Manilla XC Open, Day 7

Another day of great XC flying. Mt Borah isn't exactly a tall mountain, and the first low save of the day is usually your launch.

Getting up was was crazy hard today - there was some big sink right off launch. There was a glider below me that got drilled and had to land on the road up to the mountain. I flew a couple circles on my way to the North launch, then I started getting drilled and had to push out to the flats.

The wind mill is said to be the house thermal, and it saved me today. I climbed out solo. When it weakened, I ran over to the west side where I joined a better gaggle, and we eventually got to base.

The comp gliders are burning up the miles in the XC Open, they busted the 200 km mark a couple days ago, and get over 100 km regularly. They go far because they go fast - fast means ground speed, Kilometers per hour, simple as that.

I had a mellow 3 hour flight today, the lift was mostly really weak, but there were a few cores over 1000ft/min. I got to base a couple times and enjoyed the long lifty glides under the bigger clouds. I couldn't fly straight downwind because I have to hitch hike home, so I stuck to the main road to Bingara, and landed 64 km out.

Yesterday I posted that they do the XC Open scoring on Leonardo, apparently that was a baseless rumor. I don't think they are posting the scores anywhere on the net...

Lots of flying fun here at Mt Borah...

Stay Tuned