Round-1

So we begin the quest for the converted title of Queensland Champion of 2008.

The formation of a Low pressure system above us and the rain bought from the instability in the preceding days made forecasting and choosing the site for Round 1 a tricky task.

To allow people advance warning the site chosen to be least affected by the system was the Conondale Club.

Saturday was ruled out completely as all forecasts predicted a good day to shelter in the Lee of any large object, great looking sky with base around 2000m, just 20 knots too strong.

Sunday bought what we had all been hoping for, blue, sunny and warm.

Arriving in Kilcoy we were all glad to see familar faces after the slow winter months.

The day was showing signs of promise so we completed the registration & uploads before heading out to Mt Kilcoy and the ready and waiting Club Basher, upholding the tradition of Landcruiser Bashers.

 

 

It was the first visit for many to Prattens Launch as we soaked up the lovely vista of the valley spread out before us. A steep Launch with ample space to safely inflate and step off as you marvelled at the earth quickly disappearing beneath your feet.

 

 

After 2 trips up the hill with the basher and a few other adventurous 4 X 4 owners we were ready to start the day’s proceedings.

Lloyd, Carl & Graham as the locals with the finger on the pulse spent some time with myself on the Task. We all agreed given the wind direction and strength we had to make the over the back commitment. We were reluctant to commit to this unless we felt safe in the knowing of base being high enough to enable a safe crossing for all glider categories of the heavily forested plateau before the Conondale valley.

 

 

An inversion was giving us 2^nd thoughts until we saw the tell signs of a lovely Cu right above.

Game on.

The task set was over to the Conondale valley and hopefully cruise along in the valley flow.

34.5km via Conondale, Kenilworth and then Goal half way between Kenilworth & Brooloo.

With the local knowledge and important site details well covered by Club SSO, Graham Sutherland and other valuable input from Carl & Lloyd we set about focussing on the Task at hand.

Sasha was back and it was great to see he hadn’t lost the passion to be first off the hill, even after his permanent holiday at cloudbase in Europe.

The Wedge Tail Eagles even came out to welcome him home, 3 no less and Sasha shared the first big climb of the day, 1500m and all is well, seemed like the Task was looking a possibility.

A steady stream of pilots took off to negotiate their way out into the valley and then the bowl to the right of Launch acting as the funnel & trigger for the cycles of the day.

A Gaggle of 4 pilots, Gavin, Lindsay, Sasha & Carl all committed and headed over the big transition to the Conondale valley. Not a blip all the way to the deck Lindsay said.. It gave them a chance to check the glides of 4 different makes of Serial gliders at least.

Many more pilots went for it, whilst others were perfectly happy to enjoy a wonderful Spring afternoon soaring the sun exposed ridge with abundant lift releasing from the valley below and steady dynamic ridge lift to play with if you got too low.

 

 

Lloyd was victorious making it furthest around the course, closely followed by Graham.

Not quite goal but a satisfying spring day out none the less.

Mark Kropp graciously manned launch making the day flow without a hitch.

Special Thanks goes to Tex for the driving the Basher for the day enabling everyone access to the mountain.

A big Thank You to Carl for helping pull it together at the last minute and of course All the Conondale members who put in a great welcoming effort to get the ball rolling for the QLD Champ of 2008.

Photos