Hyperactive Day

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Friday night: six a side soccer with the Turkeys.
Saturday morn: Park run, 8km in 36 and a bit minutes.
Saturday 11:30am: paragliding at Merewether. Not a good flight. More of a hopeful sleddy than anything else. It seemed fairly strong at home but at the beach it was almost still. The faintest puff coming up the slope. I figured I'd risk it and got the wing out.
First launch attempt was pitiful. There was barely enough breeze to keep the wing aloft.
Second time around was a little better and I actually got flying.
There were a couple of hangies having lessons and had landed down the slope so I headed for the east face.
Made a single pass along the face but was getting nowhere so I made one turn at the northern end of the cliff and headed for the beach.
Packed glider up on beach and walked up the bloody hill. Flight time about 7 minutes. The hill looked like a hangie graveyard as there just wasn't enough windy goodness to keep anyone flying.
Saturday afternoon 2:30: Wind seemed to pick up. So after a nap and a swim, I headed to Bar Beach. Parked car at top of car park and walked, yet again to the lookout along the Anzac Walk.
There seemed to be more sufficient wind now and a hangie was setting up. I jumped the fence and got setup as fast as was comfortably possible as there seemed to be a bunch of tandem customers getting ready to deploy.
Launched glider nicely. Punted around for a bit then the hangie launched. The breeze wasn't overly strong so I was staying just above launch height. While there was just 2 of us it wasn't a problem but before too long we had 2 solo paragliders, a hangie, 2 tandem paragliders with third getting ready to launch, plus another hangie on launch also.
The lift band was really tight and I was getting waked to buggery by the tandems. After about 30 minutes I headed for the park. Landed OK but came in a bit hot and fell over. Packed up and walked back to car in car park!

Flightlog October 2, 2015

The chances of getting 2 flights in one week were pretty slim. Uncle Gav the Weatherman predicted a hot weekend with northerly winds but today (Friday) was shaping up with a potentially strong southerly. So if it was going to be any day, it was today!
Seabreeze looked good at about 8:30am. I didn't want to miss this chance especially with the strong winds predicted for the afternoon.
I got to launch at Merewether by 9 to be met with a more onshore direction than is feasible for this site. My flight plan was quickly adjusted to take in a launch at Strezzie instead.
I parked my car in Bar Beach car park and walked with my glider up the Anzac Walk. Things looked good up on launch. I had a quick chat with Tony Barton and he opined that the strength seemed to be slightly abating. The strength according to Seabreeze was 12 kts but it seemed OK up on Strezzie. No-one else was there and it seemed all too good to be true so I unrolled my wing and clipped in.
I made a solid wall and popped the glider up. I was flying after a few steps. Launch time: 9:45am.
I punted about for about 30 minutes. The lift was good for the entire length of the ridge: from Monument up to the cliff below the fort at King Edward Park.
Lots of holiday makers walking along the Anzac Walk. It was a great opportunity to refamiliarise myself with the site and flying in general. My flight on Monday was good, but today was shaping up to be more of a chance to practice and explore the cliff line.
Tony Barton flew his tandem Fun for a few passes which interrupted my exclusive access to the place, then he test flew someone's paraglider for about 20 minutes. Cottsy and Waynus had shown up and were eyeing the conditions lustfully.
I was having a blast! Consistent wind, great direction (directly perpendicular to the ridge) and no-one around. I threw the glider over a couple of times and was generally having a ball.
I got low a few times after I was tooling around but a few passes along the ridge and I was well above launch once again. Another parapunter had launched by this time and Cottsy was getting ready to fly his Moyes. Soon all 3 of us were in the air but with the lift being so abundant it wasn't a problem. The punter flew over to Watt St after a time so it was just me and Cottsy.
I was getting pretty cocky by this stage: doing some 360s, wing overs, general tooling. I started doing some more aggressive wing overs near Monument. I was digging the alternate brakes really deep and the wing dropped below horizontal. My bowels gave a little shudder and then the outside third of my wing collapsed. I thought a heard someone scream from the walkway but it turned out to be me. I swung through, correcting the collapse on the way and all was good. Note to self: when doing wing overs, be mindful of the load on the outside wing. If it's coming through too fast, it will go a little floppy.
A few punters were launching from Watt St and Waynus was getting ready to launch from Strezzie. Tony Barton had a paying customer in the tandem and I had been flying for over 2 hours at this stage so I decided to land.
Headed for the park with heaps of height. Went nice and deep into the park and made a nice landing near the footpath.
All up I flew 2 and a half hours. Combined with Monday's adventure, I've covered 4 hours this week.
I think it's safe to say that I'm back!!

Flight Log September 28 2015

Second week of school holidays. Rained everyday last week. Had the first southerly in what seemed to be 9 years today, and it was sunny!
Westerlies have prevailed and contributed to my depression. Have had a few dreams about flying but they never end nicely.
Finally, Seabreeze looked the goods and Lisa and Liam were at Luna Park.

