HGFA Skysailor Magazine

10 SKY SAILOR March | April 2018 W ith the promise of magnificent spring weather, we came from far and wide: Perth, Bunbury, Lake Grace, Merredin and Kalgoorlie. The week of flying was hosted by the Albany Hang Gliding Club, and run by Simon Shuttleworth and Peter Roberts. The venue was Barracup farm, nestled at the foothills of the Stirling Ranges in the south-west of WA. Well… it wasn’t quite a full week of flying. We copped some pretty good rain and a bout of gale force winds that closed things down for a while and did some damage around the district. We used the down time well, doing theory, conducting our assessments, annual maintenance and inspections on the trikes, testing our weak-links and, of course, sitting by the fire with a beverage or two talking about flying. When the weather gods smiled, we took our opportunities and got some good flying in. For the new pilots, it was an early start to use the calm dawn conditions, rewarded by magnificent sunrises heralding the arrival of the trikes. As we got the hang of it, Simon and Peter gradually exposed us to more thermic conditions, higher wind strengths and tighter bank angles. It was really interesting to experience the onset of wind, mechanical turbulence, mixing, windshear and thermal activity, as we towed up and then glided down through the atmosphere as it awoke and organised itself for the day. I gained an appreciation of just how far mechanical turbulence propagates downwind from surface features. Nil wind landings gave me an opportunity to adjust my lazy coastal flying flare and ground run (after dusting the dirt and stubble off my harness from the first one). The aerotowing week was my 50th birthday present. I had spent the preceding month worried and apprehensive as to whether I would have the strength in my old shoulders and arms to fly faster than I was accustomed to. I was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) to find it was not so bad, and learnt two new bar positions I hadn’t tried before: bar at knees (when you go through a thermal) and bar at ankles (when you cut in on the line of your turn and tip- stall the tug). Some other highlights of the week included: ➲➲ Seeing the smile on Bevan and David’s faces after their first aerotow. ➲➲ Muz seeing the smile on my face after taking me for my first trike ride in Dory the XT tourer. ➲➲ Watching Rob nail a near perfect landing on his birthday in his newly acquired C4. ➲➲ Meeting David, Bevan, Rob, Simon, Muz, Ross, Richard and Peter who I only knew as names before that week. ➲➲ Finding windows of opportunity to fly when the forecast said you won’t. Barracup Aerotowing Week In September 2017, threeWest Australian pilots were introduced to the joys of aerotowing. They were joined by some of the older hands and a bunch of trike enthusiasts. by Tony Smith Below: Bevan Taylor and his Malibu David ready for more after his first aerotow, l-r: Bevan Taylor, Ross Smith, David Longman, Peter Roberts and Simon Shuttleworth Operations in full swing My Fun 2 190 and I