Tag Archives: bogong

Competitions, Hanggliding

Bogong Cup 2009, day 5 and 6

Yesterday looked like a very good day, no winds and good thermals. We went to Mt. Buffalo and set up among the rocks there. The takeoff is a ramp off a cliff with nothing under it for a 1000 meters. Spectacular! I was number 3 to take off, as we have reversed the top 1/3 for the takeoff order. I did not think about the steep cliff launch until i looked back after I had launched and saw the vertical dropoff.

The task was 140 something via a new turnpoint on top of Feathertop(?) mountain, back to the top of Mt. Porepunkah at Bright, over to the Kiewa valley north end, and back to Mt. Beauty.

The air was rough again, and it was hard work in the start gaggle waiting for the start gate to open. The day was totally blue, with strong turbulent lift at times, handling the big RS4 was not easy. The air was just as turbulent when gliding as thermalling. Going with the gaggle would be the strategy for racing. I had a good run towards the first TP flying with the lead gaggle, but as I glided in towards the TP in sink we spread out, I was on top and went to the right and found the sink, bigtime. I was flushed off the ridge in 5-6m/s sink, and had to struggle for a long time to get back up high. The TP was at 1700 meters, and the inversion started at 1600, so it took 3 tried before I could get in there and get the TP.

I glided off back to Bright with 2 other gliders, the lead gaggle was long gone by then and nowhere to be seen. We struggled low at Bright and had to take some crappy lift to get back up over the mountain. The 2 other gliders landed at Bright, and I suddenly felt very alone in the air. Gliding back to the last TP in the Kiewa valley I finally spotted some other gliders, but they were low and struggling, I made the mistake of doing some turns over them instead of going straight for the TP that was 3 km upwind, from where I could have glided back to the small gaggle. I lost 200m there, and took the TP very low and started slowly drifting back towards goal stopping in every solid feeling lift. But the day was shutting down and I was low in the middle of the valley, so after 15 km I had to land, 20km out from Goal. Just one more thermal would have brought be in, and into the top 10 overall. But hindsight is easy…

Today we went to Mystic, in hope that the forecast strong northerly would not be too strong. We waited on the hill for a while, as the gusts got stronger it became clear that it was not very good. The day was canceled at 14:30, and we went to a nice spot in the river north of the Porepunkah airstrip.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Bogong Cup 2009, day 4

Finally some flying! The winds were really strong during the night, but calmed down and was quite light in  the morning. We drove up to Mustic at Bright, and set up in the dustbowl there. (Some lucky bastards got to set up on the carpet :-))

We got a 120 something task, back to Mt. Beauty airstrip via 3 TP. The air was rough at takeoff and I was dead tired before the start gate. Taking the first start gate I got stuck low on a ridge just after the start circle, and lost a lot of time, but I was lucky to not land there. I watched Olav and Robert Reisinger land under me, just as thought I was doomed too I found a nice core and got back up again together with Gerolf and Lucas. It was headwind and difficult to the TP, the inversion stopped us at 1400 meters, and it felt like the 20 km to the TP took forever. From the first TP it was OK and I stayed high until the last TP where we had to cross the valley and came back low on the ridge.

Working up from there with Davis Straub and a few other pilots I had a OK run, and as usual found all the best lift while on final glide. 11. place, not too bad, and I’m happy to not have landed at the start.

Today we go to Mt. Buffalo, looks like a good day again.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Bogong Cup 2009, day 2 and 3

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Day 2 and 3 have been cancelled. We drove up to Emu both days, and set up, only to have the task cancelled due to non taskable conditions on day 2m and too much wind today. Fairly cold at takeoff today, had to wear pants for the first time since I came here. It heated up nicely during the day, and we could spend the afternoon at the river with some cold drinks.

The weather people are optimistic about the next few days, we can only hope.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Bogong Cup 2009, day 1

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High winds, not taskable, day 1 is cancelled. I somehow feel like I’ve been through this before. Can’t complain too much though, it’s sunny and warm, the river is cool, and it’s comfortable wearing sandals and shorts…

About 45 pilots have registered, many from Forbes, but also a few that did not fly at Forbes. Forecast for tomorrow is also iffy, but Friday should be very good again. It’s a total fire ban today, that means the road up to Mystic is closed.

Olav went walking to Mt Bogong, he brought 9 liters of water and should be OK. I’ll spend the day working on my laptop, and maybe a swim in the river again to cool off. We’re sharing a house with the Austrian team now, it’s the same house I stayed in many years ago when I was sick the whole comp here. Not too good memories from that stay, should be better this time. The Austrians wanted to go flying sailplanes today.

Competitions, Hanggliding

Last day at Forbes

The last day looked nice from the morning, but the forecast for thunderstorms soon proved to be correct. We were all set up under a great sky, and had a 146km task to the SE. I took the first start gate among most of the other pilots, and flew fairly fast down the course line under building clouds. I pushed hard, and got a little bit low halfway, but soon got up again. By then a Cu-Nimbus behind us had started dropping a lot of rain, and some lightning. There was another cell to the NW, but we could always run away from these. The problem was another huge cloud dumping rain in the area before goal.

The task was stopped soon after, just as I topped out at cloudbase, and I glided to a sailplane strip with some of the other pilots. We got caught by the rain, and had to hide under some sailplane trailers.

Blay Olmos won the comp with just 3 points on Johnny. The next day Olav and I drove to Mt. Beauty for the Bogong cup, it was a long drive, but it’s nice and green here, and a bit cooler at night.