March 1, 2003

Adventures in Australia
  by Martin and Ev Nowoselski

Martin Nowoselski is a paraglider pilot from Vancouver Island visiting Australia for three months for hiking, exploring, hanging out, and some paragliding.

January 12, 2003

Ev and I have traveled to Australia on a few other occasions. The usual game plan is to buy an old car, drive around for three or four months, check out the outback, stay out of cities, hike, tent, enjoy the solitude, the flora and fauna, get sunburnt, stay lazy, stay healthy, and then sell the car a few days prior to coming home.

The first trip was in 1987. We bought an old Holden (Australia GM) in Melbourne and toured up the east coast into Queensland, west into the middle, down the centre to Ayers Rock, then across the bottom end to Perth. Three months of great touring.

The second trip was in 1994. Landed in Perth, bought an old Toyota Corona wagon. We took off across the bottom end to Melbourne, boat to Tasmania, back to the mainland, up the middle to Darwin, then along the top end and west coast to Perth. Checking out a lot of new country and some favourite old haunts. No problems.

About a year ago we got the urge to go to Australia again. If you haven't been then you have to go some day. It is a country like no other. The soil, the trees, the vegetation, the animals, the birds, even the air is different. It is definitely a hostile environment filled with all kinds of potential dangers. Seen snakes, lizards, salt water crocodiles, spiders, sharks, etc. but trust me...if you use common sense and logic there isn't much that will hurt you. Ev and I tent all the time. There are campgrounds available everywhere and if not you can camp in the scrub without fear of being thrown off someone's property....ok so there was this one time we got punted off this farmers land....it was in the friggin middle of nowhere and the guy was too anal for our liking....that's another story in itself. About the only disadvantage to most people which is an advantage to us is the solitude. You have to plan where you go, take tons of water because water does become an issue in a lot of these remote areas, have a mechanically reliable car, have a spirit of adventure and a keen sense of humor and you will do well.

This time we are landing in Sydney. I found a web site called Travellers Mate www.travellersmate.com.au and it is a car lot. The premise (and a very good one at that) is to sell you a car on a guaranteed buy back. Murray and Diane ( the owners) carry all types of cars, panelvans, vans, and the odd camper which are reasonably priced and come with six month or one year warranties. The car we want is a Ford Falcon station wagon. Nothing like the Falcons we used to have in Canada. Anyway this will be about a mid 80's wagon, six cyliner, automatic, priced at about 2500.00. His lot is about ten minutes from the airport. When you buy the car you get the rego which is the registration. The thing in Australia is you want a long rego. When you sell the car afterwards people are interested in the rego. If it expires you have to have the car mechanically inspected to register again. Not a good thing when you buy cars about 15 years old with 300,000 plus kms on them. I ain't a mechanic but do know what to look for in a car. So far two vehicles, two trips, averaging 25,000 each trip, tons of isolated miles and dirt tracks and no big break down. Mind you two radiators, a couple tires, and a windshield (those Road Trains are dangerous) later we came out alright.

So you buy the car with a good rego. The rego also includes basic third party liability insurance. Meaning people are insured but the vehicle isn't. Any collision and you are on the hook for fixing the other guys car if you are at fault. I have never gotten the extra insurance going on the assumption we stay out of cities and in the outback there isn't much to hit ....ok so a kangaroo almost hit us and there was the time an emu broad sided the Toyota. It was his/her fault. He/she failed to yield to oncoming traffic. No really it was his/her fault. The emu wasn't hurt but the door did have a huge ass dent in it. No big deal it just added to the value of the car. It was on Ev's side and the window was down. Ev was really communing with nature that day. Feathers and swearing.

So anyways, after the three months we will end up in Perth and sell the car back to his Perth office for 30% purchase price. Or...if you sell it on your own no worries as you aren't tied into the contract to sell it back to him. I have never had a problem unloading a car in Australia. First time paid 1200 and sold for 900. Second time bought for 1800 and dumped it on a car lot for 1000. Not bad for three and four months of touring.

Enough about the cars.

About the flying.

I should mention that I am one of those pilots who switched to paragliding from stamp collecting....I mean hang gliding. Yeah, yeah, whatever. The back ground is I learned from Mark Tulloch in the summer of 92. I have owned a single surface, high performance, and lastly a double surface Vision Pulse. I got about 200 hrs in 8 years. Not bad. Then the paraglider kids showed up on the island. They were getting more airtime on those things than I was on my hang glider. I thought it over and then figured why not. I bought a wing and had a plan. I would take some lessons from Claudio Mota and fly for one season. No flying both...just the paraglider. After a season I would decide which one I keep. The reason being I can fly one well or be lousy at both. I have seen it too often. I am an average ham and egger type pilot. No competition stuff for me. Anyways....the end result. I have sold my hang glider to an up and coming pilot who is taking lessons. I have also just been certified as a novice paraglider pilot as well as novice hang glider. This comes into play when you go to Australia. In Australia I will sign up with a local club which will then make me an interim paragliding member in the national Australian association, giving me the insurance, and permission I need to fly their sites as long as I play along with the local rules and regulations. No problems there. If you want to check out www.hgfa.asn.au then it will give you more info.

