Task 5

Early news, Andrew, Heike Craig D and I bombed early - Viv, Craig C and James into goal - 53km to Gulf Creek, a few km past Barrabas - Hopefully a good team result and Viv has certainly got 2nd women's place

Day 13

Clear sky, low base of ragged cumulus, moderate S. Briefing at 12:00 on Borah.
Bingara?

Behind the scenes - Barb on retrieve

Barb had a busier day yesterday, I landed out deep in the boonies with quite a few others. Barb and local farmer Sam, came out to find us all. Sam was great. We loaded up the hilux and then some to get a load of stranded pilots back to the road.

From the weekend

Hamish Barker visited with some other aussie pilots over the last weekend. What a great effort to come all that way, real good to see them.
Hamish has sent us some pictures.

Day 12

lots and lots of rain, day cancelled at 11:30

Task 4

Day 11

Just read through the comments sent in to JJ’s Blog yesterday. Firstly, on behalf of the team, thanks for the congratulations, great to know there’s great support out there. And the story below….

The morning was grey with around 80% alto stratus cover, it was looking pretty doubtful with everything on hold until 12. Then it was decided we were meeting on the hill at 1.30. The sky was clearing, the winds weren’t too strong….pilots were beginning to smile.

The task was set to Baan Baa to the west with 5 x 15min start gates. The Aussies met and decided on strategy, general consensus was not the first start gate and go with a good sized gaggle. The team was all pretty quick to launch and we all took the second start gate. Personally I was keen to leave, those gaggles over launch were all over the place. ……Game on.

Heading towards Boggabri Gap climbs were low with the gaggles moving on fast at around 1550m. This saw the team split up as we all headed for the climbs closest to each of us. As we got closer to the Gap the climbs got lower and more spread out and things started looking a little dire. Shortly after Craig, Craig, Brain and Heike were on the deck in the newly named Buggerbry Gap. They weren’t alone, around 50 pilots ended up in the same area including Steve Ham and Russel Ogden.

Meantime Andrew had ended up with a gaggle taking the higher country to the north, calling climbs to 2000m he seemed to be doing just fine. I was heading to the forest just north of the Gap, it was shading out, I went in low and found a climb over a rock with another pilot and climbed out. Later I heard unconfirmed reports of someone else doing the same and landing on that rock… James was still on the east side of the Gap and eventually found a climb over Michelle Baptist to make the crossing.

Conditions to the west of Gap were tricky, the sky was filling in with high cloud, the climbs were slow and with the carnage at Boggaabri we were left with fewer gaggles. Going to the south of the Square Forest it became obvious the winds were more cross and it was easy to drift north of the course line. This was Andrew’s demise, his gaggle had continued around the north of the Square Forest and coming around the corner to get into goal it was pretty tough going into the head wind. He landed shortly after. I landed about the same time.

After crossing the Gap, James got a couple of great (relatively speaking) climbs and was just about 1km behind me and into wind when he called a tantalizing 1 up. I wasn’t going to make it to him….but so close. James took that climb and made goal. Very well done! Around 25 others made it as well, the only chick was Kari Castle who had been flying with James.

After I landed I saw one and then two gaggles of around 15 pilots fly over the top of me, those later starts seemed to have the advantage. Louise Crandal confirmed this on the way back, she had left in either the last or second last start and had a fairly easy and quick run.

A disappointment of the day was not seeing the leading pilot Petra in goal and then hearing from her team mates that she had basically bombed. How cool would it have been to see her win!

When we landed we got the news from Pete abut the incidents on the hill. Being a good manager he had kept everything to himself. Two mid-airs with three reserve deployments, a gyro flying around very close to the pilots, and a free flyer with a broken leg. Apparently there was discussion about canning the task so the rescue helicopter could get in. No updates on what was posted in the comments by Rob as yet.

This morning it’s raining, JJ thinks we might sneak in a task tomorrow……..

-Viv

day 11

ET Race to Baan Baa. 5 start times 15 min apart. Launch open 2:15 First start 2:45.
The team is up and away.

Day 10

Drove up the hill for a 1:00 briefing. 30-50kmh winds from the ESE. We waited until 15:30 when the day was canned and we drove back down. Looking forward to the next 3 days where the forecast is hinting at some flying - we shall see

Day 9

We arose to an overcast sky with storms already on the radar from the south. Briefings were postponed until 1:30 where we met on top of Borah. From there we watched a storm overtake us from the south.
We bolted off the hill before the rain made the road too slippery in time to get back to episode 16 of Heroes.

