Training Day: Mystic

Yesterday we had northerly winds, so Tony and I drove over to Bright, and Oli took us up to Mystic launch. Toni´s glider had been ripped apart by a dust devil in Forbes, so he had to testfly his new sail just like I had to try the Litespeed 3.5 s Moyes sent me for the comp.
We were ready early, I had a little Red Bull shot - such useful small things! - and launched at midday.
I was lucky - a thermal took me right up to cloudbase. Up there the wind was 20 km/h north and I could even soar up the cloud a little and see my own little rainbow with the shadow of my glider on it. Beautiful! This little Litespeed, a full carbon version, is as sweet as ever ;) just what you need after winter break.
I flew around the area for about 3 hours, over into the Kiewa Valley, had a look at Emu launch, and then decided to land at Mt Beauty airstrip. And again I was lucky, just a nice northerly breeze made my landing supersmooth and elegant. Tony was already there and very pleased to see it. Later on, the winds started switching around and we heard a few quite rough landings.
In the evening, organizer Phil Schroeder held the opening briefing of the Bogong Cup. No shirts this year, but the famous Durand Tea Cups for everybody! What a treat, they are my favourite!
I also met Heather over there and talked about the Worlds organization - she is so motivated as well, it will be a great competition in May!
The weather for the first days of the comp looks a bit iffy, but we will make the best out of it. Gundowring launch has been re-opened - Mel Gibson has sold his property - so now we can fly in strong northwesterly winds again. And if there is no flying, it´s plenty to catch up with a lot of friends over here. It´s great to see them again. Christa and Jamie are here as well, Hadewych, Birgit, Zhenya, Julia and Virpi from Finland, we have never been so many girls in a comp for a while, it is great!