Blogs from Corryong, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

On Friday 28th October we prepared to hit the road again after a very pleasant few days staying in Yass. Unusually, we couldn’t agree on where our next destination would be. I wanted to head for the town of Tumut from where I thought we could access the Kosciuszko National Park. Graham had studied the map a little more closely and felt that Tumut was in the wrong general direction. A better approach would be from the Victoria side of the mountain range, but that required a much longer journey today. Tumut was just 120 kilometers away but I had to concede that the contours on the map suggested that getting beyond Tumut and within a reasonable distance of the top of the mountains would be a bit of an ordeal, especially with the caravan. Even ... read more

I'll just give you a short update on day 5. We don't have results yet. Yesterday's Floater task went to Towong and then to Corryong airstrip, about 18 kilometres altogether. The Open class went to Greg Greg, Cudgewa, and goal was at Corryong airstrip as well (about 40 kilometres). Launch conditions were a lot better than the days before, but the air was still very rough. It took me a while to get up, and at 1,000 metres above launch I went on glide towards the turnpoint. I could not find any lift, although I flew along the ridge where I thought I could find something. I made the turnpoint, but still could not find any lift. So I had to land about 10 kilometres from goal. And I did a very nice landing this time. ... read more

I had already written that we had pretty strong conditions on Monday. The wind was very strong, and takeoffs were challenging. But everybody did very well. In the early afternoon, launch even had to be closed for one hour. The task for the Open class was a 71.8 km flight from Mount Elliot to Tooma, Cudgewa North and Colac Colac. Goal was in Corryong. As conditions were really difficult, only four pilots made it to goal. Shane Duncan won the day, Steven Crosby came second, followed by Don Gardner. Rohan Holtkamp, who flies a kingpost glider, flew for five hours before he finally made it to goal - with an average speed of 13 km/h. The Floater task was a 12.4 km flight from Mount Elliot to Khancoban airstrip. Two pilots, Greg Stroot (first) and Gregor ... read more