Two new personal bests with the Mentor 3

My new wing.  Swedes will love the colors.

February 25, 2013

It didn’t necessarily seem like it was going to be a great day in the morning when I checked the weather, but it turned out that way.  Lots of instability in the atmosphere and a chance of overdeveloping early.  But sometimes these days turn out to be great.  Lots of lift everywhere as long as it doesn’t get out of control.

I look at the forecast but then once I am up in the air confirm, or re-plan my route.  Winds were forecast east and, in fact, they were.  As I climbed over launch I drifted towards Clearspot which is the next thermal trigger west of Mystic launch.  I made it to Clearspot with plenty of altitude and then I just kept heading west along the fingers that come out from the mountain range.  Soon I was over Porepunkah airport and then the next ridge line and the next until I was abeam Myrtleford.  At Myrtleford the Valley opens up and the risk of gust fronts and strong winds is reduced from any rain showers that might develop. 

Out of the valley the winds switched and I was traveling west and southwest most of the time with a slight headwind.  I took a southern route over some of the lower mountains at the edge of the plains generally staying between 1300 to 2000 meters.  There were rain showers in the mountains some distance away that I kept my eye on.  As the afternoon progressed there we more but I was able to stay well away from them. 

There were some cumulus clouds that were building to the extent I didn’t want to get to close to them so I exited my thermals well below cloud base under the friendlier ones. I did take one climb to about 2600 meters.  I got an altitude warning on my FlyMaster unit telling me that I was approaching the floor of the Albury approach zone which is at 2591 meters (8500 feet).   Unfortunately with big ears and full speed bar I couldn’t stop the climb in time and was in their airspace for a minute or so before I could descend.   

I had to skirt both the Wangaratta and Benalla CTAFs and I thought I did.  But looking at my flight path it appears I encroached on that airspace as well by 500 to 1000 meters.  I have now reset my proximity warnings for both distance and altitude alerts for E class airspace to larger values to give me more time to react.  

My flight on the Aussie SPOT tracking web app

There is a really cool program you can upload your track log in IGC format and check for airspace violations in Australia.  It’s at http://xcaustralia.org/aircheck/aircheck.html .  The word is that CASA (FAA equivalent in Australia) checks flights on Leonardo.  Guess I’ll find out since I posted this one.

 Next year I’ll have a VHF radio with air band frequencies with me and be able to fly though CTAF’s.  CTAF’s are similar to airport traffic areas in the USA but in Australia they are larger and apply to uncontrolled fields that use what we would call Unicom frequencies in the U.S.  New rules for paragliders and hang gliders this year require we announce when enter CTAF’s and monitor the frequencies being used.  You also need an endorsement on your HGFA (Hang Gliding Federation of Australia) card to operate a VHF radio on the air band radio or have a pilot’s license.  Your U.S. license is good so I am covered on that one.  You just need to send a copy of your license to HGFA when you apply for a visiting pilot’s membership.

Back to the flight.  I just kept slogging along finding thermals at most every brown field or ridge line I expected.  I was happy when I hit 100 kilometers and now I was just pressing on trying to beat my previous 123 kilometer personal best.  As the day progressed into the late afternoon the thermals got smoother and the flight was a more pleasant. Finally I was just passing Violet Town and 123 kilometers but I was low.  I skipped across two brown fields providing just enough lift before finally landing 125 kilometers from launch.

I landed at 6:30 pm. It had been Six hours and 48 minutes since I launched at Mystic.  I had a new personal best for endurance as well as distance.  My previous long flight was just over 5 hours.  I unclipped quickly and you can guess what I did next.  After that I sent a SPOT safe landing message and started packing up the wing.  Mary Beth arrived before I was packed up.  We were soon on our way for the two hour drive back to Bright.  Leonardo link to flight

Landing field with rain showers in the distance

This was only the fourth flight on my new Nova Mentor 3. I love the wing. Custom colors. Great handling very much like its predecessor but improved glide performance and stability in accelerated flight.

We bought a tablet PC with a wireless internet to use for tracking. It’s a Nexis 7 and is working great. Thanks to Dave Wheeler and Geoff Wong there is a great web application for tracking.   If you are flyng on a particular day and have turned on your SPOT locator. (http://highcloud.net/spot/spotmap.html) it shows your position every 10 minutes on the map with coordinates. This web app is better than the SPOT web page for tracking. Mary Beth used that and just followed along my route and talked to me on the radio near the end of my flight. Works great.

It was a 5 margarita flight.  After chasing Brett Hardin on a similar flight a few years ago Mary Beth invoked the “Margarita rule”.  One Margarita for every 25k of distance on a retrieve.  Hard liquor is so expensive here she is going to have to wait until we get back in the states.  She did get an ice cream on the way back to Bright and we celebrated with a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio when we got back to Camp Crusty (otherwise known as the Backpackers Outdoor Inn).

One small drama on the return was the uncertainty of a gas station.  Most of the small towns out here in the country shut down at 5:00 pm.  We did not have enough gas to get back to Bright without refueling. We managed to find the one gas station in Benalla that was still open so we were good for fuel.  Crisis averted. On the motorway back to Bright we did find a service complex that was open.  They even had a McDonalds.  Dinner for us was a McDouble washed down with a latte.

It was a long day but a very rewarding one. 

This trip has been great aside from Mary Beth’s accident.  I have had new personal bests for distance twice and once for endurance.  Just over 70 hours of airtime logged in the last 9 weeks.