Day 8 – Task 3 Heike’s Perspective

The task: a 57km race to Tamworth sportsground (we had special air clearance) via Manilla, Attunga and a turnpoint at the BiLo in Tamworth. Race start: 2.30pm

After launching from the west launch, most of the Aussie team seemed to be at base (around 2000m at that stage) with 40 minutes to go before the race started. It got pretty congested up there at times, made somewhat easier by having a 3km start radius. I think most of the Aussie team got a good start, with Craig C leading the way (I think).

There was a worrying lack of clouds on course, and sure enough, once we left the hill things got very slow. We seemed to break into two main gaggles after the turnpoint, one of about 100 pilots, the other of about 30. I was in the second of the gaggles, the rest of the team in the first, except for Craig C, who I’m guessing pushed out and sadly landed shortly after the first turnpoint .

Our gaggle climbed about 300m, and then started going down. With visions of us all hitting the deck together, I decided to risk it and glide back to the ridge north of town, and connected with a climb above the tip. Big mistake, because the gaggle I’d left climbed out so I was about 10km behind the field, and by myself.

I could hear the others moving down the course line, mostly slowly but at times calling up to 2.5m climbs. Eventually Brian and Andrew landed about 200m short of goal, with Viv and Craig D landing around 16km short of goal. I ended up about 21 km short, and James about 27km short.

I think about 15 people made goal, with Petra in second or third … which means she’ll be leading the whole field after today!!

The photo was taken yesterday – Kari was paying the Aussie team a visit up on the hill. Thanks to Brett for the photo. (Brian and I must have been writing today up at the same time - I decided my write-up was sufficiently different to post it anyway.)

Day 8 - Task 3

Another late day with wind out of N/NE. We waited until 12:30 with gliders launching from the east before a task with a 2:30 RACE from Borah was called. By 1:30 the west launch was working and we all climbed easily under 2 good clouds to wait for the start gate.
From the Borah start over Manilla to the caravan park saw a long glide and not many signs of lift, eventually a slow climb was found a couple of k's NW of Namoi Park. This hauled 2 large gaggles back up to 1900m (1m/s was good) and allowed us to move on along the course line with some more regular climbs to Attunga.
Past Attunga we slowed down again and fought in scrappy lift creeping towards Tamworth. One short TP and then a 3km glide to goal across some suburbia, sports fields with tall trees between them and then the finish line. Andrew fared best for the home team landing 100m short of goal, regretfully no Aussies across the line again. Perhaps 15 pilots in.
A long slow day, 57km in 3.5 hours - but we flew!!

Happy birthday Poppa!!

On the hill at 12:00
light to mod north to north east.

Day 7

Strong northerly winds and very hot - day cancelled at 12:30
Team photo shoot at 5:00 pm.

Craig D's viewpoint

The conditions for task 2 looked a lot better than I was expecting with some free flyers climbing to cloud base. When the launch window opened and there was no wind on any of the launches or any gliders climbing we had to wait it out on the east launch with Wendy giving us updates from the west launch, Barb from the east bomb-out and Pete assisting on the east. Eventually it came on and we all got in the air.

After to climbing to 2100m we headed of to the Tarpoly turnpoint, Craig C, James and Andy got there first followed by myself Viv and Brian and Heike. Heading towards the second turnpiont Craig C, Andy and James went down the western side of the range with a big gaggle getting quite low and struggled to find a good climb. Viv Brian and myself went down the east side and got quite a good run all the way to the Baldwin range which allowed us to catch up Craig and Andy's gaggle. Unfortunately Heike got low on the run back from Tarpoly and landed near the Baraba road.
After climbing to 1700m at the Baldwins we headed to the second turnpiont (chicken shed south) getting a really nice glide with Brian leading the Aussies. As we had left the ranges the good 2 to 3m climbs were replaced with very light 0.5m climbs. We all slowed down and tried maximise every thermal. Brian pushed into the last turnpoint before goal and landed nearby along with Viv Craig and Andy. James and myself managed to scratch our way a little closer to goal with James landing 1km short and 2km for myself. So overall not the best day for the team with our team ranking sliding to 10th, we are all looking forward to improving on this.

Day 6.2

Very light conditions meant you could take off from any of the launches although the east was probably the best choice.

60km around Manilla, STARTG, TARPOLY, CHICKSTH, NAMOIPK, MANILLAE (caravan park goal)

35ish in goal but no aussies , James was closest (2km I think) 2000m base, slow climbs - results will be up soon

Day 6.1

blue sky, light wind, lots of water on the ground - 12:00 on the hill

Day 5

There's rain and then there is rain (2mb)

Day 5, still stormy - day cancelled at 12:30