Oz Flight One

I've been in Oz over a week, during which time a virus has been busy using my DNA to spin copies of itself, but today I finally got in the air. Yesterday the sky was pure blue and delicious - big cotton candy marking the lift and a south wind to push pilots out towards the flats. I wasn't feeling up to flying, so I decided to torture myself by turning the radio on. I heard lots of psyched pilots calling climb rates to each other as they went XC. Even the virus inside of me wanted to fly...

Today the sky was very overcast, and I had to get out and try. Despite the high cloud, Cu was popping so I headed up the hill. The climbs were weak but one drifted a couple of us over the back and as we pushed through the inversion the climb sped up, maybe we could go somewhere today afterall.

Fred, Neil, Veronica and I headed over to Gold Mine. Fred spotted a cloud just starting to form and so we worked a core that drifted toward the cloud, other thermals joined up and the climb got strong - we were at base soon. We followed the spur toward Smoko and got to base under a bigger cloud, ran for the edge, then crossed near Harrietville to the foothills of Feathertop.

Base was to low to go to Feathertop, so we worked back up the East side of the valley but it wasn't working as well and landed near the Big Shed Cafe. Day one in Oz was sweet.

It is very green here compared to last year, it's a good thing. Stay tuned....