The first leg of the journey will be to go to Manila. It is in the vicinity of Tamworth. The Country and Western Capital of Australia. Spare me!! That's right up there with bowling, accordions, polyester, comb overs, spandex, curling, and .....the list is endless. Anyways just surf the web site (www.flymanilla.com) and you get the details. Apparently it is a legendary cross country flying mecca that is getting ever more popular amongst paraglider and hang glider pilots. Who knows. I have some sixty odd flights and about 20 hrs on the thing so may be in contention for a long haul. Ev and I will show up there in the first week or so of February. I know there are some competitions slated for around that time but like I said...I am into flying for fun and never do like mega crowds. Stay tuned.......

The long term plan is to boot off to Perth and explore all the flying sites down there. Check out (www.hgfa.asn.au/~cloudbase) and you can spend hours on all the sites they have. About 50 plus sites. Mostly coastal ridge soaring sites but some inland mountain sites (ok so three hundred ft asl is mountain down there) and towing sites. They will also have some get togethers while we are down there.

Ev doesn't know it yet but a couple hours south of Sydney there is a place called Stanwell which has great coastal soaring. Maybe we will land up there...maybe not. Ev just read this so now she knows.

So stay tuned and as things unfold I will let you know. If you want more info or details just ask.
Martin

February 6, 2003

When Ev and I left Canada we landed up in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands. A real hoot. It was 35 each day with 100 percent humidity. No wonder they call them the Cook Islands. Anyways we hung out there for a week then checked out an even smaller island for three days. Bottom line was lots of snorkelling, scooter riding at 50kph top speed. The things are sucked out when you have two people with a combined weight of 325 pounds. No mishaps. The locals were real
friendly, the food excellent even though too many things are deep fried and they have a tendency to include fruit in every main meal. Go figure....

I did notice a microlight (trike) operating a business out of the airport. He lands on the grass beside the runway. Along with the Boeing 767. Now Canadian authorities could take a lesson from that. Controlled airspace ? What's that..

Anyways when Ev and I were moments away from boarding the plane to head to the small island (Aitutaki) I see the trike doing a touch and go. I think the student took over after take off because he looked a little uncoordinated.
Anyways buddy did a great down wind, lost a little on his turn on base, and then when he comes in for final he starts a little oscillating, levels out at about 100 feet, then takes a dive towards the ground. I couldn't see what happened the last 20 feet due to this huge forested area blocking my view but I thought 'oh shit'. Unless buddy flared hard he would have done a fatal bonk and the very least a full on three point pancake. Within a minute the tower sent out the full on fire rescue crew.

As we are boarding the plane and taxiing out I see the wreck. The trike is on all three wheels but the glider is toast. It is on one leading edge and the sail is split. Not good!!! We take off and I can't see anything other than a dozen people standing around. It's either no one is hurt and they are counting their blessings or they are waiting for the coroner. The rescue crew is not overly involved in any rescue.

Four days later I get the final version. Turns out the student was a commercial pilot and he was thinking powered flight. He pulled the control bar back to slow her down for final glide. OK so maybe I don't fly powered aircraft but something tells me this should be all sorted out long before you start doing landings. Maybe its just me. The cool thing is the two walked away with only sore egos and minor bruises.

The tandem micro light rides are on hold presently if anyone has any intention of coming out to Rarotonga.

Now for the continuing saga. Ev and I land in Sydney and make our way over to Travellers Mate. We have e mailed them on a few occasions because everyone raves about these back packer buy back vehicles. We have done two previous trips to Oz and no worries. This time I choose a Ford Falcon and off we go. Next day I bring it back. The odometer jammed, the automatic transmission was losing reverse gear, the starter contacts needed replacing, and at 1.06 a litre the thing was losing fuel as much as it was burning the stuff at 15 mpg. So buddy says 'no worries' and now we are the proud owner of a 84 Toyota Corona.

Two days out and we are 49 km away from Manilla. The Corona is in the dealership having a new rad cap installed, an egr valve blocked off, and new contacts for the starter. A couple hundred bucks at most I think. Otherwise it is a blessing. Thirty miles to the gallon and it feels solid. As for Ford....I spit on them.....and there are a lot to spit on. We are going about
80 kph on the back roads and they are whizzing by.

