Post by sean on Jul 28, 2008 23:56:00 GMT 10
With a good SW blowing today I took the arvo off and went and checked out Wild Horse Mtn. It's located next to the Bruce Hwy between Caboolture and Caloundra. I hadn't flown there before so wasn't sure what to expect, but I suspected it'd be DSable.
You have to park at the foot of the hill and walk up, but fortunately it's only a 10min walk and pretty easy. Interestingly there were a few wild horses in the scrub next to the car park - funny that....
Once at the top I was quite pleased with what I saw, it was better than I was expecting. The ridge is quite sharp and most of the trees have been removed from the top. Unfortunately there's a big observation/lookout tower right in the middle of the ridge blocking the best DS zone, but either side of the platform look good for DSing to me. There are some tall trees sticking up on the backside but the back is steep enough that they're not too much of a problem.
I'd brought my Skua and Bird along - the plan was to suss things out with the Skua and then if things looked good try the Bird. Unfortunately the Skua wouldn't turn on - I guess spending a wet night stuck up a tree a week or two back didn't help there! So that left only the fully ballasted Bird (didn't bring the tools to remove the ballast). I was a little concerned testing the hill with the Bird as the hill is covered in rocks and I could see it was turbulent, so landing would be a challenge. Fortunately there are low wiry shrubs so the plan was to plonk it down onto one of them, which is always easier said than done.
The wind didn't feel strong at all standing on the hill and I wasn't sure the Bird was going to maintain height, but as soon as I threw it out it went up very quickly - plenty of lift. The air was a little bumpy but that's to be expected in westerlies. A bit of aerobatics on the front to warm up then gain plenty of height, and walk to a spot with a good view of the back ready for a spot of DSing. For this I stood next to the lookout tower, on the SE end of the ridge (the ridge runs NW to SE). Then a nice fast dive-in to the back to cut though any potential turbulence, and to increase the chance of making it back out to the front just in case the DS zone isn't working. Following the dive-in the Bird tracked smoothly though the bottom turn then fired back out onto the front faster than it went in... it was immediately obvious that this is a quality DS site ;D. Lots of speed potential - a high shear layer so you can do fairly high laps and little turbulence on the back. I just did big cruisy laps trying to suss the place out and see what works. It's hard to know how fast it was, sometimes it looked very quick but thanks to the windless Winter months my abilty to judge high speeds has become pretty rusty! Somewhere between 100 and 140 I think, which makes it one of the better DS sites in our area.
I didn't stick at it long , maybe 15mins. My flying was a bit shakey so better to leave it for another day. The landing was pretty challenging as expected - I brought it down on top of the softest looking shrubs I could find but the turbulence made it a bit difficult to control finely - I ended up overshooting the shrubs a little and was probably lucky not to do any damage to the Birdy. But as far as our fast DS sites go the landing here is relatively easy.
I think there are other DSable parts of the ridge aside from where I flew today, the back was steeper and more open on the NW side of the lookout tower, but there were trees along the top of the ridge in those areas (you might be able to stay above/behind them - hard to know until you try), and in the arvo you'd have to DS that part of the ridge while looking into the sun.
I was really impressed with this spot! Today it had some of the best DS conditions of anywhere I've tried in SE QLD! I think on the right day it could be a properly fast DS site. There was probably about 20kt there when I was flying. Other points in its favour are that it's (relatively) moldie friendly, it's public land in the middle of a state forest, there aren't too many people around (although there were a couple while I was there, but they stayed up in the lookout platform), the DS zone was very smooth considering the blustery westerly wind, it faces approx SW so there should be powerful DS conditions there on a regular basis over the coming months, and its not too far of a drive from Brissie or the Sunshine Coast. I'm stoked about it actually! It's not often a new DS site comes along with all those points in its favour
.
Some pics:
Birdy on Wild Horse - the tank in the pic is attached to the Lookout platform.
This is the front - Bruce Hwy straight ahead. This pic shows the rocks you have to contend with while landing, plus the wiry bushes that are the best option for landing.
This is the back where I DSed, looking east. Lots of room but a few tall trees - the tallest one near the left of the pic was underneath where I was pulling the bottom turn today. The laps could be kept quite high and fairly flat, which is what you want.
This pic shows the backside behind the lookout tower. It's much more open than where I was DSing and would make an A-grade DS zone, but the tower is right where you'd need to pull the top turn.
You have to park at the foot of the hill and walk up, but fortunately it's only a 10min walk and pretty easy. Interestingly there were a few wild horses in the scrub next to the car park - funny that....
Once at the top I was quite pleased with what I saw, it was better than I was expecting. The ridge is quite sharp and most of the trees have been removed from the top. Unfortunately there's a big observation/lookout tower right in the middle of the ridge blocking the best DS zone, but either side of the platform look good for DSing to me. There are some tall trees sticking up on the backside but the back is steep enough that they're not too much of a problem.
I'd brought my Skua and Bird along - the plan was to suss things out with the Skua and then if things looked good try the Bird. Unfortunately the Skua wouldn't turn on - I guess spending a wet night stuck up a tree a week or two back didn't help there! So that left only the fully ballasted Bird (didn't bring the tools to remove the ballast). I was a little concerned testing the hill with the Bird as the hill is covered in rocks and I could see it was turbulent, so landing would be a challenge. Fortunately there are low wiry shrubs so the plan was to plonk it down onto one of them, which is always easier said than done.
The wind didn't feel strong at all standing on the hill and I wasn't sure the Bird was going to maintain height, but as soon as I threw it out it went up very quickly - plenty of lift. The air was a little bumpy but that's to be expected in westerlies. A bit of aerobatics on the front to warm up then gain plenty of height, and walk to a spot with a good view of the back ready for a spot of DSing. For this I stood next to the lookout tower, on the SE end of the ridge (the ridge runs NW to SE). Then a nice fast dive-in to the back to cut though any potential turbulence, and to increase the chance of making it back out to the front just in case the DS zone isn't working. Following the dive-in the Bird tracked smoothly though the bottom turn then fired back out onto the front faster than it went in... it was immediately obvious that this is a quality DS site ;D. Lots of speed potential - a high shear layer so you can do fairly high laps and little turbulence on the back. I just did big cruisy laps trying to suss the place out and see what works. It's hard to know how fast it was, sometimes it looked very quick but thanks to the windless Winter months my abilty to judge high speeds has become pretty rusty! Somewhere between 100 and 140 I think, which makes it one of the better DS sites in our area.
I didn't stick at it long , maybe 15mins. My flying was a bit shakey so better to leave it for another day. The landing was pretty challenging as expected - I brought it down on top of the softest looking shrubs I could find but the turbulence made it a bit difficult to control finely - I ended up overshooting the shrubs a little and was probably lucky not to do any damage to the Birdy. But as far as our fast DS sites go the landing here is relatively easy.
I think there are other DSable parts of the ridge aside from where I flew today, the back was steeper and more open on the NW side of the lookout tower, but there were trees along the top of the ridge in those areas (you might be able to stay above/behind them - hard to know until you try), and in the arvo you'd have to DS that part of the ridge while looking into the sun.
I was really impressed with this spot! Today it had some of the best DS conditions of anywhere I've tried in SE QLD! I think on the right day it could be a properly fast DS site. There was probably about 20kt there when I was flying. Other points in its favour are that it's (relatively) moldie friendly, it's public land in the middle of a state forest, there aren't too many people around (although there were a couple while I was there, but they stayed up in the lookout platform), the DS zone was very smooth considering the blustery westerly wind, it faces approx SW so there should be powerful DS conditions there on a regular basis over the coming months, and its not too far of a drive from Brissie or the Sunshine Coast. I'm stoked about it actually! It's not often a new DS site comes along with all those points in its favour
.Some pics:
Birdy on Wild Horse - the tank in the pic is attached to the Lookout platform.
This is the front - Bruce Hwy straight ahead. This pic shows the rocks you have to contend with while landing, plus the wiry bushes that are the best option for landing.
This is the back where I DSed, looking east. Lots of room but a few tall trees - the tallest one near the left of the pic was underneath where I was pulling the bottom turn today. The laps could be kept quite high and fairly flat, which is what you want.
This pic shows the backside behind the lookout tower. It's much more open than where I was DSing and would make an A-grade DS zone, but the tower is right where you'd need to pull the top turn.
.