HGFA Skysailor Magazine

16 SKY SAILOR September | October 2018 accomplished by Bin, Han and Shou. Amazingly, we were flying again the next day, this time on the eastern side of the central mountains where they rise 3000ft from flat plains. Mr Cheng, owner of the Linzhou Paragliding Centre, gave us an enthusiastic welcome and helped us get flying quickly. On launch, the moisture laden air coming up from the south-east made for dodgy visibility and an uncertain cloudbase. We had to keep a close eye on each other and the mountains. This made for some spooky flying, especially since the full majestic scale and vast intricacy of the mountains was only slowly reveiled as we ventured out from launch. On the best day, while flying, the air started to dry out, with visibility and thermal strength increasing. We started topping out at 7500ft and glimpsed the brilliant white tops of cumulus billowing out from the murky top of the dissolving inversion. Linzhou turned on, and the fantastic potential for some spectacular mountain racing became clear. I would love to spend a season here to get to know the thermal patterns and explore deeper into the truly awesome ancient landscape. At Longfei’s airfield in Guyuan county, our introduction to China was a close and friendly experience with some very enthusiastic pilots and caring Chinese people. An experience in the XC capital of China that Jude and I will cherish. At Linzhou, we had a broader cultural experience. From being interviewed by a class of bright primary school students, to negotiating supermarkets, and the busy street life of a Chinese rural city right beside a spectacular flying site. Reflections on the final day’s flight by Harrison Rowntree I got dropped into a screamer and was beamed to cloudbase. I thought the day was going to be easy, but for the next hour, it was surprisingly difficult to stay in the air. A few pilots had retows before the thermals seemed to organise themselves and appear more consistently. Conveniently for me, that was with one second to last start gate, and Rohan Taylor was there with me. We hit 800 up to the 13 grand base right on the edge of the cylinder and took a great start. We raced off, and one unlucky glide split RT and I by about six minutes – a gap that remained all flight. Both of us found excellent glides and climbs as the converging winds came pushing through on course line. At one point, I was under a big cloud with a base of about 14000ft and smaller clouds forming under it. I finished the day about six minutes in front of RT with a time of about 1 hour 17 minutes, but it’s hard to tell without proper scoring. The goal paddock was littered with powerlines, so RT and I opted to fly back upwind (we purposely finished high) to a better landing field by the highway. I flew into a small dusty at about 10ft and just managed to pull off a decent landing, but broke my carbon basebar as I put the glider down! Rohan had the height and waited until it smoothed out, then joined me. Later, Brad Porter joined us while Steve managed to find a different paddock with no roads and lots of fences. Rob was a few kilometres short. RT and Brad hitchhiked into town and back to buy beers and snacks, and we all rode home very happy. Vicki Cain The pilots returned home at 8pm to our last night’s dinner of delicious dumplings, made by our host Lola, and a roast lamb on the spit! The presentation was fun and everyone was celebrating. We presented some special awards: Best Driver: Shoey – Moyes jacket kindly donated by Rob Rising Star: Ba be – Gold Moyes Shirt Best Newcomer: Hans Solo – Moyes jacket kindly donated by Rohan 3rd Place: Brad Porter 2nd Place: Rohan Taylor 1st Place: Harrison Rowntree When I announced Harrison in first place a chant broke out of, “Harrison, Harrison, Harrison…! ” His enthusiasm for everything flying and fun (fireworks) made Harrison a local star. What an amazing trip we’ve had, the boys flew six out of seven days, Longfei, Mr Han and Lola spoilt us with their generous hospitality and we all felt like one big family. In closing, we didn’t know what to expect from this trip, but we had an absolute ball and have high hopes this will be the start of bigger and better comps in the future. Harrison and Rohan in goal Harrison’s fireworks shenanigans 2018 Moyes Ch i na Inv i tat iona l