an adventure

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jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

an adventure

Post by jdevorak »

An adventure, sort of. I went flying today. My second flight. My second month in Australia. The wind was south east and Stanwell Park was working. Stanwell is a beach site. The coast line in Australia (at least the part I am familiar with) is many kilometers of cliffs punctuated by a few beaches. The beach is sand and maybe be a kilometer or two in length. It penetrates inland maybe a kilometer and there is a grassy park there with a public restroom, showers, picnic tables and a sandwich kiosk. After that there is a canyon with a road that climbs back up to the mesa. There is a beach community around the edges of the park. At Stanwell there is a finger of water they call the lagoon with a sand walkway out to the ocean that serves as a “runway� for landings and a foot path from the park to the beach. Luckily I walked over to the south edge of Bald Hill to take a look. I say luckily because the path was filled with water. I asked a local if they land in the park. No it is against the rules to land in the park. We had to land at the far end if the beach. There was another pond that also drained into the ocean at an obtuse angle. You had to come in low over the small trees to keep from over shooting. Look at the ripples on the pond to see the wind direction. Where the surface goes smooth, that’s where the rotor starts from the south end cliffs. And…keep an eye out for walkers they don’t look up. He finished his description by saying “it’s easy�. But, he had a disturbing twinkle in his eyes! I flew back and forth on the north cliffs for about a half hour. The fact that the cliffs drop straight down to the water kept it from getting boring. There was plenty of wind which made the lift good and the paragliders stay home. I remained anxious so I decided to get the landing over with. I went to the far end and had enough altitude to keep going for a little way. Again, I faced cliffs that went all the way down to the water. The wind was hitting those cliffs at a 70 degree angle and the lift wasn’t as good. I turned back. I met up with a tandem that was staging. He saw me and dove it in. I was grateful for the example. I did my last couple of turns over the pond and did a right-hand approach. I landed tippy toes just beyond the tandem and five meters to its right. It WAS easy.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
glideher
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:04 am
Location: los angeles
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Post by glideher »

good call mate, always be mindful its the best way to be :)
are Australians into hang gliding as much as the west is? im sure they ahve some beautiful flying zones, i would assume its a big hobby there as well
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