see if he was ok. In this time I noticed he was on his feet doing his best to bend the tube back into shape as well. I knew that he was trying to cover up the evidence so I started running my guts out to catch him in the act. Instead of asking whether or not he was ok, I immediately said busted and dished it out big time. I couldn't help it, he would have done the same to me and has done so on so many occassions in the past.

Watching him trying to bend his bar back into shape was pitiful. He just didn't know how or have the experience to handle such a job, and after a few seconds I said, no no that's not how you do it, it goes more like this, and with a huge effort and a few massive pumps I started to force it back to a more straight appearance. I even supprised my self at my strength and stopped in time for Josh to finish. Unfortunately I couldn't help myself and came too. I told him not to feel so bad, that I had done exactly the same thing as he. I think that made him feel so much better and after helping with his gear walked him and his glider to where mine was parked.

Jay in the meantime had called me over the radio and said, " hey Ant! Just letting you know that ill be down in about 40 minutes to pick you up mate" . Poor guy, I probably shouldn't have been so hard on him after the day I was in the bomb out for almost 5 hours. I set his mind at ease by saying that's cool, I've got a retrieve organized. Amy had already started driving down to pick us up and by the time she had arrived we were all packed. We loaded the car just in time to watch Mark who is a student of Jays come in for a beautiful landing. Mark is a nice quiet guy and you can tell that he gets quite nervous at the thought of running of a mountain at about 1800 feet agl. But then again so did I at that stage of my flying career. I was just a little more loud and forth coming. As soon as he touched down he had the slightest ever fumble but still did extreemly well. Everyone including Josh, Keith, David (from the Solomon Islands), Amy, Jay and myself erupted with applause, whistles and words of congratulations. You should have seen his face, it was priceless. He was so proud and after we had all stopped congradulating him you could tell his confidence level was at a new high. That's exactly what you need in this kind of sport. Actually it's not a sport, its a way of life. Well done Mark

We helped Keith out by driving him back up the top where we met up with Lee. We had a quick chat, thanked him for every thing and were off. We had planned to drop into the bearded dragon for a drink on the way home but we were running out of time. Josh had to get back to Brissy for a meeting by six and it was already 5:25pm.

At about 10 that evening I found myself back over Joshes and Amy's house picking up my wallet and camera I had mitakenly left in their car. We ended up having a couple of drinks while waiting for josh to edit our days video footage with some real cool tunes. Josh couldnt help himself and put the sound track to top gun in the background to his launch (typical). It was worth the wait. It looked awesome. My greatest highlight was when Josh said to me, "stuff casually ridge soaring, you look great doing your scratchy turns and minor aerobatic displays. Im going to do that next time as well."

After thanking both him and Amy I went home where I woke today thinking how much id like to go for a fly. I knew Josh and Jay were in the air, but unfortunately I promised a mate id help him do some handyman work. As it turned out he didn't even call me. Oh well never mind I thought, I actually have some customers coming down from Caboolture to pick up some bridal garments anyway. Well at 12:30 I received a text from them saying that they had to reschedule. Your kiddin!

Special thanks to Amy! Awesome camera girl and driver extrodinaire.

All up 1 hour

Pit pin mayhem

2005-11-22T17:53:00.000+10:00

I picked Josh up for a Beechmont fly today. With no rain or storms and 10-15 knot SE/NE winds predicted we thought today was going to be a great flying day. We were welcomed by a very overcast sky with quite light winds. After arriving I finally met Brandon O'Donnell. Great bloke, especially considering when he picks you up from the bombout he brings the chips and drinks (thanks mate!).

When setting up, Josh realized he was missing a newly purchased pit pin used to connect his down tube to his cross bar. He was spewin and couldn't work out where it might be. We looked every where. I told him to look inside his wing, in case it had some how worked free and ended up going cross country inside his glider bag. No luck there. An addimit (I know I spelt that wrong) Josh saying there was no way he would not be flying today got on the phone to Lee and tried desperately to work out a plan to meet so he may get another. A last ditch search by Kenny who was on the hill to do a couple of tandoms came through and with a newly found castle nut and bolt from the back of Kenny's car, Josh was looking good. Anyway as it did turn out when he opened his glider his pit pin fell on to the grass after doing a mammoth cross country from the middle of his glider bag to the end.

After setting up we relaxed a little whilst waiting for conditions on launch to come good. I gave Josh a remote control zaggi wing I made almost 12 months ago but never worked out how to fly and settled into some nice thick cozy grass to watch him fly it. Brandon and Marty (both paraglider pilots) launched and landed back on top after testing the air.

