Monday 7 Jan 2008 4 hours 13 mins 375K 10,000 feet
This is the day I got the proverbial shits with the BSC task setting. I decided to part company with the conservative psychopaths, who I consider amongst my very best friends. I drew two tracks on my WAC chart:

• Bathurst task – Grenfell, Ardlethan and Temora; and
• Tim’s optimistic dream – Tullibigeal, Forbes and Temora.

By now I knew from arriving at the Temora swimming pool at 6.00am each morning that even the swans, ducks and geese took off from the pool early for a cross country flight and only returned after the last thermal of the day. They did not have to hear the depressive BSC forecast of thermal strength and thermal close time, but whipped around NSW and were back in the swimming pool before the aquatic runway closed.

Conservative psychopath eh?

On the climb off the launch, I reviewed the cloud map and the emerging visible tough line, and realised that Forbes was a much better choice than Tullibigeal. The emerging problem from the cloud map was that, if I flew to Tullibigeal which was in the blue, I might find out how many real fiends I have left. A miscalculation could make me belatedly realise that the number of friends I actually had in life for a car retrieve might be less than one. So Forbes was a friendlier option. 

I counted six hang gliders thermaling at Forbes up to 8,000 feet. So next I went off to Parkes. A thunderstorm over the Curumbenya Ranges East of Parkes depressed the cloud base by 1,000 feet, so I could only climb to 7,000 feet before rounding the turnpoint. Now I decided, all or nothing, dial in Cootamundra. The trough line was working, but with big gaps of Blue on the way into Cootamundra. I topped out at 10,000’ on the hills around Cootamundra, before a final glide to Temora 50K away. It would have been brighter not to rely on the final glide ex Cootamundra, but to fly up the trough line until abeam Temora and I would probably have come home faster

Tuesday 8 Jan 2008 5 hours 4 mins 375K 10,000 feet
Things can only get better. Bob Hall at briefing mentioned that the hills around Ootha would work better than the flood plains of Condobolin. Nobody wanted to go to Ootha – so that was the first intended turn point. Tomingley West was the second intended turn point. The hills around Cootamundra had worked well the previous day until late, so that was the third intended turn point.

The cloud map on climb out after launch was more Tullibigeal – Cootamundra looking. I had a slow run with the feminine thermals in the Blue to West Wyalong. The cloud at the edge of the trough line boomed. At Ootha I abandoned Tomingley West as a turn point, because the day and I were not fast enough. I gambled on a long flight across the Blue with a final glide into Cootamundra, but reconnected with lift on the hills at 4,400 feet and climbed back to 10,000 feet. I turned Coota and had a 50K final glide back to Temora. Coota is good turning point on a late in the day in January. Southern Cross could put you up for the night and relaunch you in the morning.  You could even possibly make new friends. Alternatively, some body from the Bathurst Club could drive the 50K and take you back next day for a launch.

A nice fluffy feminine cloud

Wednesday 9 Jan 2008 4 hours 30 mins 375K 10,000 feet
Just to re-mention how depressive BSC briefings had got:

• I rejected Ardlethan, West Wyalong, Temora; and
• Drew up The Rocks, Ungarie, and Cootamundra.

I ended up with Coolamon, Ungarie and Stockinbingal.

The Rock

I found on launch that there was a 12 knot northerly with 2 knots average lift in thermals, so I decided to turn Coolamon and not spend all the afternoon getting back from The Rock. But the word had got out that I had turned The Rock! On the Coolamon to Ungarie leg I dug myself into a hole for 20 to 30 minutes below 4,000 feet. The heat just sucks water out of your body. Tracey came through with the Nimbus from The Rock and marked the first boomer with an average of 9 knots, whilst I had been scrapping 2 to 3 knots below 4,000. Then I too started encountering more 8+ boomers, especially after West Wyalong enroute to Stockinbingal. This is when I made my transmission to Tracey that is the title of this article when I heard she was flying directly home to Temora in booming conditions. Basically from West Wyalong you are never more than 50K from Temora and turning Cootamundra adds approximately 100K to your flight. So I called her on the radio and enthused, “Foxtrot Foxtrot – Cootamundra is the same bearing as Temora – Go for it!”

I was a hero. The word had got around I had turned The Rock. When everyone realised that I had not gone round The Rock but turned at Coolamon, I was left to talk to myself for the rest of the evening. Tracey in the Nimbus had knocked off my dream flight of The Rocks, Ungarie, and Cootamundra. So the task was possible, if you had 21 metre wings, water and was a good pilot.

