Hang gliding never gets dull.  Today's flying conditions had moderate winds and choppy turbulence at most levels.  The thermal strengths came and went.

Our teammate, Wolfi Siess, was "the star" (amongst our team) today: second across the goal line, just behind Attilla. He's now raving about the music playing out of his phone in his chest pocket while he flies.  Well, we're hoping he's top 3 for the day, and is "in the prize money"...as we're stopping for dinner on the way home.  Wolfi's buying :)

Day 3 of the Forbes Hang Gliding Pre-Worlds was another flight for the memory book. The sky started off blue and began to spot with clouds as gliders began to tow up. There was 10-15 knots of tailwind today, depending on how high you were. We had a technical cross wind leg that threaded the needle between two areas of airspace. -5 km's on either side of the course line for about 15 kms.

Today's task for the Hang Gliding Pre-Worlds sent us out of Forbes to the north, curving left and back around...shaped like a number "9", for a total distance of 132km. There were some 500 ft/min climbs, but with some broken lift and no clouds to mark the thermals it paid to hang with the gaggles. I hung back with Jonny, and the Combat Brothers: Primoz, & Franz Hermann. -They have matching harnesses and Aeros Combat hang gliders, which they happen to fly very well.

We had a 135km dog-leg (x2) task today.  The lift along the first leg was really light.  Luckily, the thermal-stregth picked up when the HEADwind did!  My variometer^? was showing the thermals drifting accross the ground at 16mph (20+ kmh).  I had plenty of time to shoot some photos on the slow first leg. 

The big trip from Stanwell Park to Canungra, QLD was well worth it, even if we caught a few days of rain/wind during the comp.  There were still some incredible flying days.

Here are some photos from the 2011 Canungra Classic. I'd say the highlight of the comp was a task that took us UP and OVER the Border Ranges, crossing Mt Barney along the way. I had a chance to snap a few shots of Mt Barney.

I just got off the phone with hang gliding pioneer Bill Moyes. Man, that guy is still going full speed. I'm guessing he's in his late 70's, and still clocks in the big hours working in the hang gliding industry.

Above:  Circling up with Jonny in the start gate.  Photo by Jonny

Often, I'll call the Moyes factory to talk to one of his kids, Steve or Vicki, about an order...but end up chatting to Bill because 

Alex Ploner (33 yrs), of Italy, the new Hang Gliding World Champion:

Task 8 was a 152 km task.

The day became one of the most technical and challenging days of the comp.

Today's hang gliding, Task 7

Here's what we do when it's too windy for a hang gliding task:

Above: World record holder Klaus Ohlmann and I, flying his spaceship through the local Alps

Below: Dustin and "owning" the airship, when Klaus wasn't looking.

We finally pulled off another task for the 2009 Hang Gliding World Championships.

The day was PUMPING, as it delivered incredibly dynamic lift and sink, all before the clouds OVERdeveloped into a major storm.