Day 13 to Goal

Day 13 Temora to Milburlong. By Eddie

We got up at sunrise and prepaired to fly. Mark dropped in on his way to his job to say farewell. Gill and her children came for a look. Andrew Launched and got up. I botched three attemps at launching then got a good effort together for clean, straight take off. I flew tail to ward Coolamon in a strengthening wind.
Andrew had not hung about and with limited fuel had struck out for his goal making good ground speed.
I started climbing to cross a wooded band and noticed a reluctance on the motors part to maintain full revs. A misfire developed but was ok on lower throttle load. I could maintain my altitude of 450mt slowing to make the most of the occasional thermal and speeding through the sink. I was ripping along over the ground at up to 97kmh. The motor got worse and I realised that I would have to land out and could not take off again in the wind. After my experience at Gunnedah I prepared and rehersed for the strong wind approach and landing. I got the wing off right on the touchdown, all was quiet all was well. I gathered up the wing and folded it up and stowed it. The Farmer and some of his friends arrived in some disbelief at what they were witnessing.
I was in a telephone black hole but on one of the car phones I was able to get a garbled call to Thomas that I was on the Coolamon Road. I got to Coolamon and played about with the motor looking for a fault.
Thomas arrived and we had a coffee. I then set about getting to goal on the road making it in to Milburong for a great welcome in the afternoon.

By Andrew

The Final flight to goal was the biggest single flying task we had set. To achieve it would mean a personal best for both of us and an Australian record for longests flight to a declared goal. The fact that the wind direction was almost tail wind meant it could be possible, however fuel and time in the air was always gong to be a limiting factor.
Launching together would need to happen if we were going to arrive together. I made sure Ed was happy to go with out instruction and I set up. The final flight seemed to be a culmination of all the skills and experiences we had gathered in the months that preceded with one added pressure. Fuel. I had pulled up in Temora with zero fuel,,, not even in the filter so when the 10 L come my way which is all we had accounted for I knew it would be cutting it fine. My tank holds another 1.5 which in hindsight would have been better. Hindsight...
Ed and I were lining up for a take off. All preflight checks done, well almost. I gave the radio call and launched, expecting Ed to be right behind me.
Climb out was great with a right hand circuit. I set the speed to slow as I knew Ed was in toe. We were on the VHF local CTAF so it was not possible to chit chat.
Ground speed seemed to be increasing as altitude increased. I was looking at getting a feel for the flight ahead and was assessing the best altitude to flight at. Comfort was important as I knew it would that me around one and a half hours to get there.
While I was one a few km doen the road my GPS alerted me that batteries were low. Oh no.. I took a course line and turned it off. I figured that I could get it going again later done the road to correct my course.
No sign of Eddie still. I switched to the chat channel and kept trying.
Tracking towards the WSW seemed to give me the right path to goal. Unfortunately it was about 60 deg off the goal direction, however it was still cross tail. I stayed flying slow in anticipation that Ed would spring up behind me any second. I knew if the wind was to become more west it would become more efficient to fly fast , but that was eliminate the chance of meeting with Ed. I became more and more aware of my fuel levels and the thought of turning back to meet Ed meant aborting the possibility of making it in. The wind as usual would have picked up on the ground and another take off was certainly impossible. I pushed on reluctantly.
Coolamon seemed to take ages to get to and even longer to leave. It was the half way point. By this time I was turning back around often to check the fuel and I continues to monitor my height and trimmer setting. Conditions were smooth and seemed to only get a little rough at an inversion around 2500ft. It was getting on to around 9am at Coolamon. I decided to reduce height and check for more of a tail component lower. Fort the life of me I could see one wind indicator on the ground and my GPS was still only good for a few seconds. It was rougher lower as I expected.
I motored up and set the trimmers to fast. I knew it was my the best choice since the wind was shifting. By this stage I had tried several times on the VHF, n both chat and CTAF for Ed and figured was not good to have zero coms.
The night before I had spoken to Jeff Hoffman about being in touch on the way through. I switch over to UHF and managed to raise Lorain on the house base radio.
We had a chat and I told her to look out for me. By then I was about 30km for goal. My fuel situation was becoming even more critical. No sign of Ed.
I managed to get one more direction from the GSP before it died. I have the land marks of the Rock and Galore hill which I knew quiet well. On approach to Milbrulong I spotted the camp grounds. The wind was rock and roll and I scanned for the take off paddock. I continued to try for Jeff on the radio to help me hone on the official take off pad. Just as I thought all was OK my belt started to scream... It had come loose. I was still able to maintain height but the ar was soo rough I wanted to land. Continuing to push the motor was only prompt a further problem. I had now ever fewer choices. I had to land.
Goal was in glide and even with an engine out I was in.

The air became rougher and rougher up to the scale of our flight into Gunnedah. Hands on. I went from paddock to paddock, looking for the best option. While I was attempting a transmission with my hands off the brakes the glider began a steep right hand turn. Annoying... I set up for a high wind landing. In a paddock near the railway lines.

Touchdown was relatively uneventful. The quick outs we had installed were put to the test however I had not released the safety latches. After landing I managed to release one side..... The wind caught the other and rolled me gently. I was OK. My flyke was also OK. I rang Ed on his mobile but no answer. Thomas was next. He was safe around Coolomon , he had had engine problems. I raised Jeff on the radio and gave him my location. He came in the ute with a few of the lads. I was left for a few minutes alone with mixed feelings. Happy to have down my personal best, an unofficial Oz record as my GPS had died. But no sign of Ed. Dissapointed that we were not to be together. Frazzled from the rough air on landing. I managed to pack up the wing and begin to process the last one and three quarter hours.

Jeff’s smile warmed me, He was present when Ed had suggested that we fly to the pico this year and we there to meet me.

Back to the camp ground I managed to catch Ed as he zoomed into goal. By Air and by road we had made it.