No place like cloud base

When I lined up for my first tow in Forbes this year yesterday, it was a nice surprise to see Lukas Bader rolling up in the red dragonfly. He had just come over from Gulgong with Bobby and the other dragonflies and smiled at me. Even though it was in the middle of the day and really hot, the take off was as smooth as anything. Lukas is an experienced instructor and knows how to help the guys in the air.
When we went up higher, it got more of a rodeo in the active air and that was a really good training for me for the days to come during the competition. Lukas dropped me right into a nice thermal and I flew with Jörg. Soon Manfred Ruhmer joined us for a while, but he left and flew back towards Forbes, while we were heading south to our first turn point, about 50km away. Roland, Christian and Gerd were about 10km ahead of us all the time. Gerd, Jörg and I landed quite close together on the second leg of the task, Christian and Roland made it all the way back to Forbes. With close to 40 C on the ground, you really want to be up at 2000m of height all the time, the temperatures are way more pleasant up there!
Tonight or tomorrow sprog measuring, official registration, Red Bull landing contest. Tonight maybe a tow in the evening light trying to get some nice air to air shots! The wind was really strong so far, quite gusty too, so I decided to concentrate on organizing internet and other stuff for the next days.