Sunday, February 2, 2014

Two Peaks, Two Top Landings Three Launches One Pilot

I had looked at the weather a few days a go and today Sunday the 2nd of February looked like a very very promising day. XC Skies was say 4000m base plus with light winds.
The day didn't disapoint. After two tandems for a course one not going to plan with a bad scrape on my hand and back and a top to bottom all in the morning it was looking not so good. I was encouraged to go for another fly by Brian so to stop my back seizing up I went up and kept active.

I got up well above launch with not much of my gear organised! I borrowed a radio off Brian and my phone wasn't able to be placed on my instrument holder so I tucked it into my jacket and hoped it would work. So with no visual reference on ground speeds or altitudes i was gliding with only a Bluefly Vario and the ground as my reference.
I managed to get to Ebeneza with about 2200m and then crossed over to Mt. Feathertop finding a climb just short of the cabin we spent the night in last week and didn't take it all the way as I had a personal goal for a while to top land on Mt. FT I managed it by putting down just short of the top. I then walked up to the top set up again while I watched Brian skying out above me and got off with a nice cycle up the Western face. Climbed up and then decided not to go over to Hotham where the cloud were awesome and headed of towards Mt. Beauty. Good climbs on the way so Decided to venture of towards Mt Bogong directly over the ranges. I was rewarded with good climbs and high tops of around 3000m.

It's been an interesting with my decision making since I have got my light gear. I am prepared to land out in places with a light pack now so my landing options have grown from valleys to postage stamps on ridges, roads on slopes or clearings atop of mountains!
I managed to cross over watching Gliders gliding from what looked like ground level to the ridges towards Feathertop and Mt Bogong. I was rewarded with a nice climb short of Mt. Bogong up to above the mount. But I want to top land damn it!! So I decided to wind down to top land just to tick off another goal. I couldn't believe how much room was atop Mt. Bogong it's huge!!



I managed to get back off Bogong in stronger conditions but the Ozone LM 5 worked like a dream! Got a nice climb out towards Mt. Beauty and then glided over to Toowonga Gap range, got a low climb and then glided back to Bright with hardly a meter loss in height. Wound down from 3000m to land in the 42 degree heat in the Landing Zone



1 comment:

  1. Nice Flight Andrew! Thanks for posting, makes me want to grab a light setup.

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