Flying JW Home to Alexandra 23rd November

JW had been up in Omarama for three weeks, initially with the Aussies from Mt Beauty to fly for the week before Jerry's cross country course and then for some club members to taste a bit of Omarama flying. We were fortunate to have a hangar spot so it was just a matter of driving over and rolling the glider out to the grid. Wouldn't it be great to have the tow out gear than Southern Soaring has for MN? I borrowed it one day and it sure beats a long walk with the wing on a hot morning!
Over two weekends Jack, Jacques, Allen, Phil and I had some good thermal flying in the high country and got a taste of the excitement of the South Island Regionals. Jacques and I had a good look at the Dingle Burn and Ribbonwood strips but climbed away and did about 250km in thermals to about 7000'. Allen has a nice fly along the Benmores in morning thermals and Phil had a nice fly in thermals in the western mountains... Dingle, Barrier Range, Huxley, Geordie Hills, home.It was fun spotting John and KG in our thermal on the western slopes of Mt St Mary which was still carrying a bit of late spring snow.
Phil and I ventured down to Geordie Hills but elected to not fly back to Alex as there were showers about and we didn't fancy sitting in a paddock at Bendigo in the rain.
The mission was to get JW home with minimum fuss and expense so early the following Saturday Christine dropped me over to Pete's place, interrupted his housework, and we set off up to Omarama on a day which had a bit of promise.
Pete and I launched after the South Island Gliding Champs grid which was having its last day of racing. We climbed together on the Nursery Ridge before going our separate ways. JW and I got a good climb over Omarama saddle after a bit of scratching around, climbing to 9,000' in a convergence which was basically my ticket back to Alex. Poor Roland in his LS6 was on the strip below probably very disappointed after an encouraging start in the competition. A beautiful convergence set up down the Dunstans which took me to the north end of the Garvies abeam the gold mine before I turned around, landed in Alex and tucked JW back in its own bed with the assistance of Phil.
The Omarama expedition was a very successful one. We should do it again sometime.
Doug