Post from David

Paragliding World Championships in Manilla - Week 1
I am now sitting in the headquatrters of the 10th Paragliding World Championships in Manilla, Australia. Pernille, Dea & I flew to Sydney last Monday and I flew straight on to Tamworth and then Manilla the same day. Pernille & Dea stayed in Sydney with mum to get over the jet-lag.

When we arrived the XC Open competition was on and they had been getting great conditions for it. I was too jet-lagged to fly the first day but the conditions looked great from the bar of the Royal Hotel.
The rest of the Danish team Marcus & Louise were already here and we are all staying at the Post Office hotel in the middle of town. It is a bit warm at night and we have had a few problems getting light bulbs fitted in the rooms but otherwise it is an excellent place to stay.

On Tuesday Marcus & I flew to Bingara (89 kms) for a warm-up flight. We took our time (3.5 hours) but I really enjoyed getting in the air again. When I landed we met Andrew and Wendy from Killarney who had just arrived and were able to give us a lift straight back to Manilla. I haven't stopped meeting old friends who I haven't seen for years. It seems that everyone who has ever been paragliding in Manilla is here.

On Wednesday we flew west towards Narrabri. It started well with good clouds all the way. I was a little late getting started as I had been busy setting up my new impress harness. I had just about met up with Marcus near Taylors Plain when I heard that he had landed. I tried to keep going but landed on top of one of the small spurs running down from Mount Kaputar. Not a very smart place to land! It took me almost an hour to get down to a dirt road and with no retreive organized I was a bit concerned about getting home at a reasonable time. Fortunately a local farmer came by and gave me a lift to Narrabri where I was picked up by Dave from the Manilla camping ground, pretty lucky. Lousie also landed near Narrabri and got home quickly. Marcus got there late and ended up being picked up at about 10pm for a very late retrieve.

Thursday looked stormy so the first practice start was set as a local triangle. Marcus & I flew around for a while and then headed to Manilla. We saw some other pilots landing at the school so we joined them and discovered that we were part of the official school fly-in by the Australian team. All the kids were lined up waiting to be shown the paragliders so we soon became part of the show. The kids were very interested and had lots of questions. Hopefully there will be some future champions among them. Marcus was so impressed by their behaviour that he will now advocate school uniforms in Denmark!

I also got Craig Collings from the Aussie team to help me adjust my new harness. Thanks Craig!

Friday was another official practice day and conditions looked excellent. Lousie & I arrived at the hill a bit late to see Marcus, Ronny & Rolf (from Norway) climbing up to cloud base above us. Before we were ready to launch they were already off on there way north to Queensland. By the time we got ready large clouds had developed to the north and we were advised not too fly in that direction. Again a local triangle task was set which a lot of pilots completed. The final headwind leg into Manilla was hard and claimed a few pilots (like me) who didn't top up before the last turnpoint. I landed at the Manilla Tip which is normally a good trigger although I knew it wasn't working when I saw a wedge-tailed eagle land in a tree just in front of me.
At about 8pm we finally got an SMS from Marcus and yes they made it to Queensland, 230 kms and 7.5 hours. I have been dreaming about that sort of flight for years. I guess the lesson for me is that you should always get to start as early as possible.

Saturday was the opening ceremony day so after we had finished all the team briefings I had time to for a short fight to Manilla Showground. The parade was good but we nearly expired in the heat. Then we saw an unconventional airshow with paramotors, gyrocopter, gliders, powered hang gliders, aerobatics and then finally an F18 that kept sneaking down the valley and then scaring the daylights out of us when it popped up over the bridge at the showground. The opening show was also an opportunity for me to catch up with more old friends who had come up to Manilla to work as volunteers for the competition. I am amazed at how many people are involved here.

I also got elected to the safety committee for the competititon which means that I will have to send reports on conditions during the task back to the safety director Bob Smith. With the recent events involving thunderstorms here I will no doubt be kept busy.

Sunday was the first competition and there were lots of clouds early in the day so it looked like it would be a local task. I have never seen so many cars on the way up to Mount Borah. There was even a traffic jam due to problems with small 2-wheel drive cars trying to get up through the very dusty new road. Unfortunately by the time all the organization had arrived up the hill the clouds had begun to overdevelop and the task was cancelled before the window opened leaving a lot of frustrated pilots on the hill all dressed up with no place to go but back down the road.
We were sitting back at the hotel at about 6 pm when a wall of water came down the valley towards Manilla. Within minutes the streets were flooded and there were waterfalls of water coming down of the corrugated iron roof of the hotel. Only paragliding competitions can bring this sort of rain to drought affected areas.

Monday was cancelled at briefing due the amount of clouds and expected rain and storms. The forecast doesn't look very good forthe next week. Ironic after the excellent conditions that have been experienced here the last two weeks. My sister Joanne and her husband Paul arrived on Sunday night so we spent the day fishing in the Namoi River. We saw lots of fish but they didn't like our bait.

Pernille, Dea & Mum arrived last night so we have a little tent village set up at the River Gums camp ground now. We have already had visits from possums, kangaroo rats and lots of birds.

So that was a quick summary of the first week. Of course there are lots of other stories which I have already forgotten but I will try and write a bit more often in the future.