Manilla Feb. 16

Today the day was cancelled to respect the Chinese pilot that died a couple days ago…most people chose to take the day off from flying and do other things, but I wanted to still fly, so I went to Godfrey’s to catch the Borah Basher ride up to launch. Tom was flying a borrowed Omega 4 and Keith’s harness (his glider is still missing) and came up too for a flight.

Up on launch it was north winds, so we set up on the north launch. There weren’t as many people around which meant you could launch potato if you wanted and not piss other people off, which turned out to be good since after I set up the winds died, and the people out front were sinking out. So I waited until the cycles started up again and launched.

The sky wasn’t epic at first, there was lots of high cloud around. But I figured I’d get a nice flight in, maybe boat around over launch for a bit, and then fly to Manilla and land at the campground. But after being in the air for a while, I noticed the clouds were getting better (it was about 1pm, pretty late for a Manilla XC), so I took off to the SW.

First glide from launch in a new direction, and of course I got low right away. But I was able to save it and back to cloudbase (2400m) and continue on my way. Since this wasn’t an official comp day and we had given our retrieve driver the day off, I was without retrieve. So I opted to follow the main roads this time around, so I would have a better chance of getting a ride back. So my route was a bit circuitous and not a straight line.

Winds at first were NE, so I was flying SW. I passed Lake Keepit and the water level was very low, and then flew over the ultralight airport nearby. There was a UP glider ahead of me, but they were low and landed shortly thereafter. Other than that I had the sky to myself. After Lake Keepit I followed the Oakley highway to Gunnedah, and saw a confluence of highways. Which way to go? I considered turning around and heading back to Manilla, but behind me the sky was getting nasty looking, with rain cells, overcast skies, and generally not inviting. And to the W and E it was getting bad too. South it is then. So I followed the highway SE towards Curlewis. At this point the sky was definitely looking not nice, the lift was getting more generalized, and I was wondering if there were cu-nims embedded in the overcast and rain showers approaching. So I chose a rancher’s property that had lots of vehicles parked at it (better chance of somebody being home), and landed outside his house. Straight line distance was about 62 km from Mt. Borah, but with all the zigzagging I did, it was more like 80 km.

The rancher invited me inside and gave me a cold drink, and then said he was headed to Gunnedah. I told him I was going to Manilla and asked for a ride as far as Gunnedah, and when he asked what I was going to do after that and I said probably hitchhike, he said “Well we can’t be having any of that”, and promptly drove me all the way back to Manilla!

Tom flew and landed at the Rivergums campground, and Kari flew for a bit and then landed due to the buildup of storm cells in the vicinity. Will and Keith took the day off and lazed about, getting rested up for tomorrow’s flying.

It was nice to get a day of stress-free flying in, where I was able to basically do a tour of the area, at my own pace, stopping at towns, getting the lay of the land, learning where the roads go, etc. Good to get that done now rather than when the Worlds start!

Nicole