SAFA Skysailor Magazine

20 SKY SAILOR July | August 2020 Mt Bakewell At just over one hour’s drive from the Perth CBD, Mt Bakewell is one of the most accessible inland cross-country sites in Australia. It’s fairly often flyable between early spring and late autumn – although early afternoon flying there in the middle of summer can make you glad you’ve repacked your parachute. Our access agreements there are complicated, with two landowners and the local shire involved. Every year, we allocated funding for track main- tenance, appreciation gifts to landowners and individual projects. This financial year HGPAWA provided $3000 towards the construction of com- posting toilets on land at the middle launch, and plan to fund track works on an alternative track to allow 2WD access to the top and middle launches. Competition and pilot development So far this year, HGPAWA have allocated $2500 for the State Titles, $910 for an aerotow coaching week and $100 to cover costs of the parachute re-pack night. Site management HGPAWA holds site agreements with various authorities and landowners. In most cases, site management is delegated to local clubs, however, HGPAWA meets all the costs of site management, maintenance and leases. The flip side of this arrangement is that none of our managed sites require club membership to fly. Any financial SAFA member who holds the appropriate qualifications is welcome to fly any of our sites, provided they contact the local club first and abide by all the local rules. Whilst we like to welcome visitors to our lovely sites, those who abuse the privilege will find that our vengeance is terrible. Mt Bakewell from above Photo: Peter Kovesi Shelly Beach take off ramps Photo: Peter Kovesi A view of Shelly take-off Photo Simon: Shuttleworth Aerotow coaching week Photo: Peter Roberts Flying in WA