Newcastle Hang Gliding Club

The first task of the comp was appropriately matched to the forecast for today of lift between 600 and 800 fpm but shutting down around 4pm. It was Borah to Upper Hoton then back to Cobbadar and goal at Barrabar air strip. Jonny thought he would be first in goal when he buzzed the strip but Blaino was there packing up (see YouTube link below). The the usual suspects made it to the second turn point and a bit beyond. The southerly headwind that kicked in and made it hard going from Upper Horton to Barrabar.

On take off it was west with a bit of south in it and cycling. The others on the hill watched the early starters go up and down from 12:30 to the window opening at 1:30pm. Some got very low. Slowly they started getting up and one thermal was marked by a column of hang gliders and paragliders rotating to cload base. Suddenly, as if someone had fired a starter's pistol, there were 3 or 4 queues of gliders on take off. There were some big gaggles and most pilots got away from the hill in thermals that had been mellowed by the moisture that had been left from recent rains.

Donny made the first turn point and he was almost to second when his instruments fell off. To make matters worse he broke an upright and possibly a his base-bar when he landed trying to avoid powerlines. And then salt was rubbed into his wounds when there was no tracklog found on his GPS.

Matt Clark has not flown in 14 months and made it round the first turnpoint at the 60km mark.

Billo is doing the scoring and cracked up a whole table of pilots eating their dinner in the beer garden when he came out, put his hands on Monica's(the Meathead) shoulders and asked "What's your GAP measurements?"

Watch this video on Youtube