Monday, August 15, 2011

An Awesome day at Cott!

A couple of photos, a committed take off and the GoPro on helmet.

Today at lunchtime it was on at Cott and it stayed on most of the afternoon. All the faithful were in attendance. Some great performances and much fun had by (nearly) all.
I had another chance to try out my GoPro camera and got a better angle when mounted on my helmet and also on the wing.





I did a really quick and rough edit just to get something online in the small amount of time I had.

Here it is:





Monday, August 08, 2011

Cott!

Getting chased by happy dogs.....
Fog inside the camera lens....
Exhibit A - How not to position helmet camera!

I had to cancel my Aerobatic flights this morning as the weather was not suitable.
When I got home I noticed that it was due west at Rottnest. I threw the glider on the car and raced down to Cott. It was a perfect westerly, but blowing 14-22knots. A little gusty but possible in a fun.

I set up the fun and checked the wind again, 15-20knots, worth a fly!

I had a look at Rotto before I took off and it looked like it was easing a little.

What actually happened was that the first 20 minutes were good, a bit lumpy, but fun. Then the wind picked up to the low twenties, now it was interesting flying. Then it swung south and the gusts got close to 30knots. I got blown backwards down the ridge and basically pinned at the Northern end for a while, it was hard work just keeping the wings level. I hung in there, confident that any time I wanted I could pull in the bar and land on the beach. I was hoping it would lull for long enough for me to get to the other end and top land. It dropped slightly and I managed to fight my way to just North of the take-off, then it picked up again and I did a graceful vertical landing on the beach.

I recently acquired a Go-Pro camera so that I can film aerobatic flights, it was the first time out with it hang gliding. I learnt where not to point it when it is attached to my helmet. I also learnt how to make it fog the inside of the lens. Next time will be better.

I was in the air for over 45mins, so I can't complain, and it was mostly good fun.

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