Went straight up to Merewether. No-one there but the direction was good as was the strength.

Rolled out wing and made ready for the first flight since April. Built a nice wall and glider kited up steadily. Applied slight pressure to the brakes to settle it down then turned an ran for the edge. Got away with only a slight dip past the lip of the launch. The paragliding and hangie boys have cleared away some of the errant shrubs and bushes that tended to snag one's butt as one cleared the launch zone. Headed straight for the East Cliff. Made a bunch of passes and got lift with each one. Headed over to the end of Hickson Street and flew over the houses. Saw a dog take a dump in the cliff top yard of one of the houses on the cliff edge. It's funny what you see from up here.

Had the place to myself for at least half an hour, then Pete from Avondale College showed up. We performed our pas des deuxes for about 15 minutes then 2 more blokes showed up an launched. I was having a great time throwing the Edel around but kept reminding myself that it is a bit of an antique at 12 years to be throwing it around too much.

Pete went and landed below launch. It turns out he was on the phone to his work and got too low to maintain suitable height so he landed. The 2 other guys were punting around by now so for another 50 minutes we just flew from East Cliff to the bowl at Hickson to the cliff at end of Hickson.

One of the guys had a crack at a top landing so I gathered my nerve and thought I'd give it a go myself. I got as much height as I could over the bowl then headed straight across to the launch. I passed over launch at about 15 to 20 metres, kept flying to the west of launch by about 20 metres then headed back into the lz. Came in nicely and pulled off a good top landing - saving myself the onerous task of walking up the hill.

Had a chat to Pete for 30 to 40 minutes about New Zealand and Bali. Great flight - an hour and a half's worth of air time in great spring time conditions. The weather is rumoured to turn shite again so it is good that I got the flight when I did.

Flight log 17/04/2015

Last Friday of school holidays. Last chance for any sort of flying for a few weeks as an east coast low is going to develop over the next few days. And soccer season starts tomorrow.
Weather has been unseasonably warm due to the northerly winds which has also ruined all chances of any form of aerial activity. Today, Friday, saw a light southerly gently blowing up the coast. I actually read Sea breeze wrong and was convinced it was a howling easterly at 20kts, which it wasn't. Not even close.
Went up to Merewether to see what was happening. A couple of blokes were there and one pilot had just landed down near the beach. It was very light and seemed to be quite south. No joy there so I figured I might as well fill in time by checking out Strezzie.
Cottsy and Waynus were packing up in Empire Park and another guy who thought I was Adrian. I don't know who Adrian is but he must be good looking.
Their assessment wasn't overly encouraging as they had barely managed to stay above launch although the air was smooth.
I drove the boys up to the hill to fetch their cars and I decided to check it out for myself. It seemed OK if a little on the light side still but I thought I could at least get my glider out and give it a flap on launch.
Two women were cuddling and kissing on top of the gun emplacement which was quite distracting so when I kited the wing up it folded over and got a bit tangled. I still was not convinced as to the flyability of the day but thought I'd give it another go at least. Try and impress the chicks in any case.
The breeze seemed to have picked up marginally so this time I thought I'd go for it. Wing came up nicely and seemed to have a bit of lift so I ran down hill. I scraped my butt on the bitou bush but that's happened before.
Made a few passes down to Monument and back and got to at least the top of the poles next to launch.
Not so bad I thought. I flew down to King Edward park and the fortifications but lost a lot of height on the way back.
Scratched again over Monument to regain lost height. Got a good look at the new ANZAC Walk- very nice construction.
More passing between launch and Monument. Lots of scratching practice. Made one last downwind beat to the fort and got really low. Below launch height low. Oops. More scratching. Got back to at least launch height and decided it was time to head home. Headed for the park but lost a lot of height over Bar Beach car park. Landed in northeast corner of the park and was applauded by a bunch of lads playing soccer. Text book landing, thank God on account of everyone watching.
Good flight overall. Good to get in the air and got to get some low strength practice in.
Flew for about 90min all up.

First Flight of 2015

Wind East so no joy at Merewether.
Went to Strezzie where a bunch of hangies were boating around. Seemed a bit strong so I went to Watt st.
A few paragliders were setting up so I helped a few launch as l had no intention of flying.
One bloke needed a lift to Strezzie sot offered him one. It turned out to be David Klein whose Mum is an old friend of Bruce and Barb's. She's incapacitated with dementia and he's riddled with cancer.
He launched fine so I got set up. Not as many hangies at this stage so launching was not as hectic. Got away nicely and pretty much had the place to myself. Flew about for an hour then landed at Empire Pk.
Wayne Collison drove me up to launch so I could retrieve my car. A great start to the new year !
This was after our return from the US so I think it was around the 20th of January.