Manilla, Good

Yesterday Mt Borah worked pretty well. Part of the Australian team is here training for the worlds - they set a practice task to Bingara, which is 90 km (55 miles), Craig Collings made the trip in 2 hours and 2 minutes, Viv Williams came in two minutes behind - a nice tail wind always helps.

Today was good too - it was light on the west launch and so we took our time setting up. Adie Kumar launched and within minutes the wind picked up beyond what a paraglider can launch in. A bunch of us were all dressed up with no where to go.

The NSW Titles hang gliding comp is running right now at Mt Borah, and watching them queue up and take off provided some good entertainment. A hang pilot had a problem with his hang strap and crashed just after take off, his glider is totalled - luckily he walked away.

About 3pm it backed off a bit, so we launched. The first climb was great, no inversion and straight up to 3000 meters. I got to fly with Heike, Viv, and Kari, and we headed towards the coast. I heard over the radio that they were going to try to fly to the town of Uralla. About 20 km out, the girls left me for dead, and I watched them cross into no man's land.

I didn't know where I was going, but I got back up, so I took a more down wind line. Just after 6pm, I flew into a convergence and watched cloud base form way below me off to the right, it was caused by a sea breeze kicking off all the warm evening air. A bit later I flew over the three lovely ladies folding up below. I landed 75 km out, about 10 km short of Uralla in a stiff head wind.

Craig Collings got away from launch in a lull (more like a hang glider type lull) earlier in the day and flew something like 90 km, then turned around and landed at Uralla.

The cu's were gorgeous today - it's good to be back in the air.

Stay Tuned