Blog

For all those flying at The Rex you can now check airspace here!

There is a live camera at four mile beach if you would like to check out the waves and hence the wind!

It is on the Coastal Watch website and here is the link.

You will also find the link on our links page!

The Rock

First legal Flight in 10 Years!

“Sunday 31/5/09. Hmmm, look out the window, trees are still limp. . . it’s sunny though! Well should get up and prep the car and wing. Give my flying bud Ben a call, he’s still keen, give Evan and Muddy a message. . . yep they’re keen as well.

Righto glider packed; check. Flying buddy coming; check. Ground crew coming; check. “Now, um where’s that wind. . . .?”

‘The Rock’ is as the name suggests a large boulder on the side of Saddle Mountain, which can be found if you flip those VTC maps around to the Townsville side. Saddle Mt is 20mins south of Townsville in the Cape Bowling Green/ Mt Storth National Park over looking the Clevdon causeway mud/salt flatlands.

Launch is a case of getting your glider up onto the Rock then hooking your harness in, hang check and jumping off. It’s a little bit of a step to get up there, necessitating at least 2 wiremen most of the time. Despite the extra manning requirement it’s not a hard launch once you’re actually on the Rock. Landing is most of the year pretty easy, as there is kilometre after kilometre of dry mud flats the whole 180 degrees in front of you which can be flown to with a 1:4 glide.

The winds needed are from ESE around to N any where from 0Kts (for those of you who know Ethel, he reckons he preferred just waiting for a thermal) up to about 20kts, but the perfect wind is about 15kts NE (more my preferred launch conditions). These winds can be found ANY time of year but are most prevalent from midway through winter to start of summer before the wet.

A LOT of work was put into this site about 15yrs ago by the Townsville Hang-Gliding Association (THGA). There was originally a 2500ft limit before the THGA got it raised to 3500ft. It’s a recognized HG site on the VTC. They used to have a wooden ramp to get up onto the rock which they had to take down but they filled in a large area with rocks and soil. Now it’s not really feasible to bring machinery in and there’s a large amount of fill so I’m assuming they did this by hand!

Now back to flying. . . about 10 the wind started picking up to 5-10kts SE as is usual for this time of year, Usually the Sun would bring on a strong sea breeze in the afternoon which swings the wind to NE 10-20kts. But some high level cloud was already taking the heat out of it. Any ways we were already packed so about 11:30 we all headed off. The LZ wasn’t showing much promise either, still very southerly probably 10kts SE. Getting up to the top and standing on the rock renewed our hopes though as it was blowing about 15kts seemingly more easterly. . . The mutual nod was given between Ben and I and glider setup commenced.

Ben was the first off the Rock with a good launch, and just like a movie the sun came out in full force just on takeoff. He slowly climbed away from launch (680ft) to about a grand filling me with confidence, so now my turn. Got my wing up there, hooked in and did an alright launch I thought . . . you can all critique it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk3N7Ynj0kc (see below).

I’m sure I’ll hear all about how dodgy it looks. It’s not as bad as it looks I don’t think, as I probably stuffed around a bit longer than I should have on the rock and went out a bit far and lost a little height. Having said that, I’d not flown the site since last year so I was playing it safe. After I came back in next to the hill I also climbed to about 800ft as it plateaued off for a while. Ben still at a bit over a grand decided to try for the skip back over the Telstra tower to the back ridge, about half way though he also decided to play it safe and came back just under my height. Well now about an hour into things the sun had left and we could feel the bumps and sink getting bigger as the wind tended more towards SE again, sure enough Ben was the first to touch down with me a couple of minutes later.

All in all we thought it was a good day especially for the first flight in 10+ years at the Rock, with a renewed permit from Queensland parks and wildlife. This renewed permit I must say wasn’t a walk in the park to get either. Bob and Trace must be given a lot of the credit for achieving! I would also like to thank anyone else who had a part in getting the Rock hang-gliding site opened again as like 15 years ago it took almost a year to get all the paper work through.

Thanks Guys!

