Archive for February, 2010

Manilla XC trip

Monday, February 1st, 2010

An impromptu trip to Manila by a few pilots has proven to be quite a blast. Saturday and Sunday were quite gusty on the hillside at launch and many pilots decided not to fly. For those on the ground there was great “entertainment” watching some of the visiting parapilots
battling the elements to launch!
For those who got off the ground, Saturday turned out to be an awesome day. Cloud base was not very high. few of us got over 6500ft. A few pilots who chose their track right travelled well over 200 klms.  The sky had some great cloud streets but blue
holes in between were large so the challenge was getting across  the
gaps.  Those that got  just a little higher  got across and found another climb on the other side. They managed about 250km for the day.

The air was very rough in parts but it was worth it for the distances covered.
Sunday looked like it would be rained out. It was heavily overcast with rain obvioulsy brewing. Again it turned out to be reasonable once we got away from Mount Borah. The cloud base was a low 5500ft. That made it tricky for first 30 k’s or so dodging scud showers with patchy lift.  This cut many flights short. Some pushed on and got over 100 klms. Those that reached Gunnedah found ample lift to carry on a bit further, but then the rain closed in.

Great weekend and location for experience.