HGFA Skysailor Magazine

18 SKY SAILOR March | April 2019 to Tingha near Inverell, with others around Bingara including many achieving PBs. 1 Ion Ghilescu (MLD) Advance Omega X-Alps1 XC118 2 Claus Vischer (GER) Swing Agera RS SPORT 112 3 Frederic Avenet (FRA) BGD Lynx SPORT 109 4 Teruyo Tamae (JPN) Niviuk Icepeak7 COMP 106 45 Mick Watson Advance Epsilon8 FUN 20 Day 7: 1 February The high cirrus didn’t move on as hoped, so a potential record day went begging. Aside from the 100% overshadowed sky, the day still had the right wind and instability for a nice XC towards Narrabri and beyond. Cumulus formed from early on at 2300m and base rose to 2800m later in the day. The moderate easterly wind brought moisture in from the coast and some convergence lines formed en-route which helped the XC speed despite slow climbs in the shadows all day long. Twelve pilots flew over 200km, and 26 over 100km in conditions most thought would not be possible to fly big XC. There were also numerous PBs. The best was 268km, landing after seven hours SW of Walgett. Some of the early launching pilots were in the air for nine hours! Best Female, Xiating Jones, was third overall with her PB of 253km on a Sport Class glider – an amazing flight! 1 Godfrey Wenness (AUS) Advance Omega XAlps2 XC 268 2 Gavin Morris (AUS) Advance Omega X-Alps1 XC265 3 Xiaoting Jones (CHN) Ozone, Rush 5 SPORT 253 7 Satoshi Tamae (JPN) Flow PGs XCRACER COMP 222 43 Sharm Khurana Gin Atlas FUN 40 Day 8: 2 February – New Manilla record: 407km (436km via 3 TPs) The much awaited record conditions arrived after the remarkably good shadow flying XCs of the previous days. Wind on launch was moderate E, as per previous day, but this time the sky was blue and the instability had clouds popping well before the morning briefing, getting everyone excited. The top record chasers were in the air before 10am, ridge soaring until the thermals started coming through. For most pilots launch was later, in blocking thermal lulls as the launch wind veered slightly more ENE. With generally E winds, pilots had to decide to take a NW or SW route, initially to avoid the Pilliga forest located 70/90km west of Mt Borah. Early climbs were light, drifting in the 20/30km/h wind up to the inversion at 1500m. By midday they broke through to find cloudbase at over 2500m. Text book clouds popped, quickly fed by some strong 4-5m/sec average climbs, soon filling the sky with fluffy cumulus to the horizon. With top glide speeds of 80/90km/h on speedbar, the race was on. The early record-chasing group headed WNW towards Narrabri, dropping some of the week’s top pilots on the way as they pushed too hard early. Those left then headed west as per the previous day, towards Walgett and beyond. Most of the pilots launching up to two hours later flew SW towards Coonabarabran on a faster line with some reaching 200km around the same time as the Narrabri group due to better tailwind direction. As the peak heating part of the day was reached, large thermals were triggered from the baking dry fields and huge dust devils were seen lifting the powder dry soil to, in some cases, well over 500m. The early launching pilots raced west to break the 400km mark. One pilot on a Sport Class glider flew a PB of 313km. By sunset, after over 10 hours flying, two pilots flew past 400km and one landed a few k’s further to establish a new site record of 407km. Both scored a PB and the first flights from Manilla over 400km. Twenty-one years ago the first paragliding flight in the world over 300km was achieved from Mt Borah and it now finally joined the rare group of hill launch sites which can boast 400km. Well done to Tudor Dorobantu and Airie Merlin for their epic achievement! 1 Tudor Dorobantu (ROM) UP Meru COMP 436 2 Airie Merlin (AUS) Flow XCRacer COMP 418 3 Shing Ho Pak (HKG) Gin Bonanza2 SPORT 313 Day 7 at launch Photo: Stehli Three gliders climbing to cloudbase Perfect sky on the 400km day