We went to the Westminster Hotel for dinner. David from the Shamrock next morning said to me “It is a shearer’s pub. What do you expect?”

Thursday 10 Jan 2008 4 hours 34 mins 425K 10,000 feet
After BSC’s only optimistic briefing of the whole holiday, I elected to attempt Young, Cowra, Tomingley West, Cootamundra and Temora. It is wonderful to attend a briefing meeting when hope of a good day was being aired. I dumped water soon after the third thermal would not let me climb. It was slow out to the trough line. The thermals were again feminine – they constantly needed re-entering. Thermal activity certainly improved after Cowra, but this was not going to be Big Thursday. Anyway not for Tim. I substituted Parkes for Tomingley West, because there was no substantial cloud map north of Parkes. I enjoyed long glides between thermals enroute to Cootamundra. Inter thermal speed greatly improved as the thermals were widely spaced. I gambled that on a final glide into Cootamundra I would be rewarded with a thermal before being forced to land. I was rewarded 25K short of Coota and was able to reclimb to10,000' in the broad evening thermals, before beginning a final glide for Temora.

Tracey landing after her 750k flight. The final leg of 184k was commenced at 6:20pm, dust storm had
just blown through and she landed at 8:15pm.

Friday 11 Jan 2008 4 hours 34 mins 425K 10,000 feet
If you cannot succeed first time, try, try and try again. I again attempted Young, Cowra, Tomingley West, Cootamundra and Temora and ended up with Young, Cowra, Cudal, Parkes, Forbes and Temora. I found Young slow going and the thermals did not like me with water aboard. I found that the day did not start until I connected with the cloud line at Cowra. I had hoped that the Harvey ranges would have been working for a fast run to Tomingley West and then back to Cootamundra. I had gambled and lost again. Bathurst and the high ground were working particularly well. I turned Cudal not for Tomingley West but for Parkes, because I could hear on the chatter channel that Graham Brown was also concluding Parkes was far north enough. Actually he turned Parkes before me and warned me not to fly into the Blue for Coota, but I deviated to Forbes where a cloud map marked the thermals. I appreciate his generosity for the information. It was a long glide home in the dying end of the day to Temora and derigged my glider.

Graham Brown is likely to win the AGM awards for the best flight out of Temora this year with his 500K flight. Unless that is Tracey joins the club and we backdate her starting date so that her Canadian 750K triangle record flight in the Nimbus counts and knocks Graham Brown off his pedestal.

Congratulations Tracey

Saturday 12 Jan 2008 25,000 feet
I left Temora about 8.30 a.m. with JO in the trailer behind the car and behind the Bolton bike on the bike rack. As I approached Bathurst from Blaney by road, the trough line was more west north west Wellington to East South East Oberon route over Pipers airfield. The conditions looked terrific.

Peter Hanneman flew XQK in from Temora to Pipers that afternoon. I was envious as I slowly rigged and put my glider in its hangar. Peter had the advantage – XQK has no trailer, but an aero engine. Peter is ex-president of our club. Ex RAF Red Arrows, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, British Midland Airways. He owns a Harvard, reportedly a share in a Super Constellation and has just acquired a jet Provost to add to his air force. I have grave fears that Peter has owned more jet aircraft than I have enjoyed mistresses. He even was honourably mentioned in Hansard of the House of Commons. He captained a mercy flight dash in a 707 from Manchester to urgently pick up a load of “tractor parts” in Poland to deliver to somewhere in Africa. But like me when he gets home after being away at Temora, he has to say “Yes, dear, what ever you like!”

Text messages
The very best of the holiday was sending my syndicate partner Armin Kruger the text message of the flight turn points just after landing. It was so rewarding seeing the mobile phone declaring, sending … sending. Ecstasy to see the word sent. All text messages were totally not appreciated. “We vill allocate all maintenance on der T hangar and der trailer. We vill inspect progress after der landing. Gootentag. Aufwiedersehen. Dumbkoff mit der text messages”.

Disclaimer
All persons in this article are quite fictitious – especially meteorologists and briefing officers. All place names are imaginary – even in the author’s mind. All translations into English are executed at the reader’s own risk. All photos accompanying the article were made in the photo lab. Even Peter Newcomb fails to exist. Any friends of Tim Galvin are quite imaginary.