First day was gray in the morning after a huge storm system with lots of rain had gone through the day before. It had not rained here for 6 months, and now it came with the pilots as usual… The first task was 157km straight to goal with a medium to strong tailwind. Total chaos at the tow paddoc, with no order even if we were supposed to launch in seeded order. I had a lot of stress trying to fix some instrument problems, and got at the end of the line even if I was ready long before others seeded after me. I got up withouth much drama, and took a late start time. As the GPS portion of my Compeo did not work I had no idea where to go, or where goal was, so I just had to follow some other pilots. All of those pilots landed before 100 km, so I had to follow the same line and just look for the goal fileld. I knew my backup GPS inside the harness was on and logging, so I would get scored if I could just find the goal.

I got lucky and saw a glimt of a glider turning low, and flew crosswind to find goal. All of the Norwegians made it in, with Jon first, then me, Nils and Olav. Dave Sieb won the day.

Today looked very god, and we got a 234km task via one TP. I was seeded in the top 30 after yesterday, and had to take the second launch for a Race task with the other top 30 pilots. Olav and me took the start together, and Jon was just behind us and much lower. He had to land soon after. I stayed in the gaggle, until around 150 km out, where I took a more westerly line towards some good looking cloudstreets. That did not work as well as I had hoped, and Olav who stayed on course got a better run to goal. The final glide was very tough as I was alone from 80 km out, and hit shitloads of sink from 40 km. I had to drift along in weak lift for a long time before getting back up to a 10/1 glide for safety to goal. Olav came in before me and Nils behind, don’t know the scores yet, Nils may have beaten us because of later start time. Around 50 pilots in goal, Robert Reisinger was first.

It’s the longest flight in km I ever did, and my back, shoulders and arms are now hurting seriously. It was quite turbulent air, and I’m not used to the glider yet so I use a lot of force to get it going where I want.

Unfortunately we might get a rest day tomorrow as we had a fatal accident again today. One pilot freefall from 2000 meters as his harness was somehow disconnected or broke free from the glider, and the parachute broke free from the harness on deployment from freefall. We do not know much more, both me and Olav saw it happen from the air as we were gliding from the start circle.

More info as we get it, it’s almost 02:00 here from the long drive home.

After spending a very nice vacation on the coast at the Moyes beach house Georgia and I returned to Sydney to start preparing for the competitions. We had planned to get a big car since we are 4 pilots and driver, and I had reserved a Landcruiser that would be the ideal hanggliding car with racks and roo-bar. Unfortunately the reservation did not work out, and I had to get on the net and find a new car to rent. It turned out to be difficult as all rental companies were empty for the bigger 4WD cars during the holidays. I finally got a Subaru Forester, and picked it up in Sydney.

Nils and Olav arrived on the morning of the 28. and we picked them up at the airport before heading to the factory to arrange gliders, roofracks, and all the stuff needed. We then drove up to Manilla, as we heard the weather was good up there. Michi and Gerolf had been doing some big triangles from Manilla, and Michi did a 300+ km triangle on the first day we were there.

The weather turned bad the next day, and we got the message there would be towing in Forbes, so we drove south again arriving in Forbes on the 30. We will spend the days and hopefully get some practice here before the comp start. It’s a lot of small things that need to be fixed and put in place before the flying, headsets and radios are always a hassle, new instrument pods need to be adjusted, and so on, so it was good to have some time in the morning. Here’s Nils Aage fixing up his headset.

Yesterday we got a few tows in the afternoon, it was overcast and calm – good conditions to testfly the gliders. The new-years eve party at the hotel was very nice and lasted until late, so none of us were keen to fly today.

Michi and Dave Sieb mucking around in the bar.

It was nice in the morning, but we got some overdevelopment and it was gusty at the airport. One dragonfly was turned upside down on landing in a gust, the pilot was OK but the plane needs some repairs…

Jon’s very green glider.

Olav, Jon and me got the new Litespeed RS4, while Nils Aage had shipped his old Litespeed S from Texas to Australia. There’s a lot of changes to the RS compared to the S. Most noticeable is the new sailcut and larger frame. My glider is a size 4, it have the same frame as the previous size 5. That gives more wingspan, and a leaner sailcut. The sail is smoke inlaid, and has a lot more double surface than before. My RS4 have a lot of carbon on it with both inner and outer leading edge tubes as carbon fibre, as well as the sprogs and most of the battens. I only got two test flights on it, but first impressions are very good. All the pilots I’ve talked to have been very positive about the new glider, looks like another winner. I’m really looking forward to flying this one.

Me on landing after the first flight.

Looking at the settings.

Olav landing.

I got a new Skyline Zero Drag Full Race harness just before I went to Australia. The harness feels very nice, with lots of nice details, and looks just right. Here’s me hanging around on the hotel veranda, I need to get smaller heels on my shoes as they are sticking up a little.

Weather is a bit unstable, it’s not been any rain here this year, but as soon as the hangglider pilots come into town it starts pouring down. Should be very good post-frontal conditions though. I hope we can get a good flight tomorrow.