Extreme slopes!

[ezza]

There are a few extreme slopes/cliffs I have been wanting to try for a while and tonight I tried my first one. I finally tackled the Cape Byron Lighthouse!!! Still buzzing.

Got there about 5:45 pm and waited for the last hanglider to land. I wanted to fly from the usual spot at the hanglider launch to make sure my JW was trimmed for the strong lift, before going over to the front cliff. Wind was 15-20knot Easterly so the lift was booming! Everything OK so landed and walked up to the lighthouse.

I have been checking out the ridge that runs North from the lighthouse for over a year now and finally felt comfortable enough to try it. It is a sharp ridge that is really steep into the ocean. A crash on the frontside would be unrecoverable and the backside is steep jungle, with Wategos beach down below. There is a walking track that runs along the top of the ridge. There are a few small patches of grass next to the track, on the backside so you have to land there. The cliff is approximately 120m high.

Threw out and of course the lift was just rediculous.....easily the strongest I have ever flown in. My first impressions was how much faster even the frontside flying was. Any manouver was easy. Looked crazy! I only had about 10 minutes of daylight left so I didn't waste too much time and dove her over the back to check it out. All i can say is WOW, super smooth back there!! Speed was amazing for the windstrength. After about 3 circuits I could punchout vertical and do 3-4 barrel rolls whilst going vertical before losing speed. The plane was like a small dot after a punchout. There did not seem to be any turbulence on the back. The JW was making some great noises but kept tucking at speed so need some more nose weight. Landing wasn't too bad. Landed at pretty high speed but managed to hit some thick grass......pheewww!

Only down side was the amount of people walking by. Alot of them were really interested, taking photos and asking questions. I'll just have to pick days when the weather is nasty, so there is less people. I thought going up late would be the quietest time but alot of people walk up to watch the sunset. Definately an extreme and beautfiul place to fly!!!! Also one of the windiest places around. Today was pretty mild but 30+knots is quite common up there. Can't wait to try it again.

Eric

[thevon]

Onya Ezza, great to hear you did it!

That's stage 1 of your mission completed. For stage 2, take one Opus MC3 and your Dad with a radar gun ...

[sean]

Mate, that's amazing! Every time I've been to that spot it's swarming with tourists, and the rock face at the front really is spectacular.

Sounds like your JW is serving well as a bash-up DS plane?

[ezza]

Yeah, the JW is going really well. Very easy to fly, once dialled in, and very tough. Definately has tucking issues, where the faster it goes the more elevator required, I am pretty sure the cg is still a touch too far back.

Like you say Andrew, stage 1 complete. That rock face generates incredible lift. The ds zone is by far the sweetest I have found so far. Just need to find a spot like it with no tourists........

Thinking of other extreme slopes, that don't require too much walking, I want to try Minyon falls, it has a really nice cliff bowl facing SE, and I reckon the 'Best of all Lookout' at Springbrook would be ballistic on a SE. I think there is a pretty good one west of Noosa as well, I can't remember the name. I think it works in a NE and has cliff for the backside.

[sean]

The spot up near Noosa is Mt Tinbeewah. The SW side is a shear rock face, the NE side isn't so steep and is rocky and tree covered. I'm sure it'd be DSable but landing a fast plank would require a controlled crash I reckon. The biggest prob is there's an observation tower with antennas right in the middle of the DS zone. I looked at it a few weeks back and you'd almost need to DS around the tower. It's tempting but a loud lost model alarm would be necessary I reckon .

[thevon]

There's also a Mt Ninderry, which has 2 hills joined by a razorback saddle. I've walked along it and climbed up Mt Ninderry - you access it from near the Coolum - Yandina Rd. It would give great lift but the main problem when I went up was that it was very very thickly overgrown with huge tall grass and vines etc, so you were virtually walking along a tunnel! But that may have changed. I think it would give huge lift in a ENE (need to verify) and is definitely very steep both sides. No problem with soft landing, but reaching the plane thru the thick stuff might be very hard! But definitely worth a check. We should go there.

[sean]

The saddle next to Mt Ninderry looks absolutely perfect from a distance, but from a distance it also looks like it's grass covered, not covered in thick scrub. I'll drive down there and check it out but from your description Andrew it doesn't sound much good.

[sf2]

Hey how cool is that, I've often wondered about Byron,now we know, just exacly where did you land, when ever I go there it's heaving with tourists,(often surf there).
Another extreme(ridicoulsly extreame)place is up at springbrook a place called the best of all look out.Looks out from the hills over to Byron, but the landing window is into the look out, if you errored it's all over, but the view is nice.

[ezza]

sf2 said:

Hey how cool is that, I've often wondered about Byron,now we know, just exacly where did you land, when ever I go there it's heaving with tourists,(often surf there).
Another extreme(ridicoulsly extreame)place is up at springbrook a place called the best of all look out.Looks out from the hills over to Byron, but the landing window is into the look out, if you errored it's all over, but the view is nice.

Hey SF2,

Yeah, I landed on a small patch of grass just North of the lighthouse itself, on the west side of the path. It is a small but thick patch, so you can bang it in there pretty hard. Like you say full of tourists and the odd ranger. Have to be very careful, don't want to get shut down. Can only really fly up there when the wind is too strong for the Hang gliders.

Best of all lookout would have to have some of the best lift around. Faces into SE winds perfectly as far as I can tell. Looking forward to trying it one day.

[sf2]

Yes eastsoutheast, but the cliff IS a cliff, although the the base is a curve up to the vertical wall,and the only place to land is the actuall lookout, down wind and fast, it's only about 5m deep, could be ugly and if you loose it,YOU loose it.
Unless of course you land in a field() and have your phone.no. on the plane, and the farmer finds it.But as I say the view is nice.

[pioneerroaster]

thevon said:

There's also a Mt Ninderry, which has 2 hills joined by a razorback saddle. I've walked along it and climbed up Mt Ninderry - you access it from near the Coolum - Yandina Rd. It would give great lift but the main problem when I went up was that it was very very thickly overgrown with huge tall grass and vines etc, so you were virtually walking along a tunnel! But that may have changed. I think it would give huge lift in a ENE (need to verify) and is definitely very steep both sides. No problem with soft landing, but reaching the plane thru the thick stuff might be very hard! But definitely worth a check. We should go there.

I'm in for that. If the wind is blowing up the western side you could land in my backyard. I've just moved to the side of the mountain and have been eyeing up the slope from below for the last 2 weeks. I'm going to make the trek up saturday if the wind comes to the party.

[thevon]

Wow! Sean went for a walk up there and we've been looking forward to a good Easterly to try it out. We're wondering if you could DS over the west side but Sean didn't think it looked too promising for that. But in a Westerly, (ie next winter) it would be awesome because the E side is really steep and clear. Sounds good! Thanks mate. Will pm you when we can get up there.

[sean]

Yeah thanks to the saddle shape the frontside looks awesome for an easterly. I was there in a good easterly and lift looked good but I didn't have a plane. Might be able to DS in an easterly but there are lots of trees on the back and the ridge is quite round so I don't think it'd be great.

If you could launch and gain height it'd be awesome to DS in a westerly, but with all the trees on the west slope I don't think you could even launch - a bungee might do the job?

[callun]

Just get me to launch

[ezza]

If it is a saddle shape mountain, can you walk to a higher point and launch over the trees? Then walk back down whilst the plane is up at altitude.