Saturday, February 21, 2009

Snowboarding in Austria

Well after watching the snow fall for a couple of days and sitting inside the CIVL meeting rooms it was time to have som fun. Luckily the schedule allowed us to have a morning off so it was off to the near by ski slope 10 mins away. We hired all the gear and thanks to my sister,Kath and Lee I had all the warm clothes for the occasion that I never thought I was going to get. We set off up the Ski slopes all the way to the top since of course this is the best place to snowboard from when you have not done it. The snow was softer up there so it would not hurt as much when you fell down on your face. I had a few quick lessons from Rob on how to stop and off we went. Here is a short video below to show you how much fun we had on our morning off. I promise we are working hard...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Munich

Well after a 7 hr flight to Changi singapore I boarded another flight to Dubai. I was very lucky that I was on a brand new 777 300 series with only 40 people so the plane was empty. I got 4 seat to myself the whole way for the 15 hr journey. I landed in Dubai and had a quick look around and then was back on the plane again to Munich where it was snowing. I was actually lucky to make it as 60 planes were cancelled due to the heavy snow storms. They had only one runway open at a time for planes to land and takeoff from. I managed to catch the train to Corinna's House in Munich and find my way through the snow and ice covered streets to her house. It was - 10 outside and I was absoulutely freezing cold. I would like to thank everyone who gave me warm clothes for the journey as I needed all of them.. Here are some photos so far from the journey. Outside Corinna's flat this morning. There was a bit of snow as you can see..
Saturday, February 07, 2009

Jonny wins 9 in a row.. day 8

Well today was a short task with 2 turnpoints and goal 82kms away. 21 pilots made goal and even 2 floaters made it in so it was a great last day task. Spanish boy Franc won the day in 1 hr 36mins doing the 2:30pm start I was actually about 40 seconds faster but starting at 3pm. Here is todays video it is about 10 mins long, I hope you enjoyed the filming for the comp as I certainly did making them for you all... This will be my 9th win here in a row so I am very happy...:-)
Friday, February 06, 2009

Day 7

Day 6

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Manilla day 5

Well another great day with some storms expected a short task was called to Bingara 90kms. Here is a short video to show you how the day was..

Manilla day 4

ben was the only one to make goal..
Monday, February 02, 2009

Manilla day 3

Well today was looking good with a forecast over development later we set a shorter task out to the flatlands. Our Mongrel team decided to launch from a different spot than everyone else and it worked great for us. The day was kinda hard early and we did the first start which did not turn out well for us as the 2nd leg was hard when you got low and many pilots that started later caught us up or even beat us into goal. I have a made a video for you all to watch so I hope you like it and sorry for making it so long but there was stuff that needed to be in there. One of the Russian Pilots tumbled his Aeros today and I tried to film it but unfortunately I was a little to far away for My little Cannon SD 870. One thing that I did not know at the time was how he separated from his glider. After looking at his broken glider tonight I notice broken back wires, side wires and keel but the front wires were still attached. This would make it impossible for him to separate from the glider. The pilot said through broken english the glider was trying to kill me and cut the bridal so I threw the glider away. Apparently he managed to unhook the front wires the only thing holding him to the glider and pushed it away at about 800ft agl. I was amazed on how much slower he came down after he threw the glider away. He landed only about 20 metres from the glider very soflty and has no injuries. This shows that you can never stop thinking about what needs to be done even when you are in a situation like this.
Sunday, February 01, 2009

Manilla day 2

Today was looking slightly harder with a little bit more wind from the SE. We decided on a 128kms dogleg task taking us up the valley to Bingara then out to Gravesend. Below is a little video that I took of todays flight. I hope you enjoy it as this is my office for the week.. Blay was the only one to make goal today as the weather proved to be too difficult for the rest of us. Tomorrow should be better and should keep getting better as the week goes on.

Manilla day 1

The NSW State Tittles was shaping to be one of the best comps of the year. There is just over 50 pilots here and weather looks like it will turn on for the whole week. I set a task today of 107kms, an FAI triangle that will bring us back to launch. I took off first and climbed out while many others scratched up from low including Blay and Ant. Our whole team was up at cloudbase before most of anyone else had even taking off. Gabor and Ant did the first start at 2pm and were out front charging.Blay and I did the 3rd start at 2:30pm and were leading out from the gaggle. We both got to the trunpoint side by side and even caught up with Ant on his Sonic 165 was a Mongrel of a thermal there. Blay and I then split up and we both got a little low but I managed to get a 1000 fpm climb and got in front. I did a long glide toward the 2nd turnpoint and got low and circled in crap to stay in the air. I noticed Blay come over the top of me high and round the last turnpoint heading home. I followed from lower but he got a good climb 25kms out from goal and I arrived low and took sometime before getting the strong core. Once I topped out I headed for goal and arrived 6 mins after Blay coming 2nd for the day. It was a great day and many pilots made goal and Ant flying his sonic landed only 4 kms short from goal. He flew for 5 hrs and doubled his personal best flight and doing it in a triangle made for even more glory. For the Results CLICK HERE