Newcastle Hang Gliding Club

Just returned from Gulgong with a shiny new aerotow endorsement in my pocket. Curt Warren looked after all of us and completed a successful, safe, incident-free clinic. Thanks to Curt and Alex who was assisting.

The weather was a tad damp the first day and a half with intermittent rain, heavy at times and a low cloud base. Luckily the weather cleared by Friday and the wind was light to calm throughout the clinic.

A big thanks to our tuggy, Steve. He was very gentle with us and what he can't do with a Dragonfly isn't worth knowing! Thanks also to Airborne, my Sting3 is just as sweet on tow as it is in free flight.

Friday was epic and several students enjoyed cruising around near cloud base. I had 2 hours thermalling between 2000 and 4800 feet agl dodging the wispies at times in lift varying between zero sink and 1000 fpm. The drift was negligeable which made for a relaxing and enjoyable flight.

Alas, Saturday was came with good lift but 15kt northerlies. It didn't seem to worry the competition pilots who used the practise day to good effect. I launched about 4 p.m. in moderating winds into weak and broken lift over the strip. I failed to blunder into anything I could stick with and was back on the deck after 15 minutes.

Sunday brought even stronger winds with rain forecast for Monday. I decided to pack up. While doing so the wind picked up to 20 kts in the gusts. My Sting started to roll away on its wheels just as I was trying to fold-in the wings! Dawson came to my rescue, thanks mate!

Can't wait for my next aerotow session. Count me in for the next Denman trip!