Earning my turns

Mt. Borah from the LZ.  I guess
Hill Borah wouldn't sound as good.

The Weekend Warrior Series friendly competition in Manilla was plagued by rain and high winds. So much so that the only possible taskable day (Monday October 4th) was looking like it might be cancelled because the road up the hill had turned to mush. Since it looked like a good XC day, a small crew including myself decided to hike up in case the road stayed closed all day. Just a few minutes after we reached the top of the hill, and about an hour from starting, we were overtaken by the Manilla Basher, the non-organic transport of choice up and down the hill. Still, we had "earned our turns" by hiking and at least were rewarded by flyable conditions. The task was to fly over the back of the Mt. Borah  and about 25 km to the Boggabri Gap. Woo! Time for my first cross country flight from Manilla.

The Basher and the front of my Festiva

I launched into strong winds and straight into a crowded ridge soaring pattern mixed with ugly thermals. Getting away was tricky due to the density of pilots, so one had to just hope to gain enough height on your first 360 to clear the highway of ridge soaring people. After some frustrating and somewhat scary moments --- I even tried and failed to top land to get out of the pattern hoping to try again later after it thinned out --- I finally escaped. I lost my thermal way below cloud base, and the wind/compression over the hill was too strong to go back to the launch so I continued over the back of the mountain and happily blundered into some zeros. I circled in them gradually drifting with the wind toward goal.  With plenty of time to sight-see I soon realized there weren't any real roads back here --- just dirt tracks. I had interpreted someone saying "There are plenty of roads back there, with the tarmac'ed ones having more traffic, so aim for them" as meaning I'd have no problem getting back by hitchhiking. I wasn't so sure anymore. Well, I was too busy staying in the zero lift thermals to worry too much, and I figured I could always beg for a retrieve on radio. Back to floating in zeros and watching the clouds develop.

Not raining this direction yet!

Unfortunately, time was not on my side as rain cells formed to both the north and south and were heading across the course line. I probably could have kept going, but, as they say, I'd rather be on the ground wishing I were in the air than the other way around. I landed near the intersection of four dirt roads, called "Four Way" after a very last minute course adjustment to avoid landing in a paddock with what looked to be a lone (hiding!) bull in it. I caught a ride just before I thought I was going to get rained on.

You shall not pass!  Just cows on the
road.

Flying here in the almost flats is very different. It seems you can be 30 km away from a rain storm and not overly worried, whereas in a mountain/valley system the gusts from the storm can travel much farther, so much so that even storms you cannot see can get you.

The next day, conditions were much nicer, and I flew north with another pilot to Barraba (35km) in light but fun conditions. I decided to land just past Barraba, in part I wanted to see a new place and was a bit hungry, but mainly because the acro-monster inside me was itching for a throw-down instead of continuing on farther north in the super scratchy conditions. I burned 1200m practicing wingovers and asymmetric spirals (and now I can say that yes, as I suspected, this is a real fun wing to throw around) and landed near town. The town looked small from the sky, and, well, even smaller once I walked into it.  A local pointed me to the only open restaurant where I re-hydrated and re-glycemated.  I caught a ride back to Manilla with a friendly truck driver / ultralight pilot who had already picked up the pilot I had been flying with (and who made something near 65km)!

Returning from Mt. Borah after my flight to Barraba.
Note the slight sunburn despite SPF 30 sunscreen and wearing a hat all day.
I learned in discussion that Australia is the skin cancer capitol of the world.