[Dawson]

http://vimeo.com/13143631

On Friday evening Allan & I were chucking around ideas of where our best chance of a flight on Saturday was. Blackheath was mentioned, but I figured it'd be too southerly there, a call was made to Pete to see if Yarrawa was available, but he'd be working. There was talk of going to the Central Coast for a coastal ridge soar, or Nellies, Glennies, or that other, closer, SW facing hill who's name shall not be spoke.


Early Saturday morning Allan called me and we first decided that the central coast was the best bet, then after our weather guru re-evaluated the more up to date forecasts, he decided that Glennies would be doing it's best impression of a TGV. Who am I to question his wisdom?

Posts were put up on the website and calls were made. At first Vic was not going to be flying, then he was. Stuie was in then out. Don Bremner was in. A couple had plans for that other, closer, SW facing hill, but most were just not in. (loosers! )

Allan & I met up with Vic & Don at Singleton, then we all headed of for the bombout. Don hadn't flown there before, so did a good recce of the bombout. We noted that the wind was about 70 degrees cross at the time, but figured it was worth checking out the top of the hill as we'd come that far, and may as well drive up.

[img]http://pics.nhgc.asn.au/albums/userpics/10024/normal_IMG_2235.JPG"[/img]

We all piled in to my car for the trip up the hill. The last couple of times I'd been up, we went up the south track which had been looking worse and worse each time. I'd not been up the North track for a couple of years, but figured it had to be better than the south track. It's narrower, and more precipitous in places, but much drier. We had to stop to clear fallen rocks off the track a couple of times, and one wet slope needed a little bit of lantana ground cover added to it for grip, but other than that it was much less scary trip than Vic & Don will have you believe. We didn't even get killed once!

Up on top, the wind strength was perfect, and direction was just a hair south of square onto the hill. In no time at all, Allan was away demonstrating perfect form, then Vic & I helped Don off to his second ever inland flight with an absolutely fault-less launch. Vic was next off with me playing tail-end charly.


The ridge lift was light at first keeping us up slightly above the ridge most of the time. Don fought valliantly, but just a bit too far out from the hill to stay in the up stuff, so ended up down on the deck after a short, but brave battle.

The hill, having taken it's sacrifice then released it's gift. Wide, smooth, but light thermals were now through to keep the rest of us between 500' and a grand above. A couple of eagles were playing nicely at the south end of the ridge, but following the lift further over the back than I was comfortable with.

Vic was squeezing out everything that the thermals had to give, then took it out the front for some expression sessions before working his way back up again. Allan spent some time scratching down low on the north end of the ridge whilst Vic & I were safely up with the Eagles, then as the day wore on, we all ended up on the north end of the ridge when out of the blue we were all rewarded with a ride up to 2200' above launch. There was still lift to work, but we were getting further over the back than I wanted to be, so I just dove off back out the front again with plenty of height, did some monkeying around, and then finding that there was no more lift to be had, came in for a top landing near the car.


I had been planning on landing at the top, flatter part of the hill, but the dissapearing lift left me lower than I planned to be, so I made a last-minute change of plans to land upslope below the car. I then found myself landing across the slope where I should have been landing up it. As you'll see in the video, my landing was less than perfect, but with thankfully no damage or injury. Watching the video, and seeing how close my wingtip is to the slope whilst I'm still flying pretty fast, I realise that this mistake could have been bigger than it was if it had dragged earlier than it did.

[blindrodie]

Nice video, great music!

Hay tell the guys that big rocks roll easier "down hill" and then they likely won't come back...

[latunatexx]

Great video, but don't let the tree huggers see you guys rolling that rock onto that poor little tree.

[Dawson]

Don't worry about the tree huggers. It was rolled up hill to prevent erosion

[gasdive]

I noticed how good the mighty Suzuki was.

What sort of tyres are you running on her?

I've still got the standards on mine and they're completely totally road tyres. Still did surprisingly well a couple of months ago when I got lost in the state forest and ended up doing some quite advanced firetrail driving.

Cheers Jason =:)

[Dawson]

[Nicos]

GREAT vid Dawson, awesome flight, great write-up — cheers

Bring on springtime!!!!

[ChattaroyMan]

Great countryside - nice flying scenes. Really enjoyed the video. But, winter? Heck, the water looks liquid to me.

[Dawson]

[lafe.williams]

Good Video looked like a great day out

cheers mate