Alice is planning to attend many competitions again this season. SHe has already flown at the Qld state competitions, where with two days to fly we were lying second. I then proceeded to have two terrible flights and we finished fifth.
In November, we will be attending the NSW state competition and the Narromine Cup, where we hope to have better weather than last year and have a real try at a 1000km flight.
After Christmas we will be going to Benalla, in Victoria, to fly in the club class nationals and then to Horsham for Horsham week and the Victorian State championship.
The season will end, as always, with the Qld Easter competition.
In associating with the North Queensland Soaring Centre, I am helping to organise a mid-winter gliding regatta in north Queensland, at Charters Towers.
Alice will of course be there.
Typically, weather in N Qld at this time of year gives cloud base up to 12,000ft with temperatures in the mid to high 20s! The North Queensland Soaring Centre is in the process of moving its operations inland to Charters Towers from its current coastal location at Ayr (just south of Townsville) to take advantage of these much better conditions inland.
North Queensland Soaring Centre is a winch only operation at present (they have two winches with a third possibly on the way), but we are hoping to have at least one tug in operation also.
The countryside in N Qld is somewhat challenging for XC, requiring a GPS with the known out landing sites loaded and disciplined flying by pilots to ensure they are never out of range of one of these sites.
This is a regatta, not a competition: a range of XC tasks will be available and pilots will choose a task appropriate to the weather, their glider and skill level. There will of course be winch conversion training occurring as well (in a long wing Kookaburra and Blanik).
If you are interested in coming north to enjoy "Christmas in July" in north Qld, please could you get in touch with me direct (do NOT reply to the list please), including details of the glider you want to bring. If you want to bring a glider that does NOT have a belly hook for winch launching, please could you make this clear in your reply.
Hope to see you there!
After a very lengthy sojurn in hospital, Alice will be taking to the air again on Saturday 5 Jun. Hooray!!! I will post pictures of her new gleaming self next week.
During an outlanding by my partner at the multiclass nationals at Gulgong, Alice executed a 'pirouette in paddock' and in so doing suffered fairly severe injuries. Fortunately, my partner suffered no injuries - other than (as he said) to his pride.
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Alice is now on the way to a full recovery - and full details are here.