Saturday, December 31, 2011

Celebrating

Finished out the year doing what I love most.  Kathryn and I went for a little out and return to Bogan Gate. We sort of missed out on the return part, but it was ok - outlandings in Oz are always an adventure.  We launched early and chased Mitch as far as we could before he got away from us - plenty of 800 ups in the blue.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Pictures - December 30

Mojo

I got a chance to try out yet another new Moyes glider yesterday.  Gerolf has been working on another design for the past couple of months.  The Mojo is meant to be glider for those guys that don't want to fly a kingposted glider, but aren't so competitive that they need to be on a glider that doesn't have the easiest handling.  Personally, I don't understand why more guys don't fly the Litesport - I'm sure it's an ego thing (kingpost and all).  But with such lovely handling and nearly the performance of a Litespeed at most speeds, unless you're fighting for a place in the top 20, it's the perfect glider.

But, enough of my little rant - back to the Mojo ;-)  I got about two hours in it yesterday here in Forbes.  It seems to me that it is precisely what Gerolf intended.  If he hadn't told me before flying it what he had in mind for the designing, my first thought would have been that it's somewhere between my Litesport and Carl's RS.  What I love most about my glider is that it feels totally solid, it never scares me.  But, with that solid feeling, the handling has never been quite a light as Carl's RS.  Part of that, I'm sure, is the fact that I'm a tad small on the Litesport 4, but it always has required a bit more muscling that ever feel was necessary on the RS.   Anyway, the Mojo has the light feel of the RS, but with that same solid feeling as my Litesport.  And, it tows like a dream!....much easier than I'm used to.

I would love to be able to compare the Mojo to the sweet little RX3 I flew last week, but it's definitely an apples/oranges thing.  The Mojo is a bit bigger (more my size really) and it's impossible to compare ridge soaring at Stanwell Park to thermaling at Forbes.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Pictures - December 28

Arrived in Forbes!!

Made the six hour trek out to Forbes with Mitch and Polona day before yesterday.  We woke up yesterday morning to a typical, gorgeous sky....what's new, we're in Forbes ;-)

There are plenty of pilots out here already.  Warren Windsports is putting on an aerotow clinic, beginners clinic and an XC clinic, so there's heaps of flying going on and everyone is in a great, excited mood!  I love this part of the comp!!


Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas or Spring Break?....hard to tell!

Thanks so much to the Warren Wind Sports gang who had Kathryn and I over for a very out of the ordinary Christmas. No turkey and stuffing and relaxing by the fire....just BBQ prawns and salmon and playing at the pool!  Great fun!

Merry Christmas to everyone, including those special people in other parts of the world...you know who you are ;-)







Wednesday, December 21, 2011

RX3

I wonder how it is that daddy can be the devil himself, yet the kids are nothing short of angelic?

I got to be the first girl to test fly the Litespeed RX3 today.  I know that Jonny and Steve Moyes - boys with a few kilos on me - have flown it, but I was still concerned about being a little overweight on it.  Gerolf says the optimum pilot weight is 55-65 kilos and I'm pushing 70 these days.  So, I really worried that I would feel like a whale on it, especially since I've spent 5 years on a glider that is just a tad too big for me.  I couldn't believe how nice it felt, even with my fat ass driving it around the sky ;-).  Right from launch all I could think is that it felt so much like a Malibu - how is this possible?  Now, I'm the first to admit that I am rather Moyes biased, but I also tend to prefer the lower performing gliders.  So, I took off expecting something that was a little closer to the handling of my Litesport, at least.  I also know that this was just Stanwell Park - smooth, mellow conditions - but I so loved the way this glider feels.  Like the Malibu, the handling is incredibly light.  But, unlike Carl's RS (which also had incredibly light handling), it feels extremely solid.  I remember flying the RS in Cucco and being a bit skittish because there was so little bar pressure on it.  The RX3 has just enough to instill a bit of confidence, but not so much that you feel you're having to work at all.  I cruised around Stanwell at fast and slow speeds, high and low (ok, not really low at all ;-) and started to feel very envious of the pilots taking delivery of their's at Forbes next month.  Already I'm thinking I need to get home and work a little....just enough to pay for one of these new babies for myself.   

Here's the little RX3, with her big brother, the RX3.5.  Gerolf offered to let me fly the bigger one as well to have some comparison - and because it may be a little closer to my size.  But I really think the smaller one felt perfect for me, even being slightly tubby for it.  I nearly believe I could gain another 5 kilos and still love it.....not a good thought!



Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday Best

All the cool kids were out flying Hill 60 today.  The Warren Wind Sports gang was down doing tandems and fooling around.  Kathryn got her first flight since breaking her arm a couple of months back...great to see her in the air again getting ready for Forbes.



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Love me a Malibu

Up until the time I learned to hang glide, I used to dream of flying.  I would put my arms out and float above the yard and then over the house until I got so high I would start to get scared and come down again.  It was always effortless. Every time I get into a Malibu it feels just like this....as if there is no wing connected to me at all and I'm back in my dreams where flying is the most comfortable, natural thing in the world.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Coz there'll be starlight all night

A little Malibu duning this afternoon at Cronulla.  Fun, fun, fun and bright colored Malibu's everywhere you turn.




Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Room to make your big mistakes

I found my dream landing field yesterday.  Lake George is a nice little ridge soaring site just outside of Canberra where the sea breeze kicks in most every evening and the place has the most gigantic landing field in the history of the universe.  The lakebed is the landing field and apparently it's 10km x 40km of perfectly wide open, flat landable space.  If I was to do my usual and land right smack in the middle of the landing field, I would have a massive walk out!


Canberra Weekend

The weather hasn't exactly been ideal since I arrived in Sydney.  It hasn't been on at Stanwell or here at Cronulla, so Kathryn and I drove down to Canberra on Sunday for a change of scenery - the Canberra boys claim the weather is always nicer there.  So, we took a little hike out into the Namadgi National Park to find the aboriginal art on the rock walls.  If I was afraid of kangaroos, it would have been a scary hike!  They were everywhere, often times on all sides of us while we walked through the big open meadows.  




Saturday, December 10, 2011

Claim my name from the lost and found...

Perfect Sunday morning run with Kathryn today out at the national park just to our south.  Started out with a quick ferry ride that spits you out along the southern coastline.  With a bit more energy than we had, you could continue on the trail all the way to Stanwell Park.  We stuck with just about about a 12k round trip in the beautiful sunshine.  That sun was kind enough to stay with us until we made it back to the ferry station where we could see the dark, heavy clouds approaching.  By the time we were back across to Cronulla the sky was opening up and dumping huge drops of solid rain on us for the rest of the walk home.   We arrived a very soggy mess.  





Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Oh, it's enough to be on your way. It's enough to cover ground. It's enough to be moving on.

I discovered that my last post about quitting was taken a bit wrong by some.  It wasn't supposed to mean I was quitting the blog.  Of the things in my life I ought to quit, this blog is much too cathartic to stop doing anytime soon.  

But I guess it had been some time since that post, so it probably wasn't so much of a stretch to think that was what it meant.  The reality was that I was at home doing a lot of nothing and having a lot of nothing to say.  But now I'm heading off to Oz on my first real solo journey in some time.  I hope to do heaps of flying and with any luck, I'll stumble upon an accidental adventure or two.  We'll see.  Next stop Sydney!