With one glider pilot in the bomb out and Marty having just Landed there, Brandon came up to me and said Josh and I should launch, if we bombed out he would drive down and pick us up (at the same time as picking up Marty and Dave). This was an offer I couldn't refuse and after letting Josh know we were both quickly hooking in ready for a fly. Firstly I checked Josh out to see if he was ok, and after realizing he was about to launch with his under surface wing unzipped fixed the problem and walked him to the appropriate part of the hill. After he launched I got ready and after a quick hang check by Kenny, sprinted off the hill while Brandon took some much wanted video footage (cheers dude).

I hooked it right but was cut off by Josh who was about to give way. Too late, I was at that moment out of my comfort zone and had turned before I could see him turn himself. Unfortunately by doing this I lost a lot of precious height and found it extremely hard to get it back. I scratched for about 10 minutes before I gave up. Every time I find myself over the far point of the mountain after the day I left to late and didn't make the bomb out, I find I leave way early just to be safe. I glided in and landed in the north paddock (yes, On my wheels, again!) just in time to pick my glider up to get out of the way for Josh. Unnecessary in the end considering he almost flew over the north paddock through a phone line and onto the road. Although to his credit he did do an awesome floaty type landing. Far from a text book landing, but one with a lot of style and personality. A landing I'd be happy to do over and over again (well done mate). I'd hate to say it but it was alot like a Jonny Junior landing.

After congradulating him on a cool landing and jokingly saying thanks for cutting me off causing me to loose height and bomb (well that's my excuse), Josh then proceeded to tell me how much higher he got than I and reminding me about my crap landing and to get use to him being a better pilot all over. I think ill have to get use to this side of his personality, seems to come out quite often. I should have reminded him of his effort on Sunday and my superior triumph! (Yes!!, arms up in the air) But then again I'm not so childish as to be so competitive ;)

We drove back up to launch where conditions had changed for the worst and with rapidly approaching rain tied our kites to the racks, took a few quick pics of Josh as he flew my zaggi and drove home. Thanks all for a great day guys. Special thanks to Brandon and Dave for saving us from a long walk.

All up 15 minutes

See ya dad!

2005-11-20T16:32:00.000+10:00

Well today both Josh and i went to Tambo for a fly on our own. Jay was busy playing bare foot lawn bowls with a friend he hadnt seen for some time, he was so nervous not to be coming along that he called us on the highwy to give some last words of advice. What he didnt realise however was that by calling us while we were driving on a busy highway is probably the most dangerous thing that happened to us all day. He meant well though and after telling us that he felt like a nervous father he was on his way. I think his nervousness had more to do with Josh having never flown Tamborine before. I on the other hand have flown Tambo many times, i learnt at Tambo and have also flown without Jay being around on a few occassions. Also, this was to be Josh's first solo flight after being signed off. So i think Jay really wanted to be there. Now that i think of it, my first solo flight after recieveing my licence was also without Jay. I think its actually good in some ways. It makes it all seem so much more real. Besides, there are many eager pilots on launch willing to lend a helping hand and give out sound advice.

I played Jays roll a little in regards to Josh. Telling him where to fly, where not to fly, and how high to fly before leaving for the bombout. I also explaining the different launches needed between Tambo and Beechmont and finally helped him up to the edge of the mountain.

At about 11 oclock pilots started launching and after helping Josh off found myself almost last on the hill. Josh launched and could have had a little more speed on for my liking. He instantly went out to the far shelf but couldnt core any thermals that would see him get high. He ended up going straight to the bombout and overshooting his landing in the tall grass at the end of the field. I hear he did land on his feet so thats great. He was pretty pissed that he bombed out staight away but i did explain that it was probably a good experience for him. Till now he has only flown Beechmont and ridge soared (which is easy). At least now he knows how difficult thermaling can be.

After seeing Josh off i jumped into my harness picked up my glider, swung it around, hit some poor spectator woman in the head and walked to launch. My Launch felt solid and i flew staight along the shelf and immediatley found the lift. Straight after launch however i got the shock of my life when the zipper on my harness failed and split open all the way. After shitting my harness i tried best to compose myself thinking that i still have my buckles holding me in and i should just enjoy the flight, besides what the hell is my emergency chute for? I thermalled like a pro, doing nice coordinated turns and following the thermal stream perfectly. I actually thought i did so well i compared myself to the great Jonny Durand Jnr. I love watching him thermal. He does it better than a bird. And after my nice smooth thermalling today know what it's like to get it perfect.

