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!
