SAFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 7 May | June 2020 dated and were often up to 7m/sec and more under the bigger clouds which had bases over 3000m. Some streeting helped pilots make good time to the NE. Best distance and the first 200km flight of the XCC week was NE towards the Queensland border around Ashford. Many others flew along the classic route towards Bingara and Warialda which was slower. 1. Merlin, Airie, Aus, Flow Spectra, Comp 201 2. Müller, Jürgen, Ger, Chili 4, Sport 197 3. = O’Donnell, Brandon, Aus, Sigma 10, Sport 151 = Hukanovic, Arnan, Nor, Sigma 10, Sport 151 Day 6 – 30 January A very sad day for everyone at Mt Borah as Li Yun Po (Boby), a visiting pilot from Hong Kong had a fatal accident. At approximately 250m above take-off, while thermalling with others in easy conditions, his EN-C Sports Class glider had a collapse and cravatte which resulted in a spiral dive. The pilot did not seem to attempt any standard recovery actions and sadly also did not deploy his reserve despite plenty of height to do so. Thoughts are with his family, friends and team mates. A minute of silence at the next morning briefing was held as well as an analysis of the accident by event organiser Godfrey Wenness. On the flying side of the day, the trough still pro- vided tricky XC conditions early until mid-afternoon when winds became generally southerly. Many landed between 15 to 50km around Barraba as the climbs below 1500mwere light and not well defined with plenty of sink in between. As on previous days, above 1500m and under the almost 3000m cloud lines, pilots who got through the hard section were making great time heading north towards Bingara and beyond. One flew an alternate route east towards the main range and then followed the turning winds north landing in Guyra late in the day. Best for the day was 186km to the north of Warialda. Second place overall was Manilla local female pilot who flew a new PB of 169km on her Sports Class glider. 1. Snowden, Dave, Aus, Flow Spectra, Comp 186 2. Kaufman, Halina, Aus, Advance Iota 2, Sport 169 3. Müller, Jürgen, Ger, Skywalk Chili 4, Sport 166 Day 7 – 31 January The main wind forecast models showed com- pletely different directions for the day – east and west. The consensus was that it would end up being somewhere in between – light southerly from mid-afternoon. Conditions were similar to the previous day, although the clouds started popping earlier from 11am. Climbs were drifting with a westerly wind but above 1500m the southerly was noticeable. Pilots generally flew towards Bingara with some venturing left and right of the line in search of better clouds and to avoid blue holes. Once again the zone below 1500m was scratchy although there were some 7 to 8m/sec moon-shot climbs from low down to cloudbase at almost 3000m. The expected 10 to 15km/h northerly headwind appeared around Bingara late in the afternoon which had some pilots who got there fly cross-wind and others back towards Bingara. A few attempted 100km plus out and returns back to HQ and were successful with sunset landings after six hours in the air. One pilot on a Comp Class CCC glider pushed on to fly 167km, landing at Coolatai to win the day. 1. Merlin, Airie, Aus, Flow Spectra, Comp 167 2. Nagashima, Shinichi, Jpn, BGD Magic, Sport 135 3. Belmonte, Julian, Aus, Ozone M6, XC 133 Day 6: Flying high over Barraba with Andrew Bucknill Day 6: The cloud eagle appears over Mt Borah Day 7: Flying high near Bingara Straight off launch and into a thermal On final glide into the sunset after seven hours in the air