by Bomber

The clubs first 333 week was held the week beginning Friday night 12^th November 99 through till Sunday 21^st November 99 at Carter Farm south of Cunderdin. The idea of the week was to try and break the state open distance record of 297 Km. Whilst we didn’t break the record most pilots beat their personal bests in terms of flight duration and distance.

The pilots flying for the week were:

Phil "Flithy" Wainwright & Mark "Bomber" Thompson

Gordon "Flacho" Marshall & Jamie Oorshot (driver )

Sam "Chopper" Blight & Sid Lacey

Daryl "Daz" Speight & Phil "Frilly" Knight

Jamie Oorshot drove the first half of the week and in return gained his aerotow endorsement. Shaun Wallace drove the rest of the week. Without both these individuals the week could not have happened.

The day was light & scary - the wind was blowing at any strength, in any given direction, at any time. The result was downtubes two (Daz and I), nose in’s four and belly landings one.

The day started at 11.00 am with Flatch and Phil spending an hour over the paddock waiting for the day to start. By 12.00 the thermal strength had increased to four up and the top of the thermals was four thousand feet. Shortly after Daz, Sam and I launched to chase Phil and Flatch.

Before I continue it is worth noting that Flatch had forgotten his boots and was flying in thongs & shorts. Obviously a bad place to land would be in canola stubble - more on this later.

The thermals were a rough as sand paper and the glides allowed you the opportunity to see how well you could hang on to the base bar.

We were heading south from a blue area to a band of West/East cloud, which cast a significant ground shadow. The aim was to get past this cloud band to the cues beyond. Unfortunately the air mass was drifting in the same direction and nobody achieved it.

Phil and Flatch flew together to Quairading before Flatch bombed and Phil got back up from a low save. Flatch landed in a stubble canola paddock on his guts in shorts and thongs.

Sam, Daz and I were 30 km behind but doing well. Again at Quairading Sam got low and had to land - but on his feet. Daz and I split up when Daz got low on a glide and missed the thermal.

By this time thermals were going to 7,000 feet. Daz, Phil and I continued all landing within minutes of each other at 5.00pm. I landed first down wind and nosed in (110km), Phil landed next on his guts and was trapped behind his rear flying wires (115km), and Daz landed last and blew an upright (90km).

Phil was in the air for 5.5 hours which was a personnel best.

Jamie started his aero towing today. He had three tows, one lock out and got 1.5 hours above the paddock before 11.00 am.

The wind in the paddock was 5 kph from the SW. We launched at 1.30 pm. Sam, Phil, Flatch and I spent about 40 minutes over the paddock waiting for conditions to improve. Sam, Phil, Flatch and I left together.

We flew together until 30km north of Cunderdin then Flatch and Sam got separated from us. Sam and Flatch flew and land just south of Wylie (70km). Flatch once again landing on his guts. By the time Phil and I had got to Korelocking the drift had strengthed from the west and the clouds north looked scary. We decided to abandon the task and head West. Daz, who was at Yorkakine, also decided the same. Daz landed shortly after. Phil and I continued East with a final glide to Muckinbidden for 8,000 feet, landing at 5pm after 5 hours in the air.

Phil & Bomber - 140 km

Daz - 90 km

Flatch - 75 km

Sam - 70 km

We arose to rain this morning at 7.00 am. The weather looked crap but got better through the morning. Whilst Daz was fixing a bent heart bolt the rest of us sat round and engaged is an extremely philosophical conversation.

With a weather briefing we set out to the paddock. Sam elected not to fly today despite having discovered a blue piece of foam to assist in is flight confront. We launch at 12.30 pm with Flatch first followed by Phil, Daz, me then Jamie.

The sky was an interesting mix of blue and cue nim's. Base was at 5,000 feet with the top of the cloud being 30,000 feet. Flatch and Jamie bombed down the road and Phil landed north of Meckering. I flew most of the way to Meckering but decided I didn't like the look of the day and flew back to the paddock. Daz, with testicles like basket balls, flew through a scary sky to Goomalling.

Today the climb rate were crap, as long as it was going up we were circling in it. The day started off completely overcast with base at 2,300 feet. By 12 noon the cloud was starting to break up and the ceiling rise. By 12.30pm we were all on our way from a gaggle over the paddock. Flatch, Phil and Sam had a short flight making 15 and 10 km's. Phil knight landed just north of Meckering. Daz and I continued to circle in crap for about 3 hours. The best height was 5,000 feet and we landed 24 km short of goal. I beat Daz by a paddock.

Today was the best day of the week. We launched at 12 noon (but in hind sight could have been in the air at 10.30 am). Climbed were good 9 up going to 6,000 feet. Flatch got unlucky and landed 50 km's down the road. The drift at the start of the day was north and got stronger from the North/East during the day. I scared myself getting stuck in a cloud for 15 mins - popping out at 8,000 feet (way above cloud base). Daz and Phil drifted too far off the course line and headed for open distance. I got to with 15 km of goal, but on hearing Daz say he could make 200 km - I headed off down wind myself (stupid thing to do on reflection). Phil knight made the best decision and kept trucking to goal and made it. Sam made his best distance landing 40 km short of goal (125km). Phil Wainwright landed at Muckinbidden for the second time this week (142 km). Daz landed north of Muckinbidden (176 km). I made it to Bonnie Rock at 5.30pm at 6,000 feet and had to land as you cannot fly any further North/East (190km)

Today we were ground towing, Shaun "Yappa" Wallace (senior flight instructor) is our tow / retrieve driver, much to his annoyance. You couldn't ask for a better driver!!!. Daz had gone home, I didn't fly. Phil wainwright was the only person to leave the paddock and made it 36 km landing near Koorda. Sam towed but had a low weak link and a hay stack landing. Phil Knight towed. Flatch busted a tip batten, fixed it (thanks to the farmer dudes) and towed again. Sam towed again and had the best whip stall weak link I have seen in a long time, he landed and packed up.

Sam, Phil wainwright and myself gave up (sick of flying) and went home.

The day started totally overcast with a SE blowing at 10 knts, so we decided to drive to Bakewell some 1 1/2 hrs away from Wylie. I might remind pilots that to avoid driving great distances for nothing ring the farmer prior to your departure. Us, as advanced pilots wouldn't forget to do a simple thing like that, would we ?

As we drove to the hill the day was just getting better and better and the conversation was centred around "this could be the big day" - we finally arrived - the gate was locked – aaaaaaahhhhh.

After driving the 1 ½ hrs back to the paddock Flatch flew 108 km's leaving the paddock at 3.30 pm and landed just short of goal at 6.00pm . Phil Knight flew 37km and novice, Gary Spranaitus( now why would he have the nick name "sprained anus "?) ) flew 25 km's

The week was great with most pilots clocking up 20 plus hrs and flying personal best for distance and time in the air.

We are looking forward to a similar event next year - we might even get two dragon fly's a tugging.