Hopefully this afternoon we will be in Manilla and getting sorted out. I will be flying....yahoo......
Stay tuned for (hopefully) some actual flying stories.....Martin

Feburary 10, 2003

Ev and I have been here for three days now. The weather hasn't been cooperating for any long distance flying. Of the two dozen or so pilots who show up on launch, one or two have gone for a cross country. The majority try hard and either land in the bomb out fields or fly back to Godfrey Wienes farm. Godfrey is the local guru who pioneered the site and now owns the rights to the 300 meter hill. He runs a service whereby you buy a chit with six rides on it. Cost is 28.00. When you get to the top the driver punches one ride. Once all six are used up its time to get another card. The driver is quite alert and efficient. The hill has a west facing launch with a bail out field directly below. The plan is not to get into the bail out. The Basher (retrieval Land Cruiser pulling a trailer) will only come and get the pilots when there is a full load. I have gone into it twice only when I knew there were several others before me. The first flight was an eye opener. They had a Japanese flying group which was interesting. The kiting skills are atrocious
for the most part. The pilots are small in stature and don't weigh much. The winds are blowing about 15 to 20 and gusting to 30 kph. I watched one young lady go to launch, hit the brakes and go directly up about 50 ft. Backwards at a 45 degree angle. The instructor was screaming at her. She finally found the speed bar but still stayed heavy in the brakes. Lets just say we all were gob smacked just watching the show. She did make it out. It's like watching butterflies flying. Not very subtle and they appear out of control but somehow they manage to get to where they are going.

I did two flights off the west launch. It was really overcast and yet heavy winds on launch with some thermal action. The plan was to launch into a cycle and ridge soar until the cycle died off somewhat and to catch the remainder of the thermal which wasn't blown apart. A little different but I got to milk it for half an hour on a 300 meter ridge. About a dozen other pilots in the air as well so safety could become an issue. More so when it was the Japanese.

There is also a bunch of super pro pilots who camp at Godfrey's farm. You know they are good because they won't give the lesser pilots the time of day. A lot of Swiss and German pilots. Two pilots who earlier in the day were pointed out to myself as being listed 25 and 28th in the worlds had a mid air collision today. All we saw was two gliders about 2000 above launch. Then there was one glider and two pilots for about two minutes. Then one glider and pilot and
another glider and pilot doing a full stall, a negative spin, then some violent wing overs. The pilot then flew off. Quite a show. Both survived. Turns out they were thermalling together and one was shooting video of the other. They collided and got tangled. The Japanese pilot held onto the harness of the Czech pilot. The Czech pilot managed to get the wing separated from his own and threw it. It opened and the Japanese pilot fell away. The wing went into a cravat intially. Once the Japanese pilot landed he found several snapped lines and sail damage. For 25th and 28th in the world you'd think they'd know better.

Today I did the west launch again. Got low at one point and then scratched back up. I followed one pilot up toward cloud base but chickened out when the drift was into no mans land. I spoke to the pilot later on only to find at cloud base he went onto speed bar and followed a small street for 35 km.

At the site you have to watch the roads. There are a few bush roads and only one or two main roads. If you land out you may have a long stinking hot walk to the road and then a long wait for a ride. The other day a guy flew for two hours and walked for three. Depends on what you want I guess.

Today I was in the upper echelon of pilots. A lot bombed out and had to wait for the Basher. I got up and out and back to Godfrey's.

Tomorrow looks like it can be another good day, which will be our last here. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Ev and I think that Chelan is comparable to Manilla. In fact you have a few more facilities and conveniences in Chelan. The caravan park we are staying in is owned and operated by a pilot and his wife. They are friendly, the place is neat and clean, a more social/friendly group of pilots stays there, and many even have interests other than flying. The only down side is the place is home to a resident flock of about a thousand cockatoos. They come in the evening
and try to roost. They squawk and screech for an hour at least. Then they repeat the performance the next morning at 6 A.M. It's like an exotic open air chicken coop. There are also gallahs, lorikeets, apostle birds, wagtails, king parrots, and many other birds. I love the place.

Anyways...time to go and hang out on the main street. I think it was the scene
for Deliverance......
Martin and Ev

March 3rd, 2003

Ev and I finally made it across Australia and are in the southern part of Western Australia. When we left Manilla and made our way west we had some interesting experiences. Blow outs, two day waits for tire shops to open, miles of nowhere, stunning scenery, isolated tenting spots, wildlife, droughts, scenery devastated by bush fires, and then we got to the start of the Nullarbor. Picture 2000 km of treeless plains with a portion of roadway running 146 km without a bend or hill. Temperatures in the 40's and fuel prices topping out at $1.40 a litre. Yahoo. All went well. A few places you have access to the coastline. Too bad we had tons of fog but even so some interesting sights. The coastline runs for 170 km at one point and the highway is within sight. The problem though is a hundred foot cliff which ends in the ocean. No beach. Obviously marvellous potential for extensive ridge soaring but no access point. I did find a few spots where you could pull it off but the fog was too thick. A freak of the weather systems according to a powered pilot we met. He was stuck at an isolated airport next to the highway for two days while waiting for the weather to break. No such luck.

