Stanwell 20 flights: A BIG DAY
07/12/13 23:24 Filed in: Stanwell Tops | Coastal Soaring
- LAUNCH:……………Bald Hill: Stanwell Park
- LANDINGS:……..….20
- TOTAL FLIGHTS:....288
- TIME HOURS:………5.5 hours (see flights in read more)
- TOTAL TIME:…..….149.2 hours
- WIND:……………….6 - 9 kts……. SE to ENE
- WING:…………….…Airwave: Wave 2
- PHOTOS:………….
- GPS MAP:…………..see "read
This was probably my biggest day ever at Stanwell.
I arrived at 11am to check it out and it wasn't strong enough to stay up. I was going to go home but got chatting to Peter and Elliot and by 11:30 it was picking up.
Flights
1: was half an hour up to South of Hell Hole and top land East launch
2: 5 minutes
3: 5 minutes
4: 20 minutes to beach as wind died.
5: launched again about 1:20 and had an hour flight all the way to Burning Palms. crossed Hell Hole from 350m to 250m.
6: 5 minutes
7: 5 minutes
8: 10 minutes
9: 20 minutes
10: 5 minutes
From 11 to 19 were mostly short flights with 2 landings being touch (and kite for a while) and go.
The wind started to shift further North from ESE to East and the lift picked up so about 16 it was difficultt to land and a couple of times I had to do an extra pass. Also there was plenty of opportunity to do wing-overs without losing much height. It was necessary to change the approach to come in to the East Launch more directly and then hook around as you were over the landing rather than run from near the normal launch. Landing 19 was especially difficult and took a few goes and finally I came in until just before landing with "Big Ears".
20: I was keen to get to a round number of flights i.e. 20 so despite the wind now being quite fickle at launch and a few failed attempts I finally got airborne on my second forward launch attempt at about 5:40pm. There was heaps of lift and I went up to Hell Hole getting to 450m before crossing and going well North of Garrawarra and Burning Palms. I turned when I had dropped to 400m. There was no-one else up this Northern End. On the Way back I left the North of Hell Hole about 450m and was about 400 m when I was back above launch. I decided as it was so buoyant that I would head South and crossed the beach waving to Kate and Annette who were on the beach walking. I did not get much lift when I reached the other side but nevertheless I was barely sinking. I could see the faint orthographic cloud was rising but I couldn't get any lift and so I landed in an open area to the South of Coal Cliff Colliery next to a coal dump and walked down to the main road. It was a 55 minute flight. One difficulty was getting over the huge Colliery gate with my wing.
My total flying time was between 5 and 6 hours starting at 11:40 and finishing at 6:40 with only one lift back from the beach. Adding it in points of an hour it was at least 5 1/2 hour and time in harness would be over 6. I have recorded 5.5 hours.
Of further interest was Chia, another pilot who did 53 flights today.
Here are 2 shots of my landing spot at Coal Cliff Colliery looking West and then North:
I arrived at 11am to check it out and it wasn't strong enough to stay up. I was going to go home but got chatting to Peter and Elliot and by 11:30 it was picking up.
Flights
1: was half an hour up to South of Hell Hole and top land East launch
2: 5 minutes
3: 5 minutes
4: 20 minutes to beach as wind died.
5: launched again about 1:20 and had an hour flight all the way to Burning Palms. crossed Hell Hole from 350m to 250m.
6: 5 minutes
7: 5 minutes
8: 10 minutes
9: 20 minutes
10: 5 minutes
From 11 to 19 were mostly short flights with 2 landings being touch (and kite for a while) and go.
The wind started to shift further North from ESE to East and the lift picked up so about 16 it was difficultt to land and a couple of times I had to do an extra pass. Also there was plenty of opportunity to do wing-overs without losing much height. It was necessary to change the approach to come in to the East Launch more directly and then hook around as you were over the landing rather than run from near the normal launch. Landing 19 was especially difficult and took a few goes and finally I came in until just before landing with "Big Ears".
20: I was keen to get to a round number of flights i.e. 20 so despite the wind now being quite fickle at launch and a few failed attempts I finally got airborne on my second forward launch attempt at about 5:40pm. There was heaps of lift and I went up to Hell Hole getting to 450m before crossing and going well North of Garrawarra and Burning Palms. I turned when I had dropped to 400m. There was no-one else up this Northern End. On the Way back I left the North of Hell Hole about 450m and was about 400 m when I was back above launch. I decided as it was so buoyant that I would head South and crossed the beach waving to Kate and Annette who were on the beach walking. I did not get much lift when I reached the other side but nevertheless I was barely sinking. I could see the faint orthographic cloud was rising but I couldn't get any lift and so I landed in an open area to the South of Coal Cliff Colliery next to a coal dump and walked down to the main road. It was a 55 minute flight. One difficulty was getting over the huge Colliery gate with my wing.
My total flying time was between 5 and 6 hours starting at 11:40 and finishing at 6:40 with only one lift back from the beach. Adding it in points of an hour it was at least 5 1/2 hour and time in harness would be over 6. I have recorded 5.5 hours.
Of further interest was Chia, another pilot who did 53 flights today.
Here are 2 shots of my landing spot at Coal Cliff Colliery looking West and then North:
