Photos by Zeno Kerr

Download fullsize images from flickr.

Charlie Silverton and I left work early to grab some soaring at Broughton. The day was gloriously sunny, but unfortunately blown out. With the winds dying off just before sunset, we managed to get close to 2 hours soaring before the darkness set in.

I learned an important lesson on this day, when I lost concentration briefly and flew over the back while taking some photos. As soon as I realised I started assessing my options as I still had some height. Plan A was to fly back to the hill, but if I wasn't going to make it, then Plan B was to fly to a lower part of the hill (near the wind talker), but if it didn't look like I was going to make it then Plan C was to cut and run to land at the farm.

What happened?. Well Plan A wasn't going to work as my sink rate was too high and forward progress was minimal. I quickly changed to Plan B before I got anywhere near the rotor. I was able to make it to just behind the top of the hill, near the wind talker, where the airflow was still laminar. I kept the wing above me, pushed to the front and took off again. I was lucky that the wind was not too far off to the west because it could have pinned me into the gnarly gully. In the end I was lucky to get away with nothing more than a good lesson learnt.