Benalla

Here we are again. Benalla for the fourth time. We arrived this afternoon after leaving Waikerie @ 7 am. It was a long but not a boring drive.

All we managed after arrival was to tie down the trailer as severe weather warnings are in place for the area. Thunderstorms, damaging winds and hail are predicted so the glider will be safer in the trailer. Few beers and a dinner later we established ourselves in front of a TV in our usual motel room. I think we'll sleep well.

around 6 am this morning

lunch stop with the view

Rigging, registration and weighing are on schedule for tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

time for some full size flying

It is this time of the year where we go to a gliding comp. This time we're heading to Benalla (Victoria) for the multiclass nationals AKA pre-worlds.

I'm flying XM in the 18-m class and Zig is going as my professional best in the world crew. 80 pilots signed up, many of the from overseas. They will be flying the worlds in Benalla next year and want to get some practice.

So we're heading off to Waikerie tomorrow morning. I will try to get a flight in since I haven't flown with the updated software yet. We will then pack up and travel to Benalla on Saturday. 800 km with the trailer ... it will take the whole day.

The nationals start on Tuesday the 5th of January.

here is the competition website:
http://www.ozglide.com/

Stay tuned!

Christmas @ the beach

Another Christmas spent on the beach ... will I ever get used to it? What I mean is that I love it. It just still feels strange.

Zofia and Paul's deck

Boogie boarding is soooo much fun! It just leaves some memories in form of bruises in some odd spots. I still think that next year I will ask Santa for a boogie board. It's almost like gliding - if you jump on the wave at the exact right moment, it will take you a loooong way :) Great fun that was.

summer Christmas day dinner

We also did some serious modelling business. Zig and Paul flew their fancy high performance toys, while I was enjoying my new Radian Pro. It may sound funny for all the model flyers out there but this is my first model with ailerons and flaps. It only adds to the complexity of flying something not actually sitting in it. But I'm learning!

Robe is really amazing as you can fly models out of an real airfield and nobody could care less. OK, we know how to behave not to interfere with the full size traffic but still it's quite unusual.

Ross was into his usual business, giving joy flights to tourists:

Unfortunately, or maybe I should say fortunately, we fell in love with the cladding of this coffee shop. So here comes another DIY project - we will do the same to our house extension:

Have you ever seen an inch ant? They are called inch ants because of their size - they are actually ca. one inch long and enjoy painfully biting humans:

Have a Happy New Year!