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| A beautiful fall day in New South Wales |
We drove straight through from Bright back to Manilla. Just over eleven hours of driving with a short stop at the McDonalds in Forbes for lunch. We pulled into Manilla around 8:00 pm after driving for an hour in darkness. That’s when I realized how bad the headlights on the Explorer were. Fortunately we had a car to follow most of the way.
When we pulled into the parking lot for the Royal Hotel Mary Beth could not find her purse. It turns out she had left it at the McDonalds in Forbes. Fortunately someone had turned it in and even more fortunately Cam and Heidi were coming through Forbes two days later and were able to pick it up for her.
On Tuesday I was able to fly but not able to gain enough altitude to try and go anywhere. Wednesday turned into a “day from Hell”. We had accumulated nearly 5000k on the Explorer so it was time for an oil change. I took the car to the local NRMA garage at 8:00 and walked the length of Manilla and back for the next 40 minutes waiting for the work to be completed. When I got back the mechanic said “I want to show you something”. Uh oh! They found what the believed were metal fragments from the timing chain clinging to the mag plug.
A call to Traveler’s Auto Barn followed. They proposed to exchange the Explorer for our original Holden Jackaroo. We were happy with that since we had found numerous small issues with the Explorer and the Jackaroo now had new cylinder heads and gaskets so we could expect lots of hopefully trouble free miles from it. The only catch was that we would have to drive the Explorer to Sydney to their garage and pick up the new car and we needed to do it before the four day Easter weekend started on Friday. Otherwise we would have to wait for Tuesday.
The weather forecast looked great for soaring so I was determined to get up the hill. Mick, the “basher” driver could not get the rig started and the only way up the mountain was with the Explorer. Mary Beth was nervous that the Explorer would blow up but I really wanted to fly and take the risk. We got up to launch around 11:00 only to find that I had left my flight deck with the GPS and vario back in the cabin. So back down the town we went.
After retrieving the flight deck we were soon back at Godfrey’s and started back up the mountain. I heard a “thwap twap twap” and pulled over just as we started up. Flat tire. We have insurance for road changes which Mary Beth had used once before. I decide to call them just in case I had a problem changing it myself. It turned out to be a good thing since I had some trouble to loosen two of the lug nuts even standing on the lug wrench. By the time road service arrived though the help of a passing car with a driver with greater mass or leg strength we managed to loosen the remaining nuts and I had the spare mounted and ready to tighten.
But by this time it was after 3:00 pm and too late to launch and get any distance and my frame of mind to concentrate on flying was definitely not there. We headed back to the cabin to get relax and get ready for the long drive coming on Thursday. Too bad, because there was at least one pilot who went 90k that day.
About the only positive thing that happened was that Cam and Heidi arrived with Mary Beth’s purse. Everything was in it. We had dinner with them and went to bed early.Thursday got up early and we were on the road for Sydney by 5:40. Traffic was easy until we got in the city. Just a combination of people leaving for the four day weekend made for a lot of stop and go in the city. Travelers Auto Barn had all the paperwork ready for us and we were soon on the road headed for Manilla. By around 8:00 pm Thursday evening we were back. Some 12 hours of driving and 907 kilometers.
Arriving back we spent our first night in the “three person” tent that we had bought for emergencies. All the cabins were taken for the holiday weekend so our “emergency tent” was the last resort. It worked out well. Just a little chilly for two of the four nights we used it. It also kept us dry when the heavens opened up and it rained Sunday night.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there was a fun comp going on. The “State of Origin” is a chance for the various clubs and states around Australia to show who is best. Some 180 pilots in teams with all skill levels competed for the combined total distance. Novice to advanced pilots competed. Novices got a 2x multiplier for each kilometer flown. Intermediate pilots got 2x and advanced pilots 1x.
I did not register but had the opportunity to fly in the gaggles. I flew but not well. I could get up from launch but when it came time to find the next thermal I was not so skilled or lucky. I got quite a few good pictures of the other gliders and a great picture of Heidi with the launch behind her in frame.