And last but not least there’s one person that has been asked about a million times exactly how strong the wind needs to be and from what direction to safely get off the rock, Where the lift will be hiding and how to start heading south cross country, the wealth of experience that is Ethel. Cheers mate!

-Sean

I feel a roadtrip coming on….

Recently the Cairns Hang Gliding Club made a small donation to Steve Blenkinsop and the team who are at the moment in France about to compete in the Hang Gliding World Championships.

You can follow Steve’ BLOG here……….

Steve’s BLOG

Good luck Steve!

Eungella Chalet

On the Ramp

Brod ready to go and Bob in the air

John with his shiny new toy!

Laurie and James

John, Trace and Bob logging some Hang Waiting hours!

Here is the video………

Hang Gliding at Eungella, near Mackay QLD from Tracey on Vimeo.

At last Thursday’s meeting it was decided that the logo design competition should be extended as some people have expressed an interest to submit a design but have not had the time to do so.

Closing date is now 30th June 2009, so get those entries in!!

Hi all pilots

The spiral design which this logo is based on is based on the mathematical symbol of phi or the golden ratio. It can be found in many natural phenomena including the dive pattern of hunting falcons. It also represents new beginnings in New Zealand maori culture and for this logo also represents a rising thermal air current, which we all fly.

I thought we needed to sharpen, simplify and modernise our image to attract more people. I have included all three disciplines in the logo so that it belongs to everyone.

It will suit screen printing (t-shirt) or embroidery (cap) in different colours, however I think a white shirt with a blue design will the best due to our hot conditions. Blue is also the colour of the sky which adds more meaning to the design.

The logo would look best large on the back and a small scale insignia on one side of the breast on the front.

Maybe on the sleeve of the shirt or back of the cap the beautiful feather logo design could be incorprated, with simply the word “fly” next to it.

Great to see the website, and the blog is keeping me in the loop and I am looking forward to more flying adventures with you when I return in September.

Cheers
Will

PS I have kept a travel blog for the kids at school, so if you want to check out our adventures so far go to: http://sarahnwill.travellerspoint.com/

Kris and Kate from Brisbane have sent us an entry for the club logo competition. Kate has cleverly included the crocodile in her logo design.

Thanks Kris and Kate!

Kevin Gilligan of Updraught Microlights and Hang Gliders has just launched his new website.

Wow! It looks great with lots of Microlight and Hang gliding photos from around this beautiful region.

You can check it out at www.updraught.com.au

Recently Brod organised a weekend away for the Club to go to Cooktown and fly a site north of the town.

The weekend was well attended. Bob and Brett flew up in the trike from Atherton. Brod, John, Damien, Joe, Roger, Barney, Tracey, Wayne and Julie all drove to Cooktown. Everyone converged at the Cooktown airport on Saturday morning to pick up Brett and Bob.

From the airport it was a 3 hour drive via Hopevale township and out to the coast via a 4 wheel drive track.

Brett was the first to climb the steep hill above the wide sandy beach with his para-glider. He had a couple of short flights and then a longer flight of around an hour or so.

Everyone lugged their hang gliders up the hill looking for the best launch site.

Joe took off in his floater and managed a short zip down to the beach!

John decided to move further up the hill to take advantage of the steeper terrain funneling the wind better. He took off and managed to soar the ridge for about an hour or so.

Kev flew in from Port Douglas in to Cooktown his trike to say G’day. Tracey and Bob drove out to meet him at the airport that night. After a good feed at the RSL they stayed the night in town. Up early Sunday morning to catch the nice smooth air for the trip back to Atherton and Port Douglas. Both trikes did a pass over the boys camped on the beach to wake them up and then headed south for the 4 hour flight back!

Sunday saw Brett get in another good flight. The wind could have been a little stronger for the hang gliders with only 10-15KTS SE blowing in.

A good weekend had by all!

Below are a few photos from the weekend; Check out the video on vimeo.

The beach with Cooktown in the back ground.

Brett flies the ridge.

The beach and ridge from the air.

Joe sets up

Cooktown from the air and Tracey and Bob after the flight at Atherton.

Here is the video!

Cooktown Fly-in from Tracey on Vimeo.