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by Gary Bennett
"Go, Go , Go" Dave was airborne and ascending rapidly behind the accelerating pay-out winch and then just as suddenly "weak link break" and Dave was turning the hang glider and setting up to land in the strong gusty wind , touching down on the strip ready for another tow.
David Longman , Peter Leach and myself had arrived in Wylkatchem and set-up on the north /south tow strip under a sky filled with impressive cumulus clouds. If we could hold our own against the strong winds it just might be a big distance day.
Dave lined up for tow number 2 and was soon at 600ft and going strong (It's disgusting the way he skies out in a sheeps fart and I've heard whispers that a couple of the guys are thinking of fitting him up for some lead boots).
At around 800ft Dave released and quickly centred himself in the thermal. Pete and myself watched as within the space of 3 turns Dave disappeared NW over the back of Wyalkatchem still cranking and banking to the max.
Seeing Dave doing so well galvanised me into action and I launched as soon as Pete could connect up the tow line. I climbed steadily to 600ft where I hit the thermal , released in a flash and spun it up, getting a good look at the cricket match on the town oval before I was carried onward with the lift.
A call to Dave placed him coming up fast on Ejanding and he was starting to sound tired. I was hoping he could hang in there, that I could catch him up. But he had landed from exhaustion at Manmanning with a personal best 50 km by the time I reached Moonijin.
I was soon passing Manmanning East and the lift was really pumping , getting me to cloud base (7500ft) in double quick time. I got the call from Pete that he was on the road and heading out for the pickup, and after giving my heading , got back to the flying.
Another 30 minutes and I could see a heap of salt lakes down-wind . From 7500ft I should have been able to see the next towns downwind but the sun on the salt lakes was creating some wicked glare so I headed from where I later learned was East- Ballidu towards Kalannie.
I could see Kalannie as clear as a bell and I was where I thought I was as I had driven and flown the area many times when the "Dally club" actually operated out of Dalwallinu. (Which was comforting as I have not been where I thought I was on a number of occasions and it's not only embarrassing but inconvenient to wait 4-6 hrs for a retrieve).
As I started this leg into a strong cross-wind I made sure to cut back to the south on every glide and if it wasn't for the strong lift I couldn't have done it. I lined up about 3 large areas of granite outcroppings and trees which I thought should be working well by this late in the afternoon.(4pm).
As soon as I was over the first outcrop "BAM" the glider nose pitched up and it was all I could do to pull the nose down to turn into the thermal. Pete called me up on the 2-way and said he had Dave and was heading towards Ballidu. When I gave my position he couldn't understand what I was saying until I realised I was shouting into the microphone as I hung on to the glider in grim determination.
When I said that I was about 20kms from Kalannie Pete said "don't you mean Kondut". I did a double-take on my position and said "no Kalannie" and he told me I couldn't have got that far already.(I had taken off at 3pm), I replied that I was certain that I knew where I was.
I was getting closer to Kalannie after getting great thermals off every granite outcropping and just kept cranking the glider until suddenly I would start to get real cold and it would go all misty, then pull the bar in and go for the next one.
I told Pete where I was and he said I must have done close to 100kms. I thought, I'm going to make sure I do the 100 and not fall short. So I turned down-wind along rabbit proof fence rd and did a twenty +km glide from 2500 ft to land with over 1500ft still, at the east end of Goatcher rd. About 5km from my first tow paddock, Jones'ies place.
I was real tired by now and just wanted to get my pick-up so I ignored another thermal, I couldn't see a paddock down-wind without a wheat crop. So I bled off the height for a vertical landing.
I checked my watch on the downtube,17.15 wow! definitely the fastest flight I've ever had and my new P.B. 120km. I then thought how far could I have got if we launched at 12 noon and I could've hung on 'til 6pm
The following day was again a great flying day with myself 15km short of Wongan Hills and Pete Leach doing a 100km flight past Kondut. But that's another story.
It had truly been a big weekend.