After climbing well above launch to almost 3 grand i found it hard to concentrate due to my busted zipper. What if my buckles failed, one things for sure my chute would be useless because its connected to my harness. If i fell out, what would happen? Id be dead! so after about 10-15 minutes of flying i headed to the bombout. On my way out i got pretty low and thought how cool it would be to scratch up from this height, i'd be a legend!! I found a thermal and accidentally started to work it. Once again trying to forget about my zip delemer. I cored it nicely but didnt work it long thinking how stupid i must be without one of my main aids to keeping me attached to my wing. This time i flew straight for the bombout, did a nice approach and came into land. On this approach i tried something different, i tried to come in with less speed. Unfortunately for me in the middle of final the wind dissapeared completeley to nil wind and with little airspeed on my behalf pretty much landed on my wheels, AGAIN!!

That was the only downer on my flight however and i'm stoked with my thermal coreing and my ability to control the wing.

I got a lift back to launch and was about to get in my car when Lee came up to me shook my hand and said with a huge smile on his face what an awesome flight i had had. Felt great to have been noticed by someone who knows what they're on about. One thing he did mention though was that my glider seems to be flying awefully fast and that it may need bit of a trim. I think this may be a contributing factor to why ive been landing on my wheels so much, especially considering when i was learning in the training glider i nailed them all the time.

I then jumped in my car and had a race with a quickly approaching storm. On the way down i encountered hail and hard rain. I also called Jay who had been trying to call my mobile to let him know all was good. I Picked Josh up and went to the 'Bearded Dragon' on the way home for a couple of beers, some lunch and to reminise on the days events.

You rock Ant!!

All up about 25 minutes

Man I wish I was as buffed as I feel!

2005-11-14T23:22:00.000+10:00

I woke up late today rather sore to the sound of my phone ringing. As per normal when im in bed I let the answering machine pick it up. I faintly heard Jay on the other end saying something about a pumping day today. After what happened yesterday I was definitely not interested. In the end a rather insistent, never take no for an answer Josh persuaded me to come flying. After arriving at Beechmont i had a few uneasy words with Jay and after a long conversation managed to clear a few things up. Just as well too considering after the few uneasy words I pretty much decided not to fly. I always said I wouldn't if my head wasn't clear.

Anyway after setting up my kite I watched as they set Josh of on a soaring flight. 15 minutes later I was running hard off the hill in what turned out to be a very hard breeze. If I hadn't had good bar pressure i think i would probably have been flipped backwards. I climbed high almost straight away and found the conditions a little bumpy but very flyable. I finally was on a flight that at first didn't seem to take any effort at all to stay up. Jay and a tandem passenger launched soon after, and with Phil Hysteck and Jonny Jnr boating around me made for a very pleasant flight.

After about 45 minutes conditions deteriorated and if you hadn't found your self up high at the time, found it extremely hard to achieve now. I battled for another 45 minutes climing 200 feet and sinking 220. For the first time ever towards the end I even felt a little air sick. I found myself trying to work out if I had to spew, how to do it, considering I had my full faced helmet on. I worked it out but luckily didn't need to put it into practice.

I flew for 1.5 hours with the only other remaining pilot being Jay and his tandem passenger. I didn't want to be the first person in the bomb out, but in the end couldn't be bothered waiting for that miraculous bit of lift that would see me high enough to top land. Instead I decided to head for the bomb out at the bottom of the mountain in the quickly prevailing light. I was buggered! and didn't realize the effect (relief) of heading out to land had on my phyici. My approah was good and was apparently being looked over and commented on by Jay to his passenger who also happened to be a student he's in the middle of training. With the light being so bad and the wind sock in the bomb out being hard to see at the best of times I decided to go staight up the guts and land, but at the last second saw the wind sock and change my approach to cross the fence and land up wind in the Northern paddock. In the end I found myself double guessing my decision thinking how quickly the fence was coming up at me. I decided to bank at the last second and land cross wind to play it safe. I seriously doubt I would have cleared the fence so I was happy with my decision. I gained speed and flew into land with my wings still slightly banked. I ended up landing a bit hard and broke a batten at the tip of my wing. I put it down to a number of things and after packing up my gear went back to the scene of the crime and went over it in my mind, trying to see what I could have done to avoid such a landing from occurring again. One big thing I was to bring from the experience was to leave and land earlier and not to let my stubborn pride compromise my safety. At the time of my decision to land, the light was fading fast, and having my sunglasses on and being very overcast anyway impared my judgment on approach.

