Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Beach flying

Today was blowing North again which makes it rough and average to fly from Tambo. After checking some weather observations it was decided on a trip to the beach. One of the biggest problems we have here is that we can never get a strong East wind. This is the direction we need to make it soarable on our dunes. You can see how our beach raps around to the north when you go south to Coolangatta. You will see the river mouth on bottom right which is where I was flying. We have been looking at different locations for a NE wind as this comes nearly everyday as sea breeze. We had found a few sites last week that looked like we could fly from in these conditions. We went to the first site and realised that it was actually North wind which was making it even harder to find a beach site. We kept driving south knowing the beach raps around and faces the north down near coolangatta. We arrived there but there were no sand dunes to soar so we kept driving around looking for something. We arrived at D' Bah just inside NSW border and saw the rock wall heading out into the ocean. This is the rockwall. No room for error flying this site. After a short walk out there it was decided to give it a shot. The wind was straight on but it was a little gusty which is never the best for dune gooning. We quickly set up my new Moyes Malibu that has been sitting never flown for the last 7 months in the Moyes factory. I hooked in and the boys walked me out holding me down so I did not blow away. I found a rock and jumped off the wall and spent the next 10 mins soaring. I was starting to get some height when the gust came through so I headed out along the wall. I got about half way out and turned around as it was quite intimidating. I got hit by a strong gust and had to pull in so much to avoid getting blown over the rock wall and into the river mouth that I lost all my height. Heading out into the wild blue ocean. I tried to get back to the beach but did not make it and ended up landing in the surf in knee high water. My parachute stayed dried and so did the glider so was quite lucky considering the adventure I went on. I had a few more flights from the beach where I would just walk right back to the rock wall lean forward and push out. I managed to get airborne a few times from this method which saved getting the glider back up the sharp rock wall. Here is a short video of the days flying. Sorry it is a bit boring as I cant load music to it on youtube..Click Here