Marshmellow Hill

Australians should rethink the names for their hang gliding sites.  Last weekend we had a great flight out at Brokenback in the Hunter Valley - it's just up the road from Crackneck.  Seriously?  Surely there are more appropriate names for flying sites.

But I'll forgive the choice of names since it's a super fun place to fly.  About a dozen guys (and gals) came out on Saturday, making it nearly competition like on launch.  The XC plan for most was to fly back to the coast (Dixon Park in Newcastle) just in time for the Newcastle flying club's annual Christmas party. Conditions were pretty darn nice and had I realized how close it was, I might have gone for it myself instead of volunteering to get the car with Kathryn.  Right off launch I got up pretty high and when saw the coastline I realized that it might have been pretty doable.  As it turns out, it wasn't - Glen, Adam Parer, Camo, Alby, Rory and several others got close, but not quite to the party.

Anyway, I preferred my landing field - at the Lindeman winery where I spent two hours wine tasting and crashing a lovely wedding (actually, I didn't crash it, the bride and groom invited me after seeing me land as they pulled up in their '67 Ford Mustang).

(How gorgeous is Lucy Blue, by the way ;-)