After landing I looked around to see where Jay was. I was shocked when I couldn't find him in the air and guessed he must have found the miraculous lift as soon as I had left. Dam I thought, barstard! After I walked my slightly damaged baby to the top of the paddock I was delighted to look over and see Jays glider parked with both exhausted pilot and passenger still lying dead flat in their hooked in harnesses. I was so happy not to be the only pilot to have bombed out. Apparently they had left the ridge 30 seconds after i had. I immediately went over to greet them and was even happier to find that Jay hadn't bombed out just to keep me company. He was FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition) saying instantly how hard it was to get up high again and thus confirming i wasn't the only one who found it difficult. After talking to them for a while i casually looked over at my glider to see a couple of hungry cows trying to work out wheather it was good enough to eat. I quickly ran back and shewed them away and packed up whilst continually stroking my damaged girls wing and appologising to my favourite piece of Mylar.

Luckily Josh was able to be talked into the top paddock by Jonny and after packing up drove down to pick us up. We then drove 40 minutes back up the mountain got into Josh's car and arrived home at about 10 tonight. I was sore when I woke this morning, you wouldn't believe how my muscles ache now. Man I wish I was as buffed as I feel! After my disaster yesterday it was nice to have a decent fly. All up 1hr 35min. Sweet!

Justin's Day

2005-10-05T18:27:00.000+10:00

Well today just wasn't my day. I Had a call from Jay yesterday saying that he was keen to fly Beechy tomorrow, providing i could get someone to go tandem with him. I took a punt and called my mate Justin Humphrey to see whether he might like a free tandem. Knowing that he's usually in PNG i was suprised to hear him answer his phone in Cairns. He said he was quite keen and would be in Brissy in a couple of hours.

Cool! So up to Beechmont we all went, unfortunately to find it blowing over the back, we then decided to drive to Tamborine. The breeze was coming up the face but the conditions still looked pretty hard with alot of haze about. Both myself and Jay decided to set up the gliders, and I'd help both him and Justin off before launching myself. After completeing a hangcheck for the guys I proceeded down the hill to get a bit of footage of them launching. I gave the all clear letting them know when the sock was looking pretty good and they were off. Great launch! Unfortunately they hit mostly sink with the occasional lift pocket here and there, the flights highlight being the attack of the killer magpie. I have no idea what makes a bird so small think he or she can take on a glider so big, all I can say is they have guts. They bombed out pretty well straight away.

Now I wasnt sure whether to launch or not knowing there were no other pilots around to pick us up so I waited for ten minutes or so whilst trying to reach Jay on the radio, to no avail. Unfortunately within that time the sea breeze started to kick in and began blowing the wind over the back which also made my decision of 'should i pack up or not'? alot easier. Both myself and Kenny, who was also about to do a tandem for the owners of the paddock behind launch were left up the top. I packed up and headed down to the bomb-out to find a very happy Justin waiting. His smile made the day worth while. Congrats mate!

Magic

2005-09-28T23:00:00.001+10:00

I went to Tambo for the Canungra Classic today. I decided to take my glider even though I was pretty sure I wasn't going to fly. There were about 60 pilots setting up on launch. It looked awesome and my fingers started to itch as I looked at those clouds. I was asked by a few pilots whether I was going for a fly, my response basically being, "I doubt it, I just came for a look". I guess I just wanted to come up and be around the other pilots without the added pressure of getting off the hill. Besides I hate crowds, especially whilst trying to set up a hang glider. I did get around the field and meet till now have been some of the inspirational pilots I've only read about and seen in DVD's. The likes of Adam Parer, Scott Barret and Rohan Holtcamp to name a few. All extremely helpful, enthusiastic and really nice guys.

After seeing about 10 hangies get off the hill huey decided to turn on us and blew our eagerly watched wind sock over the back. Anyway the day was called off and everyone packed up. I then proceeded to Canungra where I met Big Rege and Big Trev at the cafe. A few moments later as I was eating lunch Jay turned up and said it was on at Beechmont and a few punters had launched. Come on Ant, what do you think? Want to go flyin? I said "probably not" but would go up for a look anyway. Big Rege, Treve and Dirk followed Jay and myself up the mountain and on arriving found the most beautiful flying day.

