Johnblog

Thursday and it is soaring weather! I get out early to prepare the DG303 glider, hoping against hope that it might turn out to be a booming 500 kilometre day. My hopes are dashed. There are nice clouds about, there is lift, but it is a bit broken and goes up to only 6000 feet which makes long distance flying difficult.

Still, I have a good flight, about 140 kilometres in total up to Young, nearly to Greenthorpe, then back south via Harden to Cootamundra. The thermals are not good enough to let me keep going further. Still, a challenging and interesting three hours and 42 minute flight. One pilot doesn’t make it back and lands in a paddock. A couple of the guys head off with his glider trailer to de-rig his glider and drive back with it.

Dinner at the Family Hotel (pub), chicken an bacon with veggies. No Guinness so I have Toohey’s Old, a similar colour.

Friday promises to be better. I’m flying the Astir, so get it ready in plenty of time. The sky looks good with white clouds brewing in the blue. But it’s all show and not much go. I find a good thermal and climb to 6000 and head north. But the clouds are disappearing and the thermals are getting more broken up.

Don’t be fooled by that sky!

I manage to reach my planned turnpoint at Young airport and turn south again heading for Junee. But the skies are all blue and not glider-friendly. I hear radio calls as one glider runs out of lift and lands at Young airport. Another lands at a small strip near Jugiong. The tow plane later heads off to rescue them and bring them back to Cootamundra.

I’m getting a bit low near Wallendbeen and start looking for good landing paddocks. But my luck holds and I find a decent thermal that gives me enough height to head towards Coota. I get to Coota and try to press on to Junee, but there’s very little lift about, so I head in for a landing. Just a two hour 20 minute flight in challenging conditions. But fun, of course.

Dinner at the rissole. Fettucini carbonara and Toohey’s Old. Lots of stories about the day’s exciting adventures, some of them true!

A lovely sunny 28-degree day today in Cootamundra, but very windy – windy enough to blow your hat off! It is difficult to fly cross-country in strong winds when you intend to return to your takeoff point. You drift down wind very quickly when circling in thermals and it is difficult to track back into a strong headwind.

I had an enjoyable flight of three hours and fifteen minutes in the DG303, climbing up to 6000 feet. I tried to head towards the town of Harden, but the thermals were not strong enough to allow me to make headway, I had to keep stopping to top up the height!

However, it is all good training for my next gliding goal, a flight of 500 kilometres. To achieve that, I need a hot day with good thermals rising high – preferably to 12000 feet. The forecast for the rest of the week is not brilliant, but hope springs eternal . . .

Dinner was at the Cootamundra Country Club (It’s the golf club, really.) I had a tasty dish of pasta and a glass of Guinness.