HGFA Skysailor Magazine

36 SKY SAILOR July | August 2019 Continuing the long glide over a ridge, I scanned for landing spots ahead. The ridge where I needed to find a thermal to get to 150 was fast approaching. And then I was there. About five hours after leaving the hill, I had covered 150km! Immediately afterwards, beep, beep, beep, I was back at cloudbase! At almost 2500m (8000ft) ASL, it was the highest I’d been all day, but the ground had also climbed up to 1200m. Ahead, densely forested hills stretched farther than I could safely glide. Beyond the forest, the ground dropped away and connected with a hazy horizon in the distance. I realised I had reached the Great Dividing Range. The haze in the distance was the sea! Another cloud street tantalisingly pointed towards the sea. Normally I’d be ecstatic, but this time there was cause for concern. I couldn’t safely cross the hilly forest, but the strong tailwind was still pushing me towards it. I could risk a crossing, but if I missed a thermal, a tree landing was certain. Remembering that I wasn’t flying with my satellite tracker (I had anticipated a short local flight) cemented my decision to land. In a irony familiar to paragliders, it can sometime get really difficult to get down when you really want to. I turned into wind and with full speedbar on, the wind was still intent on blowing me back into the mountains. For a sparsely populate area, the terrain below had surprisingly large number of powerlines. As I got lower the turbulence worsened. Hanging out of the harness, one foot pushing the bar, big ears pulled in and expecting a collapse at any moment, I drifted sideways into a large clearing. Thankfully, the turbulence subsided as I slowly dropped below ridge height into a sheltered bowl. A downwind turn around a large gum followed by a smooth landing in a grassy paddock. I was safely back on the ground. Constantly studying the changing environment, making decisions and staying focused for hours at a time is mentally very tiring. The relief of landing safely after such a long day and emptying a bursting bladder is indescribable. As I stood in the beautiful paddock, awash with endorphins, I couldn’t be happier. My Maestro got a nice, neat pack after serving me so well during the day. You can really get attached to the piece of fabric overhead that keeps you alive. Thanks to live tracking on skylines.aero, my friends were able to follow me without requiring me to report my position constantly. Within an hour of landing, Jaevis and Rowan arrived in the retrieve car. When you’re waiting in pitch dark with only the sounds of frogs and crickets for company, friends pulling up in a car is a most welcome sight. We celebrated with street food and drinks in Armidale before continuing the long drive back to Manilla. It would be almost six hours in the car for Jaevis and Rowan by the time we’d get back to camp. A heartfelt thanks to both of these paranuts! On the long drive back I reflected on what an amazing day it had turned out to be despite the discouraging forecast. I got to experience cloud street flying for the first time along an unusual route, a spectacular low save and a day where everything seemed to work out in my favour. I couldn’t have asked for a better flying day! 26 April 2019 –166.08km by paraglider, 220km back by car Ecstatic to be on the ground with a new PB Chasing the ‘EpiC ThrillA in Manilla’