There were only a couple of pilots setting up and it didn't take much persuading for me to set up as well. Jay was the first one off with a loud wha hooo whilst running into the air. Under the protective and understanding eye of Rege I kept setting up. Both Dirk and Rege launched as I made one last pit stop, after which I also found myself on launch having a hang check by Trev. 2 seconds later and I was sprinting of the mountain in what I was told was an awesome launch. I hooked it right and flew along the shelf. I thought I was going straight for the bomb-out but after a bit of scratching found the lift. Awesome flying day! Heaps of lift, thermals and the sea breeze made it a pleasure to fly, and as the sun slowly sank lower the aesthetics really crept in. I climbed to 2600 feet and flew for about 1 hour before making my way downwind to top land.

Having never been above launch at Beechmont I was a little nervous but pulled it off nicely, all though I still landed on my wheels. I have to stop doing that! A couple of minutes later Rege flew in followed 10 minutes after that by Dirk who was talked in by Big Trev. My instructor Jay was the only fellow who had trouble getting up high enough to top land and almost Bombed out at the base of the mountain. As he started his approach I jokingly asked him over the radio if he wanted me to talk him in. After he landed (not much better than my landing I might add, which made me feel even better) I walked over and with huge grins on our faces and adrenaline in our systems shook each others hand. All four of us were on extreme highs from that point and wouldn't shut up for what seemed an eternity. Thanks to Trev for driving over and picking us up. We all went back to the Canungra show grounds where we partied all night with lots of other pilots. Every flight so far has been better than the previous one so I cant wait to see what the next little adventure holds in stall for me. Later lovelies (all up about 1 hour)

First Beechmont fly

2005-09-23T12:30:00.000+10:00

Got a call from Jay to see if I wanted to fly Beechmont today. Met at his house then took his car to Canungra. Met up with Flocky and Vincent and proceeded up the hill. We were the first ones there. All of a sudden we were swamped by a dozen or so of Australia's, if not the world best pilots up for the Canungra Classic starting on Saturday. Met a few Legends of the sport. Jay took off early and I was left wondering now what the hell do I do. Waited for ages and almost decided not to fly. Lee ended up helping me off. Once again I couldn't hear him through the radio so I went to the far point of the ridge to the right of launch. I scratched for about 35 to 40 minutes before giving up. I just couldn't go any longer, I was stuffed! Jonny Senior told me if I didn't get lower than the point I'd easily make the bomb-out. What I didn't take into account was that he flys lightspeeds and I fly a sting. Anyway found out quite quickly I wasn't going to make it. Narrowly missed a telephone line by half a meter and crash landed in a dry creek bed on my wheels 3 meters away from 40 head of cattle. They weren't even alarmed and just looked at me while chewing on their beloved grass. Only damage was a bent batton and slightly grazed knees. Felt like a real fool. With the help of the land owner farmer Kieth (who was extreemly helpfull) i carry my glider to the bomb out where I was met by Jonny jnr, Shannon and Paulie. Both Jay and Lee called me a legend saying what an awesome flight I had (besides leaving to late and missing the bomb out). Jay also said I did him proud. Made me feel great. Anyway after hearing that almost everyone's landed in the dry creek bed at one time or another I feel a bit better. Awesome day! Dam I'm sore. All up about 40 minutes.

First Licenced Solo Flight

2005-09-19T23:00:00.000+10:00

Well today I went to Lee and Kats house at Canungra for the first time. Cool place, very relaxing. After meeting up with Tex, John and Jonny jnr we went up to Tambo. Set up my glider a little nervously, I felt quite alone with out Jay not being with me for the first time but felt better once Russ came over. Think I caused a delemmer over answering a simple question over a hang strap extention. Wasn't sure about flying, especially with my new glider and the fact I hadn't flown it before. Decided to go for it. Knew I'd regret it otherwise. Lee chaperoned me to Launch and watched me run off. Couldn't hear his instructions on the radio so I did my own thing feeling uncomfortable the whole flight thinking Lee must think Im totally ignoring him. Launch was great, flight handling good, approach good but fumbled on landing. Never can remember my landings. Think its all the adrenaline in my system. John told me my arms were to low on the down bars preventing me from getting the extra flare I needed. I tend to agree. I think I surprised Lee though. He said I did really well. All up about 15 minutes. Feel great now that I've had a fly :)

Finally!

2005-09-13T01:42:00.000+10:00

All done! finally signed off and can leagally fly the skies. Thanks to Jay for sticking with me through the constant crap weather, weather that made it extreemly difficult to turn my dream to reality, Russ for all his support and for talking me into the bomb-out safely. Thanks to Jonny Jnr and the rest of the inspirational pilots out there for keeping me keen. See you in the air....