Beverly Satire

Cross Country Report Beverly to Woodbridge 27th April 2012.  Rob Wall, www.beverley-soaring.org.au

It looked like a day with no lift, full cloud cover, northerly winds and probable rain.  The day before I had completed my 11th solo flight (in XQD), and felt like a new challenge so I decided to try out my new toy, a very light single seater carbon fibre machine called an “Oppy”.  I set myself an  Assigned Area task to get within a 1000m radius of good food or coffee in three towns: Beverly, York,  The Lakes, and Woodbridge.  I did not lodge a flight note, but informed Harry of my plans.   After an uneventful self launch on 34 at 01.30 UTC  it was a smooth run to Beverly with no wind at all.  The coffee was weak (no detectable lift) so I turned right and headed about 350 toward York following the railway line for navigation.  After 5km it was rough, and the cause seemed to be an undercarriage problem (a common theme lately).  I was able to extract a thorn from the rear tyre without having to land which fixed it.  I was really struggling for lift getting no more than a few mm of altitude an any point.  My average airspeed was between 10 and 20 knots, and  I was finding “Oppy” more physically demanding than the club gliders.  The GPS app on my Android phone was helping me establish position each 30 minutes with no problems.  The York turning went very well as I found good coffee in the main street, and was easily able to get Oppy up the street at low level which would have been hard in say the DG-1000.  The landing options west of York did not look good with a lot of trees, and trucks on the road; best not to think about it.  After some food at “The Lakes” I followed a complex route via Darlington, and descended down to Woodbridge station in the rain. I was very happy with my new machine, and was easily able to fit it on the train back to Fremantle without removing wings, and was home by 6pm.

On a serious note can I thank the hundreds of motorists, who seeing me on a bike gave me lots of room, or slowed down, and curse the two idiots who came within 30cm of me at high speed: a white tray-top with an orange light, and a Transwa bus.  One mistake by either of us and there are 4 more kids with no dad, and a messy windscreen.   Please make room, or, if you can’t,  slow down!.