Monday the trees at River Gums were moving a lot so we spent the day taking the tent down, relaxing and moving our gear into the bungalow cabin. Tuesday the winds were strong as well so nobody flew.
Since then we have been flying but no epic days. Well at least no epic days for me. There was one 70k day but I only managed 21 that day.
Saturday it was overcast but there was enough wind to soar the west side of the mountain. I had fun flying with five or six other gliders and then flying through the saddle and gliding to land at Godfrey’s. I landed just as he was out with his fourteen new students teaching them to kite and practice forward launches.
Sunday there were lots of rain showers showing on radar around Manilla. We made a drove up to launch to check things out. A few pilots were soaring the west side when we arrived. There was a high overcast to broken layer with cumulus below. Not enough sun was getting through to make XC a possibility and here was some uncertainty on how big some of the cumulus were going behind launch. Looking southwest toward Lake Keepit I decided that maybe it was better to go check that out by car rather than fly.
Lake Keepit is about 30K from Manilla. It’s a nice lake for camping with boating and a place to swim. There’s also a glider base there. First thing I did when we arrived was take a picture looking back to Mt. Borah and launch. Lots of sunshine and what looked like a nice cloud street heading from Mt. Borah to the lake. Oh well, Mary Beth had a nice swim while I sat on the shore and watched. The water was just a little to cold for me.
Rain moved in on Monday. Tuesday it rained the whole day. We spent nearly the whole day in the cabin. Even surfing the internet and trying to plan the next few weeks of our trip didn’t help things. Tuesday was a dismal day.
Wednesday we woke up and the sun was shining and cumulus clouds all around. We drove up to launch after launch to check things out. There was so much moisture in the ground I wasn’t expecting much. Winds were favoring the west launch and knowing Mary Beth would not drive down to the bail out if I sunk out I waited for a couple of pilots to launch and see if they were going up or not. My wing was out and ready to go but after watching the first two pilots struggle and sink out I decided it wasn’t worth it. Waiting a little longer we headed back to the east launch. Winds were light and eventually some rain showers appeared across the valley so we drove down. It was a nice day on up on the mountain but no flying.Thursday the sky was filled with cumulus clouds and no rain in the forecast. We got to the north launch just before noon and got to watch Godfrey hucking his students off. I launched just after noon and easily found a thermal that took me up to 1500 meters and just over the back. I headed for the next cloud and missed it. I was soon struggling at 900 meters looking for a thermal coming off one of the fields just off the west launch. There were lots of thermals but they were weak and I held my own before finally finding something that got me up to 1200 meters. I pointed the glider downwind and headed for another brown field. I arrived too low to catch anything and was on the ground after an hour and five minutes with only 8.3 k in distance to show for my efforts.
Mary Beth retrieved me and we headed back up to launch for another try. I knew it would be late without much of a chance to go anywhere but I decided I needed the practice. I grabbed my gear and was getting my rear ready on launch when I noticed I had forgot my water. Walking back to the car I noticed that the left front tire had gone flat. Ugh. I changed the tire and we drove to NRMA dealer to see if it could be repaired. That’s flat number three thanks to the Mt. Borah roads. At least Mary Beth didn’t have to change it.
In the evening we hiked from River Gums to the Royal Pub for dinner. Mary Beth’s knee held out just fine. I drowned my frustration for the day with a bottle of Shiraz-Cabernet. One single digit XC and a flat tire.
Friday morning and $28 dollars later we had the tire plugged, balanced and back on the Jackaroo. The forecast for an epic day didn’t materialize. Too many clouds shading out everything. There was a nice west wind that made soaring the west side of the mountain possible. I had one flight with the wing mounted camera soaring the ridge and then shooting the gap to land at Godfrey’s and another flight soaring the west face again before sinking out in the bailout. It took some coaxing but Mary Beth drove the Jackaroo down to retrieve me and I drove it back to Godfrey’s.
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| Manuevering near the west bail out |
We packed up the Jackaroo in the evening and after one more dinner at the pub we were ready to head out early for Brisbane and points north the next morning.
More pictures at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100100812428273095003/EvenMoreManillaApril2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6p-7HEoNqRPQ#