We got to Perth and hung out there for six days visiting with friends. Yesterday we came down to the southern coast. There are two towns, Denmark and Albany, separated by five or so flying sites. Today we went to a place called Shelley Beach. I pulled the wing out to do some kiting and to wait for the winds to calm down. At 0900 they were blowing 25 and gusting to 35 plus. After staying well back from the launch and thinking I was in the lee of the cliff I did a reverse inflation/forty foot ski across the parking lot. I killed the wing and bundled it into the car. Needless to say I need a flight but not at that rate. If I had me old Vision Pulse I would still be up there. The thing about these sites is there are kms of ridge ranging from 10 feet to 320 feet and no pilots about. Weird. Anyways....Ev and I scouted out a few of the other places as well but to no avail. I had spoken to a Perth pilot a month or so ago and he said it has been an awful summer for them. Too windy on the coast and too hot in the interior. Virtually all of the interior flying is done from tow.

Ev and I will be in this neighborhood for the next few weeks doing some exploring and hiking around. If I happen to bag any flights I will let you know how it goes.

March 10, 2003

Ev and I just spent eight days on the south coast of west Australia. We based ourselves out of a town called Denmark. It is a throw back to the 60's and we fit right in.

There are about six flying sites listed which all have a wind direction of south to south east. In the eight days there I only got in one flight. Most days it was blown out by 0800. A few of the days had terrific off shore winds. It is supposedly an anomaly.

I did bag an excellent flight one day at a place called Shelley Beach. We arrived at 1100 and the wind was coming in at about 12kph. The site is 320 ft above the beach and has two hang glider ramps. One facing south and the other south-east. The idea is to launch and then turn right and overfly a gully and then to try to get the main ridge. The main ridge is approximately 600 meters in length. The last bit can be in rotor depending on the wind direction.

I did a two step launch into marginal lift. I had set the vario at 0600 ft which was just an arbitrary number. I did a dozen or more s turns in front of launch and the vario kept showing 0610 on the slight upwind leg and 0600 on the downwind. I kept this up for about 5 minutes and then the wind increased marginally. I should point out the launch site is convex and only about 50 meters in length. I scratched on that sucker forever it seemed. I managed to get 100 feet over and kept it there. After a while I flew out to see how large the lift band was and got another 100 feet of altitude off some rocks which are on the shore line. I kept this up for an hour and a half. It didn't seem worthwhile to try to hop to the main ridge and lose the 200 foot gain I had. I eventually got to the point where I could sit there forever. I noticed the wind starting to pick up. I called down to Ev and told her I would go for a 2 hour flight then beach land rather than doing a top landing. You can easily top land but seeing I wasn't too sure about possible rotor I decided the beach was the way to go. The wind then started to really pick up. I did the speed bar boogie and crept across the gully and onto the other ridge. It would have been easy to stay up on the main ridge but the white caps and wind lines
indicated oncoming squall.

I did an elevator descent and a no step landing. I bagged it up and the winds hit.

All in all an excellent flight. We checked that site every day and all the other days it was blown out by 0900 or blowing over the back or 90 degrees to launch. Potential was there but the weather did not cooperate.

Now we are doing some inland exploring before heading to the coast again. I want to check out an area which is predominantly west coast. The site guide gives detailed directions to about ten sites. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Until then....Martin

March 18, 2003

Since the last message Ev and I started to head west along the coast to a different set of flying sites. We found a place called Conto Springs. It is supposed to be a primo site with a small launch area. Picture a set up area the size of a garbage can lid surrounded by scrub bush about two feet high as far as the eye can see. The book says something to the effect of be prepared to get picked up as soon as you inflate....yadda yadda yadda. I was hoping to get picked up so I could get the hell out of there.

I did four inflations, two sommersaults, a back flip, a half gainer, a bush drag, and said the f word about two dozen times when I couldn't get out of there. Ev was a sweet heart and helped as much as possible for a short person. Poor dear got scratched legs. I got mauled, pulverized, through a blender legs. I tell the locals I chased a goanna through the bush and killed it with me bare hands. Sounds good.

After that we found a site called Yallingup. A low coastal dune site. I kited around for about an hour and did a couple short flights skimming the dunes. Once again the winds are horrific around here. Had fun and all that sun and fresh air helped speed up the healing process on my legs.

So now we are in a place called York. They have a 800 foot hill with a caravan park at the bottom. Turns out all access up to the top is across private land and you need big time permission. I have sent a message to the Perth pilots and am awaiting a reply. Hopefully someone will be flying here in the next while and can give me the skinny on the access etc. Apparently you get major altitude and the x country potential is great. Every site sounds optimistic though so who knows. Oh yeah....today the wind is at about 15kph and it's only 0900. Go figure.

Martin..........